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Two-player board games to play with HER
- Thread starter Don Peste
- Start date
Sranchammer
Arcane
Me and the gf have developed an intense Twilight Struggle rivalry
GhostBadger
Guest
I've played Mille Bornes for many years, mostly 2 player games. It's a card game simulation of a road race.
Seconding Twilight Struggle, it's the ultimate monocled couple board game. Are you monocled enough to play 12 hour games with the missus?
Looks really nice. A bit expensive, too. 45€. Any more ideas?
thanks everyone
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?forums/the-gazebo.58/ 
If we knew a bit more about what kind of board games you or mrs likes, it'd be easier to make reccomendations.
If we knew a bit more about what kind of board games you or mrs likes, it'd be easier to make reccomendations.
What is that place? We just got a board games forum?http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?forums/the-gazebo.58/
If we knew a bit more about what kind of board games you or mrs likes, it'd be easier to make reccomendations.
Well, I said we like Fluxx, I think we are going to like Forbidden Island too. Co-op games would be nice. Games simpler than this Twilight Struggle (which I would like to play with someone else. She wouldn't like it very much). But I would like to know any games you have played that can be played by two people.
thanks
So cooperative or semi-solitaire where you try to reach a high score are preferable to games where you actively have to kill each others mens? And not too complex?
Off the top of my head:
Lost cities is a 2-player card game. The mechanic is draw a card->place a card and you compete to collect as complete sets as possible in 5 colours to score points from an expedition. It's cheap and we often play it inthe boardgame club I frequent when 2 of us are waiting for another game to finish so we can start something new. There's equal parts gambling, paying attention to what your opponent is doing, counting cards and luck of the draw involved: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50/lost-cities
Starship catan is another 2-player card/boardgame. You compete to upgrade your ship and gather victory points. There's about equal parts luck and skill involved as you have to remember which cards are in what pile. Player interaction is lowish as you're mostly racing to see who can build up VP fastest. But there are a few oppertunities to steal the other persons resources and trying to get the good cards first. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2338/starship-catan
Carcassonne plays best with 3-4 people, but is decent with 2 or 5 as well. It's a tile-laying game where you try to build the most profitable areas to occupy with your little dudes. There's a ton of expansions for it, but I feel most of them detract more than they add. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne
Small World is another game that really works better with 3-5 people, but it does have a 2-player board as well. It's a nicer-looking and slightly better balanced version of the old classic Vinci. Smallworld Underground is (in my opinion) slightly better than vanilla, since it introduces objectives to capture that grant additional abilities. The rules may seem daunting, but I managed to explain this stuff to my grandparents a while back and they really took a liking to it. It's territory control and you kill each others little dudes off. It may or may not be a turn-off for the missus. But again, I've introduced this at family gettogethers and even my grandparents don't mind killing off my nieces berserker hobbits. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/97786/small-world-underground
Pandemic is a strictly co-op game, which you mentioned you were after. I'm not a big fan of it myself, but a lot of people sing its praises. The players work together to contain and eliminate virus outbreaks. I once saw a 40K fan remake of it called "CLEANSE THE GALAXY!" which was pretty awesome, but GW shut it down.
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic
Elder sign is a quickie version of Arkham Horror where players team up to defeat a lovecraftian old one. The setting may be a turn-off. I only played this once, but it was pretty fun. We were 4 players for it, not sure how well it'd work with 2. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/100423/elder-sign
Off the top of my head:
Lost cities is a 2-player card game. The mechanic is draw a card->place a card and you compete to collect as complete sets as possible in 5 colours to score points from an expedition. It's cheap and we often play it inthe boardgame club I frequent when 2 of us are waiting for another game to finish so we can start something new. There's equal parts gambling, paying attention to what your opponent is doing, counting cards and luck of the draw involved: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50/lost-cities
Starship catan is another 2-player card/boardgame. You compete to upgrade your ship and gather victory points. There's about equal parts luck and skill involved as you have to remember which cards are in what pile. Player interaction is lowish as you're mostly racing to see who can build up VP fastest. But there are a few oppertunities to steal the other persons resources and trying to get the good cards first. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2338/starship-catan
Carcassonne plays best with 3-4 people, but is decent with 2 or 5 as well. It's a tile-laying game where you try to build the most profitable areas to occupy with your little dudes. There's a ton of expansions for it, but I feel most of them detract more than they add. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne
Small World is another game that really works better with 3-5 people, but it does have a 2-player board as well. It's a nicer-looking and slightly better balanced version of the old classic Vinci. Smallworld Underground is (in my opinion) slightly better than vanilla, since it introduces objectives to capture that grant additional abilities. The rules may seem daunting, but I managed to explain this stuff to my grandparents a while back and they really took a liking to it. It's territory control and you kill each others little dudes off. It may or may not be a turn-off for the missus. But again, I've introduced this at family gettogethers and even my grandparents don't mind killing off my nieces berserker hobbits. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/97786/small-world-underground
Pandemic is a strictly co-op game, which you mentioned you were after. I'm not a big fan of it myself, but a lot of people sing its praises. The players work together to contain and eliminate virus outbreaks. I once saw a 40K fan remake of it called "CLEANSE THE GALAXY!" which was pretty awesome, but GW shut it down.
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemicElder sign is a quickie version of Arkham Horror where players team up to defeat a lovecraftian old one. The setting may be a turn-off. I only played this once, but it was pretty fun. We were 4 players for it, not sure how well it'd work with 2. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/100423/elder-sign
Menckenstein
Lunacy of Caen: Todd Reaver
Chess.
Gord
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
- Messages
- 7,049
Seconding Carcassonne, plays good even with 2 people.
I also like to play Alhambra with the misses, which while better with 3 or more players has a two player "mode", as well.
