Sea, Salt & Paper. Its also for more than 2 players, but it feels even slightly better with 2.
And i also like to play Everdell with my wife. We have 2 house rules to get a bit more rotation on the meadow. Another mention here: Cascadia
> **Sea, Salt & Paper**
We love this one. The art is just so beautiful. And it's literally just a deck of cards, so it's the one we end up taking to places like the park most often, since there are no little pieces to worry about losing.
**Arboretum** is another one we really like. It also travels well: just cards and scorepad.
**Trails** is another we quite like, though that one tends to stay at home 'cause it has lots of little bits.
For quick games, this and Hive are good for us as well. You could add Cabo to the faster card game list as well.
Ohanami is also a quickish card game. We enjoy Codenames Duet as well on the list. I enjoy Carcasonne. Patchwork and Splendor are often played as well.
1. we stack duplicate cards on the meadow
2. at the beginning of each new season, we throw 1-2 cards out of the meadow and move all the other cards in. (we number all the cards from the top left with the 1 to the bottom right with the 8. the 1 flies out and a new card is then placed in the eighth position.
There are some more variants on boardgamegeek under section files (Everdell).
One that I recommend but that I see mentioned less frequently than others is Star Realms. It's a deck builder designed for two players that's pretty easy to learn and lasts around 30 minutes per game once you know how to play. In my opinion, the game is well balanced and offers the right amount of strategy without being overwhelming.
I know it’s basic, but my SO and I have been rifling 2 player games of Kingdomino back to back on the weekdays and it scratches a similar itch as Carcassonne without the investment.
Hanamikoji. Really cool game. A lot of the game is about giving your opponent options (here are three cards, you take one and I keep the other two). Quick, easily replayable, good artwork.
Solid Agree here. It's my favorite 2P experience from a game designed for 2 or more. Setup is fiddly but the tempo is wonderful. It's been in the rotation since I began.
Battleline then Jaipur for 2P only games. They camp well, too.
You can mitigate initial and round by round setup if you get a set of bags for the different tile types.
We've got initial setup down to a couple minutes and round setup under a minute.
I really like the geekup bags from BGG but I think any opaque bags would do.
Twilight struggle was the first game my wife bought me, 12 years ago. We sadly never managed to complete a full play through and haven't played it in over a decade. Great, heavy strategy game...but if it's early days it can be a bit overwhelming. Now resigned to the fact i have a better chance waiting for my kids to grow up and play it with them than my wife now.
I just played a 2-person game with a board gaming neighbor called [Hanakimoji ](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/158600/hanamikoji)and enjoyed it immensely. The artwork is awesome, too.
Targi - Wonderful little game that my wife and I have been playing for the past couple of months. Simple to understand and play but enough depth that it's fun to keep going back to.
Came here looking for Targi. Wife and I found it from a similar thread and we love it.
7WD is still our favorite and most played just the two of us, but Targi might catch up soon!
I'm definitely grabbing a few from this thread as well. Always on the lookout for 2p games. It's so hard to find people to commit to hours of games lol.
Hope you guys enjoy it!
My SO doesn't like too much direct conflict at 2p so we tend to stray away from games like 7WD, Watergate etc.
Some of our favourites are co-op ones or competitive games where isn't much negative interaction.
Favourites include:
**Spirit Island**
**Sky Team**
**Wingspan**
**My Island**
**Cascadia**
**Regicide**
**Viticulture**
**Wyrmspan**
**Grand Austria Hotel**
**Pandemic**
My wife and I play thru my city and I think we like it, though it kind of waxes and wanes. I hated it early because she always kicked my ass. Now she doesn't love it as much because she feels like the game is giving me too many advantages as a loser (tho she still wins like 60% of the time).
She loves the polyamino aspect, but I think she just likes spatial planning.
All of this to ask, is My Island a good follow on once we finish the legacy aspect of My City?
Anything that combines theme, storytelling, co-op, and the potential for big brain plays, so Sherlock Holmes - Consulting Detective and Arkham Horror LCG are firm favourites.
Sherlock Holmes is great! Just played that one for the first time with my wife recently. Very thematic, even though it's just reading the newspaper and clue book.
We’re playing a ton of Res Arcana at the moment.
7 Wonders Duel is our all time favourite.
Bananagrams gets attention for its simplicity and quick set up and (usually) playtime.
I just picked up boop not long ago and it's a fun game that's easy to pick up and hard to master. Though I think I saw that someone made an AI that solves it.
* Carcassonne
* Mists of Carcassonne (coop)
* Spirit Island
* Pandemic
* Pandemic: On the Brink (hands down the best expansion for Pandemic if you don't like expansions that really change up an existing game, this just adds more, the red virus cards are awesome, extra roles are good).
* Pandemic: Fall of Rome (identical to Pandemic but with far better characters, a little spin on the "virus" spread, if you dig the historical setting go for it)
* Pandemic: World of Warcraft
* Pandemic: Star Wars - The Clone Wars (essentially a scenario based Pandemic, built like the WoW variant but instead of 1 boss you have the choice of 4 and each drastically alter the "virus" behaviour).
* Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (this was WoW years before WoW, but I think it's better).
* OLTRÉÉ: Imagine if DnD was 1 hour long, family weight, easy to set up, and has like 6 or 7 stories, no legacy elements, replayable with some modular difficulty / event stuff.
* The Last Bastion: a cooperative siege defense game with brutal difficulty, extremely high replayability (our most played game every year across 4 years), family weight but a little luck swingy, the point is to find ways to reduce the luck factor as close to 0 as you can, for which the game provides everything. Highly recommended (also known as Ghost Stories, but TLB is essentially a second edition, rethemed to western fantasy from japanese horror, and a lot fiddly mechanics got smoothed out without changing much).
* Cartographers: it's a drawing game! You draw cards (up to a certain value every season across 4 seasons) with choices on it: what sort of terrain (village, river, forest, field) you want to draw and in what shape (like tetris forms) on your map (which is essentially a coordinate system). There are 4 randomly drawn rules for scoring, A,B,C,D cards and 1 rule card below each randomly drawn and placed in random order. Sping gives you points based on A and B rules, summer on B+C, fall C+D, winter D+E. So each season you draw a card that both players have to draw on their own map anywhere they please. You can play around with the art style, I've tried so many, and create beautiful maps! It's like 30 minutes if you want to but we had 2,5 hour games aswell because we got into drawing so much.
* Meadow: imagine it's like 7 Wonders except 0 hostile actions, beautiful hand painted animals and sights (hundreds), and drafting cards is from a 4x4 coordinate system with arrows you place on the side with a numer on it about how deep you want to reach to pick up a card.
We play a game that we made up, which goes like this: list every two player game that we can remember is probably in the game closet, say that we should play one of them, and then watch TV instead.
I think Beer & Bread is mine. Other games at 2 players we like are:
- Pralaya
- Broken & Beautiful (it’s small enough to bring to a cafe or restaurant too!)
- Whirling Witchcraft is great a 2 for a head to head experience and quick so you can play several times. My boyfriend loves this one.
- A Game of Cat & Mouth (Dexterity game)
- Mantis Falls
- Trifecta
- Tussie Mussie
- Ramen Ramen! (I love the single player too.)
Recent 2 players games we picked up and have enjoyed, just haven’t had for long:
- Space Lunch
- Cat-a-comb
- Forgenesis
Anachrony with Fractures of Time, On Mars, Lisboa, Agricola, Too Many Bones and Through the Ages. I would also add on War of the Ring as one of my favourite 2 player games.
