Tag: Cooperative

Cooperative games are games in which all players work towards the completion of a shared objective.

Bristol 1350

Bristol 1350

Bristol 1350

The dreaded Black Death has descended upon the town of Bristol. You are racing down the streets in one of the three available apple carts, desperate to escape into the safety of the countryside. If your cart is the first to leave the town and it is full of only healthy villagers when you leave, you and your fellow cart-mates successfully escape and win the game!

However, some villagers on your cart may already have the plague! They are hiding their early symptoms from you so that they can enjoy their last few days in peace. If you leave town with a plagued villager on your cart, you will catch the plague. You must do whatever is necessary to make sure that doesn’t happen!

On the surface Bristol 1350 is part co-operative teamwork, part racing strategy, and part social deduction. In reality, it’s a selfish scramble to get yourself out of town as quickly as possible without the plague, by any means necessary.

The game comes in a magnetic book box and includes a rubber playmat, 9 wood pawns, 3 miniature carts, 6 rat/apple dice, a linen bag, and 64 cards. The deluxe version adds 6 coins, 6 cards, and 3 metal carts. This standalone game is Volume 4 in the “Dark Cities Series” by Facade Games following Salem 1692Tortuga 1667, and Deadwood 1876.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deduction
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hidden Roles
  • Party Game
  • Player Elimination
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 9 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.54

Mage Knight Board Game

Mage Knight Board Game

Mage Knight Board Game

The Mage Knight board game puts you in control of one of four powerful Mage Knights as you explore (and conquer) a corner of the Mage Knight universe under the control of the Atlantean Empire. Build your army, fill your deck with powerful spells and actions, explore caves and dungeons, and eventually conquer powerful cities controlled by this once-great faction! In competitive scenarios, opposing players may be powerful allies, but only one will be able to claim the land as their own. In cooperative scenarios, the players win or lose as a group. Solo rules are also included.

Combining elements of RPGs, deck-building, and traditional board games the Mage Knight board game captures the rich history of the Mage Knight universe in a self-contained gaming experience.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Role Playing

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 240 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.33

FrostPunk

FrostPunk

FrostPunk

In Frostpunk: The Board Game, up to four players will take on the role of leaders of a small colony of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world that was hit by a severe ice age. Their duty is to effectively manage both its infrastructure and citizens. The core gameplay will be brutal, challenging, and complex, but easy to learn. The citizens won’t just be speechless pieces on the board. Society members will issue demands and react accordingly to the current mood, so every decision and action bears consequences.

The players will decide the fate of their people. Will you treat them like another resource? Are you going to be an inspiring builder, a fearless explorer, or a bright scientist? Is your rule going to be a sting of tyranny or an era of law and equality?

The game is based on a bestseller video game by 11bit studios, the creators of This War Of Mine. The original (digital) edition of Frostpunk is a highly successful strategy-survival-city-builder, a BAFTA-nominee that originally launched in 2018.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • City Building
  • Cooperative
  • Economic
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 120 – 150 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.30

Cloudspire

Cloudspire

Cloudspire

Cloudspire is 1-4 player strategy game heavily influenced by both tower defense and MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games. Solo and Cooperative play are driven by a scenario book that chronicles the story of the game from the perspective of each individual faction. Players control one of four unique factions in a battle to destroy and steal source energy from their opponents. Send and defend against armies and minions, build towers to protect your base, and explore with your heroes in search of resources and powerful Relics to turn the tide of battle.

Taking place in the floating realm of Ankar, Cloudspire tells the story of a war to acquire a powerful and rare energy known only as “the source.” Every race has their own unique units and heroes as well as the ability to bid and draft mercenaries for hire.

Armies are placed either individually or in stacks to conceal powerful units until the last possible moments. Heroes, in the meantime, are controlled individually and may join the tide of battle or choose to explore points of interest in search of numerous resources. Meanwhile, the event deck regularly changes the terms of the fight, making every wave exciting and unpredictable.

As armies and minions approach opposing bases, they’ll need to contend with Spires – powerful defense towers that can be built around the board. Fight for control of build sites and acquire new spire schematics to build an impenetrable defense and hold off the enemy. Upgrade your home base to unlock new strategies and abilities. Level up your heroes and lead your armies into battle with advanced and upgraded skills!

