cvlw Lebron
United States
Baltimore
MD
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Today, while browsing games in our favorite little quirky game spot, my fiance and I were often dismayed to get our hands on a new intriguing game.... only to find after reading the description that it could only be played with 3+ players. Another frustration is getting a game home that alleges to be 2-4 or some such but actually doesn't play well with 2 (i.e. Coloretto).
So, our query to fellow geeks -- Which games, in your opinion, are top flight for 2 players? They don't have to necessarily be 2-player only. They can be 2-4 or 2-7 or what have you, but they should be games that scale down for 2-players (i.e. Samurai).
Which multiplayer games are great for a 2some??? Even better, are there any games out there that say 3+ but can actually be played with 2?
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J Weintraub
United States
Commack
New York
Lock him up!
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There's already at least one or two great threads on good two-player games in the geeklists. You can do a search, or in about 20 minutes someone else will come along here and post the links for you, I'm sure.
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Conserve energy: Play Board Games!
United States
California
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.
Shake your business up and pour it. I don't have all day.
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In no particular order:
San Juan
Saint Petersburg
Attika
Lost Cities (2p only)
Tigris & Euphrates
All of them are excellent games.
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Chris
United States
Altoona
Wisconsin
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Regarding Coloretto, you might want to try Coloretto for two players. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising.
Chris H.
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Walt
United States
Orange County
California
Before terraforming Mars, Surviving Mars is required: Paradox Interactive; Steam.
Please contact me about board gaming in Orange County.
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Many times a game labeled 3-5 will have official or unofficial rules for two. Check its entry here on BGG.
Also in no particular order:
Caylus: a very intense game with two. Heavy.
Goa: I haven't played with two, but a couple I play with say it's very good.
Thurn & Taxis and Blue Moon City are good with two, T&T almost no different from playing with more.
All the Ticket to Ride games play with two; I suggest Europe.
TransAmerica and TransEuropa are light train games that play with two.
Clans is probably best with two.
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David Turner
United States
Dallas
Texas
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St. Petersburg
Caylus
Lost Cities
Reef Encounter
Metro
Tigris & Euphrates
Taj Mahal
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Michael Leuchtenburg
United States
Cambridge
Massachusetts
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Looking through your list of rated games, I'm guessing that you're particularly looking for light-medium weight games. Given that, I heartily suggest you check out Ra or Razzia!. Either one is great - just play with the 2-player variant listed on BGG for Ra (Razzia! comes with rules for 2). Razzia! is one of my favorite 2 player games.
I'm not sure what your opinion is of spatial games, but if you enjoy them, take a look at Blokus 3D. It's a fantastic spatial game for 2-4 which plays best with 2, though it's still great with more. Be sure you play 2 colors per player (as described in the rules) with 2 players - it's definitely better that way than playing only one color each.
I'd also look at Louis XIV and Fairy Tale. Louis XIV is a medium-weight game with hand management and area control elements. I've played it 5-10 times with 2 and like it best that way. Fairy Tale is a drafting/second-guessing game which gets better with every play. It also has beautiful artwork.
I'm also a big fan of Puerto Rico with 2 players. I play 2 boards per player, but you can also use the official 2-player variant. I haven't played the latter, so I can't compare them, but I've seen many people say it's excellent.
I hope you're able to find some more games to your liking for 2 players.
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Lori
United States
Durham
North Carolina
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Somewhere there's a cool geeklist about multiplayer games that are actually better with two. The 10 Days games would be my example of this, but someone did a whole list on the subject and it was pretty interesting.
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T. Rosen
United States
Arlington
Virginia
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Hi Chris,
In this thread I talk about some games with 2-4 or 2-5 player ranges that are best with just 2 players (and also warn you about some games with 2-4 or 2-5 player ranges that really need 4 or 5 players to shine):
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/150247
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Billy McBoatface
United States
Lexington
Massachusetts
KGS is the #1 web site for playing go over the internet. Visit now!
Yes, I really am that awesome.
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My wife and I have enjoyed:
San Juan
Samurai
Mystery Rummy/Jack the Ripper (this one may not count, it's not very good with 3+)
Ingenious
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Dan Cain
United States
Tacoma
Washington
The Evil-Do That I Do-Do
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Hey Chris,
I can't recommend Carolus Magnus enough. It plays excellent with two, three, or four players, and every game is unique. There is definitely high tension involved in this one. It has some luck involved, but to me that can make a game more interesting, and it's replayability higher. Even though it comes in a big box, the components can easily be carried in a smaller box and taken out on the fly. I wrote a review you can check out if you are at all interested. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1261383#1261383
Good luck!
