Labs / History
The Black Death
Plague lands at a busy port and races along the trade routes of medieval Europe, killing over half of everyone it reaches. Pick the entry port, dial the contagiousness, and click or drag across cities to throw up quarantine cordons — then watch the epidemic curve and the death toll respond.
Oct 1347dead 0lost 0.0 %hover a city
What to try
- Start the plague at Caffa versus Messina — does the entry port change how fast all of Europe is engulfed, or only where it begins?
- Can you save London by quarantining just one or two cities upstream? Which links matter most — the sea lanes or the inland roads?
- Drop R₀ from 6 down toward 2. At what point does the outbreak fizzle before it crosses the Alps?
- Hover a distant city like Novgorod or Bergen. How many years pass before the frontier finally arrives there?
- Quarantine a city only after it is already infected. Does sealing it off still protect its neighbours, or is it too late?