Good two-player card (or board) games?

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Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Freezer-TPF- »

Thinking of getting a new two-player game or two for me and the Mrs for Christmas. Any suggestions? We already have Lost Cities and Carcassonne: The Castle.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Isgrimnur »

I little war-sy in flavor, but both coop and I enjoyed face-to-face Memoir '44. There's a sorta-free to play version on Steam that you can use to look at the basics.

Zombie-flavored, you can go with Last Night on Earth. It scales up to six as each additional player peels off either to smaller character or zombie groups.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by wonderpug »

My wife really took to Lords of Waterdeep, and I think it works fine 2-player.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Smoove_B »

As someone that just played a few hours of Memoir'44 this past weekend, I agree it's a great two player game. Though if you're not into the WW2 theme, I'm guessing it's not nearly as interesting.

I also just played Last Night on Earth and I'd probably recommend against it for just two people as there's a lot to remember if you're playing the humans - at least in terms of special abilities that each one gets. With only two people, the human player has to control four people, where as the zombie player is just dropping wave after wave of undead that all pretty much do the same thing. I'm sure it's possible, but I'm not inclined to believe it would work.

If she's tolerant of a lite D&D veneer, I've really enjoyed Lords of Waterdeep with 2-3 players. While it scales well up to four people, I was amazed at how different everything is with two versus three people. I think Dominion is a great two player game as well - surprisingly. I enjoyed the new Thunderstone, though not enough to replace my older version and various expansions. I also had a blast this year with Elder Sign, which really is like Cthulhu Yahtzee.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by LordMortis »

Kosmos generally does a good set of cheap two players portable board games (like Lost Cities)

http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Kosm ... yer_series" target="_blank

I've personally tried and enjoyed Odin's Ravens

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4396/odins-ravens" target="_blank

Balloon Cup

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5716/balloon-cup" target="_blank

Hera And Zeus

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/638/hera-and-zeus" target="_blank

Lord of the Rings Confrontation

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3201 ... frontation" target="_blank

And I've tried and liked less but would still play

Catan the Card Game
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by hepcat »

I sound like a broken record, but pretty much ANYTHING made by Small Box Games is great for two players. If they reprint Omen, jump on it.

Other than that, I'm quite fond of the Doctor Who: The Twelve Doctors card game. It's print and play but you can order them printed and ready to go from artscow.com. If your wife is a fan of the show, she'll love it.

Gloom is a great card game if she has a macabre sense of humor.

Pandemic and Mr. Jack are critically acclaimed. The former being a coop and the latter a head to head game.

If you want an evening of cerebral fun, try Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. From the authentic looking period newspapers to the detailed map of London, the cases are top notch in both content and appearance.

Of similar fun, you can also check out the Timeline group of card games.

Finally (well...it's NEVER finally with me when it comes to board games), check out Tsuro for some puzzle fun.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by wonderpug »

Seconding Mr Jack. My wife really took to that one, too.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by coopasonic »

hepcat wrote:Pandemic and Mr. Jack are critically acclaimed. The former being a coop and the latter a head to head game.
Flash Point is Pandemic, but more thematic.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

Image

If you have no objection to abstract games along the lines of Go, Chess, and Checkers, I would strongly recommend Hive. It's an incredibly portable game that you can play almost anywhere with a flat surface, as there's technically no board -- the hex tile playing pieces essentially become the board/hive (sorta like playing Dominoes).

The tiles are made of thick n' chunky bakelite, and are a real pleasure to handle; I'd go as far as saying they're among the highest quality components of any board game I've played.

BTW, I linked to the "carbon edition" of the game above (basically a snazzier, black and white version of the original game, which used more garish coloured tiles) as it also includes the two expansions to the game that you'd otherwise have to purchase seperately.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by hepcat »

coopasonic wrote:
hepcat wrote:Pandemic and Mr. Jack are critically acclaimed. The former being a coop and the latter a head to head game.
Flash Point is Pandemic, but more thematic.
Ooh, forgot about that one...and I own it and all the expansions. :oops:
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Freezer-TPF- »

WW2 and horror is probably out, but she likes Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and such. Anything with historical or mythological flavor is probably good. Her favorite game is Scrabble, but I don't think I want to attempt to dethrone that classic with another word game.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by hentzau »

You could try the Lord of the Rings LCG. Great two player game.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Boudreaux »

Lots of good suggestions already. Hive, Mr. Jack, Pandemic, Flash Point Fire Rescue, all the Kosmos games are all excellent two player games.

