How to Get Along: Pandemic

Did you ever fight with your siblings? Ya, me neither (rolls eyes). Did your parents ever say anything to you like, “Can’t you kids just get along?” Well, let me introduce you to cooperative games AKA co-op games.

I’m sure someone somewhere can do some research on the internet and find the earliest cooperative game. But the first major published co-op that still remains the top co-op game today for most gamers is called Pandemic.

Since then, the co-op genre has taken off. Games such as Forbidden Island (probably the most simple co-op game), Shadows over Camelot (which included a potential traitor), Letters from Whitechapel (one verses the group), Arkham Horror (a role playing style co-op game), and The Lord of the Rings Card game (the first co-op card game) have continued to move this genre in a great direction.

What is so appealing about cooperative games? The first thing is being able to work together on a game. When you have players like me who do everything 100%, things can occasionally get tense around the game board. Cooperative games allow people to work together instead of against each other. 

A second positive aspect of cooperative games is that they can be gateway games (see post #2). Gateway games are important because they get more people interested in the hobby who may not otherwise be interested. There are many games I could pull off the shelf to play with a first time gamer and crush him simply because I know the game well and have a strategy worked out already.  But that is not much fun for the other person.  Co-op games allow the reluctant first-time gamer to have a good experience working with the group to win the game.

Basic Review: Back in 2008, Z-Man Games released this copy of Pandemic. It is so popular that it is on its second print. Pandemic is a game for 2-4 players, ages 10+ and takes about 45 minutes to play. Setup is minimal. The rulebook is only 8 pages long. I’ve played many a game with thirty to forty page rule books. Pandemic is easy to learn, but difficult to master!

The theme of the game is that diseases have broken out in three countries around the world. If you don’t find a cure quickly, these diseases will break out into a pandemic around the world and kill man kind. You start as a character (dispatcher, operation expert, scientist, medic or researcher). Each character moves around the world attempting to help heal people and find cures for the diseases. Each character has special skills to help accomplish this goal. 

I do believe that Pandemic and co-op games in general have a few minor downfalls. These downfalls don’t make me stop playing these games.  But you should be aware of them as you make your first foray into cooperative gaming.

The first downfall is the discouragement of losing to the board rather than a fellow human being.  I admit that this can be quite disheartening.  But, at the same time, I like a challenge.  Pandemic played at the most difficult level is very hard to beat! 

The second downfall is that there can be what we call an “alpha gamer”. This is someone with a type A personality who tells everyone else how to play their turn. They often enjoy winning more than making sure everyone else is having fun. I am a type A personality and can be tempted to go down this road. But if everyone is going to have fun, everyone needs to play the game. Suggestions should be given, but everyone should be allowed to play their own hand.

Now, here is what I love about Pandemic. This game is intense. The theme of attempting to save the world from deadly disease really gets you into the game. The game can get ahead of you very quickly if you do not make the right moves as the disease spreads throughout the world. So this keeps you on your toes and interested in every move of the game.

I also love that the game has a blind draw. There are “epidemic” cards distributed throughout the draw deck. There are 4, 5, or 6 of them depending on how challenging you would like the game to be. If you chose to put four “epidemic” cards in the draw deck, you would break the deck into fourths.  Each fourth would have the epidemic card shuffled into it. You do not know when they are going to come up, so sometimes you risk attempting to save one country while you should be preparing for another epidemic.

If you enjoy board games at all I would highly recommend this game. If you are looking for something a little lighter I would recommend picking up Forbidden Island. Hopefully you can get along with all your fellow gamers. Enjoy.

Where to find Games: Carcassonne

If you are still reading these posts, I hope it means that I have piqued your interest in this hobby.  So the next logical questions is, "Where can I get some of these games?"   Most of your big box retailers only want to sell big name games that make them big money in the main stream.  Whether you think that is good or bad, that is the way things are.   So when you go to your big box retailer, you may find dozens of games, but you may not find the types of games featured on this blog.

Here's the good news. With the growing popularity of gaming, some big stores are slowly starting to sell these games too. We are beginning to see the gateway games (read post two) at these stores. But as you move to heavier games, those stores probably will not sufic. 

The very best place to buy games is a local game store. When you develop a relationship with a small, local business you will experience the best customer service out there.  Most game stores also run game nights (try before you buy) and tournaments.  You will also get first hand reviews and feedback from shop owners, shop workers, and other customers.  If you are going to drop $30-$50 you want to be mostly sure that you will enjoy a particular game.  So find a local store.  Gaming is a great community to be a part of. 

Alas, with online retailing, these stores are starting to disappear.  

To give a personal example, I live in the Northeastern part of Pennsylvania. We used to have a game store in Scranton. The owner encouraged game play in the store.  He had a stack of open games for this purpose.  He even let us borrow a few if my wife and I just dropped in to browse.  He also began to know my tastes based on the games I purchased and made excellent recommendations.

