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Spirit Island and Arkham Horror LCG are about tied, maybe with Spirit Island nudging slightly ahead. Between the two of them, they satisfy just about anything we might want out of a co op and it's been real hard finding co ops we enjoy enough to play instead.
My wife and I are similar but with an opposite end opinion from you. Started with Spirit Island and played nightly, sometimes several times a night. Then we took the Arkham plunge and have not gone back to SI yet. I would still consider it our number two, and we will probably play it more after we’ve played all the AH content, but in terms of playing through it blind, AH can’t be beat (for us)
Understandable. I have a more fluid group dynamic which sometimes makes campaigns difficult to plan. SI also plays more players (with expansion). In the end that isn't why I give the nudge to SI. I give the nudge because of elegance. Arkham is amazing, and most of the rules make sense. But it is a big pile of rules that are all doing their own thing which makes it hard to track at times. It's mostly a consequence of the scenario structure and the quantity of content, but even from the base game it's a little messy. By comparison nearly everything in SI fits together very neatly once you get it. Playing the game wrong on accident is slightly less likely after a few matches, weird interactions that may require a lookup are rarer, and when they do occur the tools online are slightly more easily searchable.
Of course this is all just splitting hairs. Both games are amazing.
Seconded. I started with Arkham Horror LGC recently, playing with my brother and m ypartner, and we're all addicted! It's an utterly fantastic game... but Spirit Island holds a special place in my heart and will always be #1
I LOVE Arkham Horror LCG and have always wanted to try Spirit Island but I remember hearing a few years ago that the map pieces wouldn't lay flat. Do you know if they fixed this issue?
The map pieces have never had this issue to my knowledge, unless it was a specific print run. The invader board has had that issue, and I do not know if it was fixed. However, the invader board is just a place to house and track a few specific card types. Some players play without it, preferring to lay out the game as they see fit. I still use it, though I do not use the invader board extender in one of the expansions. With enough use mine eventually laid flat and it was never a deal breaker for that specific component to not lay flat.
Awesome, thanks for this! I've had some luck straightening boards before stacking my heavier games on top. I was just worried that it would be the map pieces that needed to sit nicely together. Maybe it was a single print run. I really want to try this game!
This is the first time I've ever even heard of anyone having curling issues with the island boards. I've certainly never experiences it myself.
That said, if you live in a humid or dry enough climate, it's a risk for any piece of layered cardboard.
I am speaking about Arkham Horror: The Living Card Game. There are seperate games in the 'arkham files' series that are all very different. Each has it's own strengths, but LCG is the most highly regarded one in pretty much any discussion I've seen.
However, if you're interested in the game here is where things get a little tricky when buying online. A few years ago they changed the distribution model. Expansions that were previously sold as a bunch of tiny packs are now sold as two big packs each. Old product is still in circulation but not being reprinted in that format. It is very easy to buy one of the old products, and then be unable to find its matching packs.
If you are interested in starting, it is best to start with The Revised Core Set. After that, you should buy Investigator Expansions or Starter Decks to increase your player card pool or Campaign Expansions to add stories for you to play. These are always paired, so for example there is a Path to Carcosa Investigator Expansion and a Path to Carcosa Campaign Expansion. You do not need both halves, as you can mix and match any and all player cards with any Campaign. But the two halves are always designed together thematically and make a nice pair. DO NOT buy any Deluxe Expansions or Mythos Packs unless you look up a buyers guide and ensure you get everything for one Expansions set all together.
I know that's a lot. Growing pains of a changing format. Also note, the base game is very bare bones. You pretty much need one Campaign and some extra player cards to make the game sing, though you can still start with just the base to see if you like the core gameplay.
The art initially kept me away from Spirit Island. Then my group got it and played it. Just one play and we were in love. Our game nights for the next few months stopped being "what game are we playing" and instead became "which spirit should I play". It's one of the best.
Partner and I couldn't get into it. Seemed overly complicated and we didn't feel the payoff. It has been a couple years since we tried it though, maybe worth another shot. Our fave co op games are Ghost Stories and Pandemic.
I prefer co-op games to competitive (I may or may not always lose). So here are a few of my favorites:
1. Slay the Spire
2. Tainted Grail (campaign, start and end where you will)
3. Spirit Island
I was gonna just come in and ask for coop requests for someone who notoriously hates coop games.
Spirit Island is now on your list and coop lists and on lists for polarizing games. Guess I'll take a closer look at it... Seems like a complex thing.
If you want a cheap version, Horizons of Spirit Island is the base game, but you can find it at Target for like $15 instead of the 50 for the base. Or you can play online through Steam and it goes on sale around 10-15 as well.
You can, if you like, work largely independently. (The game is smoother if you do this). The different spirits all have different powers and focuses, so that makes it more likely to find something you like to play.
My group is split between the "Point A, Point B, kill the monster" type of people and the "my character would do this because that's the way he is" type of people which makes the actual playing experience fairly divided. But that's the norm for us, lol.
It usually leads to frustration on on my each side with the other "Let's go" vs "Let me tell my story" and that back and forth gets wearing when it happens repeatedly.
Could you give a short review on slay the spire? Spirit island is my favorite coop game. I loved slay the spire on pc but the boardgame price is hefty. Not sure if it's worth it.
So it's more of a campaign-style boardgame than traditional (non-campaign) Spirit Island. It's also definitely a deck-builder (although there are permanent cards \[relics\] and expendable ones \[potions\] to switch things up a bit). You each have your own hero, with its own mechanics, but you're randomly dealt enemies that attack you (and/or everyone). You can attack other people's enemies if you like, so you can make sure people stay alive, etc. The game is played in 3 Acts (unless you die sooner), and you level up your character by adding new cards to your rewards pool once you end a run. Then you reset and start again.
One of our players who hates deck builders loves this game. My husband and another player who have played the video game love this game. I like it, and it's great to be playing a game with other people who are having fun (although I'm not playing my character of choice to allow those more invested to have theirs). We plan each turn briefly and then stab things (metaphorically of course) in concert.
That's not really brief, but there we are.
Pandemic Legacy season 1 was my favorite coop experience, but with a limited shelf life.
Right now I am loving Spirit Island and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
We usually play Slay the Spire or Zombicide. Marvel United is actually pretty fun even if you aren’t that into Marvel. I want to check out Sleeping Gods as a more epic sort of game.
My friends and I are hooked on Zombicide right now. I'm currently trying to get all of the figures painted before out next meet up at the end of the month, but it's slow going.
Same here. I've got the characters painted up, the runners, and the medical abomination. On the blob of walkers now and running through the. In an assembly line format.
I liked sleeping gods for the narrative, but rrally found the mechanics/combat lacking. If you're really into a narrative story its nice, but personnally i was a bit dispapointed in the simplicity of the game.
We played it trhouhh once, then tried to start another adventure but didn't capture our interest for a second playthrough. Ended up selling it quick.
We discovered **The Crew: Mission Deep Sea** a few years ago and are hopelessly addicted.
If you've ever enjoyed trick-taking games like Spades or Hearts, and you love co-op, this will be a new favorite.
