When it helps to cooperate … well, sort of

There are a number of gamers out there who refuse to play cooperative games. I get it … if you’re going to spend hours playing a game, you want there to be one clear winner, preferably yourself. I myself don’t mind some cooperative games (you all know I have much love for Arkham Horror).

But recently I’ve gotten a chance to play a few games under the “One winner but we can all lose” variety. It would fall under semi-cooperative but I don’t particularly like labeling it as that as it can mean games with hidden roles and traitors, such as Battlestar Galactica, another game I love, love playing.

CO2 is one such game where we can all lose if we don’t work together, but of course, you’re still trying to get the most victory points. In this game, we are all companies trying to propose, install and build clean-energy power plants in six regions of the world. The goal of the game is to stop the pollution while making money on the clean-energy power plants you build. You can also score victory points from U.N. goals.

The game is played through six decades, and as each decade progresses, polluting power plants pop up on the board. If too many of these plants come up, the pollution level increases and everybody loses. An interesting mechanic to the game is that just because you propose a plant or install it, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to build it. Some other player can come in and take over the next step and reap its benefits before it’s your turn again. This is where some level of cooperation comes in. The goal is to build clean-energy plants and if people are stalling to move toward that process, then the pollution level just keeps increasing and then game over.

Another such game that falls into this category is Archipelago. In this game, you are exploring the Pacific and trying to harvest resources, build buildings, and buy and sell goods. Meanwhile, the natives want to be employed and happy. If this doesn’t happen, then an uprising will occur and everybody will lose. The cooperation comes when players have the option to use resources make the natives happy. There is also another mechanic potential backstabbing, depending on the game version played.

There’s this interesting thread on boardgamegeek.com called “Watching the Archipelago burn … does this make me a jerk? where people discuss the merits of trying to get compensated for spending the resources needed to save the archipelago. It’s quite amusing. One last thing: You also have a hidden agenda that you’re trying to achieve. It’s important to achieve this first, or at least guess what others’ agendas are, because when a goal is achieved, the scoring of resources will be determined by that agenda. So, for example, if you were saving up wood to score for your hidden agenda, and somebody else reveals, his or her agenda might be scoring exploration tokens. Thus you might not get any victory points.

Lastly, I randomly got a chance to play the new game Homeland, based on the popular TV show. It has a similar mechanic to Battlestar Galactica, in terms of hidden roles and skill checks to resolve crisis cards, but all the crisis cards are laid out on this board in order of imminent danger. On your turn, you can add positive or negative value Intel cards to various crisis cards and then they get resolved.

What’s interesting about this game is there are three types of roles for players: Loyal Agent, Political Opportunist and Terrorist Mole. The Political Opportunist role is somewhat like a terrorist sympathizer; he or she gains influence by terrorist activity. That third role gives the game an interesting dynamic because then you’re not really sure who the terrorist is. This game isn’t totally under the “One winner but we can all lose” type, but it shows that the game isn’t just about good vs. evil. There’s a murky grey middle.

The game ends when enough crisis cards are resolved to fill up the terrorist or CIA track. I had a lot of fun playing this game. My only beef is that the stacks of Intel cards on top of the crisis cards can get a little messy, but otherwise, it’s a solid game. Plus, it plays about 90 minutes, which makes it more accessible to more types of gamers.