Over the past couple of months, I have written about a number of the new breed of board games. My intention when I started out was to write 6 articles, but as I write them, it has quickly become apparent that 6 will not be enough. For example, this month I had planned to talk about cooperative games, but then I realised that that I also wanted to to talk about “team” games and while there are some similarities between the two, they are different enough to warrant different articles. So this month, I will focus on co-operatives and leave the team games for a later date.
These games are called co-operative games and are among my favourite of the new breed of games. all of the players are working together to win the game. In co-operative games, rather than playing for victory over your fellow players, you are working together with a shared goal to beat the game. In these games, the board itself is your adversary, and you need to work with your fellow players to devise a strategy to find victory against the board.
Before I talk about specific.games, let me talk a bit about why these games are so very good. Taking out the player-to-player competition removes any ability for players to be ganged up on. As the victory, is a shared experience, all players are involved at every stage of the game, sharing opinions on what to do next at every turn. That is awesome. When younger players are first introduced to these kinds of game they tend to “do what they are told”, and share in the victory with the older and more experienced players, but as time goes on, they start to work out their own strategies and start to share their opinions on how the game should progress. For a parent, watching my kids learn this stuff and get better and better is hugely rewarding.
Pandemic
Perhaps the best of these co-operative games is Pandemic by Matt Leacock (2-4 players, ages 10+) published by Z-Man Games). In this game, players move about a map of the world reminiscent of Risk, but rather than trying to conquer your opponents, the goal is to discover the cures to 4 diseases that are ravaging the world’s cities. Each player takes on a role, with special abilities to help the team, for example, the medic is best at controlling the levels of disease, whereas the scientist is best at discovering cures, and the dispatcher can help move all of the players around the board, getting them to the places where they can be the most useful. As you move around the board you gain knowledge about the various diseases, get enough knowledge and you can discover the cure. At the same time each of the diseases infect more and more cities, left unchecked a disease will outbreak and infect all of its neighbouring cities.
This game is quite challenging, because you must carefully balance where you spend your time. If you spend it all just looking for the cures, the infection level will get out of control and everyone will lose. Spend too much time keeping the infections manageable, and you will run out of time to find the cures. Only by finding the balance between controlling outbreaks and finding the cures can you hope to beat the board. Pandemic even has different skill levels, once you establish a track record playing at the basic level, try upping the difficulty, if you dare.
Forbidden Island
Another co-operative game from Matt Leacock, is Forbidden Island, (2-4 players, ages 8+) published by Gamewright. This game contains a number of similar elements to Pandemic, but in a simpler format. Your team is made up of 2-4 adventures trying the recover 4 powerful artefacts. Trouble is, the ancient peoples who hid the artefacts, also booby trapped the island to sink if anyone tries to explore it. You must choose when to shore up the island (to prevent vital portions of it from sinking) and when to focus on collecting the artefacts. Again, you win or lose as a team. Either you collect all 4 treasures and get back to you helicopter, or you all go down with the island. As with Pandemic, each player has a role with special skills, and their are helper cards that need to be saved and played at just the right time. 
Also the island itself is made up of 24 tiles that are played randomly to make the board, and this randomness plays into the strategic decisions you will need to make. This game also has the benefit of a fairly short playtime, with a complete game taking about 30 minutes.
Yggdrasil
The third game in the co-operative category that I have been playing is one with an unpronounceable title, “Yggdrasil” (1-6 players, ages 13+) published by Z-Man games. This game is unusual in that it includes a single player mode, so it can be played “solitaire”. Here the players take on one of the Norse gods (Thor, Odin, etc.) and are fighting to prevent the evil Gods from getting to Asgard. Like a wave of zombies, the evil forces advance towards Asgard, while the Norse gods use their own special abilities to drive them back. The Gods use the soles of dead viking heroes and special weapons from the elves to strengthen their attacks, while the evil Gods call on the ice giants and to throw up obstacles that the Norse Gods must overcome. Each of the Norse Gods has a unique ability that creates a good variation to play. Be warned however, winning this one is really hard, and the more players you have, the harder it gets. I’ve never had so much fun losing a game though and plan to keep on looking for a win.
There are many games that use a co-operative mechanism, and a search on Board Game Geek will turn up dozens. Some of these are purely co-operative, while others have mechanisms for one or more of the players to “turn” against the rest. One game that I am looking forward to is the soon to be published “Escape… from the Temple Curse” (Queen-Games, 1-5 players ages 8+) which is a co-operative game where everyone plays at the same time to help each other escape the temple. This game has a 10 minute time limit, so the faster you play, the more likely you will escape. It sounds like a lot of fun. Next time – Are you with me or against me? Games that are played in teams.
Written for Child’s Life by Markham Dad, Stephen Orr.
Not to be published without permission.