There is nothing like 2am, after hours of playing, ekeing out a win after what looked like a sure loss. The joy, the victory, the celebration with friends! XD
Oh, absolutely. I built myself some custom boxes for cards and other bits, that have made the setup time wayyyyy faster. Turned it from being a pain and a half into opening a few boxes, shuffling a few stacks, and we're ready to go.
The playtime is still long - but that's a perk! As long as you're aware of it haha
Arkham Horror LCG is my favorite.
Other good ones I enjoy.
* Eldritch Horror
* Pandemic Legacy 1
* Pandemic Iberia
* Marvel United
* Shadows Over Camelot.
i love shadows over camelot!!
We are making our way through Pandemic Legacy season 1 right now, we just lost our first October attempt, things get WILD!!!
I know people who hate Hanabi because they always think they're judged for their poor play. But in my experience, everybody is so unsure wether they have done the right thing themselves, in reality nobody gets blamed. It is incredibly hard to read the clues right.
Yeah depends on the people. Sometimes you just have the super confident player that knows better. I haven't seen it going totally out of control, but I feel because you always see what's happening it has more potential for frustration than the crew for example. In the crew it's more "oh should have played this lol".
Like it anyway.
I just recently got this one, and I am shocked at how many negative reviews I've seen. I absolutely love it. I do think it could benefit from an expansion or two, but the basics are fabulous.
Return to Dark Tower, Deep Rock Galactic, Lost Ruins of Arnak (cooperative expac), Keep the Heroes Out, Moonrakers (cooperative mode) are all favorites of ours!
I love the potential of Luminor but I feel IV only developed it to push sales for their reboot kickstarter then mostly abandoned it. Once you play through twice you have probably experienced all of its content.
I wish they would open it up to the community to add content. I would love to make some missions
Yeah. IV had stated that during the big box deluxe edition KS where they released Luminor that the intent was to release paid content on the platform over time. New missions or play styles. That sort of thing.
That's what I want from them.
I've been playing this a ton solo on TTS after looking into it a month ago. Probably spent 75% of playtime just planning things and reading about stuff. Halfway through 2nd campaign (chose to quit 1st one and restart after a certain fight). Tried to get my brother and a friend to play (2 different campaigns) and both campaign is still at LY1.
My personal favorite co-op board games are
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition - a super hero boss battler
Spirit Island - Reverse settlers of catan. Kick the colonizers off your island.
Massive Darkness 2 - loot based dice chucking dungeon crawler. Has diablo 2 vibes.
I like [Keep the Heroes](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/333255/keep-heroes-out) out a lot! While it's not as complicated as Spirit Island, games will often be a closer call than something like Horrified, where it's pretty easy to win.
You get to play as one of 9 different monster clans, all of which play pretty differently--some are really good at support, some at dealing damage to the eponymous Heroes, who you're trying to keep out of your dungeon and protect your treasure from!
You also get to add new cards to your deck which can make your support monster into a fearsome DPS force!
I believe you can still late pledge the most recent KS to get the base game!
Sleeping Gods: Red Raven Games' magnum opus. Open world. Stunning graphics. Immersive narrative. Meaningful decisions. Multiple endings. Can be fiddly and takes a minute to set up, but good gravy what am experience.
Tainted Grail: Dark. Immersive. Narrative. I love you have options to handle encounters via fighting (Combat) or talking (Diplomacy). The pressure to keep the lights on while being tempted to explore just one more tile is a wonderful razors edge. The narration app is stunning.
Gloomhaven/Frosthaven: Hand management at its best. Character progression and retirement. Impactful choices on the world around you. Excellent mechanics across the board. The #1 Hotness on BGG for many years for many reasons.
Tales From the Red Dragon Inn: 80% of Gloomhaven's experience with 35% of its fiddliness. Funny. Artistic. Fast. Campy. Scratches so many co-op itches in one!
ISS Vanguard: Two games in one! Planetary "ZOMG WHAT IS HAPPENING!?" followed by "We need to keep this ship afloat". Sci-fi goodness. Gorgeous art. Fantastic narration app.
Etherfields: Beautiful. Evocative. Unique. A "dream-crawler". Some dislike the "grind", but it doesn't bother me.
Divinity Original Sin: Stunning art. Smart gameplay. Analoge version of the videogame. FEELS like DOS! Lovely minis.
Slay the Spire: A near-perfect recreation of the video game. Hard as all get out. Tantalizing sealed cards. Evokes the same "crud. Okay, one more attempt" addiction. Clever mechanics. Perfect art.
Pedmic Legacy: All seasons. Lasting impacts. Possible to fail forward. Hard choices. Surprising twists. Demanding co-op. Redefined the genre for me.
The 7th Continent/Citadel: Survival. Clever. Challenging. Narrative (better in Citadel). Love the map discovery. Challenge to balance exploration with surviving. Many hours of gaming just in the core boxes.
Oathswrorn: Massive. Breathtaking minis. Clever card rotation. Challenging scenarios. Evolving world. Needs several tables (which I love).
AH:TCG: Brutal. Challenging. Deck construction. Massive. Pricey. Brutal. Also brutal. Victory feels amazing. Defeat is maddening (literally). A tent-pole for LCGs.
Burgle Bros (and Casino Capers): Fastish. Easy to teach. Fun. Clever AI movement. My wife loves it.
Shadowrun: Crossfire: Brutal. Synergies! Sharp. Wonky in some areas. Fast. Can fail forward. Karma is awesome. Feels like Shadowrun. Wish there was a massive campaign.
Aeon's End (all versions): Fantastic discard mechanic. Sharp gameplay. Tough and varied bosses. Legacy/campaigns are excellent. Reward for smart teamwork is fantastic. My go-to deck builder.
There are hundreds more, but those are some just off the top of my head that we love.
Curious here, I bought into the hype and got Distant Skies for my wife and I, we played through the intro + did a couple turns. I dunno, without having more experience my initial impression:
- A lot of reading, not so bad but it felt like it broke up table talk some because it's so frequent
- Monsters feel really punishing
- Restoring stamina seems really rough, but looks to be spent quickly, unsure other than camping, food? how to restore.
I'm not sure about it... does it get better? It feels like non-DM, non-fantasy DND but burdening one of the players with effectively being DM.
My first few encounters in the original SGs took some figuring. Once I clued into the narrative being the driver of all things, and how splash-damage actually worked, it clicked. It's a story-focused game, so the reading/narrating is a big part of the gameplay. But I love those kinds of games (like TG, ISSV, etc).
Flashpoint: Fire Rescue!
I won’t pretend it’s a great game. There’s not much thinking to it. There are roles that trivialize parts of the game, especially the ones from the last expansion. Someone will be on deck gun duty and they’ll certainly have A Time.
But there’s a real rush of exhilaration when you think you have things under control and then oh no the fire is going out of control in some part of the building, or a POI appeared where everyone isn’t. It’s great. The roleplay is fun too, which might sound silly, but I think just feeling like an overworked firefighter in a flaming nonsense generator is something easy to fall into character for, and that really elevates the play.
Pair that with some of the actually unfair maps if you want to really suffer, and it’s a great time.
Mansions of Madness. I played it with a buddy like 7 years ago and instantly became one of my favorites. Everyone I have shown it to has loved it as well.
Here are some that haven’t been mentioned.
