Because it’s a FAQ: 2-Player Tabletop Games

A few times a week, I am asked by couples to recommend some two player Tabletop games for them to play. This is a very short, totally non-exhaustive list of (mostly lighter) games that I love to play with Anne, as well as some other games that aren’t her jam, but are still pretty great.

Travel Blokus

The idea is to take pieces that are basically Tetris shaped, and lay them down on a board, following some simple placement rules. The objective is to use up all of your pieces, or have fewer pieces left than anyone else when you run out of places to put them. It’s super simple to teach and learn, and way more difficult to master than you would expect. There’s a regular Blokus that’s for up to four players, and a version that uses triangles. This travel version is perfect for, well, traveling, and also is specifically designed for two players.

Jaipur

Jaipur is a very simple set collecting card game for two players. It’s portable, and has great replay value because it allows a lot of different strategies to be explored and utilized.

Small World

You may have seen us play Small World on Tabletop in the first season. It’s sort of like Risk, but more fun. It’s an area control game, and each player has a fantasy race + special ability combo that changes every game, or multiple times during the game, if they choose. One of the great things about Small World is that it comes with multiple maps in the box, and each map is designed for a different number of players, including a two-player map.

Pandemic

Pretty much any cooperative game will work for two players, or even as a solo game, but I think Pandemic is the best one for couples because it’s so freaking intense. You feel like you’re losing from the first turn, and that’s half the fun of the game. I’m not saying that it lends itself to strip variants, but I’m not not saying that. I should also mention that Pandemic Legacy is fantastic for two players, especially if you want to have the experience of watching a season of a TV show together, only you’re playing it and everyone on Earth is going to die if you fail.

Sorry!

Yes, Sorry! from Milton Bradley. This is the go-to game for Anne and me, because I hate Scrabble. This game is almost entirely random, but there is some strategy if you really want to go that route. It’s great for two players, especially if you want to have a drink or eleven while you play.

Ticket To Ride: Switzerland

Ticket To Ride is a great infection vector for making new gamers, and this expansion is specifically designed for 2 or 3 players. You can technically play any of the TTR games with 2 players, but you run into the problems a large map presents, which (in my opinion) just make the game longer and less fun. So this particular map works well for 2 players, and works with either the original Ticket To Ride or Europe base sets.

Set and Iota

Both are little card games that feature pattern matching and team work. Iota is more competitive, and plays like Set in reverse.

Takenoko

One of my favorite Tabletop games of all time, Takenoko is high variance when you play it with 4 players, but intensely strategic when you play it heads up.

Finally, there is also Magic: The Gathering (duh) and my friend Chris Kluwe’s upcoming Twilight of the Gods LCG. If you want something that’s intense and takes hours and hours to play, Twilight Struggle gets high marks from my friends who play it.

I’m sure there are a lot of other games (tell me in a comment, if you want) that work well for two players, but this is what I can come up with quickly off the top of my head, and I have 23 pages of dialog to prepare for a voice session tomorrow so I kinda have to get back to work.

Play more (two-player) games!!

Edit to add: HIVE! This was mentioned in comments (with a lot of other games that look really fun, but haven’t been played by me) and I need to add it. Hive is amazing. It’s everything you love about Chess and Othello and Go, with none of the things that make those games so difficult for new players. Rich Sommer introduced me to this game one night at a little coffee and pie place in North Hollywood, and what we thought would be a quick cup of coffee turned into like four hours of us playing Hive over and over and over. It’s really awesome. Get the pocket edition, because it’s portable and you lose nothing in the translation.

 

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106 thoughts on “Because it’s a FAQ: 2-Player Tabletop Games”

  1. SEVEN WONDERS DUEL is my favorite new. It’s got the feeling of Seven Wonders but for two players, and not too mean.

    2. I literally played this game for the first time last night. I enjoyed it. It felt like a mash up of Splendor and Race for the Galaxy with a beautiful theme attached. Coincidentally I enjoy both Splendor and Race for the Galaxy as two player games though they are both very different.

  2. Thank you so much for this! My girlfriend and I are always looking for more 2 player games. I completely agree that some of the maps are too large and there’s a danger of ending up bored…we’ve hit that with Ticket to Ride Europe and Carcassonne a few times.

    A buddy and I play Twilight Struggle…it’s intense and the learning curve is insane, but it’s so damn fun. Layers upon layers of strategy, and every game is very different. It’s probably my favorite.

  3. I’m a fan of two-player Catan; a word game with cards called Quiddler, and another word game called Upwords – think 3d Scrabble.