Some more ideas that might fit into your "themes":

For LOTR, the LCG is good but also look at LOTR: The Confrontation. It's Stratego with even more strategy, and it's excellent.

From a historical/mythological perspective, Roma is a really good 2-player card/dice game that has a CCG feel. Jumping way forward in time, 1960: The Making of the President is a great 2-player game based on the Kennedy/Nixon election in 1960. Getting a little more into the pure fantasy realm, Summoner Wars is probably one of the best 2-player designs to come along in a decade. If you want to go for a neat abstract game, Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War is a really unique 2-player tactical "deduction" game. Speaking of the Cold War, if you want to go really hardcore Twilight Struggle is one of the best board games out there.

I could literally go on for hours.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Daveman »

It's already been mentioned twice, but since you OK'd Lord of the Rings I have to give my own two big thumbs up for LOTR The Confrontation. There's a deluxe version that adds a whole other set of characters and a few other things, but my son and I still just play with the original set. Fantastic game!

A few other games that work well with 2 I'd add are:

Quarriors- Lots of dice rolling strategic fun.
Seasons- An odd mix of dice rolling, card drafting, all in magical setting.
Forbidden Island- This can be described as a sort of Pandemic-lite, that is, a co-op game, but I think it captures all of the overall gameplay in a much smaller, easier and faster game to setup. All in a tin for about $20!
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by coopasonic »

Morels - it's a card game about picking mushrooms. How much more exciting does it get!?
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Lorini »

Dominion is really good two player too. And there's a ton of expansions if you get bored with the base game.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

Image

I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned Race for the Galaxy, which has to be among the very best 2-player card games available. The 2-player game is truly outstanding, and the expansions only add more layers without unbalancing anything.

Initially, the iconography of the game can make it somewhat challenging to learn the ropes, but Wei-Hwa's RftG tutorial videos make the learning process go a whole lot smoother in my experience (also player aids like this from BoardGameGeek can be tremendously useful in helping bring newer players quickly up to speed).
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by hepcat »

coopasonic wrote:Morels - it's a card game about picking mushrooms. How much more exciting does it get!?
Seppe has it and I scoffed at playing it when he brought it up. Then I felt bad for doing so and relented.

Jeebus, was I wrong to dismiss it. Great, great game. That's two he's been right about after I laughed at him. The other was Magical Athlete.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Isgrimnur »

So what's the 'morel" of that story?
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

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That Seppe, despite Hepcat's reservations, is a fungi.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by LordMortis »

coopasonic wrote:Morels - it's a card game about picking mushrooms. How much more exciting does it get!?
Is it a game where you try to keep the other player in the dark and feed them a bunch of shit?

Come to think of it, I think that's how they treat me at work. I might be playing and not even know it.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by SpaceLord »

Android:Netrunner is freaking fantastic. The first play will confuse you, the 2nd will make you want more. By the third, you'll be enamored. :wub:
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by coopasonic »

SpaceLord wrote:Android:Netrunner is freaking fantastic. The first play will confuse you, the 2nd will make you want more. By the third, you'll be enamored. :wub:
Yeah, I still want to play the corp side and would love to play it more in general. It looks like I am getting Mage Wars for christmas instead.

Actually, Mage Wars might be a good choice here as well. It's similar to Magic, but without the randomness.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Isgrimnur »

I would recommend demoing it. I played it with coop, and I was less enthused by it than he was, whereas I did enjoy Netrunner.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

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I love Race for the Galaxy. On the computer. Playing the actual game requires so much shuffling that it becomes annoying to me. The computer takes care of all the fiddly bits so I don't have to.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Pyperkub »

Cribbage (with a cute cribbage board).

