My boyfriend and I have played and enjoyed Carcassone: The City and Settlers of Catan. The thing is, for Settlers of Catan you need more than two people, and it would be nice not to have to get a bunch of people together. Also, to him Settlers is a little too much like a card game, and I can see his point - I don’t like card games either. Sometimes Settlers reminds me of poker, and I can’t imagine anything more boring. We do like those European-style games, though.
So, are there any suggestions for board games (or similar) that can be played enjoyably by two people that are for grownups? (Or the whole family, you know, but I’m not looking for kids’ games.) We’ve played a couple little games from Cheapass Games, which are fun, but all of those that we’ve done are just little 15 minute diversions. We’re looking for something more substantial, I think, although I don’t really want a five hour marathon or anything. If it can be expanded to more people, that’s okay also. Suggestions?
My husband and I enjoy playing Sequence together. Though it does involve cards so I don’t know if you’d like it. Games also go fairly quickly, so it’s not unusual for us to play two or three games in one sitting. It can also be expanded for more people, and played in teams.
Another game we play with just the two of us is Yahtzee.
Er, you know, I’ve heard of those. I was looking for something, you know, new to me. Also, I suck at chess. Don’t enjoy thinking too far ahead, you know, for my gaming pleasure. You’d think that would make me suck at Settlers of Catan, but I guess I’m some sort of idiot savant at it - I almost always win.
I don’t mind games that involve cards, just not card games. Catan gets a little close to that, what with holding your hand and guessing what other people are holding and such.
If you’re into war games, there are tons of them out there. Avalon Hill puts out Squad Leader–WWII combat. Think they also published Gettysburg. There’s also Star Fleet Battles for the trekkies, but I’m not sure who published it. All of these are pretty rules intensive.
For something simpler, you might look around for a copy of an older game called Robin Hood–it’s considerably less complex, but still challenging.
I saw the thread title and came in to suggest Carcassone. So I got nothin’. I also like Scrabble, but that’s because my wife and I came up with some “house rules” (nudge nudge, wink wink).
The best place to figure out good boardgames is boardgamegeek.com. It is, I think, the definitive archive to boargames. I am a euro game player and use it all the time to check on rules, ratings, etc.
Some two player suggestions from me:
Settlers of Catan Card game: If you like settlers, this may fit the bill.
Alhambra: Not a just a two player game, but the two player rules work well.
Dungeon Twister: I picked this up a while ago, only played once. It seems interesting.
No war games! The boyfriend would love them like my cat likes catnip (you know, he rolls around in them, gets all high, etc) and I’d have to gnaw my leg off. He and his friends are obnoxious enough about Heroscape, the last thing we need is to fight the Battle of the Bulge. Honestly, games with fighting are pretty boring to me - when I play the Civilization games, I spend all my time building things and avoiding war, because the war part just isn’t interesting to me.
No war games! The boyfriend would love them like my cat likes catnip (you know, he rolls around in them, gets all high, etc) and I’d have to gnaw my leg off. He and his friends are obnoxious enough about Heroscape, the last thing we need is to fight the Battle of the Bulge. Honestly, games with fighting are pretty boring to me - when I play the Civilization games, I spend all my time building things and avoiding war, because the war part just isn’t interesting to me.
My wife and I have a great time with Man Bites Dog. With a deck of cards with one word on each card, you are dealt 5 cards and have to build a newspaper headline out of as many as you can, earning the point value given on the cards. It’s a lot of fun and easily portable. We survived a couple of hours in the airport with it.
I was somewhat serious about Go, well worth getting into if you haven’t allready tried it. Do you know about Carcassonne Castle (which is specifically a two player game)?. Or for a completely left field idea consider Carrom .
Backgammon and Othello are staples of Mrs. ddgryphon and myself (at least before the children). I always enjoyed Feudal, from Avalon Hill, but I’m not sure you can find it nowadays.
Having considered becomming addicted. .umm, trying Magic the Gathering? I don’t like it but many people swear by it.
I also recommend Chess or 3-D chess if you can get hold of a set.
Adding Alcohol to Chutes and Ladders makes it pretty interesting.
Another game that works well for two (or up to five or six; I forget which and don’t have my copy handy) is Cartagena – very simple mechanics, but deeper strategy than you’d expect in terms of exploiting opportunities and denying them to rivals.