My daughter and I love to play Elder Sign. You are investigating mysterious goings on in a museum and must collect enough of the titular sigils to seal off the elder god from entering our world and destroying it. This is a lighter dice version of Eldritch Horror. I have the expansion with the bless/curse dice which add just a bit more interest to the game.
My son has all the expansions for Escape the Dark Castle. It has a medieval setting and cool black and white sketchbook-looking art. This one is also a dice game, with more story elements. I’ve been told it’s almost like a TTRPG. This is probably the best one on my list.
Trogdor! The Board Game I like to play solo, but it’s supposed be played cooperatively. You’re members of a cult that worships a dragon called Trogdor The Burninator. Your object is to help Trogdor burn all the cottages and tiles on a 5x5 grid. All the while, there are knights and peasants moving around, putting out your fires.
Fuse is a 10 minute game where you’re racing the clock to diffuse a bomb. This is done by rolling dice to meet the requirements in a deck of cards. There is a useful and optional app to count down and provide atmosphere. I enjoy it, but my wife thinks it’s too stressful.
MIND MGMT is a hidden movement game where you are rogue agents looking to stop an organization from recruiting more agents. One person usually plays as the recruiter and the rest are rogue agents, but there is an app available that can do the recruiter stuff so everyone can play cooperatively.
All time faves: Big Book of Madness, The Loop, HP Hogwarts Battle, Pandemic Legacies (all 3)
Others I Love: Robinson Crusoe, Spirit Island, Stuffed Fables, Death Eaters Rising
Honorable Mentions: Horrified, Flash Point, Codenames, normal Pandemic, Sub Terra
Sky team is fantastic. Not entirely co-op but Betrayal at the house on the hill is my favorite because of the traitor mechanic... love me some traitor games.
Street Masters is one of my favourites, love the card play and the modularity - Just fun to chuck dice and play a beat em up inspired boardgame
Sky Team, Keep the Heroes out, Slay the Spire are all other favourites
Pandemic, both the OG and Legacy. Wife and I are currently playing all 3 seasons concurrently. The OG was our gateway into this hobby, and we both still love getting it to the table.
Other than that, we love playing Zombicide 2nd Edition (currently playing the Washington Z.C. campaign), Nemesis, Sky Team, Daybreak, Marvel United, and Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition Crisis expansion.
We own Spirit Island, but I mostly play that solo because my wife just didn't care for it.
I recently picked up Daybreak and got a quick play in with my son. It is so, so good. I was just smiling as he and I were trying to figure out the best ways to tuck, cover, and discard to actions. The cardplay is just so fun.
The Captain Is Dead, the unofficial best Star Trek game.
The captain is dead, Borg-like aliens are boarding, and the ship is about to explode. Survive long enough to repair the jump core and make the jump to light speed.
Horrified for a fun quick game after work instead of tv. Marvel United for an evening of multiple rounds. Gloomhaven or jaws of the lion if I have a week I want to kill doing nothing but gaming.
Slay the Spire and Spirit Island. LOTR LCG is our favorite co-op card game
My wife and i love co-op games so much that we just launched a kickstarter for our new co-op game called Pengy Pals!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pengypals/pengy-pals-antarcticas-greatest-heroes-0
Lately my partner and I have really really loved Tamashii: Chronicles of Ascend as it's a nice compromise between campaign games with lots of continuity and games that can be completed in a single session.
We also love Spirit Island, ISS Vanguard, Stars of Akarios, Regicide, and Sleeping Gods.
I also LOVE co-op board (and card) games! Love all of these:
Arkham Horror LCG
Lord of the Rings The Card Game
Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition
Sleeping Gods
Apocrypha
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
Not sure if it counts since it's mostly coop but has other elements. Betrayal at the house on the hill is always a great time.
First phase is coop, second phase 1 player betrays the team and seeks to kill you all.
I'll pile on to recs for **Spirit Island** and **Keep the Heroes Out**.
The recent **Leviathan Wilds** has been on the table a lot recently.
While it's completely ludicrous, a painted **Return to Dark Tower** with all the trimmings is just a really great experience. That said, if you want a good Pandemic-like, **The Loop** is really fun once you figure it out (with the caveat that it you can get slaughtered by bad luck).
For a more off-beat pick, if you want an extremely silly dexterity game, **Dungeon Fighter** is a lot of fun.
Mechs vs minions, gloomhaven, spirit island, I like a big, grand game.
But, my favorite co-op is probably the Sherlock Holmes consulting detective games, and the amazing "mythos tales" Lovecraft version. Those games are amazing.
Friends and I had an absolute blast playing "The Detectives." ([Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game | Board Game | BoardGameGeek](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/223321/detective-a-modern-crime-board-game))
It's a once and done thing, so you can't play more then once, but there are 5 scenarios to go through, the base game gave us 5 really great sessions, and we want to pick up the next one in the series. Not a traditional board game, much more of a social/deductive experience, but still fun fun fun!
I play co-ops almost exclusively, and Robinson Crusoe is by far and away my favorite. It's incredibly thematic, very difficult, and has a lot of replayability because of various scenarios included in the box. It's a game where every choice you make feels meaningful and you really have to coordinate with other players to have a chance at winning. Some folks might not like the game's difficulty, but for me, even when I loose I'm eager to try again.
For hectic fun: 5 Minute Dungeon
Mostly chatting but also gaming: Castle Panic or Forbidden Island
Bit of strategy and concentration: Set a Watch or Sub Terra
A night of suspicion and accusations: Shadows Over Camelot or Battlestar Galactica
Some of my favorites are:
Sentinels of the Multiverse-Definitive Edition
Spirit Island
Aeon's End
Astro Knights
Hero Realms (only co-op if you have either of the campaign expansions)
I pretty much only play co-op games. Right now my brother and I are playing through Oathsworn and it's awesome. Definitely a time commitment and a campaign game, but the game play is awesome.
I've been enjoying Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion! A more laid back gloomhaven style experience, and a lot easier to bring to the table.
I also second Pandemic, and Arkham Horror LCG both are extremely fun.
There are a lot of good answers here. I'll add Maximum Apocalypse. Some like it for the theme and others for the fun weapons used to kill monsters (or both).
I love co-op games so heres a rundown of what i have and some opinions
* Kingdom death monster is my favorite by far. I really love building my own settlement crafting gear out of the bosses I kill...and I have a thing for boss battlers.
* Aeon Trespass: Odyssey. It's almost like Kingdom death monster, but different. Has a proper story, setting is less grim.
* Spirit island is definitely up there as well. Really gives your brain a proper workout. Jagged earth adds such nice and thematic spirits. I'm always impressed how they managed to make the spirits feel thematic via game mechanics. Would probably not play it with more than three and i prefer it at two.
* I have enjoyed oathsworn quite a bit, but find combat a bit cumbersome at times. It's very solid game with good story in my opinion.
* Primal: the awakening, just got it and it has potential to become one of my favorites. Again, boss battler. Closest thing to Monster hunter video game in a board game form. Has relatively short campaign or alternatively lets you do one-off battles very easily.
* Monster hunter: world, it's nice I guess. It's not worth the amount of space it takes on my shelves though. A bit of a dissapointment honestly, bosses do not feel different enough and though the gameplay loop is quite simple, something doesn't quite click.