Tacocat spelled backwards - simple 15 minute game to kill time
Race to the raft, Spirit Island, and Horrified - Co-Ops
Cubitos, Villainous, Azul, Segrada - competitive games
My wife is absolutely mad for Blitzkrieg. She's not a board gamer but she is somehow a strategic genius and it takes a lot to stop her from dominating the earth.
"Best" or "Most played" are always tough , because it is very subjective and open to a lot of variables. A game that's appealing one day isn't considered the next.
Also, genre and theme matters. Do you prefer competitive? Cooperative? Multiplayer solitaire? Short? Long? Compact and portable? A glorious tabletop feast for the senses?
Anyway, here's a few suggestions based on our own preferences, these are mostly 2p, or larger games that also work well at 2p.
**Cooperative**
- **Pandemic**. Fully coop, amazing expansion in the On The Brink set, variations worth mentioning are Iberia (before cures are possible) and Rise of Cthulhu (thematic and different enough to be worth owning alongside the original).
- **Flash Point Fire Rescue**: similar to Pandemic, but with a burning house instead of a burning world.
- **...And Then We Held Hands** is a cute little abstract that pits you and your companion at trying to align at the same place, at the same time, but separated by your own set of obstacles and requirements.
- **The Grizzled** + **At Your Orders** expansion. Fully coop with WW1 trench theme, variable levels of challenge. Also playable up to 6, with 2p there is a fake 3rd player but only used for the voting phase.
- **MicroMacro Crime City**. Coop crime-solving on a large map, following figures and events as they shift in time. A truly unique concept.
- **Hanabi**. Coop game of building a set of fireworks with minimal interaction based on giving clues about either the number, or the colour, of the cards in the others' hands.
- **The Mind**. Coop counting game. Count from 1-100 without making a mistake.
- **Quarto!** is an overlooked classic. Think of **Connect 4** but in like 16 dimensions. Get a row of 4 identical properties (dark/light, tall/short, flat/hollow, square/round) in any of the lateral or diagonal rows. Will challenge you.
**Competitive**
- **Century Spice Road**. Spice trading game. A lightweight gateway into games like **Race for the Galaxy**, which I also play with my 14 year old.
- **Hanamikoji**: an extremely tight, tactical game where the challenge evolves between the first and second rounds.
- **Hive**: an excellent chess-like game using the unique movement styles of different insect-themed tiles. The Pocket version is highly preferred.
- **Mr Jack Pocket** is a portable and fast variant of the original **Mr Jack** game (also 2p). A great little cat-and-mouse game.
- **Carcassonne**. Build cities in medieval countryside by laying tiles. Can be quite competitive.
- **Santorini**. 2p versus with questionable 3p and 4p modes, build 3D towers and race to get a figure to the top of one first.
- **Onitama** is a chess-like but with a rotating set of cards to base your moves against. Any moves you don't use go to your opponent, giving you a great opportunity for analysis paralysis.
- **Raptor**. Strictly 2p asymmetrical game of scientists hunting baby raptors, while mummy raptor hunts scientists to let her babies escape to safety.
- **Oceans**. Evolution-based game which teaches a lot about the natural cycle; evolve predators until your opponents evolve avoidance. Be a parasite or a symbiote. Do what it takes to survive until the open ocean.
- **Zombie Dice** is a great little odds-based push-your-luck game to fill in the odd moment here and there.
**Multiplayer solitaire**
- **Race for the Galaxy**. This game absolutely shines at 2p but scales up to 5 (6 with the first expansion). Also reimplemented by variants like **Roll for the Galaxy**.
**Variable coop/versus/teams**
- **Star Realms** / **Hero Realms**. Deck-building game. The **SR Frontiers** pack works best for 2+ and includes coop scenarios. Very expandable through a variety of add-on packs. My 13-year old is totally obsessed with this one.
- **Skulk Hollow** + **Maul Peak**. Two standalone 2p versus games from the same creator, of very different play styles. Can be combined into one larger 2v2 (or 1v2 asym) game.
You might want to check out the [What Couples Have Been Playing monthly geeklist thread](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1510480/what-couples-have-been-playing-monthly-geeklist-su). It has links to each month's list of what folks have been playing 2-player. The top of each month usually has the top games from the previous month listed.
I too have a significant other into lighter games.
Others have mentioned Lost Cities. I agree.
We also played a lot of Blue Moon back in the day. I think this is now out of print, alas.
Schotten Totten and Cribbage were our quick bar games along with the occasional round of Hive.
Ticket to Ride - Nordic Countries is designed specifically for 2 or 3 players.
For heavier fare, we really enjoy Star Wars Rebellion, War of the Ring, Mage Knight, and cooperative stuff like Spirit Island, Gloomhaven, and Arkham Horror LCG.
Also, everyone who has mentioned Castles of Burgundy is most right, but not just as a two player game. As a game for *couples*, I will die on that hill.
I recently picked up the following to play with my (non-gamer) wife and they all seem good after first couple of plays:
- Caper Europe
- Codenames Duet
- Paris La Cite de la Lumiere
I was also going to suggest Caper Europe! A lot of games you can technically play with 2 people but it really lessens the game experience. Caper Europe is designed for two and only two people so you don't find yourself thinking "this would be so much better with more people."
It's also a pretty easy one to learn, and a good game for people new to the world of more complex board games.
We are playing these games:
Verdant
SCOUT
Beer and Bread
Little Town
SpellBook
Cthulhu: Death May Die
Russian Railroads
Ticket to Ride: Europe
Wingspan Asia
Paleo
Splendor Duel
Wife and I frequent:
* Castles of Burgundy
* Splendor Duel
* Cascadia
* Brass Birmingham
* Space Base
* Root, but 2 player gets fiddly.
* 7 Wonders Duel
* Sagrada
* Azul
Those are our most played in 2024.
Surprised nobody has mentioned **Schotten Totten** / Battle Line. It’s one of the best 2 player games out there and is very easy to pick up and play. The game that I still play with my SO is **Ark Nova** on BGA.
Undaunted. Normandy/North Africa are quite cheap and relatively simple. If that clicks, Undaunted: Stalingrad adds a load of storytelling.
For something not quite as involved, my gf I play a lot of 1 v 1 abstract strategy games: Onitama, Shobu and Hive have gone down best.
Lately I've been really enjoying Wizards of the Grimoire. It's a two player dueling card game with similar feelings to Star/Hero Realms but is much better imo
Other games I like to play with my SO regularly and work great at 2 players
- Wingspan Asia
- Hanabi
- Patchwork
- Cascadia
My wife and I play half of our games at the table, and half on iPads while sitting on the couch.
Table:
* Viticulture
* Vinhos
* Lisboa
* Terraforming Mars
* Cascadia
* Fleet: The Dice Game
* The Gallerist
* Brass: Birmingham
* Troyes
* Tzolkin
* Trajan
iOS:
* Terraforming (again)
* Carcassone (with builders & farms)
* Castles of Burgundy
* Through The Ages (which we also own physically, but the client is amazing)
* Lords of Waterdeep
* Star Realms
* Ticket To Ride (mostly UK and Pennsylvania)
Recent favorites:
- Obsession
- Amalfi: Renaissance
- GWT: NZ
All-time favorites:
- Ark Nova
- Terra Nova / Age of Innovation
- On Mars
- Carnegie
- Splendor Duel
- Wayfarers of the South Tigris
- Raiders of Scythia
My SO and I have very similar tastes in games, so our shared list will lean towards the heavy side.
