Games We Play ~ Cooperative Games

I didn't really think that there would be a type of game that I enjoyed playing more than dice games, but that was before I started playing cooperative games.  These things are awesome! Instead of playing against the other player(s)  you are playing together against the game itself.  Love it. 

First cooperative game we got was Pandemic. The object of the game is to cure and eradicate the four diseases before they take over the world.  Each player has a special power that will help you along the way, but then again the game is working against you.  As I said above, there is one way to win the game - you must cure and eradicate all four of the diseases.  But to *lose* the game, maybe you run out of disease cubes of any given color, or you draw one too many epidemic cards and the epidemic rate goes off the scale, or if we reach too many infections and the infection rate goes off the scale.  Toward the end of the game things can get a little stressful lol.

The only complaint I have about this game is the make over the second edition got.  The little plastic disease cubes are cool and all, but the colors on the blue and black disease cards look just about identical...not cool...Also the color on a couple of the pawns is a bit close so it can get confusing sometimes if those two pawns are in play.  

You can see the game in play on TableTop here .

 

The second cooperative game we have is called Forbidden Island.  After we got Pandemic I really wanted to get another cooperative game and this is what we ended up deciding on.  This one is a bit more straight forward and a bit quicker of a game to play.  The object of the game is to collect all of the relics before the island sinks.  Once again there is one way to win the game but several ways to loose it...if Fools Landing (the helicopter pad) sinks, you have no way off the island and you loose, if all of the pathways leading to fools landing sinks, you have no way off the island and you loose, if the water level rises too high...you loose.  Also as with Pandemic each character gets special abilities to give the players a fighting chance against the island. 

Love this game, the relic pieces and cards are sturdy and the art work on the cards are really beautiful, no complaints here. 

See the game being played on TableTop here. 

I'm now addicted to these types of games.  We have only played these games with two players, I'm sure it would greatly change the dynamic of the game playing with more people, but it works great with just two.  It's fun to be bouncing ideas off each other and working together to get to a common goal.  We will definitely be getting more of these types of games to play!

Games We Play - Dice Games

I am pretty much in love with dice games.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE games in general, but with dice games we can sit down after a long day and just play a couple of rounds, throw the dice back in the box and get on to bed.  They (mostly) don't require a lot of set up and (mostly) don't require a lot of brain power which is especially awesome after a long, stressful, exhausting day.  

While looking for games to keep us occupied while waiting in line at PAX I came across my first TableTop Episode, it happened to be This One which showcased Tsuro, Get Bit and Zombie Dice.  We decided not only that Zombie Dice would be awesome for line waiting, but we had to run out and get these games the next day.  Essentially that episode of TableTop is what set us of on this game playing journey :) 

But anyway, I digress.  This post is, after all supposed to be about the games we play, not what got us started playing them. 

So on to Zombie Dice this game is super simple to play, skill level is low,  learning curve is basically zero and it is most definitely not a cooperative game.  The idea is that, well, brains are good!  You like to roll brains!  Runners you re-roll, so they are the neutral party.  Shotgun blasts are bad, three blasts and you are gone AND you loose all your brains, stop rolling before you get to that point :) 

This is a pretty well played game for us, we probably play it at least once a week.  Plus it's pretty portable so I throw it in my purse when we go out on date nights, it's nice to have something we can play so we don't end up both playing on our phones for half the night!

The next game is called Pig, though I've been trying to come up with a new name for it since the Pig game we usually play is a card game we play with my Mom-in-Law.  But anyway this game is also super easy with no learning curve.  The rules of the game are simple, be the first to get above 100 and you win.  You can roll as many times as you want before you stop, but make sure you stop before you roll a 1, if you roll a 1 and your turn is over and you don't get any points, roll snake eyes and you loose all points you have collected up to that point.  

The first time we played this we played with normal six sided dotted dice, but I decided it would be more interesting to play with some different dice so I pulled out some others.  The hardest part about this game is adding up the points when your exhausted, other than that it's great fun! It will be an excellent one to introduce to the girls for number recognition and counting.  

The last game here I got as a mother's day gift, and I love it!  This one takes a bit more thinking and effort and is a bit more involved than the other two but it's still easy to play and it's loads of fun (though Hubby will disagree with that statement since I kicked his butt...).  Essentially you are rolling the dice in this game to build Roads, Settlements, Cities and Armies.  Now neither Hubby nor I have ever played any of the variations of the board game of Settlers of Catan so we didn't know really what we needed to build any of these items so it took us a while to figure out what we actually had or needed with each roll.  It took us about 40 minutes to play instead of the suggested 15-20 minutes on the box.  

I like this one the best of the three I think.  It's got just enough extra that it's not just about the luck of the roll, but also it's not so involved that we can't just play a quick game after we put the girls in bed and before we go to bed ourselves.

When I was researching this game I found that a lot of people out there don't really like it, but mostly they are people who had already played and love the full version of Catan.  Never having played that version I didn't have anything to compare the dice against.  I think in the future we will absolutely be adding Settlers of Catan to our collection, but I think this will still get more play time since it's a) quick and b) portable.  Love those portable games.

(Pint Size) Games We Play - The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel

For Mother's Day I got two games ;) one to play with the girls (The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel)  and one for hubby and me to play (Catan Dice).  So far we've only been able to play Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, but the girls are addicted :) 

The game itself is beautiful and very vintage looking.  Everything is nice and sturdy and, well, just plain adorable.  To play the game you spin the spinner and it lands on an option to use the squirrel tongs to take nuts from the tree or from another player, skip a turn, or (much to C's horror) have all your nuts blown back into the tree.  

This is an excellent game for the little ones, it's great for color recognition and motor skills and the spinner is fun!  Plus it helps to start teaching them how to loose gracefully...or at least not throw a tantrum if all the nuts they collected get blown back into the tree or they have to miss a turn...

Final Verdict?  LOVE this game, it has already made it into our nightly rotation.  It's a game that kids and adults can both play and nobody gets bored :) 

Games We Play - Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries

We recently picked up Ticket to Ride, Nordic Countries and the verdict?  Love it but it's going to take some getting used to :)

The first time I ever heard of Ticket to Ride was on an episode of Tabletop (seen here), then we borrowed it from the PAX library and played it there at PAX.  I really liked it then, but it seemed to be a game that a) took a while to play and b) needed more than two players to really have a good time playing.  Which will be great when the girls are old enough to play, but not so much right now. 

But then we were browsing games at the Comic Book store and I found Ticket to Ride, Nordic Countries.  This version of Ticket to Ride is specifically designed to be played by 2-3 people.  I opened the box expecting it to be pretty much the same as the original version but smaller and with Nordic Destinations, that expectation was kind of quashed the second we started setting up and reading the directions. 

First thing I noticed was the board doesn't read from left to right but from top to bottom.  Cool, but confusing when trying to find destinations lol.  Then they also add in the concept of Ferries and Tunnels which are a great addition to the game, but most of the first part of the game is spent building up your hand so you get all the locomotives you need to purchase a ferry route or building up the colors in your hand to lay down a tunnel route. 

All in all it's a pretty great game for a small game night or even a stay at home date night, It's slow to start while you are building up your hand but once everything gets going it goes fast, about 20-25 minutes in all. Last time we were really getting used to the board and special routes, but next time I think we will start getting a bit more competitive.