On boardgames

[Superfluous Crow]

So did any of you have experience with co-op games yourselves? Do you like them? dislike them? Do you know of any you'd recommend besides the ones mentioned here?

[Lmns Crn]

So did any of you have experience with co-op games yourselves? Do you like them? dislike them? Do you know of any you'd recommend besides the ones mentioned here?

You mean Arkham Horror-style "everybody vs. the system" types of games? I honestly don't have a lot of experience with those, but I'm intrigued by them.

Oh yeah, I recently got to play the German card game "Bohnanza", which was described (aptly, I think) as "Settlers of Catan, without the board". This game was a lot of fun, and has a lot of different strategic elements to deal with! Players are bean farmers trying to cash in big harvests by playing large amounts of the same kind of bean cards in the two "bean field" stacks in front of them, and there's a lot of value considerations about what to plant, whether to harvest earlier and free up a field or keep going in hopes of a bigger payoff with more cards, and how to trade cards with your opponents.

In a six-player game, I came in dead last (I'm a "has bean"), but I had a boatload of fun in the process.

[Superfluous Crow]

Yeah, I think I've heard of that. Tried some kind of Star Wars/sci-fi adaptation of it, but that isn't recommendable. Kind of missed the point...

If you want to try a co-op game, you should try and get your hands on the previously mentioned Ghost Stories. Very sweet game. Otherwise get Red November, it's a fair bit cheaper and can take more players.  

Also got around to trying Dungeon Lords this saturday which is exactly what it sounds like: the boardgame equivalent of the dungeon keeper video game, where you build dungeons and traps, hire monsters, and fend of adventurers. It's a surprisingly deep game with a hell of a lot of tactical elements to take into consideration. Do you want to risk playing your trap card late so you might get the free trap? Do you risk not being able to play the card the next round? Do you dare pay the evil cost of the vampire as it brings you close to attracting the paladin? Can you come up with the optimal way of using monsters/traps to fend of the adventurers?
the list keeps on going. There are two phases and two turns (years). The first phase is the preparation phase where the players each season bid in on three of the activities (gather food, spawn imps, dig tunnels, mine gold etc.). The order in which they bid determines the cost, so you have to judge who bids on what when to get the most beneficial payment.
Then at the end of the year the adventurers strike and try to conquer your dungeon room by room, and you'll have to spend traps and monsters to kill them while taking into account that rogues reduce trap damage, priests heal combat damage and wizards activate event cards.  
It's not co-op, so each dungeon lord has his own dungeon and tries to scrounge points and titles together to win the game.

[Superfluous Crow]

For those who are interested, the 2nd edition of Betrayal at House on the Hill will be out next week! Although buying this game will require you to break any trade embargos you have in place against Wizards of the Coast, I can readily recommend this game (since it's pretty similar to the old out-of-print game by all accords). It's plenty fun, although you might be disappointed if you are only on the look-out for highly tactical games.

[Elemental_Elf]

I really enjoy Space Hulk and I've heard good things about Ravenloft.