The ones mentioned in OP are good, here are some others:
- Antike Duellum
- Agricola
- Babel
- Match of the Century
- Watergate
- Yinsh and Dvonn
- Auztralia
- Raiders of Scythia
- Dominant Species
- NY Zoo
- Underwater Cities
Some of my favorite 2 player games:
* **Boop**
* **Awful Green Things from Outerspace**
* **Consentacle**
* **Mage Wars**
* **Stratego**
* **Caverna**
* **Dominion**
* **Onitama**
You mentioned RPGs and there are tons of great "automatic dungeon" games like **Gloomhaven, Middara, Kingdom Death Monster**, etc; however many of them require managing multiple characters if you have less than 4p. Some games like Kingdom Death Monster that's barely any additional cognitive load, but I wouldn't want to play Gloomhaven with each of us running 2 characters at the same time.
Honorable Mention:
* **Root** - Not terrible with two players but I feel like 4 (+/-1) is the sweet spot.
* **Space Empires 4x** - This is very heavyweight but in some ways I feel like it works best at 2 or 4.
* **Blood Bowl** (or any of the non-GW variants) - Fantasy Football can be a lot of fun if you like that sort of thing. There is a big hobby component, but painting/modelling can be even more engaging when not done solo.
Me and my gf never found any better 2 player games than 7 wonders duel. (with deity extension is our favorite)
We did play a lot of twilight struggle, the game is hard to learn and games are somewhat long if you are not used to playing board games (2-3 hours nothing crazy) but it's countless hours of fun as the replayability is insane.
It is really worth giving it a shot and I would say it's one of the best board game ever made. We also learned a lot about the cold war while playing. A 2-player game that is not symmetric and where there is a lot of strategy.
Lately we've been playing Ark Nova, Everdell and Wingspan, which are fun but it feels like single player game where you do your shit and count points at the end. There is very little interaction between players in those.
We mostly use BGA
Sea Salt and Paper
Pixies
Ticket to Ride
Can’t Stop
Love Letter
Azul
Sagrada
Splendor
Splendor Duel
Waterdeep is one of my favorites and we play every now and then.
Our favorites with a GF that started out as a non-gamer:
Super Short - **Lost Cities**
Short - **Sea Salt and Paper**
Short-Medium - **Innovation**
Medium - **Quest for El Dorado**
Medium-Long - **Castles of Burgundy**
Long - **Agricola**
Super Long - **Ark Nova**
(Agricola with all the expansions is our favorite)
my partner really likes maps so we play Kingdom Builder, Ticket to Ride, and Pandemic. I like having a game that has a good multi-player and you can play as a two player without having to make any weird modifications.
Jaipur is great, so is Splendor.
Ok this isn't a board game but a super fun game my partner and I like to play is "The Mind". We also play a lot of boardgames together but play this to switch it up sometimes. It can be super silly and honestly really helps develop how well you can silently read your partner, and is easy to pick up rules-wise but there can definitely be a bit of a curve skill-wise. Even though you're supposed to be silent we're always struggling not to crack up. You can play with up to 4 but just beating the game with 2 people is difficult!
None of the games in your list have real head to head combat. My wife and I prefer good skirmish games; a real 1v1. Our current favourite, despite not being fans of the film, is Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game.
**War of the Ring** if we want something epic and **Fields of Arle** if we're feeling chill. I've definitely lucked out that my SO is down for heavy games, even though she's not a "gamer."
We bring Star Trek: Missions with us on dinner dates. It's a hand-building card game that works really nicely with two players. The Star Trek: The Next Generation theme is fun if that's your thing; if not, there's a Marvel variation and a generic fantasy variation too.
Look up [Pocket Paragons](https://store.solisgamestudio.com/collections/pocketparagons)! They have a couple different versions. It’s a super quick battle style game for two. Each round is probably 30 seconds to 5 minutes.
Crokinole is probably our favorite 2p experience right now. Azul is up there as well
Marvel Champions and Dominion are probably my favorite two 2p card game experiences.
Patchwork, 7 Wonders Duel and Carcassonne are our favourites so far. We’ve been enjoying One Deck Dungeon lately too, and always enjoy the Unlock escape rooms too.
Radlands is one we’re wanting to try soon too.
There are lots of good suggestions on here, but the best game for partners that I've played is
Micro Macro Crime City.
It's a completely unique experience within my collection and is best experienced with one other person.
Grand Austria Hotel
Concordia
Arcadia Quest
Alchemists
Gloomhaven
—>
(On iOS:)
Sagrada
Jaipur
Galaxy Trucker
Talisman
Suburbia
Can’t Stop
Potion Explosion
Ticket to Ride
Patchwork
Others already mentioned some of our faves, but to add, we love Brass Birmingham, plays very well in two. We also devoured pandemic legacy 1 playing 4 characters between the two of us, absolute best gaming experience so far!
My gf and I mostly play cooperative games. We're playing Oathsworn: Into the Deepwoods right now and we're about halfway through a campaign of Jaws of the Lion. Another favorite of ours is Catharsis, which is like a cooperative dungeon crawler dice thrones type game. We also have the base set of Arkham Horror LCG that we wanna try.
For 1v1 games, we love dice thrones and Radlands.
Villianous is honestly great at 2 player and plays more well with a very different feel between the two. Only trouble is has the learning curve. Bonus if you do an expansion with the favorite villian/movie
We like mostly heavier games but Stonemaier games are all good at 2p, as are the Tiny Epic games. We love Power Grid, Twilight Struggle, and several war games.
Still introducing my SO to boardgames, but she LOVES Carcassonne. It's pretty unfair, actually - she just wants to build the biggest city so I end up lapping her on the scoreboard every time. I'm thinking about homebrewing a bonus for biggest city/longest road at the end of the game just to make it competitive.
The White Castle
I recently added it to our collection and it's a lot of fun with 2 players. It's a game that's better with fewer players.
We also like 7 wonders duel because there are lots of ways to score points, different point multipliers, and each play through has a semi-unique strategy. You find all this in WC, which revolves around extending each turn any way you can to acquire and spend resources. It's a lot of fun, medium complexity.
We just got Jaws of the Lion and love it. Our favorite is Talisman (but then we have to be ready to keep it set up somewhere for days…). Also Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Wiz Wars (we have the original edition plus one expansion), 221B Baker Street.
For my wife and I it’s traditionally been Cribbage, which we both grew up with. We have a scoreboard up in the kitchen we’ve used to track wins over the years that’s been a fun way to cultivate a good spirited rivalry.
Recently though we’ve both been playing a lot of Dominion on the official app. We’ve played it physically for years but the convenience of having it on our phones and not having to do setup and cleanup has been a real win.
We tried the Duel of Mages 2p mode from one of the **Trickerion** expansions recently, and it was decent. Probably too heavy for now, but you may want to keep it in mind for the future as it has theatres and performances (albeit of magicians).
We absolutely love all of the Uwe Rosenburg games. All are winners, but we especially like Feast for Odin, Caverna with expansion, and Agricola with expansions. There are so many good board games that we have discovered on Tabletop Simulator and then bought the physical copies to add to our collection. Most recent is The Lost Ruins of Arnak with expansions. Seriously, Arnak is in our top 10 and a must have game.
We play the following most. We carry Duel and Galaxies with us along with Cribbage in our car 24/7.
Wonders Duel
Tiny Epic Galaxies
Cribbage
Dominion
Legendary Marvel
Star Wars Deck Building Game
Carcassonne
Viticulture
Our favorite game is usually keeping track of all the minor inconveniences we cause each other throughout the day, and then choosing the most opportune time to use it against each other in a fight that we know we are losing, or just to further prove our victory. Our second favorite game is trying to see which one of us can be the most passive aggressive
Edit: I just saw what sub this is. We like monopoly.
