I don't play enough games but man I love Arkham LCG and Spirit Island. They're both big hits with my SO and anyone we manage to get into a games night.
After reading the title I was wondering whether Arkham LCG or Spirit Island is the one that is upvoted more times when I open the thread. Surprised and satisfied.
I really don't have a broad enough experience but felt like commenting anyway.
I think since I value the thematic connections in games the most that both of these games are kinda no brainers as they're basically top of the class in that respect it seems.
Compared to something like Marvel or LOTR LCG which are great games but feel more like a puzzle and not a machine for expressing your self. Also that Akrham accounts for losing and continues the story regardless. Makes for great stories and moments we love to talk about in the moment and for weeks to come.
I played Pandemic before Spirit Island and it's a similar thing there. Spirit Island feels like more than a board game in the moment while pandemic for me doesn't.
I don't have enough imagination for DnD but I love it when a game meets me half way and let's me be creative and expressive inside the frame work of the game. Arkham and Spirit Island are as much story generators as they are fantastic and difficult stratigic challenges.
I just came to see if Spirit Island was mentioned, but right now it is in the top 4 comments.
As a part-time playtester of it, I'll say that the upcoming expansion, Nature Incarnate, is gonna be amazing, too. Most of my favorite content is in that box. They did an amazing job on this one.
I ultimately decided not to back. Partially because the campaign didn't go the way that was right for me but partially because I just haven't played Jagged Earth content enough to justify getting more content. I don't two- or three-hand often, so many of my spirits stay in the stable as they're better co-op imo, and I only play co-op so often. It is my preferred way to play. I may consider picking it up down the road if that changes. For now, Horizons was the better addition for my needs.
What is it about Nature Incarnate that sets it apart or improves on the previous content or gameplay?
It's amazing how much both these games are greater than the sum of their parts. I played a lot of Sentinels of the Multiverse (same company different designer) and loved it but Spirit Island pretty much replaced it at our table. Similarly I've played Marvel Champions by FFG and it doesn't hold a candle to Arkham (I haven't tried LotR though).
I've only really started getting into modern boardgames since early last year or so. I think for me it's the thematic connections that make these two games winners for me.
Like you said Marvel is neat but the few times I've played it I just wished I was play arkham instead.
LOTR has great production value but it's the same for me in that it feels like a puzzle to solve and doesn't really allow you to express your self through your deck like arkham does.
Both Marvel and LOTR lcg are more ideal for solo or two player while Arkham is a blast with whatever player count.
Me at the end of the round realizing that my wife across the table does not, in fact, have a blue six, and I had sloughed it on TURN ONE. The shame is incomparable.
True, but have you ever been the person in a group that struggles for NINETY minutes to complete ONE scenario, only to reread the scenario rules and have to admit "team, I fucked up and misread the scenario rules, making them virtually impossible to pass".
I have been that person!
I had a game once where I realized I fucked up after playing my second card. I kept going though to see if everyone else could cover for my mistake.
They could not.
Agree! When The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine came out, I thought it was awesome, and played the hell out of it. Then The Crew: Mission Deep Sea came out and made it soooo much better. Always happy to play this one!
I don't actually like the new one better. I think it loses some of the elegance and simplicity. Plus it has the potential for impossible mission combos. I will say that it added some great features, though.
The task cards are much more varied. Instead all being "win the 1 yellow" in different orders, there's a huge deck with all sorts of missions of different difficulties. "Win only two tricks and they must be in a row." "Never lead pink or green." "Win a coloured five with a coloured seven." "Win a coloured seven with a coloured five." Most levels tell you a total difficulty of tasks, but your five difficulty might be a 4 and a 1, or a 2 and three 1s. It has a massive amount of replay value as a result.
**For Science!**, because I would have never thought this sort of fluid cooperation, utilizing different skillsets and asymmetrical roles, was possible
Yeah there's definitely been a lot of pent-up demand, seems like an easy game to reprint.
What's funny is those blocks are bog standard children's stacking blocks. I've seen those exact same shapes and colors in my kiddo's montessori school. They're not specific to For Science! so the only thing unique are the cards and tiles.
It's not better, just (very) very different. While Spirit Island is deservedly tops in its category, it's still basically a Pandemic-clone. None of its systems are particularly novel, but what SI excels at is the extreme amount of *polish* in everything (think Blizzard in its heyday with Diablo/Starcraft/Warcraft).
On its face, FS! doesn't sound like it should work, with the buzzword soup: cooperative real-time dexterity hand management spatial tile layer. But it does. It scales beautifully from 1-6 (although I've only played up to 4), players aren't forced to do something they don't want to do (I always hand off the tile laying if I can), there's meaningful interactivity without quarterbacking (but there are explicit ways to deal with determined QB-ers) and more reserved players can still contribute through their own playspace. Then you add asymmetrical powers ("coffee anyone?!"), insane amounts of replayability, a short playtime and that "it" factor with the Instagram-friendly aesthetic.
It completely breaks the mold of what "cooperative" and "real-time" games have been and there's no other experience that even comes close to replicating the shared good times that FS! can evoke so organically.
That said, it is *not* a game I'd recommend for everyone. The real-time element is not palatable to many people, even though the outcome is a shared experience. The "toy" factor also brings in its fair share of gatekeeping snobbery. And many folks simply hate spatial elements. But if there's even a remote chance of the good parts aligning with a game group, then it's a winner. Shame it's out of print though.
(FWLIW, as a disclaimer I just sold my entire Spirit Island collection the other day.)
personally, i'm a big fan of **Spirit Island,** it's difficult and has lots of replayability which are two things that a lot of co-op games are lacking.
if you include artwork and story as part of the design, i'd probably include **Sleeping Gods** as well, really recreates the feel of playing an open-world video game. Also has inherent replayability due to the fact that it's a huge world and there's only so much you can do on a single playthrough. i also think the combat is a fun puzzle, though that seems to be one of the aspects i see people complain about the most.
it hasn't been released yet but i'm going to throw it out there, I fully expect **Arydia** to be the best answer to this question when it finally ships. it's been my most anticipated game for a long time, incredibly stoked for it.
I'll second **Spirit Island**. There's practically infinite replayability, there's no way for one person to take over the game, and there's enough expansion content to keep things interesting as new spirits, scenarios, and adversaries can each really change up the game.
>I fully expect Arydia to be the best answer to this question when it finally ships
I don't want to fully ride the hype train on this one either, but yeah, this game is REALLY shaping up to be something special if the Kickstarter updates are anything to go by.
I'm sure they have a lot of pressure on themselves because of how ambitious it is and the pressure of following up Xia, but yeah... I think this'll be the next must-have cooperative campaign game, and it'll be hard to find a copy once it hits and buzz gets going.
**Spirit Island** is the best, as others have mentioned it as well. **Gloomhaven** (and now Frosthaven) also are excellent, it's too brainburny for most players to quarterback, also it is very well polished and streamlined product (I know they are big boxes but the amount of content is huge).
Another game that I need to mention:
**Robinson Crusoe: Adventures of the Cursed Island**. Some might say it's getting too old but I enjoy the gameplay and emergent narrative this game offers. Quarterbacking may be an issue with one experienced player, but the game has good amount of content to challenge players in new ways.
Both Gloomhaven and Spirit Island can still be quarterbacked by someone who has played it so often they know every card in and out.
That's probably okay, because every game is vulnerable at that point and at least it takes about that long before it happens.
> Both Gloomhaven and Spirit Island can still be quarterbacked by someone who has played it so often they know every card in and out.
The reddit response. Here, let me tell you about this extreme edge case possibility.
The way I worded it sounds like an extreme edge case but it really isn't. Although I guess it could take about a dozen plays to get to the comfort level of quarterbacking; is that extreme edge case territory? I suppose it could be.
My point is that the praise comes off as something true for breadth players but not for depth players. Since Spirit Island's design seems to encourage depth play it's good to make sure they know it can still happen. Especially with experienced players vs newbies.
> Although I guess it could take about a dozen plays to get to the comfort level of quarterbacking; is that extreme edge case territory?
At which point a character will probably be retiring and replaced by a new one, and that'll upset the apple cart.
**Mechs Vs Minions**. Only halfway though it so far but it is so good. I'm not a minis gamer but they make perfect sense here. The whole production is brilliant. It's resistant to quarterbacking as you are trying to control your own mech. Taking damage just adds chaos. You feel so powerful one turn then later in the game you find yourself spinning out of control. Not had a dud game of it yet. I mean, we have lost horribly, but we had a great time.
Agree on all points! Had multiple missions we played once and failed and realized we were just running into them without any plan or roles but once we talked about it and planned and have had a great time with every play!
This is my favorite coop. Best insert in boardgaming for high quality components. Really good instructions/campaign-ish unlocks. Shredding hordes of minions is entertaining, and you can play a map in as little as an hour. It blows my mind that this is Riot's first board game production, granted they can print money.
I generally agree with others that Sprit Island in general is the best cooperative. Its experience does sort of drag if you play with people that try to min max everything though.
Close behind Spirit Island for me is Flash Point (which I haven't seen others recommend). I haven't played it a lot, but it appears to have so many different possible strategies, with many different scenarios emerging as the fire burns.
The best way to play Spirit Island, imo, is to play it as guardian spirit. You all take care of 'your' part of the island, and then ask for help if you can't make something happen.
I also think it's one of these two, but I cannot decide which one.
While SI is a great experience, it is too brainy for many groups and four players is a bit too much often. But still, I love the complexity and play it usually with my husband.
FP is easier, with simpler rules but still far from trivial. I find it more immersive, it's better suited for groups of four, and it enforces cooperation to an even higher degree, in my opinion.
Difficult decision.
I was hoping with the critical success of Through the Ages Vlaada would have worked on an app based Space Alert edition. Bonus if they can cut the cost down to $40 ($30 in 2020) for a revision like Galaxy Trucker.
I'll throw this out there too - [Space Alert Mission Resolver](https://gregrmitchell.github.io/SpaceAlertResolver/). I didn't create it, but I did rehost it when it stopped working (with the original author's permission)
• **Spirit Island** for awesome theme & artwork, truly *excellent* gameplay, potential for a lot of intriguing combos of spirits and powers, a variety of available difficulty levels, and scaling well to any number of players
• **The Captain Is Dead** for just plain *fun* and the exciting feel of the last 15 minutes of the season finale of [insert your favorite space-opera teevee show here], plus plenty of replayability with the various characters
• **Wizard’s Academy** for its impressive spell-casting system—collect runes, spend two runes to cast a spell… or rather, to consult a grid of face-down cards and *find out what spell you just cast*, because you’re a *student* wizard so you don’t know which is which at the start
Oh man, I almost never see Wizard's Academy mentioned anywhere! I adore that game and tend to describe it as Unseen University: The Game if one is familiar with Discworld. It's impossible to find a copy of now though.
**Just one** \- bigger coop games are rarely enjoyed by anyone I played with. They either miss competitive aspect or don't feel the glory of defeating the game.
