... to post that this weekend, I only went and saved the whole world. No biggie :-)
One of my brother-in-laws is properly expert in board games and is a goldmine of fantastic recommendations. It had never really occurred to me that there are certain things that make a game successful, in particular getting every player to the end without giving up or losing interest. Which explains my absolute hatred of playing Monopoly which I can set myself up to lose within 5 minutes and then spend the next hour of my life watching the slow attrition of everything I own being taken away by the bank.
Amongst the games we now have in our stash is Pandemic, in which four or five players work together to save the world from global disaster. It really is non competitive and the four of us spent an hour really debating how each of us in turn could do our bit to make sure disaster was contained and then cured.
And yes, we did work our way through a fair few snacks to keep our strength up on the way!
I'd say it is best for older children or adults as the rules are a bit detailed, but quite straightforward once you have worked through a couple of turns. Then you just keep going until either you win, or the disaster does.
A similar one is Scotland Yard where you work together to catch a spy,
but that's saved for another weekend!