    1. Which 2-player rules do you use? Do you have the dummy players that build when a player does or something else?

  4. I’ll echo Twilight Struggle. It is long, intense, and fantastic. The only drawback for me is that I’ve only been able to play it while visiting my brother out of state, and haven’t purchased it myself because my wife isn’t interested in it because it is long and intense.

    1. There’s a virtual version on Steam…I haven’t played it much but it might work if you wanted to play your brother online!

  5. My daughter and I have been playing “Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle” since Xmas and really like it. It’s my first deck-builder game so it feels like a gateway drug.

    1. Hence the term in gamer communities “gateway game” 🙂 I haven’t tried this game yet but it is high on my wish list! Good to hear it plays well with two players. Thank you for that info!

  6. I just got one called Niya that’s like tic-tac-toe with Hanafuda cards. Really enjoy it. Also Star Wars Epic Duels but good luck finding a copy of that one anymore.

  8. Thanks for the recommendations! Learning about two player games others enjoy is always great 🙂 Keep up the good work of spreading the board game love!

    I feel like you have just opened yourself up for a bunch of unsolicited board game advice so here is my two cents: Arboretum. Small convenient travel box (which almost became incontinent due to my poor spelling and auto-correct) and a real mind messer-with-er

  9. Sweet! thanks for this list, my wife and I have been looking around for some games that are easily played by only two players.

  10. 7 Wonders Duel is my go to two player game now. Odin’s Ravens is great too but I think it’s out of print.

    1. I love Patchwork! I don’t play in person often because my game nights usually have more than two players, but I play the iPhone app version quite a bit. (I’m kind of rubbish at it, though.)

  12. Great list Wil. Sad to say I haven’t had a chance to try Jaipur personally, but I’m sure that will change in the future

    One that didn’t get a mention here, that perhaps you haven’t had a chance to play, is “Castles of Burgundy”. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a small player count, City-building, tile selection, Euro.

    The game itself plays well with 2-4 players, but definitely shines with the former. Doesn’t take too long to play, a lot of planning required on every turn, and requires you to change strategy on the fly as you can soon find yourself being blocked from taking your desired tile/s.

  14. Patchwork is excellent! I highly recommend giving it a try if you haven’t already. We also like Splendor for 2.

  15. Unspeakable words. Finally back in print. Got it for wife for
    Xmas and she played once and now asks to play it often. Simple, fun, some strategy.

  16. I love playing Perry Rhodan. I’m not familiar with the IP but enjoy the pick-up and deliver mechanic. The Ravens of Thri Sahashri is a unique 2 player co-op. My son loves playing Ascension deck building. Hubby and I also enjoy Seven Wonders Duel.

  17. Several have mentioned it already but Patchwork is a great two player game! My wife and I love to play Robinson Crusoe as two player as well, a great co-op!

  20. Star Realms is pretty good if you like two-player deck building games set in a Sci-fi universe. I think it is going to be on Tabletop this season.

    1. This is the go to for my brother and I as well. Only we play (mostly on iPhone app) with the intent of seeing how long we can keep the play going. Stupid Mystery Card gets us every time!

  22. The Star Trek: TOS deck building game from Bandai is pretty awesome as a two player experience. It fixes a lot of the balance issues with the earlier TNG sets, which are OK but once a single player gets a solid ship it’s over. The TOS set is a lot tighter and more balanced and even.

  23. I can recommend Frenzi, for 2-4 players, and involves turning a large set of double sided cards to match your preset properties – colour AND/OR shape AND/OR number, in a specific short time period. There are several rounds , from matching 1,2 or 3 properties, or none at all, all whilst making sure your opponent isn’t turning cards over that you’ve need. It can be quite frenzied by the end.

    I’m not sure if you can get it in the Us though.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/FRENZI-Crazy-Flipping-Card-Game/dp/B00PT18CTG

  24. And of course that totally wild game from wonderful Richmond Virginia. The Next Big Deal. Oh that’s right it isn’t out yet. Haha

    1. Oh I second that! We’ve been playing that all over Christmas. Also Isle of Skye (which also works well as a 4 player with HUGE amounts of replayability – basically Carcassonne, but with different scoring mechanisms every game!)

  27. I would add Paperback, Royals and The Networks. Apart from “party” games meant for a larger crowd, I’ve found very few games that aren’t good for two players (although some are better than others). That being said, I’m not a huge fan of games that have a “fake” player in the two-player version (e.g., Alhambra).

    I think it’s harder to find good solo board games. I’ve been playing Hostage Negotiator lately and would appreciate any other suggestions!

  28. Lost Cities, Agricola: creatures big and small and Castle of Burgundy are all amazing 2 player games as well. Those are our go to, depending on how much time we have to play games.