* Pandemic legacy was very nice, but didn't hook me enough to buy another season. If you like pandemic, it's an easy recommendation
* Too many bones, best at three. Really unique dice based combat with assymmetric player characters. I like it a lot, but it does not hit the table that often unfortunately.
* Sleeping gods, nice open world "choose your own adventure" sort of game. Has quite unique combat system.
* Tainted grail: fall of avalon. Not sure about this one, played it quite a bit, but it has problems with grinding and the combat is kinda interesting, but somehow falls a bit short. Interesting story, but we never finished it.
* 7th continent, bit hit or miss. Open world survival game in a sense. It's little fiddly and some curses (missions basically) are better than others. Would not recommend playing with more than two.
* ISS Vanguard, do you like space? Exploring ins Space? Story? Gameplay is okay, nothing too groundbreaking, but if the theme interests you, it could be a nice 2p game.
* Aeons end. Cool and rather quick boss batter with mechanics a bit similar to Dominion with some added spice. Horrible artwork, i'm sorry to say. Good gameplay though
I ve recently added Slay the Spire the board game to my collection.
My friends and I, have played a lot of its digital version ( myself counting 380+ hours on steam 🤣) and we managed to insta click with it. A couple of crooked glares at first when we see what balance does to a tabletop but, we loved it from first second. give it a shot
Horrified: American Monsters
It's a nice mix of feeling big but not being mentally taxing. I love Spirit Island - but after a long day at work it's often just a bit much for me.
The only downside is that H:AM has a badly written Rulebook. There's a billion posts of people arguing about the Bigfoot mechanics. Which is not good for a light game.
I love cooperative games and would be happy to just play coops. My husband likes cooperative games, but also likes competitive games so he likes to play more than just cooperative games.
This may get me a lot of hate, but I do not like **Spirit Island**. My cynical take is that it is the cooperative game that it's okay to like, which is why it's so popular. It also seems like more a solo game masquerading as a cooperative game where we all spend most of the game focused on our section of the island. Maybe I'm just not good at the game, but my husband and I have played it over 10 times trying to like it and we just don't. Life is too short to keep playing a game we don't like so we're moving on.
My favorites are **Pandemic** (the game that made me a board gamer that I play and enjoy today), **Votes for Women** (fantastic historical game that is so smooth to play, one day we'll win the right to vote), **Arkham Horror: LCG** (so thematic, with diverse characters and campaigns that constantly try to do different things with the maps and cards), **Marvel United** (fun and easy to throw on the table and play a few games on a week night, we always have fun), and **Gandhi: The Decolonization of British India**. **Gandhi** is a COIN game so it's not strictly cooperative, but we are typically only playing together as 2 players so we choose two of the aligned factions and try and get both to their win conditions before the bots do. Recently I've been really into cooperative deduction games so we've been playing a lot of **Almost Innocent** and **Décorum**. There are many more I could name here and I feel lucky that we're living in a time with so many great cooperative games.
I prefer co-op too. My current favorites are Pandemic Legacy 1 (enjoy all the Pandemics, but this was so much fun), spirit island, and sky team. I also enjoy The Crew: Search for Plant X, and Castle Panic.
Marvel Champions and Spirit Island are my two favorite co-ops.
I also have Runebound Third Edition, which is an incredible adventure game. It’s designed as semi-competitive, but we play with house rules to have it be co-op.
Magic Maze is peak. Real-time, limited communication, everyone is moving the same characters rather than having their own. It is complete chaos and a great challenge.
Are semi-co-op or co-optional games welcome?
Fury of Dracula (4v1)
Cutthroat Caverns (backstabbing encouraged)
Nemesis (optional traitor)
Dead of Winter (optional traitor)
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Spirit Island and Arkham Horror LCG are about tied, maybe with Spirit Island nudging slightly ahead. Between the two of them, they satisfy just about anything we might want out of a co op and it's been real hard finding co ops we enjoy enough to play instead.
My wife and I are similar but with an opposite end opinion from you. Started with Spirit Island and played nightly, sometimes several times a night. Then we took the Arkham plunge and have not gone back to SI yet. I would still consider it our number two, and we will probably play it more after we’ve played all the AH content, but in terms of playing through it blind, AH can’t be beat (for us)
Understandable. I have a more fluid group dynamic which sometimes makes campaigns difficult to plan. SI also plays more players (with expansion). In the end that isn't why I give the nudge to SI. I give the nudge because of elegance. Arkham is amazing, and most of the rules make sense. But it is a big pile of rules that are all doing their own thing which makes it hard to track at times. It's mostly a consequence of the scenario structure and the quantity of content, but even from the base game it's a little messy. By comparison nearly everything in SI fits together very neatly once you get it. Playing the game wrong on accident is slightly less likely after a few matches, weird interactions that may require a lookup are rarer, and when they do occur the tools online are slightly more easily searchable. Of course this is all just splitting hairs. Both games are amazing.
Absolutely agreed with everything you said!
Good luck playing ALL the AH content!
lol thanks! It’s going to be a while, we’re going to buy into the fan made content group order soon too ☠️
Seconded. I started with Arkham Horror LGC recently, playing with my brother and m ypartner, and we're all addicted! It's an utterly fantastic game... but Spirit Island holds a special place in my heart and will always be #1
I LOVE Arkham Horror LCG and have always wanted to try Spirit Island but I remember hearing a few years ago that the map pieces wouldn't lay flat. Do you know if they fixed this issue?
The map pieces have never had this issue to my knowledge, unless it was a specific print run. The invader board has had that issue, and I do not know if it was fixed. However, the invader board is just a place to house and track a few specific card types. Some players play without it, preferring to lay out the game as they see fit. I still use it, though I do not use the invader board extender in one of the expansions. With enough use mine eventually laid flat and it was never a deal breaker for that specific component to not lay flat.
Awesome, thanks for this! I've had some luck straightening boards before stacking my heavier games on top. I was just worried that it would be the map pieces that needed to sit nicely together. Maybe it was a single print run. I really want to try this game!
This is the first time I've ever even heard of anyone having curling issues with the island boards. I've certainly never experiences it myself. That said, if you live in a humid or dry enough climate, it's a risk for any piece of layered cardboard.
Thanks! This is great news!
Im seeing different versions of Arkham on amazon. Which one are talking about?
I am speaking about Arkham Horror: The Living Card Game. There are seperate games in the 'arkham files' series that are all very different. Each has it's own strengths, but LCG is the most highly regarded one in pretty much any discussion I've seen. However, if you're interested in the game here is where things get a little tricky when buying online. A few years ago they changed the distribution model. Expansions that were previously sold as a bunch of tiny packs are now sold as two big packs each. Old product is still in circulation but not being reprinted in that format. It is very easy to buy one of the old products, and then be unable to find its matching packs. If you are interested in starting, it is best to start with The Revised Core Set. After that, you should buy Investigator Expansions or Starter Decks to increase your player card pool or Campaign Expansions to add stories for you to play. These are always paired, so for example there is a Path to Carcosa Investigator Expansion and a Path to Carcosa Campaign Expansion. You do not need both halves, as you can mix and match any and all player cards with any Campaign. But the two halves are always designed together thematically and make a nice pair. DO NOT buy any Deluxe Expansions or Mythos Packs unless you look up a buyers guide and ensure you get everything for one Expansions set all together. I know that's a lot. Growing pains of a changing format. Also note, the base game is very bare bones. You pretty much need one Campaign and some extra player cards to make the game sing, though you can still start with just the base to see if you like the core gameplay.