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J C Lawrence
United States
Campbell
California
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cvlw wrote: So, our query to fellow geeks -- Which games, in your opinion, are top flight for 2 players? They don't have to necessarily be 2-player only. They can be 2-4 or 2-7 or what have you, but they should be games that scale down for 2-players (i.e. Samurai).
Blokus (best with 2, 4 almost as good)
Stephenson's Rocket (excellent with 2 3 and 4)
Reef Encounter (very good with 2, 3 slightly better, 4 not as good)
Torres (best with 4 but still good with 3, very good with 2)
Through the Desert (best with 3, almost as good with 2, still good with 3 and 4)
1825 Unit 2 (excellent with 2, slightly better with 3)
Goa (best with 2)
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Andrew H
Australia
Brisbane
Queensland
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Tall_Walt wrote:
Clans is probably best with two.
Are you serious? Clans with two is like playing boxes.
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Maarten D. de Jong
Netherlands
Zaandam
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Shameless plug: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi.... I need to update the list, as there are a few new games which I have tried. In due time, however .
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cvlw Lebron
United States
Baltimore
MD
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We'd like to thank everyone for the feedback. We wanted to list some of our own favorite multiplayer games for 2:
-in no particular order:
Samurai
Thurn and Taxis
Ticket To Ride (including 1910)
Alhambra
Tikal
Wyatt Earp
Glory to Rome (soon to be)
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Jay Bruce
United States
Florida
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Neontek wrote: I was wondering how to make my twosome into a threesome.. 
buy her a toy 
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Susie_Cat
United Kingdom
Oxfordshire
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cvlw wrote: We'd like to thank everyone for the feedback. We wanted to list some of our own favorite multiplayer games for 2:
Tikal
We enjoyed this as a two player game too (both with and without variants), then we played it as a four player game and it just blew us away! We found it a coompletely different game with much, much more depth, so will probably never play it as a two player game again, even if it means it gets a lot less table time as a result.
As a couple who like to play together and then play with friends too, we find we have a problem. As the owners of most of the games we play, this problem is exacerbated: We play games together and "suss them out", but this means that when we play with others, we are at a huge advantage. For this reason, we've sort of decided to find some games that we only play as a couple so that we can keep the really good three-four player games to play with others.
Our games that we've identified as probable two player only games are:
Carcassonne
Saint Petersburg
Tigris & Euphrates
Scotland Yard (though this may get played with others as the one of us that is a detective can discuss it with the others to avoid bias)
Lost Cities (obviously 2 player, but one of our recent favourites)
A couple of other two player games we have like Kensington...
We are currently working up to getting our friends to play Puerto Rico, by encouraging them to play San Juan, but in the long run this will probably also be predominantly a two player game.
Susie_Cat.
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'Bernard Wingrave'
United States
Wyoming
Ohio
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I would recommend Through the Desert, Tikal, Lord of the Rings, and Can't Stop based on personal experience.
And you might also check out the following geeklist, which has a section devoted to games that play only, excellently, very well, or well with two players:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/18661
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cvlw Lebron
United States
Baltimore
MD
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Thanks. We play Tikal already and enjoy it very much (posted a 2-player review of it some days ago http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/159884). We traded Through the Desert because we really disliked it for two. Many people referred to it as cut-throat and it just never playe out like that for us. Unlike Samurai (one of our favorites) there's very little sense of urgency in the gameplay itself.
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Conserve energy: Play Board Games!
United States
California
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.
Shake your business up and pour it. I don't have all day.
-
cvlw wrote: We traded Through the Desert because we really disliked it for two. Many people referred to it as cut-throat and it just never playe out like that for us. Unlike Samurai (one of our favorites) there's very little sense of urgency in the gameplay itself.
In Saint Petersburg, the value of buildings dominates the 2p game, as opposed to the importance of aristocrats. The balance between those two sources of victory points shifts in favor of aristocrats over buildings when played with four.
In a similar manner, the area enclosure rules dominate 2p games of Through the Desert. That emphasis shifts to collecting water holes and especially linking oases with more players. With only two players, the game is all about limiting mobility. In a close game, I never feel as though I can move quickly enough to cut off all of my opponent's avenues. It can be (and usually is, for us) extremely cutthroat.
Your mileage may vary, of course. For what game did you trade it? Are you enjoying that one?
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cvlw Lebron
United States
Baltimore
MD
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We traded it for Hunting Party but haven't played it yet, but look forward to its unique theme.
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Chris Trimmer
United States
Houston
TX-Texas
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I tried Arkadia for the first time last week. Played a couple of two player games. Worked well.
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