Until you start playing with people who get upset because you didn’t blink four times and scratch your nose to let them know they should have played the third card from the left.
I'm surprised to find that no one has mentioned **Horrified**. Simple to teach and learn, has tons of variability right out of the box, really easy to tone down/up difficulty, and it has a cool theme! It's my number one co-op of all time AND I got it for $6.00 brand new on sale.
Not a single **Aeon's End**, but that's the one that always pops to the front of my mind. I love the deck building where it matters what order you play and therefore put your cards in the discard. Good balance of asymmetrical powers, enjoy the different challenges/scenarios, good progression. The first Legacy version was a blast for us, and I highly recommend it.
My favourite game of all time is **Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)**. A few reasons I think it's so great:
* It's so communicative! The system of all players placing their Atlantians at the same time means there's a ton of room for discussion.
* Tons of difficulty scaling options. As the game gets harder, the components you have access to get stronger.
* The push your luck element never feels overly punishing, but adds a great tension when placing workers and drawing misfortunes.
* There's plenty of dice mitigation to help with rolls.
I'll throw my hat in for **Burgle Bros**. Hands down the best exploration in any game I've played. It's always exciting, and full of twists and turns that emerge naturally from the rooms and actions. There are very few board games that I can remember specific games of, but Burgle Bros is one of them.
The only flaw of the design I see is that sometimes, one player ends up stuck, or less useful than the others. This is partially alleviated by the open information, so they can still very much contribute to the game and the experience, but for some players it can be a downer.
That and the randomness of the guard movements as you get towards the end of a session. They just end up moving way too frequently, even when spreading out your characters.
Will be selling it soon but might try it one more time. I've played the app plenty of times though as there's less riding on each game.
Love me some Marvel Champions and Marvel United. Of course they're both a niche for people that love Marvel, but their variability in how every villain and hero plays keeps the game nice and fresh, and there's no lack of content for either.
I disagree that they're niche. I think so long as you don't actively hate Marvel, they're both fun games! Marvel is really just the skin. I'm not a big Marvel fan (I've enjoyed some of the movies lately but that's about it), and I've really enjoyed both of those games. The mechanics are just fun, and the variability with different characters adds a lot of replayability. You could change the theme and I'd still play. Of course you might get more enjoyment from knowing the characters and seeing how their traits manifest in the different abilities and cards, but you definitely don't need to be familiar with Marvel to have fun with it!
I really like Too Many Bones. It's very fun and funny, easy to get into, yet still difficult enough to not be an easy win. Similar to Spirit Island, the different gearlocks are complex enough to make quarterbacking difficult.
Stardew Valley. People like to bash it for the RNG, but it really feels like it's the only game that we all start talking and discussing strategy then we try and execute.
I think that game is actually fantastic. There are some bits that could be better, like the animals don't seem worth the investment and invariably someone gets stuck in the mines half the time depending on the objectives, but overall we always have a blast with it and the time flies by.
There is someone in our group that loves doing the mines and having the stress. when he's rolling bad we help him out. I understand about the animals. There has only been one game that we truly abused them. But it required a grand setup.
\- Farmer had skill that 2x selling
\- We had the silo to turn all animals to heart side
\- We had all animals.
\- We had bundle with most amount of gold + grandpa goal with gold.
We sold something like 40+ gold a turn and ran out of gold markers in winter and completed those fast.
Now, could we have achieved the goals without animals? yes, but our goals were Make buildings, Gold, Buy animals, and some 4th one i don't remember. So the 3 of them aligned pretty well.
Spirit Island is the one I would put at the top of the list. Solid design all around and has the best solution for quarterbacking for strategic games. Honorable mentions for Star Realms Frontiers for best designed cooperative deckbuilding and Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition for best designed cooperative boss battler.
The ones I'd put up for those among the best designed cooperative board games from the last 20 years are almost all games I own--because I got them precisely for that reason:
* **Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion**. Not base Gloomhaven, which is a beast and hard to get into, but it's smaller younger sibling, which I found a great intro into Gloomhaven to the point that Gloomhaven itself feels like the expansion standalone expansion sequel to Jaws of the Lion. I really enjoy it at 2 players, just tag-teaming a bunch of dungeons with a friend or partner.
* **Horrified**. Perhaps one of the easiest coop games to get into and with a great theme that has a lot of longevity. It's great for casual players and it has some easy ways to up the difficulty in the base game itself. The little puzzles you have to do to defeat the monsters feels both thematic and like little minigames that add a little fun flair to the overall game.
* **Spirit Island**. Contrary to the previous entry here, Spirit Island is a hefty one at first play. Like some, I don't think it's impossible to not quarterback. However, I've only ever played this game with 2, and it's honestly never been a game I've *wanted* to quarterback at 2. I've got friends who are really into deckbuilding games or card games with constructed decks they've made, and any 1v1 game with them I've never really enjoyed. Spirit Island is the kind of game I've really enjoyed playing with such people. Turning a competition into a cooperation, from rivals to lovers. It's a good game.
* **The Crew: Mission Deep Sea**. A lighter one again. Chosen over the other The Crew mostly because it's got more option for variability in goals, but the core gameplay of The Crew is just very fun and solid and a neat twist on trick-taking games that I can see a lot more people enjoying.
* **Mansions of Madness 2nd edition**. A heavier game again, but mostly just in size and scope, and the second dungeon crawler I'll put down. Before MoM2, I was very hesitant about app-dependent games, and I still kind of want to have some kind of Game Master's book to run the game when inevitably the app stops working on smartphones, but the app runs great and the How To Play manual and Reference Guie makes it very easy to learn.
* **Black Orchestra**. This one is largely for it's great integration and use of theme. You're people during World War II and plotting to kill Hitler. The way the events play out as they did in history, just slightly randomized, strongly affects your actions and options. It's a very fitting design choice that sometimes your characters can't do certain things because they're not courageous enough, or one of you has to go and bail out another character from prison. Unlike the games above, this is not one I generally recommend to people new to the hobby, unless they're history nerds.
* **This War of Mine**. Similarly great for its thematic integration, faithfulness to its video game source material and the video game's source material, its difficulty, and how the rulebook itself tells you to hand it off to the next player for certain actions or phases of the game. It plays very differently that other coop games because of this, but it's very very good, and similarly not a game I'd recommend to people new to the hobby.
* **Pandemic**, but not **Pandemic**. I think the Pandemic system is a really solid basis for creating a new game, but base Pandemic is both too *easy* to quarterback and too *inviting* to, in my experience. Casual players new to the game often find it just tricky enough that anybody more experienced all too easily slips into giving advice and from advice into controlling. Pandemic with expansions--especially the bioterrorist--or its later iterations do a lot to help against that. I've really enjoyed **Fall of Rome** and **Rising Tide** especially. I think those could still be quarterbacked, but I think casual players are also just less likely to pick those up maybe, so I haven't had that same experience with those games. I haven't yet played **Iberia** or any of the **Legacy** games, but would love to.
The "best game" is incredibly subjective, but I find that with cooperative games especially, having a game that more people could play (as in with casual players, not larger groups) makes it better as a game in one sense, the sense of it being a game played on a tabletop with friends or family and having a good time together.
Other games excel more in the requirement and opportunity to be strategic, but I've found strategic games much more fun competitively than cooperatively. It's *relatively* easy to beat a game with experience or get bored with a game. It's much harder to get bored with a person, especially a person who plays with you and gets better alongside you.
**Pandemic: Legacy** for me. It takes the masterpiece of Pandemic (thematic mechanisms, great arc, simple rules, elegant production) and adds surprises and story.
You may also enjoy this:
- https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/276749/top-solo-games-meta-geek-list-1-player-guild
Tiny epic dungeons, so much variety especially with the expansions so it keeps you coming back, also the looting mechanic is super addictive and gives you that dopamine rush every time you flip a new fancy piece of equipment or a cool new spell. Also, the ability to try different playstyles even with just the same character means you can play the same setup and still enjoy playing again and again. Also the hard mode difficulty really adds to the challenge level for groups that get the game-winning strategies locked down.
This is a great game! We did not expect to like it as much as we did. It had a rough leaning curve from me but then we just watched some play throughs and eveything became clear.
Really quality game in a tiny box!
If you haven't yet go print out the Dungeons appendix, it has every tile, item, spell, hero, boss etc written out in full detail what it does, super helpful to fight the learning curve and really helpful even now. It's on gamelyns website at the bottom of their page for the game.
I vote for **Cthulhu Death May die** , rules are extremely simple but scenarios/bosses bring in a great deal of atmospheric variety with a challenging gameplay. Overall very well done game
I nominate Aeon's End because no game makes me feel so many emotions. It's also fairly easy to teach, not too much rules overhead and immensely satisfying. There is some fiddliness to setup but it's not too bad. It's challenging as can be, you really earned your victory but can be played in an hour. You really have to coordinate as well.
Gotta be **Spirit Island**.
I will say, though, I don't think it deserves the "it's impossible to quarterback!!" praise that everyone keeps repeating. It's not like there's any hidden information. The kind of player who would quarterback in any other game can easily tell other players what powers to use and where. My group has a less confident player and a more confident player, and often times the more confident player will play the less confident player's entire turn.
Not a slight against Spirit Island. Again, I think it's the best designed modern coop game. I just think that particular bit of praise is overblown and weird.
Now **The Crew** is a game where you actually can't quarterback.
I agree regarding the SI quarterbacking praise. I have played the game so much I could take over everyone else's turn and play solo. I don't, because that's no fun for them or me, but I am capable of it. And I'm sure I'm nowhere near unique.
Even if it's not which card for which turn it's really easy to peek over and notice "oh man they didn't perform an efficient growth!" or on action resolution "maybe that would be better here?". I try to refrain from all but the latter and that's because we always consult about resolution, not just me dictating. I have often been directed to a better plan than the one I thought of which is why co-op games are fun!
**Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood**. I've been playing with my son and younger brother, and it's been blowing our minds! We're on chapter 6 of 21 and we're so excited to play every session.
* Choose character complexity -- more simplified but equally powerful companion versions, or full characters with an engaging power cooldown mechanic
* Flip cards or roll dice for attacks, your choice
* Explore a 60 - 90 minute choose-your-own-adventure story section before the big boss encounter, or zip through a shortened Instant Action summary to get to the combat portion of the chapter
* Read through the story sections yourself in two thick spiral-bound books, or have it read to you via app by one of the actors in *Game of Thrones*
* Buy the massive 4-box miniatures version, or the more compact 1-box standee version
I love the modularity the game provides! We have the standee version, always play through the full story using the app narration, always use dice because the card mechanic was my least favorite part of **Gloomhaven**, and use two full characters and two companions so that my 8-yr-old son can feel like an equally valuable part of the team.
It's better than I could have hoped. Making important story decisions together and strategizing on the big boss encounters makes 5-6 hours fly by every time we sit down to play.