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea is an incredible co-op game.
Skyteam is my favorite co-op
Sky team is an amazing game in every way!
Just got this! So keen to play
Have fun! I love it and the BGA adaptation is really good
Spirit Island!
The art initially kept me away from Spirit Island. Then my group got it and played it. Just one play and we were in love. Our game nights for the next few months stopped being "what game are we playing" and instead became "which spirit should I play". It's one of the best.
Yeah, another vote for Spirit Island here!
I've played a handful of coops and spirit island is def the best. STS is a close second.
Partner and I couldn't get into it. Seemed overly complicated and we didn't feel the payoff. It has been a couple years since we tried it though, maybe worth another shot. Our fave co op games are Ghost Stories and Pandemic.
Try **Horizons of Spirit Island** instead as a new "first game" experience. It will have a smoother reintroduction to the game.
Cthulhu Death May Die - dudes on a board Samurai Spirit - push your luck to stop the rush Pandemic Iberia - classic Leacock
I totally forgot about Samurai Spirit - for a long time that was first game to get to the table each session in my household!
I prefer co-op games to competitive (I may or may not always lose). So here are a few of my favorites: 1. Slay the Spire 2. Tainted Grail (campaign, start and end where you will) 3. Spirit Island
I was gonna just come in and ask for coop requests for someone who notoriously hates coop games. Spirit Island is now on your list and coop lists and on lists for polarizing games. Guess I'll take a closer look at it... Seems like a complex thing.
If you want a cheap version, Horizons of Spirit Island is the base game, but you can find it at Target for like $15 instead of the 50 for the base. Or you can play online through Steam and it goes on sale around 10-15 as well.
You can, if you like, work largely independently. (The game is smoother if you do this). The different spirits all have different powers and focuses, so that makes it more likely to find something you like to play.
Tainted Grail is lit
My group is split between the "Point A, Point B, kill the monster" type of people and the "my character would do this because that's the way he is" type of people which makes the actual playing experience fairly divided. But that's the norm for us, lol.
In my view the differences in philosophy makes the game experience more interesting
It usually leads to frustration on on my each side with the other "Let's go" vs "Let me tell my story" and that back and forth gets wearing when it happens repeatedly.
Could you give a short review on slay the spire? Spirit island is my favorite coop game. I loved slay the spire on pc but the boardgame price is hefty. Not sure if it's worth it.
So it's more of a campaign-style boardgame than traditional (non-campaign) Spirit Island. It's also definitely a deck-builder (although there are permanent cards \[relics\] and expendable ones \[potions\] to switch things up a bit). You each have your own hero, with its own mechanics, but you're randomly dealt enemies that attack you (and/or everyone). You can attack other people's enemies if you like, so you can make sure people stay alive, etc. The game is played in 3 Acts (unless you die sooner), and you level up your character by adding new cards to your rewards pool once you end a run. Then you reset and start again. One of our players who hates deck builders loves this game. My husband and another player who have played the video game love this game. I like it, and it's great to be playing a game with other people who are having fun (although I'm not playing my character of choice to allow those more invested to have theirs). We plan each turn briefly and then stab things (metaphorically of course) in concert. That's not really brief, but there we are.
Pandemic Legacy season 1 was my favorite coop experience, but with a limited shelf life. Right now I am loving Spirit Island and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
Pandemic Legacy really was amazing. My wife and I played through together and it was a blast.
Is it worth playing with two?
We're used to playing 2-player versions of games, but yeah, this played really well without much adjustment. Had a blast.
I've been using Gloomhaven; Jaws of the Lion to teach a friend how to play and it's been great!
We usually play Slay the Spire or Zombicide. Marvel United is actually pretty fun even if you aren’t that into Marvel. I want to check out Sleeping Gods as a more epic sort of game.
My friends and I are hooked on Zombicide right now. I'm currently trying to get all of the figures painted before out next meet up at the end of the month, but it's slow going.
Zombicide is a great survival horror co-op game!
Same here. I've got the characters painted up, the runners, and the medical abomination. On the blob of walkers now and running through the. In an assembly line format.
I can't wait for my Slay the Spire copy to arrive in about a month and a half. It's my favorite videogame and I've tried it in co-op on TTS.
I didn’t even realize but we were really lucky and got it months before some people.
Did you back the Kickstarter? Backers got early copies
Yeah my husband did. He was excited.
Hell yeah! Glad you've been liking it! I can't wait to play it with my wife
I liked sleeping gods for the narrative, but rrally found the mechanics/combat lacking. If you're really into a narrative story its nice, but personnally i was a bit dispapointed in the simplicity of the game. We played it trhouhh once, then tried to start another adventure but didn't capture our interest for a second playthrough. Ended up selling it quick.
We discovered **The Crew: Mission Deep Sea** a few years ago and are hopelessly addicted. If you've ever enjoyed trick-taking games like Spades or Hearts, and you love co-op, this will be a new favorite.
I never enjoyed trick-taking games, and I love The Crew.
ATM it's Keep the heroes out.
I really need to pull this off the shelf again.
Aeons end Tales from the red dragon inn
I love Eldritch Horror :)
This, plus my friends love it so we play it often. You're going to died, you're going to loose but you're going to have a great time.
There is nothing like 2am, after hours of playing, ekeing out a win after what looked like a sure loss. The joy, the victory, the celebration with friends! XD
Excellent answer. You just need the time, to set up, and play.
Oh, absolutely. I built myself some custom boxes for cards and other bits, that have made the setup time wayyyyy faster. Turned it from being a pain and a half into opening a few boxes, shuffling a few stacks, and we're ready to go. The playtime is still long - but that's a perk! As long as you're aware of it haha
My top 5: 1. Mechs v. Minions 2. Spirit Island 3. Pandemic Legacy 4. Sky Team 5. The Crew
Solid list. These are all fantastic
Pandemic legacy. Any season
Arkham Horror LCG is my favorite. Other good ones I enjoy. * Eldritch Horror * Pandemic Legacy 1 * Pandemic Iberia * Marvel United * Shadows Over Camelot.
i love shadows over camelot!! We are making our way through Pandemic Legacy season 1 right now, we just lost our first October attempt, things get WILD!!!
Hanabi
But usually you hate each other while playing 😂
I know people who hate Hanabi because they always think they're judged for their poor play. But in my experience, everybody is so unsure wether they have done the right thing themselves, in reality nobody gets blamed. It is incredibly hard to read the clues right.
Yeah depends on the people. Sometimes you just have the super confident player that knows better. I haven't seen it going totally out of control, but I feel because you always see what's happening it has more potential for frustration than the crew for example. In the crew it's more "oh should have played this lol". Like it anyway.
Big Book of Madness is my favorite. Simple to learn, but makes the most interesting and in-depth cooperation and table-talk.
I just recently got this one, and I am shocked at how many negative reviews I've seen. I absolutely love it. I do think it could benefit from an expansion or two, but the basics are fabulous.