If you don't have a game store the next best place to go is the internet.  The main place I now find my games is Amazon.com. Items have customer reviews to help you choose a good game. But there are companies who can actually beat Amazon in price or reviews like coolstuffinc.com and other websites. It's like anything else, you need to look around.

You can also go to boardgamegeek.com to find games. Type in a game title and it will give you the cheapest place to find that game. Also remember to consider the cost of shipping in your price.

Quick Review: Carcassonne

The first time I walked into our local store I asked the owner what to buy. He handed me Carcassonne. Carcassonne is a tile laying game. There is almost no set up since the set up is part of the game.  

This game is for 2-5 players ages 8 and up and takes about 45 minutes. Players take turns to lay one tile at a time to build the board. Tiles connect to make roads, cities, monasteries, and farm fields. Players then place Meeples on the board as thieves, knights, priests, or farmers. Meeple (Me+people): any small piece that is placed on the game board to represent you.  (I'm really expanding your vocabulary now!) 

Gateway Games: Ticket to Ride

Upon entering the board gaming hobby one could be overwhelmed very quickly. The website boardgamegeek.com is all about gaming. It lists over 66,000 board games! So the question is, where do you start if you think you might enjoy gaming?

Well, lets talk about game mechanics.  This simply means the way the different parts of the game operate and relate to each other.  For instance, bidding on, trading for, or collecting resources;  worker placement; and resource management are all examples of mechanics. Overwhelmed yet?  Hang in there with me.

Games range from "light" to "heavy" by what type and how many of mechanics are involved in a single game. Some games are often referred to as "gateway games." These are the "light" games.  They are fun, short in duration, and easy to learn.  They have only a few mechanics at work at the same time.  "Heavy" games tend to have many complicated mechanics working in layers all at once (*cough, cough, Civilization).   If you started playing games like this, you might be overwhelmed or confused by the directions.  Stating with light games allows you to learn new mechanics a few at a time and work you way up to enjoying the heavy stuff.  TIP: If the rule book has an index, it is probably a heavy game.

When I introduce someone new to the hobby, I start with my gateway games. If you played dozens of games, you may not be as interested in these. But I often enjoy the simplicity of them. More than that I enjoy when someone else gets excited about this hobby.

So without further ado, I will recommend and review one of my favorite "gateway" games.

Quick Reivew: Ticket to Ride
There are several variations of this game, but I would suggest buying the original game. My copy, which is several years old, says that over 1.1 million copies have sold. So this is a very popular gateway game.

This game appeals to me for many reasons. One, I love trains (Theme is important and will be the subject of a later post).  Interestingly, no matter where I go, I have always lived within two miles of working or old train tracks.  In this game, players attempt to visit as many cities in the continental US as possible.  You draw "ticket" cards and attempt to cover the route shown on the card with you color train cars.

The original game is for 2-5 players. It is for ages 8 and up and only takes about 30-60 minutes to play. You will find that it is very easy to lean, the set up is very simple, and that you will be playing it for years to come.


Here are a few other gateway games to get you started.  Happy Gaming!
 Carcassonne - to be reviewed next
 Mystery of the Abbey
 Dominion
 Bohnanza (the bean game)

Where It All Started: The Settlers of Catan

A couple years ago my wife and I were visiting with another family and looking for something fun to do.  They pulled out a board game. The game was called Settlers of Catan. I had never heard of such a game. At that time my knowledge of board games was probably the same as yours. It consisted of monopoly, clue, mad gab, phase ten, and a couple other games.

This game introduced a new and fascinating hobby for me. You will soon see why "board gaming" or simply "gaming" is considered a hobby.  Anyway, back to Catan. This game came to the USA in 1995 from Germany.  It is considered a European style game or "Eurogame".

We soon purchased our own copy and played it incessantly for months.  I would guess within a month or two, we played it over 100 times. I take very good care of my board games. Most of them have seen more action than it would appear. But my Settlers of Catan box is definitely beginning to show some wear.

Quick Review:   This blog will include brief reviews of the game that gives source to our topic.  But I will mostly focus on what gaming is all about and why people game. There are many places to find in depth reviews and even video reviews of these games if you are interested.

The Settlers of Catan is for 3-4 players ages 10 and up.  Play last for approximately and hour.  There is alos an "expansion pack" available that allows for up to six players. (Later posts will discuss expansion packs).

What I like most about Catan is the fact that you can play it over and over but the game will always be different.   This is because the board is not fixed.  It is composed of  hexagonal pieces that can be shuffled and placed in various order. One cannot use the exact same strategy every time. The goal of the game is to be the first to score 10 points by building settlements, cities, and possibly and army. Players collect resources such as wood, sheep, brick, ore, and wheat to build these things.

If you are new to board gaming, I would highly recommend picking up this game. Currently we have about 50 or so board games in our house. (Yes, that is a bit obsessive, but I will address this in another post). Some gamers have begun to downplay Settlers because it is old, and the mechanics have been expanded on in so many other games. I still like to pull out Settlers at least once or twice a year. It is what I would call "an oldie but a goodie".  It is a staple to anyone's collection.