Backgammon

Chess (Knightmare Chess is fun too)
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

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Isgrimnur wrote:I would recommend demoing it {Mage Wars}. I played it with coop, and I was less enthused by it than he was, whereas I did enjoy Netrunner.
Don't mind him. He's still bitter about the sleep spell that the opposing demo deck wasn't equipped to handle. ;)
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Best 2 player strategy game ever invented.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Ralph-Wiggum »

coopasonic wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:I would recommend demoing it {Mage Wars}. I played it with coop, and I was less enthused by it than he was, whereas I did enjoy Netrunner.
Don't mind him. He's still bitter about the sleep spell that the opposing demo deck wasn't equipped to handle. ;)
Pyperkub wrote:Chess
Best 2 player strategy game ever invented.
Clearly you haven't played War recently....
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by SpaceLord »

Remus West wrote:I love Race for the Galaxy. On the computer. Playing the actual game requires so much shuffling that it becomes annoying to me. The computer takes care of all the fiddly bits so I don't have to.
Oh god, the setup in the new Marvel Legendary sucks. Pick all the bad guy card sets, shuffle them. All the good guy cards, shuffle them. 300 cards, easy. Then, it's not fun to sort them all back into their individual types.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by coopasonic »

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
Pyperkub wrote:Chess
Best 2 player strategy game ever invented.
Clearly you haven't played War recently....
Flipping over the next card on the stack every time is not my idea of strategy. ;)
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by hepcat »

SpaceLord wrote:
Remus West wrote:I love Race for the Galaxy. On the computer. Playing the actual game requires so much shuffling that it becomes annoying to me. The computer takes care of all the fiddly bits so I don't have to.
Oh god, the setup in the new Marvel Legendary sucks. Pick all the bad guy card sets, shuffle them. All the good guy cards, shuffle them. 300 cards, easy. Then, it's not fun to sort them all back into their individual types.
It's 5 minutes of work...tops. With two or more players, it's even faster. Setup isn't that bad.

And the breakdown is no worse than Dominion, Thunderstone or most Deck Building games currently on shelves.
Isgrimnur wrote:I would recommend demoing it. I played it with coop, and I was less enthused by it than he was, whereas I did enjoy Netrunner.
I had the same impression after a demo of Mage Wars at the Gencon before last. But I should probably give it another go before signing off on it. It was still in development at the time, I'm sure.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Freezer-TPF- »

Pyperkub wrote:Chess (Knightmare Chess is fun too)
We have Knightmare Chess, and she really enjoys it because the best laid plans are often foiled again and again. We actually usually end up just trying to make the most interesting game-changing moves vs. trying to end the game quickly.

Thanks for all the recs so far. Plenty to sort through.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by Exodor »

Daveman wrote: Forbidden Island- This can be described as a sort of Pandemic-lite, that is, a co-op game, but I think it captures all of the overall gameplay in a much smaller, easier and faster game to setup. All in a tin for about $20!
We picked this up last weekend and it's been a great two-player game to play with Elise.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by El Guapo »

Not sure how hardcore you guys are, but War of the Ring is a crazy awesome two player LOTR game. Takes ~ 4 hours to play, IIRC, but it's really good.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by NickAragua »

Another vote for Race for the Galaxy. I would start for a while with just the base game, then, if you like it, grab one expansion at a time. If you try to introduce all three or four (or whatever) at the same time, it's sheer folly, a.k.a. way too many rules and "special cases" and "symbolic language" to learn at the same time.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by wonderpug »

Does Galaxy Trucker work with 2 players?
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by NickAragua »

Officially, yes. I don't know what the dynamic is like though, I've only ever played it with 4 or 5 (and it was pure awesomeness)
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by paulbaxter »

Starship Catan is a fine 2 player game, and Agricola can be fun with two, though both have quite a bit of setup.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by EzeKieL »

wonderpug wrote:Does Galaxy Trucker work with 2 players?
If I'm not mistaken, I think you just remove a set amount of pieces, that's all.
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Re: Good two-player card (or board) games?

Post by AWS260 »

Chrononauts is good with two players.
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