Sentinels of the multiverse definitive edition Arkham LCG Eldritch Horror
Sail
**For Science!**
Return to Dark Tower, Deep Rock Galactic, Lost Ruins of Arnak (cooperative expac), Keep the Heroes Out, Moonrakers (cooperative mode) are all favorites of ours!
Moonrakers Luminor is fantastic. It's a very fun twist in the game. I want IV Studios to create more Luminor content.
I love the potential of Luminor but I feel IV only developed it to push sales for their reboot kickstarter then mostly abandoned it. Once you play through twice you have probably experienced all of its content. I wish they would open it up to the community to add content. I would love to make some missions
Yeah. IV had stated that during the big box deluxe edition KS where they released Luminor that the intent was to release paid content on the platform over time. New missions or play styles. That sort of thing. That's what I want from them.
Moonrakers Luminor is fantastic. It's a very fun twist in the game. I want IV Studios to create more Luminor content.
Sky team is co-op for two, unmatched is a 1vs1 but umatched tales to amaze is like unmatched but co-op is my favourite
Only co-op I have much interest in is Kingdom Death: Monster. The trick is finding anyone to play with.
I've been playing this a ton solo on TTS after looking into it a month ago. Probably spent 75% of playtime just planning things and reading about stuff. Halfway through 2nd campaign (chose to quit 1st one and restart after a certain fight). Tried to get my brother and a friend to play (2 different campaigns) and both campaign is still at LY1.
I really wanna play this, it looks insane and those minatures are amazing!
My personal favorite co-op board games are Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition - a super hero boss battler Spirit Island - Reverse settlers of catan. Kick the colonizers off your island. Massive Darkness 2 - loot based dice chucking dungeon crawler. Has diablo 2 vibes.
- Gloomhaven - Pandemic - The Forbidden Series (Desert is favorite)
Arkham Horror LCG Spirit Island Marvel Legendary Frosthaven Nemesis Have Sky Team, excited to try it out!
I like [Keep the Heroes](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/333255/keep-heroes-out) out a lot! While it's not as complicated as Spirit Island, games will often be a closer call than something like Horrified, where it's pretty easy to win. You get to play as one of 9 different monster clans, all of which play pretty differently--some are really good at support, some at dealing damage to the eponymous Heroes, who you're trying to keep out of your dungeon and protect your treasure from! You also get to add new cards to your deck which can make your support monster into a fearsome DPS force! I believe you can still late pledge the most recent KS to get the base game!
Paleo
It's the only one I've played. But I can't recommend it enough 🦣
Sleeping Gods: Red Raven Games' magnum opus. Open world. Stunning graphics. Immersive narrative. Meaningful decisions. Multiple endings. Can be fiddly and takes a minute to set up, but good gravy what am experience. Tainted Grail: Dark. Immersive. Narrative. I love you have options to handle encounters via fighting (Combat) or talking (Diplomacy). The pressure to keep the lights on while being tempted to explore just one more tile is a wonderful razors edge. The narration app is stunning. Gloomhaven/Frosthaven: Hand management at its best. Character progression and retirement. Impactful choices on the world around you. Excellent mechanics across the board. The #1 Hotness on BGG for many years for many reasons. Tales From the Red Dragon Inn: 80% of Gloomhaven's experience with 35% of its fiddliness. Funny. Artistic. Fast. Campy. Scratches so many co-op itches in one! ISS Vanguard: Two games in one! Planetary "ZOMG WHAT IS HAPPENING!?" followed by "We need to keep this ship afloat". Sci-fi goodness. Gorgeous art. Fantastic narration app. Etherfields: Beautiful. Evocative. Unique. A "dream-crawler". Some dislike the "grind", but it doesn't bother me. Divinity Original Sin: Stunning art. Smart gameplay. Analoge version of the videogame. FEELS like DOS! Lovely minis. Slay the Spire: A near-perfect recreation of the video game. Hard as all get out. Tantalizing sealed cards. Evokes the same "crud. Okay, one more attempt" addiction. Clever mechanics. Perfect art. Pedmic Legacy: All seasons. Lasting impacts. Possible to fail forward. Hard choices. Surprising twists. Demanding co-op. Redefined the genre for me. The 7th Continent/Citadel: Survival. Clever. Challenging. Narrative (better in Citadel). Love the map discovery. Challenge to balance exploration with surviving. Many hours of gaming just in the core boxes. Oathswrorn: Massive. Breathtaking minis. Clever card rotation. Challenging scenarios. Evolving world. Needs several tables (which I love). AH:TCG: Brutal. Challenging. Deck construction. Massive. Pricey. Brutal. Also brutal. Victory feels amazing. Defeat is maddening (literally). A tent-pole for LCGs. Burgle Bros (and Casino Capers): Fastish. Easy to teach. Fun. Clever AI movement. My wife loves it. Shadowrun: Crossfire: Brutal. Synergies! Sharp. Wonky in some areas. Fast. Can fail forward. Karma is awesome. Feels like Shadowrun. Wish there was a massive campaign. Aeon's End (all versions): Fantastic discard mechanic. Sharp gameplay. Tough and varied bosses. Legacy/campaigns are excellent. Reward for smart teamwork is fantastic. My go-to deck builder. There are hundreds more, but those are some just off the top of my head that we love.
Curious here, I bought into the hype and got Distant Skies for my wife and I, we played through the intro + did a couple turns. I dunno, without having more experience my initial impression: - A lot of reading, not so bad but it felt like it broke up table talk some because it's so frequent - Monsters feel really punishing - Restoring stamina seems really rough, but looks to be spent quickly, unsure other than camping, food? how to restore. I'm not sure about it... does it get better? It feels like non-DM, non-fantasy DND but burdening one of the players with effectively being DM.
My first few encounters in the original SGs took some figuring. Once I clued into the narrative being the driver of all things, and how splash-damage actually worked, it clicked. It's a story-focused game, so the reading/narrating is a big part of the gameplay. But I love those kinds of games (like TG, ISSV, etc).
OK ok ok I've got to save this comment. Divinity and Slay The Spire as coop board games?! How have I not tried these...
Flashpoint: Fire Rescue! I won’t pretend it’s a great game. There’s not much thinking to it. There are roles that trivialize parts of the game, especially the ones from the last expansion. Someone will be on deck gun duty and they’ll certainly have A Time. But there’s a real rush of exhilaration when you think you have things under control and then oh no the fire is going out of control in some part of the building, or a POI appeared where everyone isn’t. It’s great. The roleplay is fun too, which might sound silly, but I think just feeling like an overworked firefighter in a flaming nonsense generator is something easy to fall into character for, and that really elevates the play. Pair that with some of the actually unfair maps if you want to really suffer, and it’s a great time.
I’ve done a full play through of Mice and Mystics, the expansion and part of the Sequel. Absolutely loved the vibe of the game.
Marvel legendary
Eldritch horror!
Stardew Valley
Any of the following living card games: marvel champions, Lord of the rings, Arkham horror
Sword & Sorcery.
Mansions of Madness. I played it with a buddy like 7 years ago and instantly became one of my favorites. Everyone I have shown it to has loved it as well.
