I learned about Blokus in Michelle Slatalla’s column in the New York Times and bought it for my nephew’s twelfth birthday. It’s a two- to four-player game that can be played by children (including my seven-year-old niece) or adults, or both together. I definitely recommend it.
We got Gobblet a while back, and very much enjoy it. It looks very simple, but it’s a lot more engaging that you would suspect.
Tikal is pretty good, I think.
Puerto Rico is another one that I’ve played that I like.
I also very much enjoyed Tigris & Euphrates.
What is the board for Carcassonne Castle like? I’m wondering if it’s the game called “asalto al castillo” in Spanish.
El Asalto looks like someone stuck four Tic-tac-toe boards around a fifth one. The top 9 dots are black (the castle); the rest are a different color. The castle has two defenders. The rest of the board is covered by attackers. Many diagonals are black (meaning they can only be followed by the defenders); horizontals and verticals are colored (can be followed by everybody, same as the colored diagonals). The attackers can only move forward, the defenders can move back and forth. Any piece (attacker or defender) can move only from a dot to the next following allowable lines, except for “eating”: you eat a piece by jumping over it following allowable straight lines (no eating pieces at corners). You can eat several pieces one after another.
The attackers win if they occupy the whole castle (all 9 black dots); the defenders, if they manage to eat so many defenders that occupation is not possible.
Kind of hard to explain without paper, but also cool because you can generate a board pretty easily. We killed tons of hours with that on vacation.
Try chess with just a King and eight pawns each.
Much shorter and easier than the full game, but still skillfull.
I used to love playing Trivial Pursuit with my friend. We’d stay up all night. Dollar a slice, winner take all.
Definitely check out boardgamegeek.com. It’s a bit confusing at first, but there’s mountains of info there. Some favorite 2-person games me and the wife play:
Lost Cities - this is considered by most on BGG to be the ultimate “couples game”. It’s played with cards but is not really a card game. Rounds are fast, and there’s some great tension.
Samurai
Through the Desert
Cartagena (previously mentioned)
Man, do I wish he liked Trivial Pursuit. He hates it, won’t play. One of his friends loves it and would love to play, but it’s less fun with two people, and plus the BF would be sulking in a corner.
This was always fun – I have to agree. Mrs. and I played it a bit too.
To clarify, Feudal is a cross between chess and a strategy game, but without all the dice rolling. You actually move archers, squires, knights and other Feudal military pieces around a board the you can put together differently every time. (in fact a friend of mine and I tried different board layouts with our two sets). (BTW you can say it: [Gary_Owen]Neeeeeeerd Maaaaaaan[/Gary_Owen]).
BTW: Scroll down on this link ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/847 ) for some shots of the board – you can move as many of your pieces as you want once each round. This allows for actual “troop” style deployment.
Wikipedia also has an article: Feudal (game) - Wikipedia
If you’re into language based games I’ve recently played and immensely enjoyed Quiddler: Quiddler | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
Perquacky is also a good deal of fun:
You can also get real simple and play Pente or Go.
My boyfriend and I really enjoyed a lateral thinking game we once had. I think it was called I.Q. and that this is it. I’m not positive though.
The unfortunate part is that once you go through the whole game, you can’t play it again because you know all the answers. I still found it really amusing and pretty difficult sometimes. We really enjoyed challenging ourselves in a way totally different from most board games.
I came in to mention Pente as well.
I’ll add my wife’s and my favourite: Clever Endeavor.
I Nth Carcassonne.
Although I think it’s much more fun with a little more control over the pieces, rather than just picking a random one. The way my friends I play is that with N players, whoever’s turn it is flips up N+1 tiles, and the player take turns picking from the face up tiles until they’re all gone, then the next player (the player after the previous flippper) flips up N+1 more tiles, etc.
For 2 players, you could flip up 3, or maybe even 5.
Makes it a much more strategic game, although also a somewhat different game, as it becomes MUCH easier to complete enormous cities. Playing defensively becomes a lot more important, as you see what is coming, and either need to take it away, or need to block it.
I gotta back Scrabble. If you do go for Scrabble, spend the extra money and get the Deluxe Turntable Edition.
I’d say backgammon too.
If you want it to get more interesting you can use the doubling dice (optional) or play acey-duecey.
It’s a short game and each is entirely different from the last.
Man…we used to play four different versions simultaneously. Movies, Sports, regular, and one other one. We’d go for HOURS.
I came in here to suggest Pente.
I second Samurai – it’s a strategy game and is great fun. You can try out the downloadable version (here), which is excellent, but the board game version is equally fantastic.
My first wife and I played Pass Out the night of her 21st birthday.
How about:
Subway Vigilante: Subway Vigilante | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
The Godfather Game: The Godfather Game | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
Awful Green Things From Outer Space : The Awful Green Things From Outer Space is more fun than should be legal and it is never exactly the same game twice.
The Last Starfighter is fast and easy and fun: The Last Starfighter: Tunnel Chase | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
You could play Cieling Fan Baseball: http://www.cheapass.com/free/games/ceilingfanbaseball.html