Forbidden Desert board game

My family knows me well.  For Mother’s Day I received some graphic novels and a board game.  I also didn’t have to cook or clean at all that day, it made for a happy Mommy. We’ve been looking for games that my daughter would enjoy, she doesn’t like the competitive aspect of many board games, and so we’ve been building up a collection of cooperative board games, and our newest addition is the Forbidden Desert board game.

Of course that night we broke out our brand new game and played it, meet Forbidden Desert Board Game*.

{This post contains affiliate links.  For more information read my disclosure page}

What is Forbidden Desert?

Forbidden Desert is a cooperative game, which means you are all working together to win, and it’s hard!  You and your friends were flying off to find a cool new archeological site when your airship crash-landed in the desert, now we need to find our missing pieces and rebuild the ship BEFORE we are buried by sand or die of thirst.

Future Ticia 2023 has realized I need to create a landing page for these types of games, so I can say if you like this type of game, check out these games…

It’s also a bit of a resource management game because you have a certain number of resources (special gear, water, and special abilities) that you have to manage carefully to play well.

Also because then I could switch that link from the cooperative and resource management tags to an actual post…

How to play Forbidden Desert

The tiles are laid out in a grid with an empty space in the middle (that space will move), you all start on the same space, and each has a specific job.  We have to explore the area to find our pieces and scavenge any tools we might find and water to drink.

On your turn, you can perform a few actions:

1. unbury tiles
2. move
3. explore tiles
4. pick up items
5. perform your special ability

You see that last one, that is vitally important, everyone needs to use their ability as much as possible.

At the end of your turn, you draw storm cards to see what the storm does.

About these jobs in Forbidden Desert

There are 6 possible jobs in Forbidden Desert:

1. Water carrier- this person can deliver water to people and get water from a well, they need to do this as often as possible
2. Archeologist- they are great at digging and can remove 2 sand tiles at a turn
3. Climber- can move to blocked tiles AND take people with him
4. Explorer- moves diagonally, this is more powerful than it seems
5. Meteorologist- is able to look at storm cards or draw fewer cards (this seems to be the weakest person)
6. Navigator- can move people up to 3 tiles away (very powerful)

We are still working on mastering this game, we have yet to win it, but it is clear you must use your job often.  We just haven’t figured out how to best do this, yet.  Emphasis on yet.

Drawing the storm cards at the end of your turn on Forbidden Desert

Those storm cards can be brutal.  At the end of each turn, you draw a number of storm cards depending on how bad the storm is.  There are three different types.

1. Storm picks up- you move the difficulty meter up, which means you might be drawing more cards later
2. Sun beats down- everyone takes a drink, if anyone is out of water, then they die and the game is over
3. Storm movement- you orient the card correctly and move the number of tiles shown in that direction, each tile you move gets sand on it, this could result in the tile being buried.  If there is no tile to move in that location, you breathe a sigh of relief that you’re not going to die yet.

Once a tile has two sand on it, it is considered buried and you can’t move on it, it can still get more sand, but it might take several turns to unbury it.

Tips and Tricks for Forbidden Desert

The navigator needs to move people as much as possible to get them around the board.  It may not be fun, but it’s a good way to discover as many tiles as possible.

The archeologist really needs to be digging as much as possible, they also need to find the tunnels to be able to hide in them just in case the sun beats down cards, they have the least amount of water.

Honestly, we’ve played this game 5 times so far, and I still feel like we’re learning the mechanics of it, so if you’ve played and have any great tips, I’d love to get them.

Final thoughts on Forbidden Desert

This game is a lot of fun, we really enjoy it, even if we haven’t won yet.  I’ve heard Forbidden Island* is easier, so if you only have 4 in your family you might give it a try first.  Even as difficult as it is, I really like it, and it’s really helping Princess with her frustration at being defeated, and getting her to be more willing to play other things she might lose at, so for that alone I like it.

Update from Future Ticia 2023, we have since picked up Forbidden Island, and it is fun.

More cooperative or resource management games

• Cthulhu Death May Die cooperative RPG horror game
• Minecraft card game resource management card game
• Settlers of Catan resource management game
• Captain is Dead cooperative resource management game
• Mysterium cooperative game