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The Best Co-operative Board Games, Ever

The Best Co-operative Board Games, Ever

Co-operative board games

Enjoy playing board games but you're terrible at losing?

Yeah, me too.

If you haven't yet played co-operative board games, you need to! It's all the fun of the playing without the tears and tantrums at the end.

In case you don't know where to begin, we've picked the best ever co-operative board games (in our humble opinion). Grab the #squad and get your dice ready - it's team time!

 

Co-operative games for families

Got young kids? Older kids? Adults who act like kids? These top co-operative board games for families deliver on all bases: fun, team-orientated, and no sore losers when Dad throws a tantrum at the end.

 

Mysterium co-operative board game for family

Mysterium

A firm favourite in the Rules of Play realm, the family co-op board game Mysterium asks players to work together and try to unlock an ancient mystery... A ghost has appeared in your mansion, and needs your help figuring out who killed him and why, using illustrative cards and cooperation...

MORE INFO ABOUT MYSTERIUM

 

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective cooperative board game

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective

In Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, you are presented with a mystery to solve, and it is then up to you to trace the threads of evidence through the byways and mansions of nineteenth century London by working together as a crack team of expert investigators.

MORE INFO ABOUT SHERLOCK HOLMES

 

Pandemic board game for the family

Pandemic

The stalwart of cooperative family board games, Pandemic pits your team against a world-ending plague! Players must work together to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while trying to find cures. Pandemic is a truly co-operative game where you all win or you all lose.

MORE INFO ABOUT PANDEMIC

 

Pandemic Legacy cooperative game

Pandemic Legacy

By a stroke of unbelievable luck, you've mastered Pandemic. What's next, you ask? Pandemic Legacy, of course! Unlike in Pandemic, actions taken in one game of Pandemic Legacy affect all future games. Characters will change. Some may be lost. Heroes will emerge. And, of course, there are the diseases, which start under control, but soon...

Available in both red and blue.

MORE INFO ABOUT PANDEMIC LEGACY

 

Hanabi cooperative game

Hanabi

Hanabi is the card game where players work co-operatively to launch a spectacular firework display. Hanabi is simple – put coloured firework cards in order from 1 to 5 in front of you. If you don't have a card, don't worry, as an opponent probably does and you're all working together. Here's the twist – you don't know your cards, and can only see your opponents'! 

MORE INFO ABOUT HANABI

 

Co-operative games for kids

Teaching kids teamwork at a young age is crucial - when aliens take over our Earth, they'll be able to work together in battle to overthrow Captain Zorg! These co-operative kids games teach the values of unity and helping out your fellow friends.

 

City of Zombies cooperative game for kids

City of Zombies

City of Zombies is a co-operative, dice-based intense team survival game. Players combine dice and use maths sums to target and remove zombies from an ever-advancing horde before their barricade is overrun. Brraaainnnsss! Divisssiooonnnn! MULTIPLICATIOOONN!

MORE INFO ABOUT CITY OF ZOMBIES

 

Castle Panic cooperative board game for kids

Castle Panic

Castle Panic is a great cooperative board game for kids, where keeping your castle protected is the aim of the game! Without working together you'll be overpowered by the wicked orcs and thundering giants, and the game will be lost. Survive and you all win together, and the best monster-crusher earns the title of Master Slayer! Isn't that something cool to put on your CV!

MORE INFO ABOUT CASTLE PANIC

 

Forbidden Island cooperative kids board game

Forbidden Island

Created by the same genius who brought us Pandemic, Forbidden Island is a co-operative game where you work with the other players to try and collect treasures before the island goes underwater. Teamwork ensures you survive and the beauty of the board makes you want to play again. 

MORE INFO ABOUT FORBIDDEN ISLAND

 

Forbidden Desert board game for kids

Forbidden Desert

In the board game Forbidden Desert, a thematic sequel to Forbidden Island, players take on the roles of brave adventurers who must throw caution to the wind and survive both blistering heat and blustering sand and work together co-operatively in order to recover a legendary flying machine buried under an ancient desert city.

MORE INFO ABOUT FORBIDDEN DESERT

 

Co-operative games for game geeks

When we say 'geeks', we mean it in the loveliest way! If you've played all the games above and you're ready for a challenge, these difficult co-operative games will test you and your mates to the limit.