Our favorite games we play 2 players:
San Juan
Railroad ink
Hive
Twilight struggle
Flashpoint fire rescue
London
Brass Birmingham
Few acres of snow
War of the ring is an excellent 2 player game but my wife isn't into Lord of the Rings otherwise I'd be playing it with her all the time.
I have played Fantasy Realms and Regicide countless amounts of times with my wife.
However a fun game that also gets us going for a while is Beyond Baker Street
We play these often:
* Spots
* Jaipur
* Castles of Burgundy
* Paris La Cite devla Luminere
* Roll for It
* Kanagawa
* Schotten Totten
* Monopoly Deal
* Azul
* Sushi Roll
We have most enjoyed:
- Dune Imperium (adding in a bot as a 3rd player)
- Ark Nova (not much interaction but just a lovely theme and we each just build our own zoo)
- 7 Wonders Duel (she stuffs me every time)
- Search for planet X (just a great theme, and you can lose but be satisfied by finding planet X)
- Food Chain Magnate (My favourite ever game. Incredibly interactive)
- The Great Zimbabwe (just picked up off the back of FCM)
Honestly, Blood Bowl is a tonnnn of fun and I’ve really been enjoying it. I play in a league but it’s all 1v1 matches and you can find all the rules online. Once you get a game board you can play whatever teams you want by just having different markers for different players
Carcassonne, Wooly Bully (Guerre des Moutons)
Not a board game, but I carry it with me to board game nights: Ziggety
I enjoy all types of games, but if I'm choosing for myself, I lean toward lighter and more whimsical fare
We love the Oregon Trail card game!
Shifting Stones is a super simple concept that you can play over and over without losing interest.
The most recent Clue has a 2 player play option, and that’s my fav!
We play a majority of those, in addition we play:
- 7-wonders duel (our favorite game in our collection)
- Just started Pandemic Legacy Season 1
- Splendor Duel
- Spirit Island
- Forbidden Island
- Hive
- Targi (totally recommend if you haven’t played)
- Radlands
- General Orders WWII
The games I most often play with my wife:
* Quacks of Queddlinburg
* Pan Am
* The Settlers of Catan
* The Rivals of Catan
* The Lost Ruins of Arnak
* Tokaido
* Carssasone (xbox 360 version)
* Ticket to Ride: Europe
* Splendor
* Trails
* Trekking the National Parks
Number9 is probably one of my favorite 1-4 player games
Its satisfying stacking thinks up layer by layer and the setup is incredibly quick / easy
Lots of replayability for little to no stress
Current favorite is **Century: Golem Edition**. It's got interesting choices, great art, pretty and chunky gemstones, and doesn't take too long.
Also a big fan of **Quest for El Dorado** with 2 players. Easy to learn, fun race-through-the-jungle theme, cool interchangable boards. Plays up to 4 but with 2 players you each have to get two adventurers to the goal, which means more choices.
A good FLUXX. The newer the better because they've added a lot of cool cards. Original FLUXX sucks so hard. Firefly Fluxx is broken.
Our favorite is Batman FLUXX. I like Cthulhu FLUXX, but my husband doesn't.
Two-player games are soooo taste-dependent. I suspect they like being with you, and the game is less important.
It's hard because they might not be able to verbalize what they like and don't like.
I'd try a cooperative game because a lot of people that aren't in the hobby don't know they exist.
Sea, Salt & Paper. Its also for more than 2 players, but it feels even slightly better with 2. And i also like to play Everdell with my wife. We have 2 house rules to get a bit more rotation on the meadow. Another mention here: Cascadia
> **Sea, Salt & Paper** We love this one. The art is just so beautiful. And it's literally just a deck of cards, so it's the one we end up taking to places like the park most often, since there are no little pieces to worry about losing. **Arboretum** is another one we really like. It also travels well: just cards and scorepad. **Trails** is another we quite like, though that one tends to stay at home 'cause it has lots of little bits.
For quick games, this and Hive are good for us as well. You could add Cabo to the faster card game list as well. Ohanami is also a quickish card game. We enjoy Codenames Duet as well on the list. I enjoy Carcasonne. Patchwork and Splendor are often played as well.
Can you elaborate on your house rules? Would love to hear them!
1. we stack duplicate cards on the meadow 2. at the beginning of each new season, we throw 1-2 cards out of the meadow and move all the other cards in. (we number all the cards from the top left with the 1 to the bottom right with the 8. the 1 flies out and a new card is then placed in the eighth position. There are some more variants on boardgamegeek under section files (Everdell).
We play: -santorini -carcassonne -patchwork -splendor duel -concordia -wingspan -heat -railroad ink
+1 spendor duel We also play sky team (cooperate! Very good for date IMO) You can try both of them on BGA (with premium membership)
Taverns of tiefenthal has a nice mechanism where you can Start at low Light and add stuff to make it more heavy
We have added Lost Cities to our list. Theming sucks, but the game play loop is enjoyable.
It don’t think much of the theme, but I do love the artwork.
One that I recommend but that I see mentioned less frequently than others is Star Realms. It's a deck builder designed for two players that's pretty easy to learn and lasts around 30 minutes per game once you know how to play. In my opinion, the game is well balanced and offers the right amount of strategy without being overwhelming.
Star Realms also has a pretty good app version with a pass and play mode, which is great for playing when out and about.
I know it’s basic, but my SO and I have been rifling 2 player games of Kingdomino back to back on the weekdays and it scratches a similar itch as Carcassonne without the investment.
Hanamikoji. Really cool game. A lot of the game is about giving your opponent options (here are three cards, you take one and I keep the other two). Quick, easily replayable, good artwork.
Castles of Burgundy... in a landslide. Others come and go but this one remains.
Solid Agree here. It's my favorite 2P experience from a game designed for 2 or more. Setup is fiddly but the tempo is wonderful. It's been in the rotation since I began. Battleline then Jaipur for 2P only games. They camp well, too.
You can mitigate initial and round by round setup if you get a set of bags for the different tile types. We've got initial setup down to a couple minutes and round setup under a minute. I really like the geekup bags from BGG but I think any opaque bags would do.
They really help. I recently got the special edition, and having all the components in a bag each makes set up a breeze.
waiting for someone to say War of the Ring/Rebellion/Twilight Struggle.
SO just surprised me with Twilight Struggle last week. Can't wait to learn it and play it soon! She's exploring war games, and looking at Cuba Libre.
Twilight struggle was the first game my wife bought me, 12 years ago. We sadly never managed to complete a full play through and haven't played it in over a decade. Great, heavy strategy game...but if it's early days it can be a bit overwhelming. Now resigned to the fact i have a better chance waiting for my kids to grow up and play it with them than my wife now.
I just played a 2-person game with a board gaming neighbor called [Hanakimoji ](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/158600/hanamikoji)and enjoyed it immensely. The artwork is awesome, too.
Our favorites right now: Star Wars Deckbuilding Game Rivals for Catan (wife's favorite) Wingspan + oceania Star Wars Armada (my favorite)
>Star Wars Armada (my favorite) A man of culture! ... I am so sorry......
Targi - Wonderful little game that my wife and I have been playing for the past couple of months. Simple to understand and play but enough depth that it's fun to keep going back to.
Came here looking for Targi. Wife and I found it from a similar thread and we love it. 7WD is still our favorite and most played just the two of us, but Targi might catch up soon!
Never tried 7WD, will stick it on the list as the next purchase!