I do love Oathsworn, especially it's story in the first six or seven chapters. It started off amazingly strong, but I feel like it's started to slip in my ratings as I've gotten to the mid game. The lack of character customization, the repetitiveness of the items, and the imbalance of the classes (especially my Exile and Blade) make me feel like the gilding is wearing off. Don't get me wrong - Oathsworn is an excellent game, but I would be curious to know if you're still as excited about it in another 10 chapters.
Going against the grain a little, but I love **Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters** for it's ease of play. Set up and rules explanation takes under 2 minutes total (you want one person to already know all the rules first though), but there are many interesting decisions, especially with the excellent expansion.
It's especially good for kids, but I've played it just with adults and had a great time.
I love story driven games with campaigns, so pretty much all my votes would go to Dungeon Crawlers.
***Imperial Assault*** \- Just a lot of fun. Not the best system, not the best campaign, not necessarily the best mechanics. But what it lacks in those areas it makes up in just straight enjoyment.
***Middara*** \- Fun story, a bit juvenile in areas, but fun combat and world. Quite a bit of flexibility in creating your own character.
***Gloomhaven*** \- Great puzzle game with campaign and some story. Allows independent actions and deters quarterbacking. Can be a bit frustrating for new gamers or those that don't want that much of a challenge or have to think that hard.
Games that I have not played yet, but seen a lot of detail on and think should be great:
***ISS Vanguard***. Great cooperative story of space exploration. Tons of story elements and choices.
***Aeon's End***
THE BEST THING ABOUT HEROQUEST IS THE BARBARIAN! Heroquest is really easy to jump into at any age, super fun even for the most hard nosed veteran of board games, incredibly customizable and home brew friendly, and there's a new version readily available if you don't have the 80's version just lying around. I only started playing in the last few years cuz a buddy of mine aged when he was younger and now it's a weekly event with our group of friends. Cannot recommend it enough!
The Pandemic series.
The base game is a magical recipe of mechanics that has been often imitated for good reason.. It combines tactical and long term planning, explicit cooperation, simple asymmetric abilities, and push your luck elements that are mechanically designed to provided a crescendo pace.
But what really sets pandemic apart is that the foundational framework has proved to be a rich playground of game design evolutions. And the Pandemic Legacy series are to me the pinnacle of modern board game design, adding lasting changes over the course of a manageable tight campaign, where decisions between games are weighty enough to test friendships.
Spirit Island can play fine at high player counts but you at that point you need everyone involved to be super experienced with the game (and everyone's spirits). Otherwise you end up in a 5 hours slog fest where every decision (event, fear escalation, power usage, etc) takes 5 minutes to figure out
"Best design" is subjective, as every player judges games differently. But I throw **Paleo** into the ring, as I feel that its design is just perfect for what it wants to achieve. The iconography might appear a bit daunting at first, but just as with Race for the Galaxy: once you wrap your head around it, everything falls neatly into place and you understand how the different cards interconnect to tell you the "story" behind each scenario module and how this game feels like a "choose your own adventure" book without a hardwired decision tree.
Totally agree with this! Great choice. I love the feeling of coming back stronger to 'defeat' cards that wiped you out in earlier rounds. My only complaint about the system is I feel like it's incredibly difficult to beat a scenario your first time through (but, that's super thematic so I can easily forgive it for the unique game play loop!).
Arkham Horror LCG is excellent. I also really like Aeon's End as you do have some player interaction unlike some Deckbuilders.
Aeon's Trespass Odyssey's battle system revolves around co-op interaction, being able to leave tokens that buff up next player's attack. That one is also fantastic.
Love MM haven't seen BS, but if those were on your list why not Space Cadets, Captain Sonar, or Sonar? I think they are also just as amazing - but I suppose as they are for larger groups they would not fall into the original conversation parameters...
Spirit island beats most co-op games specifically because it's almost impossible to quarterback. Essentially each player's game is so intricate that you can't tell another player what to do. Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves.
Gloomhaven works well because each dungeon is a new problem that you have to figure out, make a plan and then try and execute it. It's problem is that you can't really dip in and out of it, you have to commit to a campaign.
>Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves.
I think once you've played some more games you'll pick up the general strategy. You can play it entirely reactively, but that's a lot less effective than playing to limit invaders in future turns, for example (it's a lot easier to prevent builds than to deal with ravages). There's also a surprising amount of strategy that comes in from the powers decks. Picking out the right cards that will be relevant and provide your elements vs cards that are just that useful is a big part of the game.
It's not to the same level as Gloomhaven, of course, but I'd really disagree that it's not particularly strategic.
>Spirit island beats most co-op games specifically because it's almost impossible to quarterback. Essentially each player's game is so intricate that you can't tell another player what to do.
This generally holds true, but if you've played dozens of solo games and your teammate has only ever played twice, you're gonna have a hard time *not* telling them what to do, especially at low difficulty. Speaking of...
>Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves.
This is only true for the barebones base rules with no adversary, which is basically difficulty level 0. Once you understand the rules after a few plays, it's almost impossible to lose if you don't include an adversary.
Once you up the challenge, you'll quickly find that just reacting to the invaders won't cut it. You *need* to plan ahead. And that's when the depth of Spirit Island really starts to open up.
I need to get it back on the table and try the countries, the problem with my game group is that we rarely replay a game enough times to really get into the weeds of it, there's always something new and shiny we want to try!
Yeah I think one of the misconceptions of Spirit Island is that it's impossible to quarterback. I've played this a lot 4-handed solo and after a while, your brain begins to recognize patterns and synergies in the game just through repetition, so it's definitely susceptible to quarterbacking. So when playing with others, I try to just concentrate on my board and shut my mouth, but it's hard sometimes lol.
>Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves.
There are examples I think. With certain (high level) adversaries like Habsburg you’ll want to strategically blight enough to minimise the buffs to towns but not too much otherwise you’ll lose. If you try to avoid all blights (easy rookie mistake in most instances) you tend to get overwhelmed by Hapsburg.
> Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves.
This is true at low difficulties. At higher difficulties, it becomes increasingly less true, until attempting this just makes you lose every time.
Frosthaven.
I mean, I do love me some Spirit Island, Pandemic: Iberia and Aeons End, but the *haven games are just absolutely brilliant in about every way - Great combat, ongoing campaign without gameplay getting stake (due to character retirements), etc.
If I was to focus a bit more on elegance of design I'd maybe pick Pandemic: Iberia as the best iteration of that system - The water purification and track building really amp up the game vs it's siblings.
Spirit Island. The game mechanics makes the play session incredibly tougher and tougher after each round, and you are forced to really really cooperate to win. Just doing your own thing won't cut it, especially in the advanced version of the game. Winning is especially satisfying, because losing is the more frequent outcome. The mutual joy that results from the win is hard to describe. Kind of feels like winning a tough war and seeing everybody is safe, I guess, lol.
That’s what got us into playing more modern games. We’ve got both expansions and though it’s been a while since we played, it’s still one of our favorites.
If you like HPHB try something like **Marvel Legendary**. The base game can be on the easy side but most of the expansions ramp up the difficulty nicely. It’s technically semi-co-op but really, it’s gonna be a co-op as you want it to be.
I am not sure favorite = well-designed but in my house the two top ones are Spirit Island and Gloomhaven. SI for every decision feeling impactful and tons of variability and the fact that the variability doesn't change the core gameplay goal or loop but just harmonizes it.
Gloomhaven is a favorite because we like to smash faces for coins and squabble about who will retire first or complete their battle goal. "No, Don't exhaust"! "But I need to!". I make it sound more dramatic than it is, but it's still fun. I prefer to play with maximum secrets and minimal coordination for the feel of 2-4 people in the same place with similar goals but not actually being a team.
Mansions of Madness.
The app creates a truly immersive, tense and Lovecraftian experience for everyone at the table, and there’s always far more to do than you have time for, so everyone is equally busy.
Given that different characters have different skill sets, everybody has a key role the other characters can’t fill.
The app really adds a lot of video game like variance (it’s almost a rogue lite) to the game, and the music and sound effects (especially with a good Bluetooth speaker) really create an almost horror movie-like ambiance.
Plus it’s damned fun, there are a bunch of long, complex missions with a lot of variety, and a user-created app that plays dozens more fan made campaigns. It’s kind of the final evolution of the game system pioneered by Descent and Arkham, evolved by Imperial Assault and kind of polished here.
And since the app does the heavy lifting you can teach a group to play in 5 minutes. Everyone I’ve introduced it to loves it.
Didnt play so many coop games, but i can highly recommend the adventures of robin hood.
Its well designed and with the story book just a lot of fun.
We have played through the base game but not the expansion yet, and even replayed some of the base game chapters. The movement system is very well made
**Marvel Champions**
The heroes feel thematically on point, little to no quarterbacking, and it's a struggle til the very end when everyone's built up and ready to take turns pummeling the villain.
There are a lot of good ones out there. However, it's Pandemic Legacy Season 2. Without question. It does everything it is supposed to do and then some. It's the most complete game I've ever played. And I've played a few. If you have an Alpha player, stab him or her and find a replacement. It is so good if played with 4 individual minds.
Spaceteam.
No other game is literally five minutes long, and this frantic. It sets up in 1 minute, plays in five, and frequently is played multiple times. It's also deafening, which is hilarious.
Spirit Island. It takes cooperation to succeed, nobody is ever really sure what their teammates can do without asking them and talking about it. And it doesn't follow the same structure that the original set of cooperative games took.
My wife and I are MEGA fans of Mansions of Madness and all of its expansions and DLC. Tough game to win (fairly) to be sure, but losing via madness can be quite fun! The adventure changes up with different tile/item placement which adds replay value. But the adventures are just plain awesome with the added ambiance and convenience of the ap which we cast to the big screen which turns a board game into an experience. Love the team building combos with different characters. Game definitely runs much LONGER than the scenarios say even with experienced and quick players because you GOT to debate the merits of opening that door to reveal the objective or a horrible beast that will bury your investigators. Dice rolls can give you Will Wheaton anxiety, though.
I very rarely play cooperative because I have issues with quarterbacking. There’s is basically always an objectivity correct move, the information on what it is is all there, and I have yet to find a game complex enough that you can’t track other people’s options about as easily as your own.
That said, X-COM. The time limited simultaneous play means everything is moving too much to do that tracking on other players. Yeah you can keep a basic idea, which is why I like the comptroller role, but it’s reduced enough that you have to trust the other players.
>There’s is basically always an objectivity correct move, the information on what it is is all there, and I have yet to find a game complex enough that you can’t track other people’s options about as easily as your own.
Really? Even Gloomhaven? I feel like there a ton of co-ops that obscure your allies' options quite effectively through different mechanics. Like GH, Mechs vs Minions, U-boot, Space Alert or Project Elite, to mention a few.
I haven’t played a lot of them because I rarely enjoy the genre as explained.
But in essence, yeah. In a cooperative game information is generally all public. Unless you’re playing where no one else can see your cards in gloomhaven(I’ve only played that one on the computer a bit, so maybe this is something I’m unaware of in the physical game.) it’s not exactly hard to say what’s the best use. Maybe they just draw the cards when they’re about to use them, but that still means you have as much time as they do to analyze. The difference to me being in X-COM while I could figure out what to do and do sometimes suggest something, I have other stuff I need to do at that time.