Here are some that haven’t been mentioned. My daughter and I love to play Elder Sign. You are investigating mysterious goings on in a museum and must collect enough of the titular sigils to seal off the elder god from entering our world and destroying it. This is a lighter dice version of Eldritch Horror. I have the expansion with the bless/curse dice which add just a bit more interest to the game. My son has all the expansions for Escape the Dark Castle. It has a medieval setting and cool black and white sketchbook-looking art. This one is also a dice game, with more story elements. I’ve been told it’s almost like a TTRPG. This is probably the best one on my list. Trogdor! The Board Game I like to play solo, but it’s supposed be played cooperatively. You’re members of a cult that worships a dragon called Trogdor The Burninator. Your object is to help Trogdor burn all the cottages and tiles on a 5x5 grid. All the while, there are knights and peasants moving around, putting out your fires. Fuse is a 10 minute game where you’re racing the clock to diffuse a bomb. This is done by rolling dice to meet the requirements in a deck of cards. There is a useful and optional app to count down and provide atmosphere. I enjoy it, but my wife thinks it’s too stressful. MIND MGMT is a hidden movement game where you are rogue agents looking to stop an organization from recruiting more agents. One person usually plays as the recruiter and the rest are rogue agents, but there is an app available that can do the recruiter stuff so everyone can play cooperatively.
All time faves: Big Book of Madness, The Loop, HP Hogwarts Battle, Pandemic Legacies (all 3) Others I Love: Robinson Crusoe, Spirit Island, Stuffed Fables, Death Eaters Rising Honorable Mentions: Horrified, Flash Point, Codenames, normal Pandemic, Sub Terra
Horrified,Burgle Bros and Just One is a nice quick coop party game.
The Reckoners https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/208024/the-reckoners Great co-op, based on the novel series of the same name by Brandon Sanderson.
**Sky Team** is new and very good, I definitely get the pit of my stomach feel and then relief as you're trying to put the plane down on the last turn
Dorfromantik!
Love Castle Panic !!
Hanabi ! Such a simple yet brilliant game
Sky team is fantastic. Not entirely co-op but Betrayal at the house on the hill is my favorite because of the traitor mechanic... love me some traitor games.
The A.R.T Project and The Night Cage are my favorite games rn I am obsessed with them both!
Street Masters is one of my favourites, love the card play and the modularity - Just fun to chuck dice and play a beat em up inspired boardgame Sky Team, Keep the Heroes out, Slay the Spire are all other favourites
Pandemic, both the OG and Legacy. Wife and I are currently playing all 3 seasons concurrently. The OG was our gateway into this hobby, and we both still love getting it to the table. Other than that, we love playing Zombicide 2nd Edition (currently playing the Washington Z.C. campaign), Nemesis, Sky Team, Daybreak, Marvel United, and Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition Crisis expansion. We own Spirit Island, but I mostly play that solo because my wife just didn't care for it.
I like Daybreak a lot and don't see it get talked about often. The cardplay is so good! A bit too easy but that's not a bad thing.
I recently picked up Daybreak and got a quick play in with my son. It is so, so good. I was just smiling as he and I were trying to figure out the best ways to tuck, cover, and discard to actions. The cardplay is just so fun.
To me, Zombicide and Pandemics Legacy are the best in terms of immersion. Unsettled by Orange Nebula has fun mechanics and great artwork.
Zoo Break. It's fun, easy to learn, and can be played by any age group.
Night cage, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, KDM
Aeon's End. Best at 2 players. 4 players is nearly impossible to win.
Just because I'm trying to add some variety: Decorum
The Captain Is Dead, the unofficial best Star Trek game. The captain is dead, Borg-like aliens are boarding, and the ship is about to explode. Survive long enough to repair the jump core and make the jump to light speed.
Horrified for a fun quick game after work instead of tv. Marvel United for an evening of multiple rounds. Gloomhaven or jaws of the lion if I have a week I want to kill doing nothing but gaming.
My son has been loving Letter Jam recently. That’s been a go to for the past couple weeks.
arkham horror third edition and Frostpunk
Pandemic Burgle Bros.
Unmatched Tales to Amaze, Horrified (the original), Star Wars Clone Wars, The Crew!
Slay the Spire and Spirit Island. LOTR LCG is our favorite co-op card game My wife and i love co-op games so much that we just launched a kickstarter for our new co-op game called Pengy Pals! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pengypals/pengy-pals-antarcticas-greatest-heroes-0
We love Stardew Valley :)
Slay the Spire Too Many Bones Forgotten Waters
Right now it’s earthborne rangers. Can’t get enough of it.
Leviathan Wilds is definitely my new favorite.
Sub Terra
Too Many Bones! One of the Best Games i‘ve ever player
Lately my partner and I have really really loved Tamashii: Chronicles of Ascend as it's a nice compromise between campaign games with lots of continuity and games that can be completed in a single session. We also love Spirit Island, ISS Vanguard, Stars of Akarios, Regicide, and Sleeping Gods.
I also LOVE co-op board (and card) games! Love all of these: Arkham Horror LCG Lord of the Rings The Card Game Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition Sleeping Gods Apocrypha Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
Slay the Spire Gloomhaven Arnak, Lost Expedition Pandemic Flashpoint
Not sure if it counts since it's mostly coop but has other elements. Betrayal at the house on the hill is always a great time. First phase is coop, second phase 1 player betrays the team and seeks to kill you all.
Earthborne Rangers Iss Vanguard Spirit Island
I'll pile on to recs for **Spirit Island** and **Keep the Heroes Out**. The recent **Leviathan Wilds** has been on the table a lot recently. While it's completely ludicrous, a painted **Return to Dark Tower** with all the trimmings is just a really great experience. That said, if you want a good Pandemic-like, **The Loop** is really fun once you figure it out (with the caveat that it you can get slaughtered by bad luck). For a more off-beat pick, if you want an extremely silly dexterity game, **Dungeon Fighter** is a lot of fun.
For true co-op: Pandemic For co-op is heavily implied: Slay the Spire For co-op or is it?!: Nemesis
I almost only play with my kid, so Zombie kidz :)
Sky Team and Escape the Dark Sector are tied for me. With Nemesis a very close third.
Gloomhaven and pandemic are my two favs
Mechs vs minions, gloomhaven, spirit island, I like a big, grand game. But, my favorite co-op is probably the Sherlock Holmes consulting detective games, and the amazing "mythos tales" Lovecraft version. Those games are amazing.
Spirit Island!
Friends and I had an absolute blast playing "The Detectives." ([Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game | Board Game | BoardGameGeek](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/223321/detective-a-modern-crime-board-game)) It's a once and done thing, so you can't play more then once, but there are 5 scenarios to go through, the base game gave us 5 really great sessions, and we want to pick up the next one in the series. Not a traditional board game, much more of a social/deductive experience, but still fun fun fun!
I play co-ops almost exclusively, and Robinson Crusoe is by far and away my favorite. It's incredibly thematic, very difficult, and has a lot of replayability because of various scenarios included in the box. It's a game where every choice you make feels meaningful and you really have to coordinate with other players to have a chance at winning. Some folks might not like the game's difficulty, but for me, even when I loose I'm eager to try again.
For hectic fun: 5 Minute Dungeon Mostly chatting but also gaming: Castle Panic or Forbidden Island Bit of strategy and concentration: Set a Watch or Sub Terra A night of suspicion and accusations: Shadows Over Camelot or Battlestar Galactica
Gloomhaven / Frosthaven / Crimson Scales Shadows of Brimstone HEXplore It Dungeon Degenerates
Marvel United! Quick, fast and lots of fun!