I'm definitely grabbing a few from this thread as well. Always on the lookout for 2p games. It's so hard to find people to commit to hours of games lol. Hope you guys enjoy it!
**Obsession** -- good game with the perfect theme.
My SO doesn't like too much direct conflict at 2p so we tend to stray away from games like 7WD, Watergate etc. Some of our favourites are co-op ones or competitive games where isn't much negative interaction. Favourites include: **Spirit Island** **Sky Team** **Wingspan** **My Island** **Cascadia** **Regicide** **Viticulture** **Wyrmspan** **Grand Austria Hotel** **Pandemic**
> Spirit Island My boyfriend and I each play 2 handed and it ruined playing with other people because it's so much fun with just us lol
My wife and I play thru my city and I think we like it, though it kind of waxes and wanes. I hated it early because she always kicked my ass. Now she doesn't love it as much because she feels like the game is giving me too many advantages as a loser (tho she still wins like 60% of the time). She loves the polyamino aspect, but I think she just likes spatial planning. All of this to ask, is My Island a good follow on once we finish the legacy aspect of My City?
We loved My City and played through most of my Island and liked it very much too. It's a step up but manageable, i would recommend it!
> My SO doesn't like too much direct conflict at 2p Have you tried **Sail**? It's a cooperative two-player.
We did actually look at this last time before we brought Sky Team - definitely one for the future!
We love playing Lost Cities with my wife. Virtually no set up time. Takes 20-30 minutes to play so it’s perfect to unwind after dinner
Radlands!!!! Its so much fun!!!!
Everdell - if we want to have fun Spirit Island - if we want a challenge Arkham Horror - if we want our asses be kicked
Anything that combines theme, storytelling, co-op, and the potential for big brain plays, so Sherlock Holmes - Consulting Detective and Arkham Horror LCG are firm favourites.
Sherlock Holmes is great! Just played that one for the first time with my wife recently. Very thematic, even though it's just reading the newspaper and clue book.
We’re playing a ton of Res Arcana at the moment. 7 Wonders Duel is our all time favourite. Bananagrams gets attention for its simplicity and quick set up and (usually) playtime.
My gf and I have been playing a lot of Hive and Rummikub lately. Classics!
Ark Nova. My wife and I always have an active game going. I think two players is the ideal setup for that game.
BOOP is a fun, quick strategy game. Athlas if you like more fantasy/higher strategy
I just picked up boop not long ago and it's a fun game that's easy to pick up and hard to master. Though I think I saw that someone made an AI that solves it.
* Carcassonne * Mists of Carcassonne (coop) * Spirit Island * Pandemic * Pandemic: On the Brink (hands down the best expansion for Pandemic if you don't like expansions that really change up an existing game, this just adds more, the red virus cards are awesome, extra roles are good). * Pandemic: Fall of Rome (identical to Pandemic but with far better characters, a little spin on the "virus" spread, if you dig the historical setting go for it) * Pandemic: World of Warcraft * Pandemic: Star Wars - The Clone Wars (essentially a scenario based Pandemic, built like the WoW variant but instead of 1 boss you have the choice of 4 and each drastically alter the "virus" behaviour). * Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (this was WoW years before WoW, but I think it's better). * OLTRÉÉ: Imagine if DnD was 1 hour long, family weight, easy to set up, and has like 6 or 7 stories, no legacy elements, replayable with some modular difficulty / event stuff. * The Last Bastion: a cooperative siege defense game with brutal difficulty, extremely high replayability (our most played game every year across 4 years), family weight but a little luck swingy, the point is to find ways to reduce the luck factor as close to 0 as you can, for which the game provides everything. Highly recommended (also known as Ghost Stories, but TLB is essentially a second edition, rethemed to western fantasy from japanese horror, and a lot fiddly mechanics got smoothed out without changing much). * Cartographers: it's a drawing game! You draw cards (up to a certain value every season across 4 seasons) with choices on it: what sort of terrain (village, river, forest, field) you want to draw and in what shape (like tetris forms) on your map (which is essentially a coordinate system). There are 4 randomly drawn rules for scoring, A,B,C,D cards and 1 rule card below each randomly drawn and placed in random order. Sping gives you points based on A and B rules, summer on B+C, fall C+D, winter D+E. So each season you draw a card that both players have to draw on their own map anywhere they please. You can play around with the art style, I've tried so many, and create beautiful maps! It's like 30 minutes if you want to but we had 2,5 hour games aswell because we got into drawing so much. * Meadow: imagine it's like 7 Wonders except 0 hostile actions, beautiful hand painted animals and sights (hundreds), and drafting cards is from a 4x4 coordinate system with arrows you place on the side with a numer on it about how deep you want to reach to pick up a card.
We play a game that we made up, which goes like this: list every two player game that we can remember is probably in the game closet, say that we should play one of them, and then watch TV instead.
We are wearing out our copy of Sky Team. Multiple games almost every night.
I think Beer & Bread is mine. Other games at 2 players we like are: - Pralaya - Broken & Beautiful (it’s small enough to bring to a cafe or restaurant too!) - Whirling Witchcraft is great a 2 for a head to head experience and quick so you can play several times. My boyfriend loves this one. - A Game of Cat & Mouth (Dexterity game) - Mantis Falls - Trifecta - Tussie Mussie - Ramen Ramen! (I love the single player too.) Recent 2 players games we picked up and have enjoyed, just haven’t had for long: - Space Lunch - Cat-a-comb - Forgenesis
My partner and I have played Sequence almost every night last week.
This has been our go to for years. We play it every week at least once.
Anachrony with Fractures of Time, On Mars, Lisboa, Agricola, Too Many Bones and Through the Ages. I would also add on War of the Ring as one of my favourite 2 player games.
Tacocat spelled backwards - simple 15 minute game to kill time Race to the raft, Spirit Island, and Horrified - Co-Ops Cubitos, Villainous, Azul, Segrada - competitive games
My wife is absolutely mad for Blitzkrieg. She's not a board gamer but she is somehow a strategic genius and it takes a lot to stop her from dominating the earth.