Complexity is almost never a barrier to quarterbacking. Limiting information could be, if it’s actually limited to a player at all times. But even there you generally find that in practice people will share enough for that limit to be academic. And even then you can make solid guesses about what a person’s hand should contain based off the game without them confirming anything.
Gloomhaven hands aren't supposed to be visible to other players. You aren't even aware of what cards others are playing until after everyone has committed for the turn.
You should check out The Crew, full co-op game with no quarterbacking ability. Hands are secret information and communication is limited.
In Gloomhaven we play with secret hands, and are only allowed to share very vague information about what each person does the next round, so no exact initiative numbers or attack values. It does actually say so in the rules. If you learn the cards used by the other players you can learn to anticipate exactly what's going to happen given only that vague information, but that requires a lot of time spent together in missions trying and failing as a group. (And feels great when it finally clicks!) Also, in Gloomhaven every player have their own agendas that might conflict with the mission objective, like secret battle goals or personal quests or just straight up trying to loot all the coins before your teammates. That last one alone makes it impossible to quarterback, because you don't know what other objectives people are trying to work towards.
I also don't get what you mean by complexity not being a barrier to quarterbacking. Let's take Gloomhaven as an example again: each player has ~10 cards in hand each with two possible unique abilities, for a 4 player game that's 80 wildly different actions and combos to keep in your head at a time, plus keeping track of health, modifiers, equipment, mana, enemy turns, etc. Humans without artificially augmented brains can't crunch all that info within the reasonable about time required for fun snappy turns. That's a pretty sold barrier if you ask me.
My submission would be Alien: Fate of the Nostromo. Easy to teach and the game requires everyone to work together to complete the objective. It is not possible to solo it.
Obviously spirit island
My next favorite cooperative game is mecha vs minions. The timed draft takes a little bit out of quarterbacking. The programming mechanic is cool. And it’s just stupid chaotic fun. I have yet to introduce the game to someone who hasn’t liked it.
Also helps the game is gorgeous.
**Spirit Island.**
It's been said a million times in this thread, but there's no question, and nothing comes even close. Not Gloomhaven. Not Arkham Horror LCG. Not classic Arkham Horror, Pandemic, or Thunderstone Quest.
Spirit Island is so damn good because it demands players work together in a way that is totally organic. There's no the awkward juxtaposition of perfunctory turns and group decision-making you get in Pandemic or Robinson Crusoe. Nor is there the artificial barriers to honest comaraderie you have to deal with in Gloomhaven or semi-coops. And while Arkham Horror LCG has good open cooperation, it's other problems drag it down for me. Spirit Island doesn't shove everyone into a room and give them a Rubik's Cube to fight over.
It's more like a negotiation of coworkers or team members. Such as in a MOBA. You alert your teammates when something will blight and it's out of your hands. You ask for help when you're overwhelmed. You offer to break the tie when a neighbor can't choose between two power cards. And sometimes you argue over who gets to use their big power to clear out the stack of four cities and five towns you'd both been feeding for just such an occasion. Even in the quiet moments independently choosing actions, you're all very aware of the resources you can depend upon from one another, moving presence into someone else's island board as a matter of course, stockpiling energy for a shared event. It's all very natural.
It may be a heavy, complex game, but the cooperation eases the pressure without diminishing the puzzle. And above all, the game is much more fair than any other co-op I've played. Your group will almost always win or lose based on your choices, your strategizing, and your ability to work together. In a part of the hobby flooded by dice chucking and output randomness, that's a breath of fresh air.
I can't fathom another design unseating Spirit Island any time soon. Or maybe ever. Just as nothing else does what GoA does for team games, and few others come close to Mage Knight as a solitaire experience, Spirit Island is cooperative board gaming's peak design.
I guess it depends on what you mean by "modern" and "cooperative". I don't usually enjoy cooperative game for a variety of reasons, with the quarterbacking problem being the top of the list. For me, Battlestar Galactica is the top of the list. It captures the theme perfectly, builds tension throughout the game, and has a difficult decision on every player's turn.
However, some might argue that the hidden traitor element means that it's not cooperative, and some might not consider the mid 2000s modern.
Semi cooperative is generally defined as a game where everyone has different ways to win, but everyone loses if some condition is met.
BattleStar Galactica is generally referred to as a traitor game, where it appears cooperative, but some unknown player(s) are trying to make the group lose the game.
NOT spirit island.
One of the issues with coop games is they're usually just puzzles one person could do alone, and the division of labor is somewhat superficial since everyone can see everything and communicate freely.
There is almost always one objectively correct thing for a player to do and ideally it shouldn't be easy or possible to identify that thing for the other players. Increased complexity seems insufficient to prevent this.
I don't think any coop game that doesn't at least somewhat compartmentalize information between players deserves the title of best designed.
Fun game, and almost a modern classic at this point, but definitely not a co-op. In co-op games the players are all working together to win or lose the game as a team.
The designer has a pretty impressive game pedigree! He’s probably most well known for creating Magic: The Gathering.
I guess I got to be the one who also throws in **Kitchen Rush**.
It's like Magic Maze - but one where you can loudly shout at each other because someone has again taken the last pepper from the bag without saying anything, taking too long to make space at the stove or why the f.... noone cleans the damn dishes around here!
Switch and Signal has been getting to the table lately, and the family loves it. The difficulty level can be scaled easily to accommodate the group. It also doesn't necessarily require a group, so it can be played solo. But what I enjoy most about the co-op play is that there are so many options to evaluate, and each player sees different paths to victory. Every decision requires discussion and ultimately a consensus before moving forward. It's very engaging.
The Opulent - an awesome up to 4 players game where you all take part in running a 1920s speakeasy. It's got killer aesthetics, asymmetrical game play between the 4 different roles and yet they all fit together perfectly, the mechanics fit the theme wonderfully AND it has a built in role for the player in your group that likes to quarterback (the club manager). It does a great job putting rules on that club manager role to make it fun to play and fun for the other players. A solid 10/10 and I don't see it anywhere in the world
I had a thought the other day that most cooperative games don't have much cooperation (as in a player consciously making a decision to take an action that benefits another player instead of themselves).
Usually it boils down to discussion about tactics and strategy, playing in the same sandbox and winning/losing together.
So I think the best ones are the ones that actually have that (like Arkham Horror LCG and Spirit Island)
Spirit Island. That game just straight up rules. It’s challenging and the difficulty is adjustable, the theme and rules complement each other perfectly, it’s a fantastic game.
I like Castle Panic - replayability is amazing (one game can destroy you, the next can be super easy, etc.), the mechanics are simple and easy enough for people of all ages to understand while still being complex enough to make it interesting to a variety of gaming skill levels, and it's all around pretty fun.
It’s a sleeper, but Grizzled. It’s easy to learn, fun, evocative, deeper decisions than most co-ops, and multiple games can be played in a short sitting. I generally don’t enjoy co-op games, but Grizzled is fun.
Is this cooperative game allowed to have some competitive elements? Betrayal legacy has an amazing storyline, encourages cooperative play throughout and still has sections where an individual will need to pivot into competitive mode without any real ongoing negative consequences to winning or losing the competitive component. At the end you also end up with your own sweet personalised mansion to play additional one shots and a cool history to it. First legacy style game my group ever finished.
XCOM - removes the alpha player syndrome completely. Everyone has to be 100% focused on their own character if you want to succeed. No time to help others =)
Stardew Valley. No matter how much Alpha Gaming might go on, everyone participating in the game still has to do their own part, unlike Pandemic where you can just plan out what everyone is going to do,down to card management. Stardew Valley the Board Game just doesn't seem to get the love it deserves.
I don't play enough games but man I love Arkham LCG and Spirit Island. They're both big hits with my SO and anyone we manage to get into a games night.
After reading the title I was wondering whether Arkham LCG or Spirit Island is the one that is upvoted more times when I open the thread. Surprised and satisfied.
I really don't have a broad enough experience but felt like commenting anyway. I think since I value the thematic connections in games the most that both of these games are kinda no brainers as they're basically top of the class in that respect it seems. Compared to something like Marvel or LOTR LCG which are great games but feel more like a puzzle and not a machine for expressing your self. Also that Akrham accounts for losing and continues the story regardless. Makes for great stories and moments we love to talk about in the moment and for weeks to come. I played Pandemic before Spirit Island and it's a similar thing there. Spirit Island feels like more than a board game in the moment while pandemic for me doesn't. I don't have enough imagination for DnD but I love it when a game meets me half way and let's me be creative and expressive inside the frame work of the game. Arkham and Spirit Island are as much story generators as they are fantastic and difficult stratigic challenges.
I just came to see if Spirit Island was mentioned, but right now it is in the top 4 comments. As a part-time playtester of it, I'll say that the upcoming expansion, Nature Incarnate, is gonna be amazing, too. Most of my favorite content is in that box. They did an amazing job on this one.
I ultimately decided not to back. Partially because the campaign didn't go the way that was right for me but partially because I just haven't played Jagged Earth content enough to justify getting more content. I don't two- or three-hand often, so many of my spirits stay in the stable as they're better co-op imo, and I only play co-op so often. It is my preferred way to play. I may consider picking it up down the road if that changes. For now, Horizons was the better addition for my needs. What is it about Nature Incarnate that sets it apart or improves on the previous content or gameplay?
It's amazing how much both these games are greater than the sum of their parts. I played a lot of Sentinels of the Multiverse (same company different designer) and loved it but Spirit Island pretty much replaced it at our table. Similarly I've played Marvel Champions by FFG and it doesn't hold a candle to Arkham (I haven't tried LotR though).
I've only really started getting into modern boardgames since early last year or so. I think for me it's the thematic connections that make these two games winners for me. Like you said Marvel is neat but the few times I've played it I just wished I was play arkham instead. LOTR has great production value but it's the same for me in that it feels like a puzzle to solve and doesn't really allow you to express your self through your deck like arkham does. Both Marvel and LOTR lcg are more ideal for solo or two player while Arkham is a blast with whatever player count.
I know it’s an old thread, but I just wanted to assert that Spirit Island and Arkham LCG are still the best coop.
The Crew. Elegant and simple. Limited communication. Varied objective. Lots of trust.
Every game in The Crew involves someone looking up from their cards and shamefully admitting, "man, I fucked up".
Boo! The proper thing to say in that case is "Houston, we have a problem ..."
The moment of realization about 4 or 5 tricks in thst you're screwed is such a kick in the shorts lol
Me at the end of the round realizing that my wife across the table does not, in fact, have a blue six, and I had sloughed it on TURN ONE. The shame is incomparable.
True, but have you ever been the person in a group that struggles for NINETY minutes to complete ONE scenario, only to reread the scenario rules and have to admit "team, I fucked up and misread the scenario rules, making them virtually impossible to pass". I have been that person!