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.33

Who Goes There? Deluxe Edition

Who Goes There? Deluxe Edition

Who Goes There? Deluxe Edition

Who Goes There? is a cooperative game of growing paranoia. At the beginning of the game, all players are human and there is no reason not to trust each other completely, but as the temperature drops and mistakes are made, players start doubting everything and everyone around them.

You must build, trade, and upgrade to prepare yourself for the Antarctic Terrain, rabid dog attacks, crazed madmen…and most importantly, the alien entity that is now loose in the camp. Everything you build and upgrade has one purpose…keeping you alive and human! During the entire game, you will want to trade with other players and help each other build stronger weapons and better equipment, while also passing food and med kits around. Although, make sure your trust them, since trade is a huge opportunity for The Thing.

Staying inside may keep you from freezing to Death, but it won’t help you or your fellow humans win. The only way to secure victory is by venturing out of the camp! The problem with that is, being away from camp is the number one way to come across The Thing…leaving you vulnerable and exposed to infection. Whether fixing the boiler, repairing the door, or fighting the frigid temperatures outside, you will all need one another to survive. But trust is a hard thing to come by when you must be wary of…Who Goes There?

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Role Playing

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • ~110 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.50

Spirit Island

Spirit Island

Spirit Island

In the most distant reaches of the world, magic still exists, embodied by spirits of the land, of the sky, and of every natural thing. As the great powers of Europe stretch their colonial empires further and further, they will inevitably lay claim to a place where spirits still hold power – and when they do, the land itself will fight back alongside the islanders who live there.

Spirit Island is a complex and thematic cooperative game about defending your island home from colonizing Invaders. Players are different spirits of the land, each with its own unique elemental powers. Every turn, players simultaneously choose which of their power cards to play, paying energy to do so. Using combinations of power cards that match a spirit’s elemental affinities can grant free bonus effects. Faster powers take effect immediately, before the Invaders spread and ravage, but other magics are slower, requiring forethought and planning to use effectively. In the Spirit phase, spirits gain energy, and choose how / whether to Grow: to reclaim used power cards, to seek for new power, or to spread presence into new areas of the island.

The Invaders expand across the island map in a semi-predictable fashion. Each turn they explore into some lands (portions of the island); the next turn, they build in those lands, forming settlements and cities. The turn after that, they ravage there, bringing blight to the land and attacking any native islanders present. The islanders fight back against the Invaders when attacked, and lend the spirits some other aid, but may not always do so exactly as you’d hoped. Some Powers work through the islanders, helping them (eg) drive out the Invaders or clean the land of blight.

The game escalates as it progresses: spirits spread their presence to new parts of the island and seek out new and more potent powers, while the Invaders step up their colonization efforts. Each turn represents 1-3 years of alternate-history. At game start, winning requires destroying every last settlement and city on the board – but as you frighten the Invaders more and more, victory becomes easier: they’ll run away even if some number of settlements or cities remain. Defeat comes if any spirit is destroyed, if the island is overrun by blight, or if the Invader deck is depleted before achieving victory.

The game includes different adversaries to fight against (eg: a Swedish Mining Colony, or a Remote British Colony). Each changes play in different ways, and offers a different path of difficulty boosts to keep the game challenging as you gain skill.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.05

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is a game created by Ignacy Trzewiczek, the author of Stronghold. This time Trzewiczek takes the players to a deserted island, where they’ll play the parts of shipwreck survivors confronted by an extraordinary adventure. They’ll be faced with the challenges of building a shelter, finding food, fighting wild beasts, and protecting themselves from weather changes. Building walls around their homes, animal domestication, constructing weapons and tools from what they find, and much more await them on the island. The players decide in which direction the game will unfold and – after several in-game weeks of hard work – how their settlement will look. Will they manage to discover the secret of the island in the meantime? Will they find a pirate treasure, or an abandoned village? Will they discover an underground city or a cursed temple at the bottom of a volcano? Answers to these questions lie in hundreds of event cards and hundreds of object and structure cards that can be used during the game…

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is an epic game from Portal. You will build a shelter, palisade, weapons, you will create tools like axes, knives, sacks, you will do everything you can to… to survive. You will have to find food, fight wild beasts, protect yourself from weather changes…

Take the role of one of four characters from the ship crew (cook, carpenter, explorer, or soldier) and face the adventure. Use your determination skills to help your teammates, discuss with them your plan, and put it into practice. Debate, discuss, and work on the best plan you all can make.