  29. New world is a (surprise!) world building game my husband and I like to play together, it takes longer with two players but we consider that a feature (its the first one to come out during extended power outages). Maori is another buildy/strategy game that works with two.

  30. Was it Republic of Pie? I love that place – great teas and coffees and PIES, of course. Always hard to find a table, though. I’m surprised you managed to hold onto one for four hours!

    Thanks for all the suggestions, Wil. Hubby and I almost bought Ticket to Ride over the holidays, but it wasn’t a “necessity” so we opted out. Also don’t know many others who want to play games, so we haven’t tried playing anything, just the two of us.

    1. Yes! It was. I love that place. This was a couple of years ago, and I think it had just opened, so it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it is now.

  31. Avignon is a fantastic 2-player, battle with Popes! There’s a really cool one coming in 2017, Circle the Wagons. Also Patchwork and Blood of an Englishman are really cool two-player only games

  32. My partner and I have a bunch of games suitable for two, however it is Iota and Pandemic we always come back to. If we want to compete, Iota. If we want to cooperate, Pandemic.

  34. We’ve played a lot of two-player Carcassonne and Dominion. We haven’t tried two-player Codenames yet. It could work well but it’s kind of a different game than with more players.

    1. Does two player Dominion work well? I’ve never played it with less than four players; from the games I’ve played, I didn’t think two player would be fun – but I am more than willing (and hopeful!) to be proven wrong.

  35. If you like pirates(and really, who doesn’t?) you might want to check out Rum and Bones from CMON games. Fantastic minis, and a really fun, MOBA-like game. The current rules give a slight edge to the person who goes first, but there’s a new edition coming out later this year that fixes that. Similarly, Rivet Wars(also from CMON) has really fun minis and really interesting strategic gameplay.

    If you want to play a miniatures game but don’t want to deal with miniatures, Summoner Wars is great fun…you play with cards instead of minis.

    And if you want to go old school, just recently Games Workshop launched a new edition of their classic Blood Bowl game. There are miniatures to assemble, but all you have to do is clip them off the sprues and snap them together, and the two teams(Orks and Humans) are molded in different colors so you don’t even have to paint them if you don’t want.

  37. I haven’t played the full Mr. Jack that was recommended, but Mr Jack Pocket is an excellent two player game. Games last about 10-20 minutes, very simple rules, and because you’re constantly switching sides between the investigator and Mr. Jack it never feels stale.

    It comes in a small box which I leave in my car for all the times I find myself randomly waiting with someone.

  39. I’ve enjoyed 7 Wonders: Duel, Hive, Star Realms, and even Citadels. Two player Castles of Burgundy is good too if you’re a slightly more experienced gamer.

  41. I recommend Raptor, one player is the mama raptor trying to get her babies to escape and the other plays the scientists trying to capture the babies. If at least one player doesn’t say “Clever Girl” at least once a game you’re playing wrong.

  42. Some games we enjoy as two players:

    Bloodrage
    Splendor
    Lanterns
    Lords of Vegas
    Castle Dice
    Seasons
    Potion Explosion
    Run, Fight, or Die
    Smash Up
    Lattice
    Above and Below
    Boss Monster

  43. I just got Jaipur for Christmas and I’m looking forward to learning it. Pandemic and Ticket to Ride are favorites of ours, as well as Lords of Waterdeep and Tsuro.

  45. Race for the Galaxy works really well with two players. It’s somewhat intimidating, and a pain to explain to other people (we call that the “7 Wonders Syndrome”: lots of symbols that make the game a breeze to play but a pain to explain 🙂 ), but really nice. I have an inkling Roll for the Galaxy also works well, but I haven’t tested it.
    On the cooperative side, Robinson Crusoe is brilliant but brutal. Portal Games (the publisher) is currently working on another cooperative game set on Mars (First Martians), apparently with a “legacy” component from scenario to scenario, that I can’t wait to play 🙂

  47. Dominion is great head to head- I prefer duels over 3 or 4 player, actually.

    Arabian Nights which is mostly a multiplayer solitaire but leads to wonderful stories.

    Shadows of Brimstone, a weird west dungeon crawl with cowboys vs tentacle monsters deep in the local gold mine. Or anything else by Flying Frog.

    Fallen, a 2-player dice based dungeon crawl where one player is the hero and the other is the boss mob.

    Mansions of Madness- the new app-based edition is great and makes this much more playable. Arkham Horror and Elder Sign are good 2-player too.

    Defenders of the Realm uses the Pandemic mechanic with a fantasy skin which works really well for me. Any Pandemic style game would fit here.

    Robinson Crusoe!

  50. I really like playing Archaeology with my son. He almost always wins. I never seem to get good cards no matter what! Kind of like with Wil and dice 😔.

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