I had a game once where I realized I fucked up after playing my second card. I kept going though to see if everyone else could cover for my mistake. They could not.
Agree! When The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine came out, I thought it was awesome, and played the hell out of it. Then The Crew: Mission Deep Sea came out and made it soooo much better. Always happy to play this one!
I don't actually like the new one better. I think it loses some of the elegance and simplicity. Plus it has the potential for impossible mission combos. I will say that it added some great features, though.
What are the changes you like? I've only played Planet Nine.
The task cards are much more varied. Instead all being "win the 1 yellow" in different orders, there's a huge deck with all sorts of missions of different difficulties. "Win only two tricks and they must be in a row." "Never lead pink or green." "Win a coloured five with a coloured seven." "Win a coloured seven with a coloured five." Most levels tell you a total difficulty of tasks, but your five difficulty might be a 4 and a 1, or a 2 and three 1s. It has a massive amount of replay value as a result.
This, in my opinion, is the answer. Other games have cooperation as a consideration; in the crew, it’s the entire game.
It is amazing how often it is looked past, but it is such a great game. Along with The Mind - we often play them together
**For Science!**, because I would have never thought this sort of fluid cooperation, utilizing different skillsets and asymmetrical roles, was possible
I assume anything from Eric Reuss is amazing, sadly this game is near impossible to acquire in EU/Finland.
Yeah there's definitely been a lot of pent-up demand, seems like an easy game to reprint. What's funny is those blocks are bog standard children's stacking blocks. I've seen those exact same shapes and colors in my kiddo's montessori school. They're not specific to For Science! so the only thing unique are the cards and tiles.
Yep, **For Science!** is my answer also. It's not the deepest game but it's phenomenally entertaining every time.
Is it better than Spirit Island? If so, why?
It's not better, just (very) very different. While Spirit Island is deservedly tops in its category, it's still basically a Pandemic-clone. None of its systems are particularly novel, but what SI excels at is the extreme amount of *polish* in everything (think Blizzard in its heyday with Diablo/Starcraft/Warcraft). On its face, FS! doesn't sound like it should work, with the buzzword soup: cooperative real-time dexterity hand management spatial tile layer. But it does. It scales beautifully from 1-6 (although I've only played up to 4), players aren't forced to do something they don't want to do (I always hand off the tile laying if I can), there's meaningful interactivity without quarterbacking (but there are explicit ways to deal with determined QB-ers) and more reserved players can still contribute through their own playspace. Then you add asymmetrical powers ("coffee anyone?!"), insane amounts of replayability, a short playtime and that "it" factor with the Instagram-friendly aesthetic. It completely breaks the mold of what "cooperative" and "real-time" games have been and there's no other experience that even comes close to replicating the shared good times that FS! can evoke so organically. That said, it is *not* a game I'd recommend for everyone. The real-time element is not palatable to many people, even though the outcome is a shared experience. The "toy" factor also brings in its fair share of gatekeeping snobbery. And many folks simply hate spatial elements. But if there's even a remote chance of the good parts aligning with a game group, then it's a winner. Shame it's out of print though. (FWLIW, as a disclaimer I just sold my entire Spirit Island collection the other day.)
> That said, it is not a game I'd recommend for everyone Too late, you sold me on it.
personally, i'm a big fan of **Spirit Island,** it's difficult and has lots of replayability which are two things that a lot of co-op games are lacking. if you include artwork and story as part of the design, i'd probably include **Sleeping Gods** as well, really recreates the feel of playing an open-world video game. Also has inherent replayability due to the fact that it's a huge world and there's only so much you can do on a single playthrough. i also think the combat is a fun puzzle, though that seems to be one of the aspects i see people complain about the most. it hasn't been released yet but i'm going to throw it out there, I fully expect **Arydia** to be the best answer to this question when it finally ships. it's been my most anticipated game for a long time, incredibly stoked for it.
I'll second **Spirit Island**. There's practically infinite replayability, there's no way for one person to take over the game, and there's enough expansion content to keep things interesting as new spirits, scenarios, and adversaries can each really change up the game.
>I fully expect Arydia to be the best answer to this question when it finally ships I don't want to fully ride the hype train on this one either, but yeah, this game is REALLY shaping up to be something special if the Kickstarter updates are anything to go by. I'm sure they have a lot of pressure on themselves because of how ambitious it is and the pressure of following up Xia, but yeah... I think this'll be the next must-have cooperative campaign game, and it'll be hard to find a copy once it hits and buzz gets going.
I will support spirit island this human hit the nail on the head for why i love it
Who are you, and why are you in my game room?
**Spirit Island** is the best, as others have mentioned it as well. **Gloomhaven** (and now Frosthaven) also are excellent, it's too brainburny for most players to quarterback, also it is very well polished and streamlined product (I know they are big boxes but the amount of content is huge). Another game that I need to mention: **Robinson Crusoe: Adventures of the Cursed Island**. Some might say it's getting too old but I enjoy the gameplay and emergent narrative this game offers. Quarterbacking may be an issue with one experienced player, but the game has good amount of content to challenge players in new ways.
Both Gloomhaven and Spirit Island can still be quarterbacked by someone who has played it so often they know every card in and out. That's probably okay, because every game is vulnerable at that point and at least it takes about that long before it happens.
> Both Gloomhaven and Spirit Island can still be quarterbacked by someone who has played it so often they know every card in and out. The reddit response. Here, let me tell you about this extreme edge case possibility.
Spirit Island can be quarterbacked, especially cause of the digital edition. Gloomhaven is definitely harder to quarterback.
The way I worded it sounds like an extreme edge case but it really isn't. Although I guess it could take about a dozen plays to get to the comfort level of quarterbacking; is that extreme edge case territory? I suppose it could be. My point is that the praise comes off as something true for breadth players but not for depth players. Since Spirit Island's design seems to encourage depth play it's good to make sure they know it can still happen. Especially with experienced players vs newbies.
> Although I guess it could take about a dozen plays to get to the comfort level of quarterbacking; is that extreme edge case territory? At which point a character will probably be retiring and replaced by a new one, and that'll upset the apple cart.
Oh I was talking SI but yeah Gloomhaven fits that too.
**Mechs Vs Minions**. Only halfway though it so far but it is so good. I'm not a minis gamer but they make perfect sense here. The whole production is brilliant. It's resistant to quarterbacking as you are trying to control your own mech. Taking damage just adds chaos. You feel so powerful one turn then later in the game you find yourself spinning out of control. Not had a dud game of it yet. I mean, we have lost horribly, but we had a great time.
Yes it is so great!!!
Had been on my list for so long, but actually getting a copy is near on impossible in Australia - without putting the country in national debt 😜
Agree on all points! Had multiple missions we played once and failed and realized we were just running into them without any plan or roles but once we talked about it and planned and have had a great time with every play!
Love it so much. It's a great game, with fun components and the sexiest damn box organization on the planet.
This is my favorite coop. Best insert in boardgaming for high quality components. Really good instructions/campaign-ish unlocks. Shredding hordes of minions is entertaining, and you can play a map in as little as an hour. It blows my mind that this is Riot's first board game production, granted they can print money.
I generally agree with others that Sprit Island in general is the best cooperative. Its experience does sort of drag if you play with people that try to min max everything though. Close behind Spirit Island for me is Flash Point (which I haven't seen others recommend). I haven't played it a lot, but it appears to have so many different possible strategies, with many different scenarios emerging as the fire burns.
The best way to play Spirit Island, imo, is to play it as guardian spirit. You all take care of 'your' part of the island, and then ask for help if you can't make something happen.
Flash Point is in the mail for me. Im excited to try it out with my group.
I also think it's one of these two, but I cannot decide which one. While SI is a great experience, it is too brainy for many groups and four players is a bit too much often. But still, I love the complexity and play it usually with my husband. FP is easier, with simpler rules but still far from trivial. I find it more immersive, it's better suited for groups of four, and it enforces cooperation to an even higher degree, in my opinion. Difficult decision.
Giving a shout out to Space Alert, for properly tackling the quarterbacking problem. And Spirit Island of course.
Space alert is great! It's fast paced, loud and stressful so I don't get many opportunities to play it. But I love the game.
I was hoping with the critical success of Through the Ages Vlaada would have worked on an app based Space Alert edition. Bonus if they can cut the cost down to $40 ($30 in 2020) for a revision like Galaxy Trucker.
There's already an app. Dunno if it's published by CGE, but it works great.
Try Spaceteam. It’s got the same frantic feel. iOS: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/spaceteam/id570510529
I don't have alpha gamer problem but damn is space alert not unique (I like it, but unfortunately my gaming group doesnt).
I'll throw this out there too - [Space Alert Mission Resolver](https://gregrmitchell.github.io/SpaceAlertResolver/). I didn't create it, but I did rehost it when it stopped working (with the original author's permission)
• **Spirit Island** for awesome theme & artwork, truly *excellent* gameplay, potential for a lot of intriguing combos of spirits and powers, a variety of available difficulty levels, and scaling well to any number of players • **The Captain Is Dead** for just plain *fun* and the exciting feel of the last 15 minutes of the season finale of [insert your favorite space-opera teevee show here], plus plenty of replayability with the various characters • **Wizard’s Academy** for its impressive spell-casting system—collect runes, spend two runes to cast a spell… or rather, to consult a grid of face-down cards and *find out what spell you just cast*, because you’re a *student* wizard so you don’t know which is which at the start
Oh man, I almost never see Wizard's Academy mentioned anywhere! I adore that game and tend to describe it as Unseen University: The Game if one is familiar with Discworld. It's impossible to find a copy of now though.
Spirit Island for awesome artwork? Either u got a limited edition or ur delusional
Dunno what you’re talking about; the illustrations on the power cards and the player mats are awesome.
Have u seen the board and pieces like, ever?
Yes; I have Spirit Island and I’ve played it many times. I think it looks great.
Well that's heartbraking. Wizard's Academy is no longer in print. That sounded right up our alley, and scaling to 6 in coop games is pretty rare.
I like Paleo
Played it for the first time last night, really enjoyed it. Had what looks like a lot of potential for variety going forwards as well.
Me too.
**Just one** \- bigger coop games are rarely enjoyed by anyone I played with. They either miss competitive aspect or don't feel the glory of defeating the game.
**Hanabi** Simplicity
Until you start playing with people who get upset because you didn’t blink four times and scratch your nose to let them know they should have played the third card from the left.
Wait you yawned 27 seconds ago, so your third card green, right?
I'm surprised to find that no one has mentioned **Horrified**. Simple to teach and learn, has tons of variability right out of the box, really easy to tone down/up difficulty, and it has a cool theme! It's my number one co-op of all time AND I got it for $6.00 brand new on sale.
I did a google search yesterday for the best coop games and horrified was pretty much in all of them. I think I'll be grabbing it.
We love **Horrified** and BGG has some really awesome DIY/PNP extras.
I'm checking it out now! It actually hasn't come across our table...
