What are some good 2 player board/card games

[Olaf the Stout]

The other night my wife and I decided to play a board game together. However, after going through our collection of games we found that most of them were 3 players or more. We ended up playing Trouble! (As in the one with the dice in the pop-o-matic semi-sphere in the middle of the board.) While that was fun, it was a little bit too simple for my liking.

Just to makes things difficult, I prefer very strategic games while my wife like basic, simple games. She likes Trouble, Snakes and Ladders and games of that sort. I have been trying to find a game that is somewhere in between that we can both happily play together. At the moment something like Scrabble is looking like my best option. Jenga is another one that I though of.

I had a look at some of the games on boardgamegeek.com and I thought that Lost Cities or Baloon Cup might be ok. Has anyone played either of these games? What did you think of them? Would both of us enjoy them? Munchikin is another one I thought of. I have only played it once but is seemed reasonably simple to me. How well does it work with only 2 players?

Does anyone know of some other games that might be suitable?

Olaf the Stout

 

[MerricB]

Munchkin is not a good 2-player game.

Some good 2-player games:
* Carcassonne. (Hunters & Gatherers may be the better vanilla variant)
* Thurn und Taxis
* Ticket to Ride: Europe

Those three combine luck and strategy and are all very enjoyable. The first two take about 30 minutes for 2 players, the last about 45 mins-60 mins. (They also work with more players)

The first two can be played online at brettspielwelt.de - or you can watch them being played.

TTR:E has an online version at the publisher's website: http://www.daysofwonder.com/

Cheers!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Chess? Checkers? Stratego? Risk? Standard Hoyle card games?

How about Quarto or Cathedral?

Magic: the Gathering? (Or almost any CCG, really.)

Simply put, 2 is a tough number to work with.

If you look around, perhaps you can find some of the old Metagames, Task Force Games, TSR minigames, like Ogre/G.E.V., Melee, Wizard, HotSpot, Saga, They've Invaded Pleasantville, or Ultra Warrior. Most of them were designed for 2 players.

Then there are their modern inheritors...games from companies like Cheapass Games (whose Kill Dr. Lucky game- a Clue spoof- is getting the full color "real game" treatment) might fit the bill.

Nova Games had something called Ace of Aces, and a systemic spin-off called Lost Worlds, which were both 2 player combat games. In it, you battled with a POV view of your opponent. Each book contained illustrations of your PC and a set of maneuvers. You switched books, so your opponent could see you, and you kept the maneuvers. Then you tried to kill your opponent. The former simulated combat between 2 aircraft from WW1 or WW2...the latter between fantasy archetypes, at least a couple of which were inspired by Ral Partha minis (Cold Drake, Hill Troll with Club). The license on that game has passed through several hands, like Chessex, for one- there was a short- run Robotech version, and just a couple of years ago, all of the major Hackmaster charcters from Knights of the Dinner Table got their own books. In a very real sense, it was M:tG before M:tG...though not nearly as successful.

http://maverick.brainiac.com/aoa/aoa1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_of_Aces

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Worlds

 

[Jesus_marley]

I agree with MerricB on Carcassonne.


My GF and I went the the FLGS looking for a good 2 player game. The owner recommended the game and was SO sure we would like it that he offered us a FULL refund on the opened game (with the tiles punched from the flash).

 

[bytor4232]

They are a little difficult to get ahold of any more, but the Lord of the Rings Board Games (from the movie) are a cooperative board game in which you play through the plot of the movie. They are quite a stitch, and all three games link together to form an entire trilogy. Each game takes approximately 2 hours to complete.

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Fe.../102-9157332-5182538?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-To.../102-9157332-5182538?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Re.../102-9157332-5182538?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games

My wife and I love em.

You can play Risk with two players, and its quite fun. Trivial Pursuit is fun as well.

As far as card games, you can't go wrong with Poker. Everyone loves Texas Holdem, and check out Pai Gow for an interesting take on Poker. My family and I play all the time, using Bicycle chips in liu of money. To make the game more interesting, sometimes we play for chores

CCGs are always a stitch with families. Go pick up yourself two or three Yu Gi Oh structure decks. Each structure deck has a certain theme to them.

Personally my CCG of choice is Magic The Gathering thou. My recommendation is to pick up the starter set and go from there. A lot of FLGS's have huge bins where you can sift and build yourself some pretty great pauper decks out of commons. Add some uncommons and rares to beef them up. Just be careful, Magic TG can be a huge money sink if you let it.

 

[DonTadow]

I wouldn't recommend Munchkin. Munchkin's whole premise is screwing people and not seeing it coming and when there are only two people you always see it coming.

Our favorite two players right now is Pimp the Backhanding (don't let the title fool you, its an incredibly strategic two player if you have an open mind), Settlers of Cataan, and the best one, Drakkan 3rd edition. Dungeon Twister is also nice and ranks about fourth on my scale.

 

[Zander]

Knightmare Chess by Steve Jackson Games is a great game for two people. Technically, it's a chess variant but it's so whacky that being a chess grandmaster isn't going to help. You will need your own chess board and pieces as Knightmare Chess (and Knightmare Chess II) only includes the cards you'll need and the rules.

Another possibility is Heroscape. It works well with any number of players from 2 to 6 though it may be too strategic for Mrs Olaf.

 

[Umbran]

Simply put, 2 is a tough number to work with.

Hoyle would disagree with you.

There's lots of perfectly good two-player card games out there. And most of them don't require these fancy-shmancy special cards and rules. You can get by with a poker deck and a Wikipedia article listing card games, and maybe something to keep score on.

Personally, for two players, I think Cribbage plays very well...

 

[DonTadow]

Hoyle would disagree with you.

There's lots of perfectly good two-player card games out there. And most of them don't require these fancy-shmancy special cards and rules. You can get by with a poker deck and a Wikipedia article listing card games, and maybe something to keep score on.

Personally, for two players, I think Cribbage plays very well...

Forgot about that, cribbage is a really good 2 player game i play 3 times a week at work.

 

[MerricB]

Just a note: While I think Magic: the Gathering is one of the best 2-player games ever created, my suggestions are based on keeping things simple for your wife. Carcassonne I think is great because it has the strategy that keeps you interested, while having a great theme - you're placing tiles that build cities, roads, farms and cloisters - that should keep your wife entertained.

Carcassonne is one of the good entry points to Eurogames, as is Ticket To Ride: Europe and Settlers of Catan (the latter is 3+ players, though). Thurn und Taxis is also a worthy contender.

Cheers!