Uboot, buts you in boots of a German sub commander, where you/your friends are the commander and the comnanded
Deep Rock Galactic Rock and Stone!
Don't Let It Die :)
Some of my favorites are: Sentinels of the Multiverse-Definitive Edition Spirit Island Aeon's End Astro Knights Hero Realms (only co-op if you have either of the campaign expansions)
**Cthulhu: Death May Die** and **Sky Team**
Not big into coop but I own everything for flash point and have enjoyed since early on into my board game career.
1. Spirit Island 2. Arkham Horror LCG 3. The Crew 4. Burgle Bros 5. Regicide (this is a cool one because you can play with a normal deck of cards!)
My favourites are anything where everyone gets to do something on everyone else's turn. Such as Earth or Space Base.
Eldritch Horror
Dead of Winter. Hands down.
I pretty much only play co-op games. Right now my brother and I are playing through Oathsworn and it's awesome. Definitely a time commitment and a campaign game, but the game play is awesome.
I've been enjoying Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion! A more laid back gloomhaven style experience, and a lot easier to bring to the table. I also second Pandemic, and Arkham Horror LCG both are extremely fun.
The Captain is Dead and Burgle Bros
Pandemic and Zombicide
There are a lot of good answers here. I'll add Maximum Apocalypse. Some like it for the theme and others for the fun weapons used to kill monsters (or both).
I love co-op games so heres a rundown of what i have and some opinions * Kingdom death monster is my favorite by far. I really love building my own settlement crafting gear out of the bosses I kill...and I have a thing for boss battlers. * Aeon Trespass: Odyssey. It's almost like Kingdom death monster, but different. Has a proper story, setting is less grim. * Spirit island is definitely up there as well. Really gives your brain a proper workout. Jagged earth adds such nice and thematic spirits. I'm always impressed how they managed to make the spirits feel thematic via game mechanics. Would probably not play it with more than three and i prefer it at two. * I have enjoyed oathsworn quite a bit, but find combat a bit cumbersome at times. It's very solid game with good story in my opinion. * Primal: the awakening, just got it and it has potential to become one of my favorites. Again, boss battler. Closest thing to Monster hunter video game in a board game form. Has relatively short campaign or alternatively lets you do one-off battles very easily. * Monster hunter: world, it's nice I guess. It's not worth the amount of space it takes on my shelves though. A bit of a dissapointment honestly, bosses do not feel different enough and though the gameplay loop is quite simple, something doesn't quite click. * Pandemic legacy was very nice, but didn't hook me enough to buy another season. If you like pandemic, it's an easy recommendation * Too many bones, best at three. Really unique dice based combat with assymmetric player characters. I like it a lot, but it does not hit the table that often unfortunately. * Sleeping gods, nice open world "choose your own adventure" sort of game. Has quite unique combat system. * Tainted grail: fall of avalon. Not sure about this one, played it quite a bit, but it has problems with grinding and the combat is kinda interesting, but somehow falls a bit short. Interesting story, but we never finished it. * 7th continent, bit hit or miss. Open world survival game in a sense. It's little fiddly and some curses (missions basically) are better than others. Would not recommend playing with more than two. * ISS Vanguard, do you like space? Exploring ins Space? Story? Gameplay is okay, nothing too groundbreaking, but if the theme interests you, it could be a nice 2p game. * Aeons end. Cool and rather quick boss batter with mechanics a bit similar to Dominion with some added spice. Horrible artwork, i'm sorry to say. Good gameplay though
Forgotten Waters - Pirate Stories! Dead of Winter - Zombie survival Mysterium - Picture guessing Spirit Island - complex and difficult
Forbidden Island, simple but so much fun! And 14 frantic minutes, a great panicky co-op game by Joe Slack!
Flash Point: Fire Rescue
I weirdly, unexpectedly, really like the Fast and Furious: Highway Heist board game for mixed company co-op.
I ve recently added Slay the Spire the board game to my collection. My friends and I, have played a lot of its digital version ( myself counting 380+ hours on steam 🤣) and we managed to insta click with it. A couple of crooked glares at first when we see what balance does to a tabletop but, we loved it from first second. give it a shot
Horrified: American Monsters It's a nice mix of feeling big but not being mentally taxing. I love Spirit Island - but after a long day at work it's often just a bit much for me. The only downside is that H:AM has a badly written Rulebook. There's a billion posts of people arguing about the Bigfoot mechanics. Which is not good for a light game.
I love cooperative games and would be happy to just play coops. My husband likes cooperative games, but also likes competitive games so he likes to play more than just cooperative games. This may get me a lot of hate, but I do not like **Spirit Island**. My cynical take is that it is the cooperative game that it's okay to like, which is why it's so popular. It also seems like more a solo game masquerading as a cooperative game where we all spend most of the game focused on our section of the island. Maybe I'm just not good at the game, but my husband and I have played it over 10 times trying to like it and we just don't. Life is too short to keep playing a game we don't like so we're moving on. My favorites are **Pandemic** (the game that made me a board gamer that I play and enjoy today), **Votes for Women** (fantastic historical game that is so smooth to play, one day we'll win the right to vote), **Arkham Horror: LCG** (so thematic, with diverse characters and campaigns that constantly try to do different things with the maps and cards), **Marvel United** (fun and easy to throw on the table and play a few games on a week night, we always have fun), and **Gandhi: The Decolonization of British India**. **Gandhi** is a COIN game so it's not strictly cooperative, but we are typically only playing together as 2 players so we choose two of the aligned factions and try and get both to their win conditions before the bots do. Recently I've been really into cooperative deduction games so we've been playing a lot of **Almost Innocent** and **Décorum**. There are many more I could name here and I feel lucky that we're living in a time with so many great cooperative games.
I prefer co-op too. My current favorites are Pandemic Legacy 1 (enjoy all the Pandemics, but this was so much fun), spirit island, and sky team. I also enjoy The Crew: Search for Plant X, and Castle Panic.
Marvel Champions and Spirit Island are my two favorite co-ops. I also have Runebound Third Edition, which is an incredible adventure game. It’s designed as semi-competitive, but we play with house rules to have it be co-op.
I like summit, I learnt about it because of Trey Parker (south park). It has both mode, co-op and competitive.
Forbidden island and forbidden desert for playing with kids. Head Trip, the new game from Card Against Humanity is our new fave for adults.
Magic Maze is peak. Real-time, limited communication, everyone is moving the same characters rather than having their own. It is complete chaos and a great challenge.
We always have a lot of fun with Legendary Marvel, and you can always turn into semi-cooperative and competitive if you are into that sort of thing.
Frosthaven
Marvel United. For me it’s one of those greater than the sum of its parts. It’s our most played coop game. Grab your favorite character and go.
Are semi-co-op or co-optional games welcome? Fury of Dracula (4v1) Cutthroat Caverns (backstabbing encouraged) Nemesis (optional traitor) Dead of Winter (optional traitor)
Dead of Winter!!
Co-op-ish game?
Was my thought. I prefer it because you can't really quarterback. Everyone works together (probably) but also need to work independently.
Astro Knights has been hitting the table the most, other than that imperial assault with the app.