Search for treasures. Discover mysteries. Follow goals of six different, engaging scenarios. Start by building a big pile of wood and setting it on fire to call for help, and then start new adventures. Become an exorcist on cursed Island. Become a treasure hunter on Volcano Island. Become a rescue team for a young lady who’s stuck on rock island…

Let the adventure live!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Narrative Choice
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.80

In Too Deep

In Too Deep

In Too Deep

In Too Deep is a unique, narrative that thrusts you into the future in a tense, strategic board game for 1-5 players. Draft characters and spend actions to complete objectives and collect sets. What side of the law will you end up on?

In the year 2087, central governments have fallen. What remains are fragmented citystates like New Dawn City, struggling to keep chaos at bay. The sinister Syndicate targets these weakened cities for domination by usurping, organizing, and enhancing the existing criminal elements. In the world of In Too Deep, you are part of a secret agency dedicated to stopping the Syndicate at all costs.

Cybernetic implants give Syndicate operatives a technological advantage, but you have found a way to exploit that power. By infiltrating their cerebral upgrades, you can gain control of these criminals. Going deep undercover into the minds of your targets, you’ll coordinate crimes of escalating seriousness to get your hands on the critical evidence needed to foil the Syndicate’s looming plot.

Each turn, you can hook into a new criminal and manipulate their activities throughout the city, accessing powerful skills and increased stamina as you grow familiar with their minds. Your physical body is in a secret lab far from the actual action, but you are by no means safe. Entering the mind of criminals takes its toll on your morality.

Orchestrate crimes, strive to put the information you gather to the best use, wrestle with dangerously corrupting dilemmas, and try to hold yourself together. It will take everything you’ve got to avoid going In Too Deep.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.43

The Great Wall

The Great Wall

The Great Wall

The Great Wall is a new asymmetric worker/soldier placement game with engine building themes and a twist in form of a constantly attacking AI (Mongolian Horde) that requires players to sometimes cooperate in order to defeat it. This is a new major board game from Awaken Realms.

Players will control ancient clans in China trying to defend against invading Mongolian hordes and build a Great Wall. While every player will want to win (by earning VP = Honor) they also need to sometimes cooperate to defend against the hordes. Each clan will be asymmetric through its chosen Leader (resource production/starting resources/starting workers and units) and this asymmetry will increase as the game progresses (players will hire Advisors with unique skills, often creating unique engines).

In The Great Wall, the players take the role of Generals defending the Wall against the Mongol Horde. The game is played over a series of turns called Years, each divided into 4 parts called Seasons.

During Spring, new barbaric hordes invade the fields in front of the Great Wall and prepare to launch their assault. Summer is the time when generals prepare for the assault and mobilize their forces. During Fall, players take their turns, playing Command cards, resolving their effects and Activating Locations to gain various benefits. In Winter, the last layer of Defense is activated, then, the hordes try to assault the Walls.

During the course of the game, players will create their own unique engines based on their clan strength as well as interact with other players during all phases of the game, trying to get the most Honor points, which can be gained in a lot of different ways.

At the end of the game, the player with the most Honor wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Cooperative
  • Economic
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.85

Dungeon Degenerates

Dungeon Degenerates

Dungeon Degenerates

Dungeon Degenerates: Hand of Doom takes place in the Dark Fantasy Realm of the decaying Eastern Provinces of the Würstreich. Players take escaped criminal adventurers on unsavory missions through four distinct regions, each with their own monsters & encounters. As the players explore the Würstreich, danger levels rise continuously across the map. Players must complete their mission before the Hand of Doom descends on the board, unleashing evil magic on the land.

Dungeon Degenerates is for 1-4 players co-op. Players can form parties or split up throughout the game at will; there is no obligation to stick together. Game play is 1-3 hours based on mission. Dungeon Degenerates has an epic RPG campaign feel in an open world sandbox board game, and you bring your experience & items from previous missions. There are multiple missions & objectives of varying difficulty with multiple ways to approach each mission. Dungeon Degenerates is set in a cohesive & fixed world with multiple distinct regions which feature unique encounters & thematic monsters. Encounters allow multiple interaction choices; you do not have to fight everyone you see. Play features an open experience system allowing for character customization with new skills. You are always in danger – the town is not an artificial safe zone – combat is dangerous. There are various modes of travel – players cooperate to choose their route & pace, or split up & fend for themselves. Dungeon Degenerates features streamlined combat with tactical depth; each player rolls dice only once on their turn, using standard 6-sided dice only. There are over 100 monsters with unique abilities & artwork.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Role Playing

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 300 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.61