This Christmas I’d like to get my husband a good board game that we can play together, preferably cooperative. We have games to play with friends - I’m looking for something that works just as well with two people.
Arkham Horror keeps catching my eye. It sounds like some modifications are necessary to make a 2-player game really satisfying, but I’ve found people online who claim they do it just fine by playing with two characters each.
We have both played Dungeons and Dragons and RPG-style (video) games in the past, but Arkham Horror is new to us. I understand the rules are very complex. Is this something that my husband and I would be able to figure out from the manual? What kind of learning curve and time investment are we talking here?
Is this game going to be a pain in the ass? Will it work for two players? If not, what games should I be looking at?
It definitely needs modifications for just 2P. I’ve never seen any, so I don’t know which are good.
I’m not sure what to say about learning curve and time investment; I learned it relatively quickly, but I was playing with about five or six people at a time, at least two of whom had played at least once before. I think it’s relatively easy to get a handle on from the manual, but you may miss crucial details that’ll end up making the game harder/easier than intended.
And note there’s a random quality to it, depending on the Great Old One and characters you end up with. Depending on the modification, that may or may not mitigate the increased difficulty.
I’m not 100% sure 2P Arkham Horror is a good idea, personally. Like I said, it depends severely on the quality of the mod. Pandemic is, from all accounts, a great co-op game, and it was designed for 2-4. I’m blanking on other suggestions right now. Maybe when I have more time to browse Board Game Geek.
I love Arkham Horror, and often play it with my gaming group, but it is not friendly for two players. The difficulty of the game increases dramatically as the number of players decreases. We usually play with three people, and one of us always runs two characters so that we have four investigators on the board. Even at that, and with all of us accustomed to cooperating and playing strategically, we rarely win.
There are a few provisions in the basic rules that are intended to help small groups a little, but even some of those have downsides, and the game engine is rather unforgiving. It’s easy to get swarmed, and it’s very hard to recover.
You might want to check out Elder Sign, which is basically a simplified, dice-centric version of Arkham Horror. Much quicker set up and play time thank AH, which can be a pretty major time sink.
Not sure if it works better as a two player game than AH.
Arkham Horror is perfectly playable with 2 players. Each player can play one or two characters pretty easily. It can even be played solo, though it’s incredibly challenging unless the player has more than one character.
The rules for AH are not always intuitive.They’re far from elegant. You will make mistakes that make it harder or easier. It’s a rough game to break into designer board games with, but if you’re both fans of Lovecraftian horrors, it could work for you. If you’re already familiar with designer board games like Catan, Puerto Rico, Talisman, or Cosmic Encounter, you’ll be able to muddle through. In any case, play a few games, then reread the whole rule book and see how much you messed up.
Elder Sign may be a little better to start with, especially if you’re looking for something Lovecraftian. It’s also co-op, and players can take more than one character. It’s also a shorter play, with less setup and take down (AH can take 15 minutes to set up the base game, 30 for all the expansions). I’m more partial to AH, but I was already experienced with Ameritrash style games like it and table top RPGs.
The above recommendation of Pandemic is good too. Players are CDC members trying to fight off disease outbreaks. It’s less flavorful, but much more elegant. It’ll be much easier to learn, but I’m not as fond of it. From there, you can either step up in complexity to Defenders of the Realm or move toward simplicity with Forbidden Island. They all feature similar mechanics.
We have Dominion. I think it’s sort of boring but I can see the appeal.
I nixed Arkham horror. I got Carcassonne, Rivals for Catan and Lost Cities. Not all co-op but two are exclusively two player and Carvassonne is apparently as good for 2 as it is for more.
