Author Topic: Board games for two? (Read 6888 times)

MrsPete · « **on:** March 03, 2017, 06:48:10 PM »

We've always been "board game people", and we have a great collection; however, so many of our games require -- or are best played with -- three or four people. My husband and I are looking forward to a "just us two" trip in the near future, and I'd like to pick up a couple board games we could enjoy together ... just us two.

Ideally the games would be engaging enough that we'd want to play multiple times, small and lightweight, and would require little physical space to spread out during play (would like to be able to play on a train). I do appreciate lovely games.

Thanks in advance for any ideas you might be able to provide.

Jet9 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 03, 2017, 07:12:12 PM »

Look for a travel cribbage board and a deck of cards. I wouldn't leave home without it, and the travel sized boards fit and go everywhere. Backgammon is another favorite. Enjoy your trip!

marty998 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 03, 2017, 07:14:46 PM »

Chinese Checkers.

I don't even think it's chinese but I loved playing it years ago.

Hop Hop Hop Hop....

ducky19 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 03, 2017, 07:23:19 PM »

My wife and I love a good game of Scrabble!

sol · « **Reply #4 on:** March 03, 2017, 07:25:10 PM »

We like Quarto.

swick · « **Reply #5 on:** March 03, 2017, 07:31:13 PM »

Star Realms is by far our fave
Mr. Jack Pocket
Travel Quirkle
Tiny Epic Defenders

All of these can be played on a small surface and you could probably fit all of them in your purse with room to spare. Okay, I might have a big purse, but still.

inertia · « **Reply #6 on:** March 03, 2017, 07:34:44 PM »

Patchwork
7 Wonders Duel
Lost Cities
I like Seasons as a 2 player too, but it's one of those games where it takes a long time to get through a game until you learn what all the cards do.

Erica · « **Reply #7 on:** March 03, 2017, 08:00:09 PM »

Old Maid

birdiegirl · « **Reply #8 on:** March 03, 2017, 08:08:34 PM »

We like to take Farkle or Yahtzee on trips

LindseyC · « **Reply #9 on:** March 03, 2017, 08:11:48 PM »

Jaipur is a great card game with some different elements. Small, portable, two player. Easy to understand but has great replay value. Splendour can also be played two people and its small as well. Bananagrams, Monopoly Deal, Skipbo, Phase 10, Spot it, all fairly quick and fun games, all small for travel.

Sometimes we buy games at the thrift store and just take out the cards to play with, this works for trivia games, guessing games, fill in the blanks, basically any game you just read off cards and don't necessarily have to keep score with a board. This is great on long road trips too.

I have a pretty good collection of modem games, but most are larger games you wouldn't want to travel with.

neo von retorch · « **Reply #10 on:** March 03, 2017, 08:45:30 PM »

Quote from: inertia on March 03, 2017, 07:34:44 PM

Patchwork
7 Wonders Duel
Lost Cities
I like Seasons as a 2 player too, but it's one of those games where it takes a long time to get through a game until you learn what all the cards do.

My kind of games! We play 3/4 of those a lot... makes me think I need to check out Lost Cities. (Yeah Seasons supports more players than 2 but we prefer to only play it 2-player.)

We also like old school Mastermind - which is a compact game you could play on a train.

Mezzie · « **Reply #11 on:** March 03, 2017, 08:46:58 PM »

Quote from: Jet9 on March 03, 2017, 07:12:12 PM

Look for a travel cribbage board and a deck of cards. I wouldn't leave home without it, and the travel sized boards fit and go everywhere. Backgammon is another favorite. Enjoy your trip!

My first thought was cribbage. I never travel without it.

vern · « **Reply #12 on:** March 04, 2017, 12:05:46 AM »

Secretly Saving · « **Reply #13 on:** March 04, 2017, 01:37:18 AM »

Not a board game per se, but we love the game Set! It's nice and small!

MauiNut · « **Reply #14 on:** March 04, 2017, 04:55:34 AM »

Chess.