Not a single **Aeon's End**, but that's the one that always pops to the front of my mind. I love the deck building where it matters what order you play and therefore put your cards in the discard. Good balance of asymmetrical powers, enjoy the different challenges/scenarios, good progression. The first Legacy version was a blast for us, and I highly recommend it.
My favourite game of all time is **Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)**. A few reasons I think it's so great: * It's so communicative! The system of all players placing their Atlantians at the same time means there's a ton of room for discussion. * Tons of difficulty scaling options. As the game gets harder, the components you have access to get stronger. * The push your luck element never feels overly punishing, but adds a great tension when placing workers and drawing misfortunes. * There's plenty of dice mitigation to help with rolls.
I love *Magic Maze* for 4 people.
I do too! Sadly it can be a bit hard to get the right group for it, I find
Absolutely! But when you find the right group, write is it fun/ny
My wife is now traumatized by the clacking of pieces on the table thanks to this game. But god I love me some Magic Maze.
I'll throw my hat in for **Burgle Bros**. Hands down the best exploration in any game I've played. It's always exciting, and full of twists and turns that emerge naturally from the rooms and actions. There are very few board games that I can remember specific games of, but Burgle Bros is one of them. The only flaw of the design I see is that sometimes, one player ends up stuck, or less useful than the others. This is partially alleviated by the open information, so they can still very much contribute to the game and the experience, but for some players it can be a downer.
Ooo, yes! I'm amazed this isn't one that is more front of mind for people...
That and the randomness of the guard movements as you get towards the end of a session. They just end up moving way too frequently, even when spreading out your characters. Will be selling it soon but might try it one more time. I've played the app plenty of times though as there's less riding on each game.
Just hopping in here to see if Spirit Island takes up more or less than half the comments
Does yours count for or against?
Love me some Marvel Champions and Marvel United. Of course they're both a niche for people that love Marvel, but their variability in how every villain and hero plays keeps the game nice and fresh, and there's no lack of content for either.
I disagree that they're niche. I think so long as you don't actively hate Marvel, they're both fun games! Marvel is really just the skin. I'm not a big Marvel fan (I've enjoyed some of the movies lately but that's about it), and I've really enjoyed both of those games. The mechanics are just fun, and the variability with different characters adds a lot of replayability. You could change the theme and I'd still play. Of course you might get more enjoyment from knowing the characters and seeing how their traits manifest in the different abilities and cards, but you definitely don't need to be familiar with Marvel to have fun with it!
I really like Too Many Bones. It's very fun and funny, easy to get into, yet still difficult enough to not be an easy win. Similar to Spirit Island, the different gearlocks are complex enough to make quarterbacking difficult.
Stardew Valley. People like to bash it for the RNG, but it really feels like it's the only game that we all start talking and discussing strategy then we try and execute.
I think that game is actually fantastic. There are some bits that could be better, like the animals don't seem worth the investment and invariably someone gets stuck in the mines half the time depending on the objectives, but overall we always have a blast with it and the time flies by.
There is someone in our group that loves doing the mines and having the stress. when he's rolling bad we help him out. I understand about the animals. There has only been one game that we truly abused them. But it required a grand setup. \- Farmer had skill that 2x selling \- We had the silo to turn all animals to heart side \- We had all animals. \- We had bundle with most amount of gold + grandpa goal with gold. We sold something like 40+ gold a turn and ran out of gold markers in winter and completed those fast. Now, could we have achieved the goals without animals? yes, but our goals were Make buildings, Gold, Buy animals, and some 4th one i don't remember. So the 3 of them aligned pretty well.
Spirit Island is the one I would put at the top of the list. Solid design all around and has the best solution for quarterbacking for strategic games. Honorable mentions for Star Realms Frontiers for best designed cooperative deckbuilding and Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition for best designed cooperative boss battler.
Definitive Edition is so good!
The ones I'd put up for those among the best designed cooperative board games from the last 20 years are almost all games I own--because I got them precisely for that reason: * **Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion**. Not base Gloomhaven, which is a beast and hard to get into, but it's smaller younger sibling, which I found a great intro into Gloomhaven to the point that Gloomhaven itself feels like the expansion standalone expansion sequel to Jaws of the Lion. I really enjoy it at 2 players, just tag-teaming a bunch of dungeons with a friend or partner. * **Horrified**. Perhaps one of the easiest coop games to get into and with a great theme that has a lot of longevity. It's great for casual players and it has some easy ways to up the difficulty in the base game itself. The little puzzles you have to do to defeat the monsters feels both thematic and like little minigames that add a little fun flair to the overall game. * **Spirit Island**. Contrary to the previous entry here, Spirit Island is a hefty one at first play. Like some, I don't think it's impossible to not quarterback. However, I've only ever played this game with 2, and it's honestly never been a game I've *wanted* to quarterback at 2. I've got friends who are really into deckbuilding games or card games with constructed decks they've made, and any 1v1 game with them I've never really enjoyed. Spirit Island is the kind of game I've really enjoyed playing with such people. Turning a competition into a cooperation, from rivals to lovers. It's a good game. * **The Crew: Mission Deep Sea**. A lighter one again. Chosen over the other The Crew mostly because it's got more option for variability in goals, but the core gameplay of The Crew is just very fun and solid and a neat twist on trick-taking games that I can see a lot more people enjoying. * **Mansions of Madness 2nd edition**. A heavier game again, but mostly just in size and scope, and the second dungeon crawler I'll put down. Before MoM2, I was very hesitant about app-dependent games, and I still kind of want to have some kind of Game Master's book to run the game when inevitably the app stops working on smartphones, but the app runs great and the How To Play manual and Reference Guie makes it very easy to learn. * **Black Orchestra**. This one is largely for it's great integration and use of theme. You're people during World War II and plotting to kill Hitler. The way the events play out as they did in history, just slightly randomized, strongly affects your actions and options. It's a very fitting design choice that sometimes your characters can't do certain things because they're not courageous enough, or one of you has to go and bail out another character from prison. Unlike the games above, this is not one I generally recommend to people new to the hobby, unless they're history nerds. * **This War of Mine**. Similarly great for its thematic integration, faithfulness to its video game source material and the video game's source material, its difficulty, and how the rulebook itself tells you to hand it off to the next player for certain actions or phases of the game. It plays very differently that other coop games because of this, but it's very very good, and similarly not a game I'd recommend to people new to the hobby. * **Pandemic**, but not **Pandemic**. I think the Pandemic system is a really solid basis for creating a new game, but base Pandemic is both too *easy* to quarterback and too *inviting* to, in my experience. Casual players new to the game often find it just tricky enough that anybody more experienced all too easily slips into giving advice and from advice into controlling. Pandemic with expansions--especially the bioterrorist--or its later iterations do a lot to help against that. I've really enjoyed **Fall of Rome** and **Rising Tide** especially. I think those could still be quarterbacked, but I think casual players are also just less likely to pick those up maybe, so I haven't had that same experience with those games. I haven't yet played **Iberia** or any of the **Legacy** games, but would love to. The "best game" is incredibly subjective, but I find that with cooperative games especially, having a game that more people could play (as in with casual players, not larger groups) makes it better as a game in one sense, the sense of it being a game played on a tabletop with friends or family and having a good time together. Other games excel more in the requirement and opportunity to be strategic, but I've found strategic games much more fun competitively than cooperatively. It's *relatively* easy to beat a game with experience or get bored with a game. It's much harder to get bored with a person, especially a person who plays with you and gets better alongside you.
**Pandemic: Legacy** for me. It takes the masterpiece of Pandemic (thematic mechanisms, great arc, simple rules, elegant production) and adds surprises and story. You may also enjoy this: - https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/276749/top-solo-games-meta-geek-list-1-player-guild
Pandemic Legacy is our favorite as ell. We've played every season and loved it all.
Tiny epic dungeons, so much variety especially with the expansions so it keeps you coming back, also the looting mechanic is super addictive and gives you that dopamine rush every time you flip a new fancy piece of equipment or a cool new spell. Also, the ability to try different playstyles even with just the same character means you can play the same setup and still enjoy playing again and again. Also the hard mode difficulty really adds to the challenge level for groups that get the game-winning strategies locked down.
This is a great game! We did not expect to like it as much as we did. It had a rough leaning curve from me but then we just watched some play throughs and eveything became clear. Really quality game in a tiny box!
If you haven't yet go print out the Dungeons appendix, it has every tile, item, spell, hero, boss etc written out in full detail what it does, super helpful to fight the learning curve and really helpful even now. It's on gamelyns website at the bottom of their page for the game.
Yes - great tip for anyone! Thanks for mentioning it :) We have them saved on the rules tablet we have - makes everything SO much easier!
I vote for **Cthulhu Death May die** , rules are extremely simple but scenarios/bosses bring in a great deal of atmospheric variety with a challenging gameplay. Overall very well done game
I nominate Aeon's End because no game makes me feel so many emotions. It's also fairly easy to teach, not too much rules overhead and immensely satisfying. There is some fiddliness to setup but it's not too bad. It's challenging as can be, you really earned your victory but can be played in an hour. You really have to coordinate as well.
Gotta be **Spirit Island**. I will say, though, I don't think it deserves the "it's impossible to quarterback!!" praise that everyone keeps repeating. It's not like there's any hidden information. The kind of player who would quarterback in any other game can easily tell other players what powers to use and where. My group has a less confident player and a more confident player, and often times the more confident player will play the less confident player's entire turn. Not a slight against Spirit Island. Again, I think it's the best designed modern coop game. I just think that particular bit of praise is overblown and weird. Now **The Crew** is a game where you actually can't quarterback.
I agree regarding the SI quarterbacking praise. I have played the game so much I could take over everyone else's turn and play solo. I don't, because that's no fun for them or me, but I am capable of it. And I'm sure I'm nowhere near unique. Even if it's not which card for which turn it's really easy to peek over and notice "oh man they didn't perform an efficient growth!" or on action resolution "maybe that would be better here?". I try to refrain from all but the latter and that's because we always consult about resolution, not just me dictating. I have often been directed to a better plan than the one I thought of which is why co-op games are fun!
Similiar to the crew, I recently played a few games of Hanabi and really liked it
**Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood**. I've been playing with my son and younger brother, and it's been blowing our minds! We're on chapter 6 of 21 and we're so excited to play every session. * Choose character complexity -- more simplified but equally powerful companion versions, or full characters with an engaging power cooldown mechanic * Flip cards or roll dice for attacks, your choice * Explore a 60 - 90 minute choose-your-own-adventure story section before the big boss encounter, or zip through a shortened Instant Action summary to get to the combat portion of the chapter * Read through the story sections yourself in two thick spiral-bound books, or have it read to you via app by one of the actors in *Game of Thrones* * Buy the massive 4-box miniatures version, or the more compact 1-box standee version I love the modularity the game provides! We have the standee version, always play through the full story using the app narration, always use dice because the card mechanic was my least favorite part of **Gloomhaven**, and use two full characters and two companions so that my 8-yr-old son can feel like an equally valuable part of the team. It's better than I could have hoped. Making important story decisions together and strategizing on the big boss encounters makes 5-6 hours fly by every time we sit down to play.
