Rant: fantasy co-op games are just spreadsheets with orc art, give me a dry euro any day
I finally admitted this to myself after game night at my buddy Dave's place in Akron last Friday. We sat down for a 4 player co-op campaign thing, and 3 hours later we had taken maybe 11 turns total, because every single one turned into a 20 minute argument about whether the healer should move two spaces or three. The whole time I kept thinking, this is just a spreadsheet with orc art slapped on top, and the spreadsheet is winning. Compare that to Brass: Birmingham, which we played the week before, where I knew exactly what I was doing, my turns took 90 seconds, and I still lost by 14 points and had a blast doing it. In the euro, every choice was mine and the game just quietly punished me for the bad ones. In the co-op, the game punished us with homework, and one guy at the table basically ran the whole thing like a manager while the rest of us nodded. I am not saying co-ops are bad, Gloomhaven earned its hype, but I am done pretending the bloated ones are fun. So what is it, do you actually enjoy the group problem solving, or are you also just sitting there waiting for your one turn every 40 minutes?
Spreadsheet with orc art slapped on top" is perfect, we spent 45 minutes last month arguing about who grabs a stupid treasure chest. Give me a dry euro where a bad call is mine alone to make in 10 seconds.