A bit difficult to learn if you're a novice, but it puts the brain to work, and you get to gaze into your opponent's eyes after you make a move that they don't expect. Very quiet, yet very intimate.

catmustache · « **Reply #15 on:** March 04, 2017, 07:06:09 AM »

Has anyone said Guillotine? It needs a little space, but I think it could be easy to set up on a train.

leighb · « **Reply #16 on:** March 04, 2017, 09:16:17 AM »

Carcassonne's one of my favorite games

njmoney · « **Reply #17 on:** March 04, 2017, 10:18:32 AM »

Blokus. They have a small travel version. Fun strategy game. Think Tetris for 2.

Vilgan · « **Reply #18 on:** March 04, 2017, 10:27:14 AM »

another vote for seasons as a 2 player game
7 wonders duel
Summoner wars
san juan
star realms

seattlecyclone · « **Reply #19 on:** March 04, 2017, 10:42:11 AM »

Race for the Galaxy is great with two people.

Nangirl17 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 04, 2017, 11:03:08 AM »

Quote from: seattlecyclone on March 04, 2017, 10:42:11 AM

Race for the Galaxy is great with two people.

RFTG is an amazing game. Seemed byzantine the first couple games, but now we've played it thousands of times. If we have to bring one game, it's this one.

I'll also second Patchwork and 7 Wonders: Duel. All Creatures Big and Small is a 2-player mini-Agricola that we also enjoy.

Tyson · « **Reply #21 on:** March 04, 2017, 06:56:10 PM »

Go. Or Weiqi in Chinese.

Not only is the game itself awesome to play, but I find the patterns and the materials very beautiful to the eye:

sparkytheop · « **Reply #22 on:** March 05, 2017, 12:22:39 AM »

Othello
Stratego
Mastermind
Checkers (although once you are pretty evenly matched, a lot of games can end up deadlocked)
Connect Four
We used to play a word game as kids, there were lettered dice in a bubble container, and you would shake it up, let the dice fall into the bottom graph like base, and then see who could find the most words in a minute. I thought it was called "Bongo", but I can't find it online.

cdttmm · « **Reply #23 on:** March 05, 2017, 05:23:12 AM »

Quote from: sparkytheop on March 05, 2017, 12:22:39 AM

We used to play a word game as kids, there were lettered dice in a bubble container, and you would shake it up, let the dice fall into the bottom graph like base, and then see who could find the most words in a minute. I thought it was called "Bongo", but I can't find it online.

It's called Boggle and it was one of my favorites as a kid. Probably still is!

StetsTerhune · « **Reply #24 on:** March 05, 2017, 05:26:28 AM »

Backgammon. Great game, almost infinitely playable if you have a relatively equal opponent. For travel, I just print out a board on a sheet of A4 (or tape together two sheets of 8.5*11) and use coins as pieces (one side dimes , one side pennies works nicely), and just bring a pair of dice.

Gin Rummy seems to us to be the most replayable 2 person card game. Cribbage is fun (there are free apps to use smartphone as the board), but gets old pretty quickly.

WhiteTrashCash · « **Reply #25 on:** March 05, 2017, 06:07:40 AM »

I second Guillotine. That's one of my favorite easily portable games that playable with only two people.

Roots&Wings · « **Reply #26 on:** March 05, 2017, 06:40:14 AM »

My favorites have already been mentioned (crib, boggle, scrabble), but haven't seen Hanabi. It's a cooperative game, which is a bit different, and has tiles so it's tactile.

samsonator54321 · « **Reply #27 on:** March 05, 2017, 07:38:19 AM »

I can't recommend 7 wonders duel enough. My wife and I have played at least 30 times in the last two months.

Also check out boardgamegeek.com there are some good lists of games there.

Pandemic is really fun with two ppl too.

Lookilu · « **Reply #28 on:** March 05, 2017, 10:52:02 AM »

Two words: Exploding Kittens. http://explodingkittens.com

SweetLife · « **Reply #29 on:** March 05, 2017, 01:04:03 PM »

Not a board game per se ... but DOMINOS is lots of fun and keeps your math skills sharp!! :)

StiffUpperLip · « **Reply #30 on:** March 05, 2017, 02:17:02 PM »

Carcassonne! It's a tile based game with a number of expansion packs. I like that the rules are easy enough to pick up, a game can be played in <1hr but complex enough due to personalities playing that it keeps you interested.