You have to build a palace consisting of different tiles (buildings, walls, etc.), which you have to buy and find a good place to lay down.
Points are then awarded according to the number of tiles you have in each category and there are expansions that, well, expand the whole concept a bit.
I also like to play Alhambra with the misses, which while better with 3 or more players has a two player "mode", as well.
You have to build a palace consisting of different tiles (buildings, walls, etc.), which you have to buy and find a good place to lay down.
Points are then awarded according to the number of tiles you have in each category and there are expansions that, well, expand the whole concept a bit.
procrastinator
Arcane
- Joined
- May 10, 2011
- Messages
- 1,060
spectre
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2008
- Messages
- 5,428
How about the good ole Scrabble? Bitches love them word games.
Most card games should work for you. They don't cost a lot. The rules usually are fairly simple too. We had some fun with Bohnansa, but the manual on that thing is bloody awful. HAd to compare english and german versions before I actually gotten the hang of it.
It's not dffiicult, mind you, it's just the manual is shit.
Also, seconding Carcassone. It plays pretty well with two players with a right mix of add-ons. It's true that some of them feel superficial or overly complex, but it's easy to just ignore the rules you don't like.
IF you plan on getting it, I recommend buying the base game and two or three add-ons that mainly give you new tiles to play with under old game rules. If you're lucky you can get a big box edition for small money which should give you lots and lots of enjoyment.
I tried Settlers of Cattan, but the vanilla game just doesn't work with two people. Otherwise, it's a great game if you can get at least 3 people together.
It may work with wither expansion, but it won't be optimal.
Most card games should work for you. They don't cost a lot. The rules usually are fairly simple too. We had some fun with Bohnansa, but the manual on that thing is bloody awful. HAd to compare english and german versions before I actually gotten the hang of it.
It's not dffiicult, mind you, it's just the manual is shit.
Also, seconding Carcassone. It plays pretty well with two players with a right mix of add-ons. It's true that some of them feel superficial or overly complex, but it's easy to just ignore the rules you don't like.
IF you plan on getting it, I recommend buying the base game and two or three add-ons that mainly give you new tiles to play with under old game rules. If you're lucky you can get a big box edition for small money which should give you lots and lots of enjoyment.
I tried Settlers of Cattan, but the vanilla game just doesn't work with two people. Otherwise, it's a great game if you can get at least 3 people together.
It may work with wither expansion, but it won't be optimal.
GhostBadger
Guest
Catan is a great game, but yeah, more than 2. I have played network-based Pioneers with the lovely Mrs Badger and a couple of (terrible! They suck at making deals!) computer players. Pioneers is an open-source Catan implementation.
funkadelik
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2010
- Messages
- 1,496
Mancala is a decent and fairly easy-to-play board game with a woman.
Helton
Arcane
Not a board game but have you tried tongue wrestling?
Sranchammer
Arcane
We're getting there. I ultimately transform into a disgruntled Kruschev by turn 8, though. She thwarts my every turn and it drives me crazy
Good info in here! thanks, as well.
spectre
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2008
- Messages
- 5,428
I totally forgot about Ticket to Ride.
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9209/ticket-to-ride
It works best with 4 players, but you can do it with 2.
Basically, it's about connecting cities on the map with trains. Each turn you draw a bunch of cards with trains and use them to connect two cities on the map. You get more points for a longer connection, and for some connections you need to meet certain requirements, eg.g the trains must be in a specific color, or the train needs to have at least two engines (which normally act as wildcards), etc.
To spice things up, each player gets a bunch of random "tickets" (which say, for example, connect Sofia to Brlin for 10 points) then they try to make the connections.
Since the number of railways is limited, you can totally screw with other people's strategy.
The game's got a nice traveling theme going on, some bitches love that. Main disadvantage is that after some time you know most of the tickets and good connections by heart, but that happens with most games with a fixed board.
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9209/ticket-to-ride
It works best with 4 players, but you can do it with 2.
Basically, it's about connecting cities on the map with trains. Each turn you draw a bunch of cards with trains and use them to connect two cities on the map. You get more points for a longer connection, and for some connections you need to meet certain requirements, eg.g the trains must be in a specific color, or the train needs to have at least two engines (which normally act as wildcards), etc.
To spice things up, each player gets a bunch of random "tickets" (which say, for example, connect Sofia to Brlin for 10 points) then they try to make the connections.
Since the number of railways is limited, you can totally screw with other people's strategy.
The game's got a nice traveling theme going on, some bitches love that. Main disadvantage is that after some time you know most of the tickets and good connections by heart, but that happens with most games with a fixed board.
meh
Educated
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2010
- Messages
- 349
For popamole hacknslash needs http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17226/descent-journeys-in-the-dark
Try Claustrophobia if you want 1 vs 1. For co-op there is the recent D&D game Ravenloft.
These lists may be useful for you:
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/3181/best-of-the-two-player-games
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/12777/cooperative-board-games
http://www.play-board-games.com/top-ten-cooperative-and-semi-cooperative-board-games-2011-update/
Bear in mind that many of these may be too complex, have settings that are a turn-off or work better with more than 2 players. But they might be a good starting point.
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/3181/best-of-the-two-player-games
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/12777/cooperative-board-games
http://www.play-board-games.com/top-ten-cooperative-and-semi-cooperative-board-games-2011-update/
Bear in mind that many of these may be too complex, have settings that are a turn-off or work better with more than 2 players. But they might be a good starting point.
DraQ
Arcane
Go has very simple rules.
Go is an amazing game. I played it years ago until ~5kyu on kiseidos GO server. ( http://www.gokgs.com/ )
But it would take a truly monocle or asian woman to get into Go.
But it would take a truly monocle or asian woman to get into Go.
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