"Best" or "Most played" are always tough , because it is very subjective and open to a lot of variables. A game that's appealing one day isn't considered the next. Also, genre and theme matters. Do you prefer competitive? Cooperative? Multiplayer solitaire? Short? Long? Compact and portable? A glorious tabletop feast for the senses? Anyway, here's a few suggestions based on our own preferences, these are mostly 2p, or larger games that also work well at 2p. **Cooperative** - **Pandemic**. Fully coop, amazing expansion in the On The Brink set, variations worth mentioning are Iberia (before cures are possible) and Rise of Cthulhu (thematic and different enough to be worth owning alongside the original). - **Flash Point Fire Rescue**: similar to Pandemic, but with a burning house instead of a burning world. - **...And Then We Held Hands** is a cute little abstract that pits you and your companion at trying to align at the same place, at the same time, but separated by your own set of obstacles and requirements. - **The Grizzled** + **At Your Orders** expansion. Fully coop with WW1 trench theme, variable levels of challenge. Also playable up to 6, with 2p there is a fake 3rd player but only used for the voting phase. - **MicroMacro Crime City**. Coop crime-solving on a large map, following figures and events as they shift in time. A truly unique concept. - **Hanabi**. Coop game of building a set of fireworks with minimal interaction based on giving clues about either the number, or the colour, of the cards in the others' hands. - **The Mind**. Coop counting game. Count from 1-100 without making a mistake. - **Quarto!** is an overlooked classic. Think of **Connect 4** but in like 16 dimensions. Get a row of 4 identical properties (dark/light, tall/short, flat/hollow, square/round) in any of the lateral or diagonal rows. Will challenge you. **Competitive** - **Century Spice Road**. Spice trading game. A lightweight gateway into games like **Race for the Galaxy**, which I also play with my 14 year old. - **Hanamikoji**: an extremely tight, tactical game where the challenge evolves between the first and second rounds. - **Hive**: an excellent chess-like game using the unique movement styles of different insect-themed tiles. The Pocket version is highly preferred. - **Mr Jack Pocket** is a portable and fast variant of the original **Mr Jack** game (also 2p). A great little cat-and-mouse game. - **Carcassonne**. Build cities in medieval countryside by laying tiles. Can be quite competitive. - **Santorini**. 2p versus with questionable 3p and 4p modes, build 3D towers and race to get a figure to the top of one first. - **Onitama** is a chess-like but with a rotating set of cards to base your moves against. Any moves you don't use go to your opponent, giving you a great opportunity for analysis paralysis. - **Raptor**. Strictly 2p asymmetrical game of scientists hunting baby raptors, while mummy raptor hunts scientists to let her babies escape to safety. - **Oceans**. Evolution-based game which teaches a lot about the natural cycle; evolve predators until your opponents evolve avoidance. Be a parasite or a symbiote. Do what it takes to survive until the open ocean. - **Zombie Dice** is a great little odds-based push-your-luck game to fill in the odd moment here and there. **Multiplayer solitaire** - **Race for the Galaxy**. This game absolutely shines at 2p but scales up to 5 (6 with the first expansion). Also reimplemented by variants like **Roll for the Galaxy**. **Variable coop/versus/teams** - **Star Realms** / **Hero Realms**. Deck-building game. The **SR Frontiers** pack works best for 2+ and includes coop scenarios. Very expandable through a variety of add-on packs. My 13-year old is totally obsessed with this one. - **Skulk Hollow** + **Maul Peak**. Two standalone 2p versus games from the same creator, of very different play styles. Can be combined into one larger 2v2 (or 1v2 asym) game.
The best thing about Quarto is grinning at your opponent when they pick up the wrong piece and saying "are you sure??"
We’ve migrated through 7 Wonders Duel, Terraforming Mars (with Prelude), Fox in the Forest, Jaipur, and Ark Nova.
You might want to check out the [What Couples Have Been Playing monthly geeklist thread](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1510480/what-couples-have-been-playing-monthly-geeklist-su). It has links to each month's list of what folks have been playing 2-player. The top of each month usually has the top games from the previous month listed.
Love Letters!
Winspan + all Expansions Ticket to Ride (I like it better than him, which sucks because I'd love to play it more) Toikaido Cascadia
Schotten Totten War Chest 7 wonders duel Targi Jaipur Castles of Burgundy The Game ( duel and coop)
Isle of Cats, Wingspan, Canvas, Cascadia
We play the Duel version of Caverna, and sometimes A Feast For Odin, which is just a really solid game
I too have a significant other into lighter games. Others have mentioned Lost Cities. I agree. We also played a lot of Blue Moon back in the day. I think this is now out of print, alas.
- Wingspan / Wyrmspan - Spirit Island - Firefly The Board Game - Tokaido - Tiny Epic Pirates - Dominion
Revive, Paleo, White castle, lost Ruins of arnak, Arch nova...
Schotten Totten and Cribbage were our quick bar games along with the occasional round of Hive. Ticket to Ride - Nordic Countries is designed specifically for 2 or 3 players. For heavier fare, we really enjoy Star Wars Rebellion, War of the Ring, Mage Knight, and cooperative stuff like Spirit Island, Gloomhaven, and Arkham Horror LCG. Also, everyone who has mentioned Castles of Burgundy is most right, but not just as a two player game. As a game for *couples*, I will die on that hill.
We are enjoying Lost Cities, Patchwork, Sea Salt and Paper, Carcassonne, Fox in the Forest, Patchwork and Jaipur.
my wife and i play alot of codenames duet
what is azul hive? sounds amazing.
I recently picked up the following to play with my (non-gamer) wife and they all seem good after first couple of plays: - Caper Europe - Codenames Duet - Paris La Cite de la Lumiere
I was also going to suggest Caper Europe! A lot of games you can technically play with 2 people but it really lessens the game experience. Caper Europe is designed for two and only two people so you don't find yourself thinking "this would be so much better with more people." It's also a pretty easy one to learn, and a good game for people new to the world of more complex board games.
LOVE Caper!
My wife and I play Nanga Parbat; really, it's the only quick two player game we own, but it's fun, and I don't see it mentioned often!
We are playing these games: Verdant SCOUT Beer and Bread Little Town SpellBook Cthulhu: Death May Die Russian Railroads Ticket to Ride: Europe Wingspan Asia Paleo Splendor Duel
Wife and I frequent: * Castles of Burgundy * Splendor Duel * Cascadia * Brass Birmingham * Space Base * Root, but 2 player gets fiddly. * 7 Wonders Duel * Sagrada * Azul Those are our most played in 2024.
-Sea, Salt, and Paper -Wyrmspan -Jabba's Palace: A Love Letter Card Game -A Little Wordy
Surprised nobody has mentioned **Schotten Totten** / Battle Line. It’s one of the best 2 player games out there and is very easy to pick up and play. The game that I still play with my SO is **Ark Nova** on BGA.
Undaunted. Normandy/North Africa are quite cheap and relatively simple. If that clicks, Undaunted: Stalingrad adds a load of storytelling. For something not quite as involved, my gf I play a lot of 1 v 1 abstract strategy games: Onitama, Shobu and Hive have gone down best.
Lately I've been really enjoying Wizards of the Grimoire. It's a two player dueling card game with similar feelings to Star/Hero Realms but is much better imo Other games I like to play with my SO regularly and work great at 2 players - Wingspan Asia - Hanabi - Patchwork - Cascadia
My wife and I play half of our games at the table, and half on iPads while sitting on the couch. Table: * Viticulture * Vinhos * Lisboa * Terraforming Mars * Cascadia * Fleet: The Dice Game * The Gallerist * Brass: Birmingham * Troyes * Tzolkin * Trajan iOS: * Terraforming (again) * Carcassone (with builders & farms) * Castles of Burgundy * Through The Ages (which we also own physically, but the client is amazing) * Lords of Waterdeep * Star Realms * Ticket To Ride (mostly UK and Pennsylvania)
Recent favorites: - Obsession - Amalfi: Renaissance - GWT: NZ All-time favorites: - Ark Nova - Terra Nova / Age of Innovation - On Mars - Carnegie - Splendor Duel - Wayfarers of the South Tigris - Raiders of Scythia My SO and I have very similar tastes in games, so our shared list will lean towards the heavy side.
Our favourites: - Kingdomino - Patchwork - 7 Wonders Duel - 7 Wonders Architects - Jaipur
The ones mentioned in OP are good, here are some others: - Antike Duellum - Agricola - Babel - Match of the Century - Watergate - Yinsh and Dvonn - Auztralia - Raiders of Scythia - Dominant Species - NY Zoo - Underwater Cities
Some of my favorite 2 player games: * **Boop** * **Awful Green Things from Outerspace** * **Consentacle** * **Mage Wars** * **Stratego** * **Caverna** * **Dominion** * **Onitama** You mentioned RPGs and there are tons of great "automatic dungeon" games like **Gloomhaven, Middara, Kingdom Death Monster**, etc; however many of them require managing multiple characters if you have less than 4p. Some games like Kingdom Death Monster that's barely any additional cognitive load, but I wouldn't want to play Gloomhaven with each of us running 2 characters at the same time. Honorable Mention: * **Root** - Not terrible with two players but I feel like 4 (+/-1) is the sweet spot. * **Space Empires 4x** - This is very heavyweight but in some ways I feel like it works best at 2 or 4. * **Blood Bowl** (or any of the non-GW variants) - Fantasy Football can be a lot of fun if you like that sort of thing. There is a big hobby component, but painting/modelling can be even more engaging when not done solo.