Mine and hubby's favourite!

sparkytheop · « **Reply #31 on:** March 05, 2017, 04:06:32 PM »

Quote from: cdttmm on March 05, 2017, 05:23:12 AM

Quote from: sparkytheop on March 05, 2017, 12:22:39 AM
We used to play a word game as kids, there were lettered dice in a bubble container, and you would shake it up, let the dice fall into the bottom graph like base, and then see who could find the most words in a minute. I thought it was called "Bongo", but I can't find it online.

It's called Boggle and it was one of my favorites as a kid. Probably still is!

Thank you!

I always loved to play it, even though I was the youngest and very rarely won. Older siblings would usually let me be the one to shake the dice though.

hudsoncat · « **Reply #32 on:** March 06, 2017, 11:58:15 AM »

Quote from: njmoney on March 04, 2017, 10:18:32 AM

Blokus. They have a small travel version. Fun strategy game. Think Tetris for 2.

I'll second Blokus. My husband and I really enjoy it.

BurtMacklin · « **Reply #33 on:** March 07, 2017, 07:05:44 AM »

chess

cheddarpie · « **Reply #34 on:** March 07, 2017, 07:12:23 AM »

We love Carcassonne and Pandemic. Tokaido is also a favorite, but it's more fun with more than two.

+1 to Scrabble, cribbage, and dominoes too!

Roots&Wings · « **Reply #35 on:** March 09, 2017, 05:04:40 AM »

Also forgot Quoridor!

Laurenji · « **Reply #36 on:** March 09, 2017, 03:42:21 PM »

Hive! Super fun, and you can get it in a travel pouch. It takes about 20-30 minutes to play and is super portable.

Scortius · « **Reply #37 on:** March 09, 2017, 04:23:33 PM »

A lot of good recommendations in this thread. My wife and I play a lot of board games and tend to enjoy Euros more than 'Ameritrash'. With that in mind here are a few of our favorites.

Light
Seven Wonders Duel
Pandemic
Race for the Galaxy
Roll for the Galaxy
Castles of Burgundy
Dominion

Medium
Keyflower
Le Havre
Ora et Labora
Agricola
Stone Age

Heavy
Through the Ages
Eclipse
Caylus

Abstract / Classic
Mille Bornes
Backgammon
Ra

---

Bolded our absolute favorites. We play TTA constantly on boardgaming-online.com without fail. For some reason we could never get into Twilight Struggle despite the fact that it should be the perfect 'heavy' 2 player strategy game for us. There are tons of great games out there, the ones I listed above are those that we can still enjoy with just the two of us.

aFrugalFather · « **Reply #38 on:** March 09, 2017, 04:28:00 PM »

I'd recommend looking at the best for 2 player lists at boardgamegeek

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/48970/best-two

rocketpj · « **Reply #39 on:** March 09, 2017, 06:55:55 PM »

Definitely Lost Cities. We play it often and have for years.

swick · « **Reply #40 on:** March 10, 2017, 08:22:23 AM »

Quote from: rocketpj on March 09, 2017, 06:55:55 PM

Definitely Lost Cities. We play it often and have for years.

Archeology (2nd edition) has totally replaced Lost Cities for us. There is a little more to it, more variety and replayability built in, and it plays perfect as a 2-player, but is a 4 player so offers some more versatility if you have limited space to take games with you.

DocMcStuffins · « **Reply #41 on:** March 10, 2017, 01:01:54 PM »

Better with more but ...... EXPLODING KITTENS is fun to play with adults or with kids. Fun but some stradegy. Only takes 10 minutes per game.

Scortius · « **Reply #42 on:** March 10, 2017, 02:05:46 PM »

Quote from: swick on March 10, 2017, 08:22:23 AM

Quote from: rocketpj on March 09, 2017, 06:55:55 PM
Definitely Lost Cities. We play it often and have for years.

Archeology (2nd edition) has totally replaced Lost Cities for us. There is a little more to it, more variety and replayability built in, and it plays perfect as a 2-player, but is a 4 player so offers some more versatility if you have limited space to take games with you.

Hmm, I'm going to have to check these two out. Thanks for the recommendations!

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Author Topic: Board games for two? (Read 6888 times)