board game review: pandemic

I'm the kind of person that is not fun to play board games with.
I know because I've been told.
Anything based on luck or chance, I hate.
Anything super competitive makes me a grouch.
I can never roll the number I need or turn up the card I'm looking for.
Never bring out Risk around me.
It may make me hate you.

My husband is a bit of a nerd, which is awesome.
{For the record, he claims I am a nerd, too... As if.}
Since he prefers to keep me around {yay!}, he's been looking into cooperative board games.
We have a couple now, and I'm much more fun to be with when we play those games together.

The other night we brought Pandemic to our friends' place.

Basically each person in the group is given different abilities and works together to find a cure for four diseases that are threatening to wipe out humanity.
Strategizing {not a word apparently?} is fun because everyone thinks of or notices different things on the board.
It's really difficult!
But working together, you feel like you're accomplishing something at least.
And I'm happy to announce that today...we won!
Yes, we've only been playing on the "Easy" level, but hey.
I think it would even be a fun game if you have older kids.
If you're interested, you can watch a pretty good run-through of the game. 

Another one we've been playing is an iPad app called Forbidden Island.

Of the six or so times we've tried, we've won only once.
So also a difficult game!
You are trying to collect four monuments on an island and fly them (and yourself!) to safety before it sinks.
You have limited movement abilities and only three actions to make.
The "water rises" quickly!
Spaces are sinking constantly.
That time we won was so satisfying...
But it's fun and it's only five bucks so it's worth a shot.

Happy game night!
- Amanda