 

Dead of Winter buy UK

Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter puts players in a small, weakened colony of survivors in a world where most of humanity is either dead or diseased, flesh-craving monsters. Players are working together toward one common victory condition — but for each individual player to achieve victory, they must also complete their personal secret objective in this frozen zombie wasteland.

MORE INFO ABOUT DEAD OF WINTER

 

Eldritch Horror cooperative board game

Eldritch Horror

You and your trusted circle of colleagues must travel around the world, working against all odds to hold back the approaching horror. Foul monsters, obscure mysteries, and brutal challenges will take you to your limit and beyond. Do you have the courage to take on Eldritch Horror and prevent global destruction?

MORE INFO ABOUT ELDRITCH HORROR

 

Betrayal cooperative board game

Betrayal at House on the Hill

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a tile game that allows players to build their own haunted house room by room, tile by tile, creating a new thrilling game board every time. Secretly, one of the characters betrays the rest of the party, and the innocent members of the party must defeat the traitor in their midst before it’s too late!

MORE INFO ABOUT BETRAYAL AT HOUSE ON THE HILL

 

Battlestar Galactica cooperative board game

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is a game of sheer survival that relies on teamwork. Desperately try to stay alive whilst Cylons attack your ship and wipe you from the face of the galaxy, but beware! Amongst your midst is a Cylon, fiendishly manipulative and lying in wait to meddle with your plans. Make it to Earth and you'll be just fine, but those Cylons are bad eggs, trying to bring you down!

MORE INFO ABOUT BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

 

Sentinels of the Multiverse co-operative board game

Sentinels of the Multiverse

A mad scientist holds the world hostage with his terrifying inventions. A giant rampaging robot is destroying major population centers. And who will stand in their way? One team of heroes stands between the world and the forces of evil. Will you help them? Answer the call and become one of the Sentinels of the Multiverse!

MORE INFO ABOUT SENTINELS OF THE MULTIVERSE

 

Zombicide cooperative board game

Zombicide

Zombicide is a collaborative game in which players take the role of a survivor – each with unique abilities – and harness both their skills and the power of teamwork against the hordes of unthinking undead! Zombies are predictable. Unfortunately for you, there are a LOT more zombies than you have bullets.

MORE INFO ABOUT ZOMBICIDE

 

Shadows of Brimstone cooperative board game

Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients

Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients is a fast-paced, fully co-operative, dungeon-crawl board game set in the Old West, with a heavy dose of unspeakable horror thown in for good measure! Forming a posse, the Heroes venture down into the dark mines, overrun with all manner of ancient demons and foul creatures from another world. 

MORE INFO ABOUT CITY OF THE ANCIENTS

 

Fortune and Glory cooperative board game

Fortune and Glory

Fortune and Glory is a fast-paced co-operative game of high adventure, vile villains, edge-of-your-seat danger, and cliffhanger pulp movie action. Players take on the role of a treasure hunter, traveling the globe in search of ancient artifacts and fending off danger and villains at every turn in a quest for the ultimate reward of fortune and glory!

MORE INFO ABOUT FORTUNE AND GLORY

 

Legends of Andor cooperative board games UK

Legends of Andor

'Legends of Andor is Pandemic with a fantasy twist' - Dyfed, a Rules of Play elf

Legends of Andor is a cooperative adventure board game in which a band of heroes must work together to defend a fantasy realm from invading hordes. To secure Andor’s borders, the heroes will embark on dangerous quests in one of five unique scenarios. Will the heroes roam the land completing quests in the name of glory, or devote themselves to the defense of the realm?

MORE INFO ABOUT LEGENDS OF ANDOR

 

We hope you enjoyed our co-operative board game ideas! However you play them, just remember... There's no I in team!

#squadgoals


For personal games advice, ask us a question on Twitter, Facebook, or pop into our store at 29 Castle Arcade, Cardiff.

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Comments

Jamie - July 24, 2016

Excellent list :) A good co-operative game should be “We succeed together, or we fall together”. I recently played Eldritch Horror and lost spectaularly.

I really want to sink my teeth into Sherlock Holmed: CD but I’m unsure if it’s worth it for a limited play-time. Feel free to perduade me :)

Joe Boyle - July 21, 2016

What? No Robinson Crusoe?

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