Co-op Boardgames?

[da_WaaaghMaster]

Anyone know of any good cooperative boardgames?

I'm aware of these:
Defender's of the realm
the D&D boardgames
Death Angel (not really a boardgame)

Ones I haven't played but am aware of:
Gears of War
Pandemic

[Wolfshade]

Arkham Horror! It's the best with all the expansions wooo, you jsut need a 6x4 table to play it :eek:

There is also the Fury of Dracula (formally a GW game) this isn't strictly a co-op, it is 1 (dracula) v many (Van Helsing et al)

[da_WaaaghMaster]

I forgot about Arkham Horror. I've heard that it's so insanely difficult, it's not much fun to play. I'll try it out though.

I've heard about the Fury of Dracula, but am only interested in true co-op. Thx again!

[Wolfshade]

It is a little tricky to begin with, but the mechanics are quite simple, especially if you can cope with 40k.
There are some good guides on Boardgame geek that help.
But once you get into it its very rewarding. My group who play it we play with all the expansions and tweak some of the rules to make it a little harder. We maybe are crazy.

There was also a Lord of the Rings game which we played, that was very simple, but somehow insanely difficult. We loose this game often.

Saboteur is a great little one, decpetively simple to play.

[wittdooley]

+1 to LotR Card Game. Very fun, and very difficult.

Gears of War is, IMO, better than the D&D iterations (they're very similar) but I like both. I think it comes down to genre preference, and I have more affinity towards the Gears universe than the D&D Universe.

Mansions of Madness is mostly co-op. There is a "GM" player, so it's sort of a competetive co-op. Same goes for Descent 2nd Ed. Same also goes for Super Dungeon Explore.

Zombiecide is a VERY fun co-op boardgame that just got released. It also contains a metric s-ton of minis.

[DarkLink]

I forgot about Arkham Horror. I've heard that it's so insanely difficult, it's not much fun to play. I'll try it out though.


I played it, and it was awesome.

[wittdooley]

If you'd like Arkham Light, you can go with Elder Sign. It's a really fun co-op game that you can also play solo. If you want to try before you buy, I think the iPad app is only 3-5 buckaroonies.

[L192837465]

I recommend Paranoia.... Not really co-op as much as "hilarity ensues".

Descent is great. Awesome game for the DM and the players!

I'd really really REALLY recommend AGAINST Arkham Horror. The game after a few turns just plays itself, and then you lose. Dice don't mean a whole lot, teamwork doesn't do a whole lot, equipment doesn't do much... I've never played a game or heard of a group winning.

SD:SU reviewed Horror Stories (or something like that) about a group of monks kicking ghosts out of their village, and though difficult, they said it was a blast.

Personally, I don't like co-op games much, because the fun of boardgames is players bouncing off each other, but those are what I'd suggest off the top of my head.

Oldie but goodie: Allies and Axis!

[Wolfshade]

I'd really really REALLY recommend AGAINST Arkham Horror. The game after a few turns just plays itself, and then you lose. Dice don't mean a whole lot, teamwork doesn't do a whole lot, equipment doesn't do much... I've never played a game or heard of a group winning.

I think you are doing it wrong, equipment makes a huge impact, you just have to tailor your build and stats to how you play. If you have a very strong two handed physical weapon then you don't need spells and you can trade your other physical weaposn with other players. Similiarly, if you are a strong magic user then you don't need physical weapons. When we play we usually have one or two people who collect all the clues (or are given them) and elder signs and are on portal closing duty with the rest killing monsters/getting better equipment and making sure the horror track doesn't rise too high.
We've actually changfed some of the rules regarding spawning and the horror track to make the game more of a challenge.

[Phototoxin]

Shadows over Camelot is good but you need 3+ people.
The D&D boardgames are good.
Red November is hillarious too.

[Wolfshade]

Forbidden Island
I played it a couple of weekends ago and it was good fun, as two player it was relatively straight forward and easy to win, but it with 3 or more it starts to get more tricky as swapping resources becomes not as straightforward.

Elder Sign (Arkham Light)
Strange game, I prefer Arkham Horror, but it still maintains the feel and is much simpler to play. My only downer on this game is that it can be a little unbalanced, I played a couple of games where because of the combination of adventures some of them were very hard to achieve while others were impossible.

[pgmason]

Another recommendation for Arkham Horror. It's challenging but by no means impossible. It's thoroughly atmospheric.

Shadows over Camelot is basically co-operative but with a randomly chosen undercover 'traitor' trying to undermine the others without getting caught, and is really good fun.

Battlestar Galactica is also very good, and uses a similar mechanism of one or more players secretly being cylon infiltrators, and even adds the twist that a player can start off loyal but turn out to be a cylon part way through, for extra paranoia and confusion.

Pandemic is absolutely excellent - probably my favourite of these, and although it's simple compared to the others its by no means easy to win.

[energongoodie]

I had my first go of Arkham Horror the other day. I did not enjoy it I'm afraid.

The new Kingdom Death kickstarter is here if people fancy taking a punt on a new co-operative board game.

[Wolfshade]

The problem with Arkham I think is that it is a very steep learning curve so unless you like the mythology then the time it takes to learn the game and mechanics means your first games are just not fun.

[energongoodie]

The problem with Arkham I think is that it is a very steep learning curve so unless you like the mythology then the time it takes to learn the game and mechanics means your first games are just not fun.

Maybe.
I was playing with some experienced guys but I just didn't feel I was rolling enough dice or that I had that many tactical decisions to make.
I'd give it another go though.

[Wolfshade]

I know exactly how you felt, the first time I played it I seemed to be trogging around doing nothing while the other guys were figthing beasties going through portals and generally seemed to know what they were doing.

[RobinTrevize]

Super Dungeon Explore 2.

It can be a bit difficult to get hold of but its worth it.
One player is the dungeon master and throws monsters at the other players who choose a hero.
The objective is either, get through the dungeon and kill the boss or kill the heroes (dependant on which side your on)
But the dungeon master can set up the dungeon differently each time and the monsters just keep coming.

If you do go for it make sure you get version 2. They had a recall on the first lot due to a huge amount of spelling errors in the rulebook.

Also, you get to build and paint all the models. :)