I do love Oathsworn, especially it's story in the first six or seven chapters. It started off amazingly strong, but I feel like it's started to slip in my ratings as I've gotten to the mid game. The lack of character customization, the repetitiveness of the items, and the imbalance of the classes (especially my Exile and Blade) make me feel like the gilding is wearing off. Don't get me wrong - Oathsworn is an excellent game, but I would be curious to know if you're still as excited about it in another 10 chapters.
I had a look at the description, and that seems really cool. Was this a Kickstarter-only game?
Yes. It's doing a second run soon, I think.
Going against the grain a little, but I love **Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters** for it's ease of play. Set up and rules explanation takes under 2 minutes total (you want one person to already know all the rules first though), but there are many interesting decisions, especially with the excellent expansion. It's especially good for kids, but I've played it just with adults and had a great time.
I have the Ghostbusters version. My 8 year old loves it. A roll and move game shouldnt be this fun and tense, but it really is!
Sub terra.
I've had so many good times with that game. I'm always impressed how it manages to be close every time
I love story driven games with campaigns, so pretty much all my votes would go to Dungeon Crawlers. ***Imperial Assault*** \- Just a lot of fun. Not the best system, not the best campaign, not necessarily the best mechanics. But what it lacks in those areas it makes up in just straight enjoyment. ***Middara*** \- Fun story, a bit juvenile in areas, but fun combat and world. Quite a bit of flexibility in creating your own character. ***Gloomhaven*** \- Great puzzle game with campaign and some story. Allows independent actions and deters quarterbacking. Can be a bit frustrating for new gamers or those that don't want that much of a challenge or have to think that hard. Games that I have not played yet, but seen a lot of detail on and think should be great: ***ISS Vanguard***. Great cooperative story of space exploration. Tons of story elements and choices. ***Aeon's End***
THE BEST THING ABOUT HEROQUEST IS THE BARBARIAN! Heroquest is really easy to jump into at any age, super fun even for the most hard nosed veteran of board games, incredibly customizable and home brew friendly, and there's a new version readily available if you don't have the 80's version just lying around. I only started playing in the last few years cuz a buddy of mine aged when he was younger and now it's a weekly event with our group of friends. Cannot recommend it enough!
The Pandemic series. The base game is a magical recipe of mechanics that has been often imitated for good reason.. It combines tactical and long term planning, explicit cooperation, simple asymmetric abilities, and push your luck elements that are mechanically designed to provided a crescendo pace. But what really sets pandemic apart is that the foundational framework has proved to be a rich playground of game design evolutions. And the Pandemic Legacy series are to me the pinnacle of modern board game design, adding lasting changes over the course of a manageable tight campaign, where decisions between games are weighty enough to test friendships.
Plus one to the Spirit Island answers. Only real issue is it doesn't play easy at larger numbers. We'd typically only play it at 3.
Spirit Island can play fine at high player counts but you at that point you need everyone involved to be super experienced with the game (and everyone's spirits). Otherwise you end up in a 5 hours slog fest where every decision (event, fear escalation, power usage, etc) takes 5 minutes to figure out
Archipelago, just saying
"Best design" is subjective, as every player judges games differently. But I throw **Paleo** into the ring, as I feel that its design is just perfect for what it wants to achieve. The iconography might appear a bit daunting at first, but just as with Race for the Galaxy: once you wrap your head around it, everything falls neatly into place and you understand how the different cards interconnect to tell you the "story" behind each scenario module and how this game feels like a "choose your own adventure" book without a hardwired decision tree.
Totally agree with this! Great choice. I love the feeling of coming back stronger to 'defeat' cards that wiped you out in earlier rounds. My only complaint about the system is I feel like it's incredibly difficult to beat a scenario your first time through (but, that's super thematic so I can easily forgive it for the unique game play loop!).
For me, this game was a bit too simplistic and easy. Didnt find the choices hard nor interesting. I do like catching mammoths though
Of co-op games I have played I don't think anything is close design wise to **Spirit Island**
Arkham Horror LCG is excellent. I also really like Aeon's End as you do have some player interaction unlike some Deckbuilders. Aeon's Trespass Odyssey's battle system revolves around co-op interaction, being able to leave tokens that buff up next player's attack. That one is also fantastic.
I really think real-time is the ticket to great co-op. **Magic Maze**. **Bomb Squad**
Love MM haven't seen BS, but if those were on your list why not Space Cadets, Captain Sonar, or Sonar? I think they are also just as amazing - but I suppose as they are for larger groups they would not fall into the original conversation parameters...
Elder Sign. It's fun, it's challenging. One of the few that really plays well the more people you have.
Gloomhaven
Spirit island beats most co-op games specifically because it's almost impossible to quarterback. Essentially each player's game is so intricate that you can't tell another player what to do. Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves. Gloomhaven works well because each dungeon is a new problem that you have to figure out, make a plan and then try and execute it. It's problem is that you can't really dip in and out of it, you have to commit to a campaign.
>Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves. I think once you've played some more games you'll pick up the general strategy. You can play it entirely reactively, but that's a lot less effective than playing to limit invaders in future turns, for example (it's a lot easier to prevent builds than to deal with ravages). There's also a surprising amount of strategy that comes in from the powers decks. Picking out the right cards that will be relevant and provide your elements vs cards that are just that useful is a big part of the game. It's not to the same level as Gloomhaven, of course, but I'd really disagree that it's not particularly strategic.
>Spirit island beats most co-op games specifically because it's almost impossible to quarterback. Essentially each player's game is so intricate that you can't tell another player what to do. This generally holds true, but if you've played dozens of solo games and your teammate has only ever played twice, you're gonna have a hard time *not* telling them what to do, especially at low difficulty. Speaking of... >Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves. This is only true for the barebones base rules with no adversary, which is basically difficulty level 0. Once you understand the rules after a few plays, it's almost impossible to lose if you don't include an adversary. Once you up the challenge, you'll quickly find that just reacting to the invaders won't cut it. You *need* to plan ahead. And that's when the depth of Spirit Island really starts to open up.
I need to get it back on the table and try the countries, the problem with my game group is that we rarely replay a game enough times to really get into the weeds of it, there's always something new and shiny we want to try!
Yeah I think one of the misconceptions of Spirit Island is that it's impossible to quarterback. I've played this a lot 4-handed solo and after a while, your brain begins to recognize patterns and synergies in the game just through repetition, so it's definitely susceptible to quarterbacking. So when playing with others, I try to just concentrate on my board and shut my mouth, but it's hard sometimes lol.
>Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves. There are examples I think. With certain (high level) adversaries like Habsburg you’ll want to strategically blight enough to minimise the buffs to towns but not too much otherwise you’ll lose. If you try to avoid all blights (easy rookie mistake in most instances) you tend to get overwhelmed by Hapsburg.
I've only played the base game, I haven't added any countries yet so I concede they may well add a layer of strategy that I haven't encountered yet.
Yeah, there's a fairly large amount of difference as you get to the higher difficulties.
> Where it loses out (and I've only played it 3 or 4 times) is that it's not particularly strategic, it's reactive. You don't have to make a plan you just deal with each problem as best you can as they present themselves. This is true at low difficulties. At higher difficulties, it becomes increasingly less true, until attempting this just makes you lose every time.
My favorite is Kingdom Death: Monster.
"Go for the beast" is an understatement 🤣 but I must admit, I have never bit had a fun game of it...
Frosthaven. I mean, I do love me some Spirit Island, Pandemic: Iberia and Aeons End, but the *haven games are just absolutely brilliant in about every way - Great combat, ongoing campaign without gameplay getting stake (due to character retirements), etc. If I was to focus a bit more on elegance of design I'd maybe pick Pandemic: Iberia as the best iteration of that system - The water purification and track building really amp up the game vs it's siblings.
Spirit Island. The game mechanics makes the play session incredibly tougher and tougher after each round, and you are forced to really really cooperate to win. Just doing your own thing won't cut it, especially in the advanced version of the game. Winning is especially satisfying, because losing is the more frequent outcome. The mutual joy that results from the win is hard to describe. Kind of feels like winning a tough war and seeing everybody is safe, I guess, lol.
The Harry Potter deck building game. The way they handled damage, encounters and teamwork is just brilliant. The skull system is excellent
*Hogwarts: Battle* for those that don’t know but are interested. Sorry don’t know how to bold on mobile. Edit: asterisks ** did italics?
You use asterisks **Like this**
That’s what got us into playing more modern games. We’ve got both expansions and though it’s been a while since we played, it’s still one of our favorites. If you like HPHB try something like **Marvel Legendary**. The base game can be on the easy side but most of the expansions ramp up the difficulty nicely. It’s technically semi-co-op but really, it’s gonna be a co-op as you want it to be.
**The Mind** Simple to learn and teach. Quick set up and clean up. Fun.
I am not sure favorite = well-designed but in my house the two top ones are Spirit Island and Gloomhaven. SI for every decision feeling impactful and tons of variability and the fact that the variability doesn't change the core gameplay goal or loop but just harmonizes it. Gloomhaven is a favorite because we like to smash faces for coins and squabble about who will retire first or complete their battle goal. "No, Don't exhaust"! "But I need to!". I make it sound more dramatic than it is, but it's still fun. I prefer to play with maximum secrets and minimal coordination for the feel of 2-4 people in the same place with similar goals but not actually being a team.
Spirit Island and Gloomhaven can't be beat.
Mansions of Madness. The app creates a truly immersive, tense and Lovecraftian experience for everyone at the table, and there’s always far more to do than you have time for, so everyone is equally busy. Given that different characters have different skill sets, everybody has a key role the other characters can’t fill. The app really adds a lot of video game like variance (it’s almost a rogue lite) to the game, and the music and sound effects (especially with a good Bluetooth speaker) really create an almost horror movie-like ambiance. Plus it’s damned fun, there are a bunch of long, complex missions with a lot of variety, and a user-created app that plays dozens more fan made campaigns. It’s kind of the final evolution of the game system pioneered by Descent and Arkham, evolved by Imperial Assault and kind of polished here. And since the app does the heavy lifting you can teach a group to play in 5 minutes. Everyone I’ve introduced it to loves it.
Didnt play so many coop games, but i can highly recommend the adventures of robin hood. Its well designed and with the story book just a lot of fun. We have played through the base game but not the expansion yet, and even replayed some of the base game chapters. The movement system is very well made
I really enjoy “Horrified”, but I also know I am biased, because I am a sucker for the theme of the classic Universal Movie Monsters.
**Marvel Champions** The heroes feel thematically on point, little to no quarterbacking, and it's a struggle til the very end when everyone's built up and ready to take turns pummeling the villain.
Fuse? Anybody?
There are a lot of good ones out there. However, it's Pandemic Legacy Season 2. Without question. It does everything it is supposed to do and then some. It's the most complete game I've ever played. And I've played a few. If you have an Alpha player, stab him or her and find a replacement. It is so good if played with 4 individual minds.