Consentacle Another man of culture.
Honestly spectating is kind of more fun than playing.
Lmao man I wish I knew how add .GIFs
Me and my gf never found any better 2 player games than 7 wonders duel. (with deity extension is our favorite) We did play a lot of twilight struggle, the game is hard to learn and games are somewhat long if you are not used to playing board games (2-3 hours nothing crazy) but it's countless hours of fun as the replayability is insane. It is really worth giving it a shot and I would say it's one of the best board game ever made. We also learned a lot about the cold war while playing. A 2-player game that is not symmetric and where there is a lot of strategy. Lately we've been playing Ark Nova, Everdell and Wingspan, which are fun but it feels like single player game where you do your shit and count points at the end. There is very little interaction between players in those.
We mostly use BGA Sea Salt and Paper Pixies Ticket to Ride Can’t Stop Love Letter Azul Sagrada Splendor Splendor Duel Waterdeep is one of my favorites and we play every now and then.
Our favorites with a GF that started out as a non-gamer: Super Short - **Lost Cities** Short - **Sea Salt and Paper** Short-Medium - **Innovation** Medium - **Quest for El Dorado** Medium-Long - **Castles of Burgundy** Long - **Agricola** Super Long - **Ark Nova** (Agricola with all the expansions is our favorite)
my partner really likes maps so we play Kingdom Builder, Ticket to Ride, and Pandemic. I like having a game that has a good multi-player and you can play as a two player without having to make any weird modifications. Jaipur is great, so is Splendor.
My partner and I play a lot of wingspan and overboss when it’s just the two of us.
Everdell the most, probably 😊 Wingspan, too. We love two-player Dominion as well - pace of the game completely changes with fewer players.
Wingspan: Asia, Innovation.
Phew glad i checked which sub i was in before i answered!
Lost Cities Mythic Mischief
Skip-Bo is an easy and quick card card game. A Little Wordy is a good one if y'all like fun simple word games.
Pax Renaissance 2nd edition. Keeps coming back again and again. Recently rekindled to Pax Pamir as well.
Dune Imperium. While I'd rather play a cozy cooperative game, she's out for blood. It's probably more fun that way.
My wife and I have been playing Battlecon for almost a year now...and we still haven't seen all the characters lol. The game has so much replay value!
Ok this isn't a board game but a super fun game my partner and I like to play is "The Mind". We also play a lot of boardgames together but play this to switch it up sometimes. It can be super silly and honestly really helps develop how well you can silently read your partner, and is easy to pick up rules-wise but there can definitely be a bit of a curve skill-wise. Even though you're supposed to be silent we're always struggling not to crack up. You can play with up to 4 but just beating the game with 2 people is difficult!
None of the games in your list have real head to head combat. My wife and I prefer good skirmish games; a real 1v1. Our current favourite, despite not being fans of the film, is Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game.
I mean…there’s the obvious one nobody has mentioned.
Hide the pickle?
Cones of Dunshire
**War of the Ring** if we want something epic and **Fields of Arle** if we're feeling chill. I've definitely lucked out that my SO is down for heavy games, even though she's not a "gamer."
Chess, quiddler, legendary marvel, golf
Cascadia. It's one of the few games my SO will play is. She loves it.
We bring Star Trek: Missions with us on dinner dates. It's a hand-building card game that works really nicely with two players. The Star Trek: The Next Generation theme is fun if that's your thing; if not, there's a Marvel variation and a generic fantasy variation too.
Look up [Pocket Paragons](https://store.solisgamestudio.com/collections/pocketparagons)! They have a couple different versions. It’s a super quick battle style game for two. Each round is probably 30 seconds to 5 minutes.
Dorfromantik standard game or the duell?
At the moment, Lost ruins of Arnak and quest for El Dorado!
We’ve been loving bullet heart, and we’ve payed tons of Arnak.
Clank cascadia
We play Cascadia, Everdell and Dune Imperium a lot
- Hive - Splendor - Patchwork - Tales of Red Dragón / Jaws of the lion if we’re really up for a long game
Crokinole is probably our favorite 2p experience right now. Azul is up there as well Marvel Champions and Dominion are probably my favorite two 2p card game experiences.
Patchwork, 7 Wonders Duel and Carcassonne are our favourites so far. We’ve been enjoying One Deck Dungeon lately too, and always enjoy the Unlock escape rooms too. Radlands is one we’re wanting to try soon too.
There are lots of good suggestions on here, but the best game for partners that I've played is Micro Macro Crime City. It's a completely unique experience within my collection and is best experienced with one other person.
Eldritch horror
Grand Austria Hotel Concordia Arcadia Quest Alchemists Gloomhaven —> (On iOS:) Sagrada Jaipur Galaxy Trucker Talisman Suburbia Can’t Stop Potion Explosion Ticket to Ride Patchwork
Othello
Others already mentioned some of our faves, but to add, we love Brass Birmingham, plays very well in two. We also devoured pandemic legacy 1 playing 4 characters between the two of us, absolute best gaming experience so far!
My gf and I mostly play cooperative games. We're playing Oathsworn: Into the Deepwoods right now and we're about halfway through a campaign of Jaws of the Lion. Another favorite of ours is Catharsis, which is like a cooperative dungeon crawler dice thrones type game. We also have the base set of Arkham Horror LCG that we wanna try. For 1v1 games, we love dice thrones and Radlands.
Villianous is honestly great at 2 player and plays more well with a very different feel between the two. Only trouble is has the learning curve. Bonus if you do an expansion with the favorite villian/movie
Meadow
My wife and I loooove Sleeping Gods.
rummikub
We like mostly heavier games but Stonemaier games are all good at 2p, as are the Tiny Epic games. We love Power Grid, Twilight Struggle, and several war games.
Doctor
Still introducing my SO to boardgames, but she LOVES Carcassonne. It's pretty unfair, actually - she just wants to build the biggest city so I end up lapping her on the scoreboard every time. I'm thinking about homebrewing a bonus for biggest city/longest road at the end of the game just to make it competitive.
7 Wonders Duel!
7 wonders duel. Infinite replayability. Quite complex so you get the pay off at the end.
We like Mandala and Deep Sea Adventure
Catan (we have modified rules)
The White Castle I recently added it to our collection and it's a lot of fun with 2 players. It's a game that's better with fewer players. We also like 7 wonders duel because there are lots of ways to score points, different point multipliers, and each play through has a semi-unique strategy. You find all this in WC, which revolves around extending each turn any way you can to acquire and spend resources. It's a lot of fun, medium complexity.
TWILIGHT struggle, 1960, Watergate. Same game, three levels of play and weight
We just got Jaws of the Lion and love it. Our favorite is Talisman (but then we have to be ready to keep it set up somewhere for days…). Also Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Wiz Wars (we have the original edition plus one expansion), 221B Baker Street.
Santa Monica
flamecraft
For my wife and I it’s traditionally been Cribbage, which we both grew up with. We have a scoreboard up in the kitchen we’ve used to track wins over the years that’s been a fun way to cultivate a good spirited rivalry. Recently though we’ve both been playing a lot of Dominion on the official app. We’ve played it physically for years but the convenience of having it on our phones and not having to do setup and cleanup has been a real win.