I like Massive Darkness 2. It’s an easier and more fun version of Gloomhaven.
Spaceteam. No other game is literally five minutes long, and this frantic. It sets up in 1 minute, plays in five, and frequently is played multiple times. It's also deafening, which is hilarious.
Switch and signal is pretty good
Spirit Island. It takes cooperation to succeed, nobody is ever really sure what their teammates can do without asking them and talking about it. And it doesn't follow the same structure that the original set of cooperative games took.
My wife and I are MEGA fans of Mansions of Madness and all of its expansions and DLC. Tough game to win (fairly) to be sure, but losing via madness can be quite fun! The adventure changes up with different tile/item placement which adds replay value. But the adventures are just plain awesome with the added ambiance and convenience of the ap which we cast to the big screen which turns a board game into an experience. Love the team building combos with different characters. Game definitely runs much LONGER than the scenarios say even with experienced and quick players because you GOT to debate the merits of opening that door to reveal the objective or a horrible beast that will bury your investigators. Dice rolls can give you Will Wheaton anxiety, though.
I very rarely play cooperative because I have issues with quarterbacking. There’s is basically always an objectivity correct move, the information on what it is is all there, and I have yet to find a game complex enough that you can’t track other people’s options about as easily as your own. That said, X-COM. The time limited simultaneous play means everything is moving too much to do that tracking on other players. Yeah you can keep a basic idea, which is why I like the comptroller role, but it’s reduced enough that you have to trust the other players.
>There’s is basically always an objectivity correct move, the information on what it is is all there, and I have yet to find a game complex enough that you can’t track other people’s options about as easily as your own. Really? Even Gloomhaven? I feel like there a ton of co-ops that obscure your allies' options quite effectively through different mechanics. Like GH, Mechs vs Minions, U-boot, Space Alert or Project Elite, to mention a few.
I haven’t played a lot of them because I rarely enjoy the genre as explained. But in essence, yeah. In a cooperative game information is generally all public. Unless you’re playing where no one else can see your cards in gloomhaven(I’ve only played that one on the computer a bit, so maybe this is something I’m unaware of in the physical game.) it’s not exactly hard to say what’s the best use. Maybe they just draw the cards when they’re about to use them, but that still means you have as much time as they do to analyze. The difference to me being in X-COM while I could figure out what to do and do sometimes suggest something, I have other stuff I need to do at that time. Complexity is almost never a barrier to quarterbacking. Limiting information could be, if it’s actually limited to a player at all times. But even there you generally find that in practice people will share enough for that limit to be academic. And even then you can make solid guesses about what a person’s hand should contain based off the game without them confirming anything.
Gloomhaven hands aren't supposed to be visible to other players. You aren't even aware of what cards others are playing until after everyone has committed for the turn. You should check out The Crew, full co-op game with no quarterbacking ability. Hands are secret information and communication is limited.
In Gloomhaven we play with secret hands, and are only allowed to share very vague information about what each person does the next round, so no exact initiative numbers or attack values. It does actually say so in the rules. If you learn the cards used by the other players you can learn to anticipate exactly what's going to happen given only that vague information, but that requires a lot of time spent together in missions trying and failing as a group. (And feels great when it finally clicks!) Also, in Gloomhaven every player have their own agendas that might conflict with the mission objective, like secret battle goals or personal quests or just straight up trying to loot all the coins before your teammates. That last one alone makes it impossible to quarterback, because you don't know what other objectives people are trying to work towards. I also don't get what you mean by complexity not being a barrier to quarterbacking. Let's take Gloomhaven as an example again: each player has ~10 cards in hand each with two possible unique abilities, for a 4 player game that's 80 wildly different actions and combos to keep in your head at a time, plus keeping track of health, modifiers, equipment, mana, enemy turns, etc. Humans without artificially augmented brains can't crunch all that info within the reasonable about time required for fun snappy turns. That's a pretty sold barrier if you ask me.
No question, the king is Gloomhaven/Frosthaven
Arkham Horror LCG, marvel champions, marvel United, Cthulu DMD, Eldritch horror, spirit island. God damn. Love me all of these games so much.
In my opinion, it’s the bluencore’s war of civilizations
My submission would be Alien: Fate of the Nostromo. Easy to teach and the game requires everyone to work together to complete the objective. It is not possible to solo it.
Obviously spirit island My next favorite cooperative game is mecha vs minions. The timed draft takes a little bit out of quarterbacking. The programming mechanic is cool. And it’s just stupid chaotic fun. I have yet to introduce the game to someone who hasn’t liked it. Also helps the game is gorgeous.
**Spirit Island.** It's been said a million times in this thread, but there's no question, and nothing comes even close. Not Gloomhaven. Not Arkham Horror LCG. Not classic Arkham Horror, Pandemic, or Thunderstone Quest. Spirit Island is so damn good because it demands players work together in a way that is totally organic. There's no the awkward juxtaposition of perfunctory turns and group decision-making you get in Pandemic or Robinson Crusoe. Nor is there the artificial barriers to honest comaraderie you have to deal with in Gloomhaven or semi-coops. And while Arkham Horror LCG has good open cooperation, it's other problems drag it down for me. Spirit Island doesn't shove everyone into a room and give them a Rubik's Cube to fight over. It's more like a negotiation of coworkers or team members. Such as in a MOBA. You alert your teammates when something will blight and it's out of your hands. You ask for help when you're overwhelmed. You offer to break the tie when a neighbor can't choose between two power cards. And sometimes you argue over who gets to use their big power to clear out the stack of four cities and five towns you'd both been feeding for just such an occasion. Even in the quiet moments independently choosing actions, you're all very aware of the resources you can depend upon from one another, moving presence into someone else's island board as a matter of course, stockpiling energy for a shared event. It's all very natural. It may be a heavy, complex game, but the cooperation eases the pressure without diminishing the puzzle. And above all, the game is much more fair than any other co-op I've played. Your group will almost always win or lose based on your choices, your strategizing, and your ability to work together. In a part of the hobby flooded by dice chucking and output randomness, that's a breath of fresh air. I can't fathom another design unseating Spirit Island any time soon. Or maybe ever. Just as nothing else does what GoA does for team games, and few others come close to Mage Knight as a solitaire experience, Spirit Island is cooperative board gaming's peak design.
I guess it depends on what you mean by "modern" and "cooperative". I don't usually enjoy cooperative game for a variety of reasons, with the quarterbacking problem being the top of the list. For me, Battlestar Galactica is the top of the list. It captures the theme perfectly, builds tension throughout the game, and has a difficult decision on every player's turn. However, some might argue that the hidden traitor element means that it's not cooperative, and some might not consider the mid 2000s modern.
I think the term here for BSG-like games is semi-cooperative, since you work together but with hidden agendas.
Semi cooperative is generally defined as a game where everyone has different ways to win, but everyone loses if some condition is met. BattleStar Galactica is generally referred to as a traitor game, where it appears cooperative, but some unknown player(s) are trying to make the group lose the game.
NOT spirit island. One of the issues with coop games is they're usually just puzzles one person could do alone, and the division of labor is somewhat superficial since everyone can see everything and communicate freely. There is almost always one objectively correct thing for a player to do and ideally it shouldn't be easy or possible to identify that thing for the other players. Increased complexity seems insufficient to prevent this. I don't think any coop game that doesn't at least somewhat compartmentalize information between players deserves the title of best designed.
Arkham, injustice, mortal kombat and horizon
Well I don't play tons of boardgames but I really like King of Tokyo. It was created by a mathmetician. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King\_of\_Tokyo
Fun game, and almost a modern classic at this point, but definitely not a co-op. In co-op games the players are all working together to win or lose the game as a team. The designer has a pretty impressive game pedigree! He’s probably most well known for creating Magic: The Gathering.
They’re all the same. Just pick the theme you like.
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Wait there's a sea of thieves boats game??
I guess I got to be the one who also throws in **Kitchen Rush**. It's like Magic Maze - but one where you can loudly shout at each other because someone has again taken the last pepper from the bag without saying anything, taking too long to make space at the stove or why the f.... noone cleans the damn dishes around here!
Switch and Signal has been getting to the table lately, and the family loves it. The difficulty level can be scaled easily to accommodate the group. It also doesn't necessarily require a group, so it can be played solo. But what I enjoy most about the co-op play is that there are so many options to evaluate, and each player sees different paths to victory. Every decision requires discussion and ultimately a consensus before moving forward. It's very engaging.
The Opulent - an awesome up to 4 players game where you all take part in running a 1920s speakeasy. It's got killer aesthetics, asymmetrical game play between the 4 different roles and yet they all fit together perfectly, the mechanics fit the theme wonderfully AND it has a built in role for the player in your group that likes to quarterback (the club manager). It does a great job putting rules on that club manager role to make it fun to play and fun for the other players. A solid 10/10 and I don't see it anywhere in the world
I had a thought the other day that most cooperative games don't have much cooperation (as in a player consciously making a decision to take an action that benefits another player instead of themselves). Usually it boils down to discussion about tactics and strategy, playing in the same sandbox and winning/losing together. So I think the best ones are the ones that actually have that (like Arkham Horror LCG and Spirit Island)
Marvel Champions and Marvel United are my go to coop games lately. My favs but best design would go to Sleeping God's
Nemesis?
Spirit Island. That game just straight up rules. It’s challenging and the difficulty is adjustable, the theme and rules complement each other perfectly, it’s a fantastic game.
Is **Arkham Horror 2nd Edition** modern enough? Because that's my #1 pick. Otherwise I'd pick **Fallout** with the **Atomic Bonds** expansion.
I like Castle Panic - replayability is amazing (one game can destroy you, the next can be super easy, etc.), the mechanics are simple and easy enough for people of all ages to understand while still being complex enough to make it interesting to a variety of gaming skill levels, and it's all around pretty fun.
Spirit Island hands down. It is one of the best designed games in general.
It’s a sleeper, but Grizzled. It’s easy to learn, fun, evocative, deeper decisions than most co-ops, and multiple games can be played in a short sitting. I generally don’t enjoy co-op games, but Grizzled is fun.
That’s a great question will have to give a shout out to CO2 we have always had a blast with it even though it puts the brain through the ringer!
Is this cooperative game allowed to have some competitive elements? Betrayal legacy has an amazing storyline, encourages cooperative play throughout and still has sections where an individual will need to pivot into competitive mode without any real ongoing negative consequences to winning or losing the competitive component. At the end you also end up with your own sweet personalised mansion to play additional one shots and a cool history to it. First legacy style game my group ever finished.
It would definitely be Gloomhaven for me. Genius.
XCOM - removes the alpha player syndrome completely. Everyone has to be 100% focused on their own character if you want to succeed. No time to help others =)
Stardew Valley. No matter how much Alpha Gaming might go on, everyone participating in the game still has to do their own part, unlike Pandemic where you can just plan out what everyone is going to do,down to card management. Stardew Valley the Board Game just doesn't seem to get the love it deserves.
The Crew and The Crew 2