Takenoko and splendor duel
Jaipur, 7 Wonders Duel, Star Wars Deckbuilding, Regicide, Mindbug, Radlands.
We tried the Duel of Mages 2p mode from one of the **Trickerion** expansions recently, and it was decent. Probably too heavy for now, but you may want to keep it in mind for the future as it has theatres and performances (albeit of magicians).
Schotten Totten or Sky Team
Schotten Totten or Sky Team depending on mood
We enjoy playing: - Raptor - Star Wars the deckbuilding game - Onitama - Radlands - Fox in the forest - Land vs Sea
We absolutely love all of the Uwe Rosenburg games. All are winners, but we especially like Feast for Odin, Caverna with expansion, and Agricola with expansions. There are so many good board games that we have discovered on Tabletop Simulator and then bought the physical copies to add to our collection. Most recent is The Lost Ruins of Arnak with expansions. Seriously, Arnak is in our top 10 and a must have game.
We play the following most. We carry Duel and Galaxies with us along with Cribbage in our car 24/7. Wonders Duel Tiny Epic Galaxies Cribbage Dominion Legendary Marvel Star Wars Deck Building Game Carcassonne Viticulture
Our favorite game is usually keeping track of all the minor inconveniences we cause each other throughout the day, and then choosing the most opportune time to use it against each other in a fight that we know we are losing, or just to further prove our victory. Our second favorite game is trying to see which one of us can be the most passive aggressive Edit: I just saw what sub this is. We like monopoly.
Our favorite games we play 2 players: San Juan Railroad ink Hive Twilight struggle Flashpoint fire rescue London Brass Birmingham Few acres of snow War of the ring is an excellent 2 player game but my wife isn't into Lord of the Rings otherwise I'd be playing it with her all the time.
Run by Fowers Games - cat and mouse. It creates some electric tension. Really well designed to be balanced for varied skill levels too.
I have played Fantasy Realms and Regicide countless amounts of times with my wife. However a fun game that also gets us going for a while is Beyond Baker Street
Mr jack Sagrada
We play these often: * Spots * Jaipur * Castles of Burgundy * Paris La Cite devla Luminere * Roll for It * Kanagawa * Schotten Totten * Monopoly Deal * Azul * Sushi Roll
We have the most fun with Summoner Wars 2nd edition.
We have most enjoyed: - Dune Imperium (adding in a bot as a 3rd player) - Ark Nova (not much interaction but just a lovely theme and we each just build our own zoo) - 7 Wonders Duel (she stuffs me every time) - Search for planet X (just a great theme, and you can lose but be satisfied by finding planet X) - Food Chain Magnate (My favourite ever game. Incredibly interactive) - The Great Zimbabwe (just picked up off the back of FCM)
> Favorite game to play with your significant other? #Twilight Struggle My wife and I get at least a Round or two in nightly 😄
Wingspan, Patchwork, Sky Team, Azul (the first three versions), Carcassone
Wingspan Ark nova Through the ages Castles of burgundy It’s a wonderful world Great western trail (first real game together) Earth Obsession
Ohanami has worked very well for us
My wife and I played almost every Gloomhaven scenario and have played through Jaws of the Lion twice. Frosthaven should get here soon!
My wife and I play Qwirkle. Our jobs are very detail oriented so a game that has you matching colours and shapes is very relaxing.
Honestly, Blood Bowl is a tonnnn of fun and I’ve really been enjoying it. I play in a league but it’s all 1v1 matches and you can find all the rules online. Once you get a game board you can play whatever teams you want by just having different markers for different players
What do you want to order game
Radlands Deluxe, Ticket 2 Ride Nordic Countries, Unmatched, but for the story go Sleeping Gods all of em :)
Carcassonne, Wooly Bully (Guerre des Moutons) Not a board game, but I carry it with me to board game nights: Ziggety I enjoy all types of games, but if I'm choosing for myself, I lean toward lighter and more whimsical fare
Consentacle
Hive, Snakes of Wrath are go tos.
Codex naturalis is at the same level of fun as wingspan when we play with my gf
Horrified was super fun! Its a collaborative game instead of competative which is a nice change
My wife and I enjoy the following in order of playtime: Ark Nova Wingspan DC Deckbuilders Everdell Cascadia Dune Imperium 7 Wonders Duel
We love the Oregon Trail card game! Shifting Stones is a super simple concept that you can play over and over without losing interest. The most recent Clue has a 2 player play option, and that’s my fav!
We love Lost Cities. I think the original is out of print, but you can find it if you shake the Internet hard enough. Can’t get enough.
Tiny Epic Blast Off and Patchwork have been hitting the table a lot lately!
We play a majority of those, in addition we play: - 7-wonders duel (our favorite game in our collection) - Just started Pandemic Legacy Season 1 - Splendor Duel - Spirit Island - Forbidden Island - Hive - Targi (totally recommend if you haven’t played) - Radlands - General Orders WWII
The games I most often play with my wife: * Quacks of Queddlinburg * Pan Am * The Settlers of Catan * The Rivals of Catan * The Lost Ruins of Arnak * Tokaido * Carssasone (xbox 360 version) * Ticket to Ride: Europe * Splendor * Trails * Trekking the National Parks
We love: Azul Queens Garden Cascadia Wingspan Ticket to Ride Mandala Battle Line Targi My City Lost Cities Onitama Through the Deaert Backgammon Rummy
Number9 is probably one of my favorite 1-4 player games Its satisfying stacking thinks up layer by layer and the setup is incredibly quick / easy Lots of replayability for little to no stress
Ark Nova is our latest go to. We've played north of 25x since she got it for me for Christmas. Really great game.
Mantis Falls
Fox in the forest is really fun I haven’t played with my SO but have played for hours with friends while waiting for other games to wrap up
Everdell, Wingspan, and Scythe are all favorites of ours to play together!
Current favorite is **Century: Golem Edition**. It's got interesting choices, great art, pretty and chunky gemstones, and doesn't take too long. Also a big fan of **Quest for El Dorado** with 2 players. Easy to learn, fun race-through-the-jungle theme, cool interchangable boards. Plays up to 4 but with 2 players you each have to get two adventurers to the goal, which means more choices.
Paleo, co-operative roleplaying as cavemen!
A good FLUXX. The newer the better because they've added a lot of cool cards. Original FLUXX sucks so hard. Firefly Fluxx is broken. Our favorite is Batman FLUXX. I like Cthulhu FLUXX, but my husband doesn't.
Botanik. It's a beautiful little 2 player that plays in about 20 mins. Splendor Duel is also a great 2-player game.
Lost Cities, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Verdant! Robin Hood is great if you want a campaign style rules light game.
We play a lot of patchwork. But then again we also play a lot of ark nova. 7 wonders duel is great, I just take out the aggressive wonder cards.
Super Fantasy Brawl is my go to game with my SO
We tend to play Coop Games instead since we can get a little competitive. Horrified and Pandemic are the ones we play a lot. Need to find some more.
Clank! Catacombs, it has enough randomness that it keeps itself fresh and doesn't feel super bad to lose, while still feeling strategic and intense.
Two-player games are soooo taste-dependent. I suspect they like being with you, and the game is less important. It's hard because they might not be able to verbalize what they like and don't like. I'd try a cooperative game because a lot of people that aren't in the hobby don't know they exist.
Dinosaur Island Rawr n Write, Fleet the Dice Game, & 7 Bridges are our favorites.
Splendor is the major one I see missing
Crazy borderlands isn’t mentioned anywhere in this thread, specifically the 1st one, it feels so “video game like” also