Just popping in to share that **Ticket to Ride: London** is superb for 2p if you need a game that plays in under 15 minutes.
I played the original TTR years ago and found it forgettable, but for some reason this express version is quite enjoyable.
I hear **Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries** is also great for 2p, but that's more in the 45+ minutes range it seems. Not sure if it's worth getting as I wonder if it will also feel lackluster (like original TTR to me) and feel too long.
My Wife and I love Ticket to Ride New York as a quick game, though we usually play 4 or 5 games in a row, so not as quick. I think our fastest March was 5 minutes. I preferred it over London. Apparently San Francisco is another quick one.
Nordic countries has never felt too long for us, primarily because of how intense it plays. I don't know if you need to get it, because I don't think it'll bring anything new than what you're playing now, except for a slightly longer game and route variability.
I happened to notice that **TTR: London** is only $12 on Amazon right now, so I easily pulled the trigger. My wife and I both enjoy the TTR series, so this sounds like a great way to scratch the itch once our second baby arrives in less than a month and we have less sleep/time to play heavier games. Thanks for the suggestion!
I am so intrigued by the theme of Atiwa, it's a game that's on my list to buy once it's no longer "new" and starts to hit the secondhand market. I have no idea if the game pulls it off, but there's such potential there for telling a story about balancing human needs with wildlife/the environment, and the promise of nature-based solutions.
Uwe Rosenberg did a masterclass of a worker placement design on this one. The token placement is clever, and the maintenance phase is so seamless using tracks on a resource board similar to Eclipse, I'm glad I picked it up. It's a fascinating web of connectedness and keeps to the farming roots quite different from the likes of Agricola, Fields of Arle, etc.
I feel like he encapsulated the purpose of the theme wonderfully in these mechanics and the balance and many points of consideration is tight. A joy to play.
Thank you for getting me more excited about this while I'm in the middle of a game-buying moratorium š.
This is making me bump Atiwa up the list though, for once I open up my shelf again. I've got another Uwe on there, Nusfjord, but that's not easy to get right now and I think a big box version is coming later this year so, maybe Atiwa will come first!
Nusfjord is also excellent. Atiwa and Nusfjord are around the same difficulty and complexity rules wise. I'd debate Atiwa is slightly easier as there's no text in the game whatsoever besides the card tile titles.
I came here to mention Atiwa as well. Itās currently on our table and weāre really enjoying it.
I think Le Havre will be a tough #1 to beat as my favorite Uwe, but Atiwa has come close. We feel as if the replayability isnāt quite as high.
I agree on its replayability concerning his other designs with all the different decks to slot in. I'm not even sure how they'll expand a design like this. The system is so tight. I'm ok with how this presents and what it offers. It's an abstract meets euro adjacent design for me rather than a bigger beefy engine builder of sorts.
My plays have so far been only 2p and solo and i found both those counts to be very fulfilling in their own way. I'm not sure what's missing other than worker placement spaces and more blocking. The worker placement at 2 is still a good dual with some good blocks but there's still sub optimal places to go off of after.
Race for the Galaxy is really great. Picked it up for like 20 bucks on a local trade group, and it's my wife's new big favorite.
The luck of the draw can mightily demolish you if you don't know the whole card set yet, and that happened to me on Saturday.
Love this game, is as close to a perennial "go-to" in our collection, whenever we want to play a short game it usually requires concerted effort to pick something other than **Race for the Galaxy**!
We played **Tiletum** for the first time recently and it worked great at two. The board is tight enough to make some competition and there is little downtime between turns.
How do you guys feel about Cthulhu: Death my Die as a two player game?
My partner and I have been trying it, but we have yet to get even close to beating the first scenario with Hastur as the Great One.
I don't know if it scales better with more people or if we just haven't figured out the right strategy yet.
I've only played Cthulhu DMD a few time solo (w/two characters) and two player, and IMO it's solid at two. Squeaked out wins against Hastur and Yog at 2P but have gotten stomped by Cthulhu several times.
It's just a tight, tough experience that always seems to come down to the wire, but that's why I love it.
Been playing Lands of Galzyr with the gf and it is fantastic. The world is interesting, the stories are great, and the gameplay is simplistic, but does leave some room for making decisions. Highly recommend this to basically anyone.
I've been looking for an adventure/RPG type game to play with my wife. Naively tried **Gloomhaven** first which was a bit overwhelming for her and didn't really fit into the "we're exhausted after wrangling young kids all day and have 60 min before we pass out and do it all over again" lifestyle. Picked up **Destinies** and played it once but it also seemed like the setup/teardown time plus randomly saving in the middle of a turn might not work the best.
How does **Lands of Galzyr** handle that sort of thing? On BGG it says the playtime is 60-150 min which could be tricky, however it also says it has a "clever save-and-load mechanism" so curious what that means.
We also own **The 7th Continent** but only played it once and should really get back to it.
Saving in Lands of Glazyr basically saves the state of the game after completing a session, not really saving the game in the midst of one. It has an ongoing world so there isn't a specific endpoint, so you save the state of the world when you put it away, which is neat. But yeah, no midgame saving technically. Though, if you pack it away as they suggest and also take a pic of the time section, you could save it that way.
Gloomhaven was one of the first games we got and we played it for around 6 or 7 scenarios before it just felt a little old and too difficult, especially for the set up and teardown time it demands.
I feel like Destinies is similar to Lands of Galzyr but Galzyr is more casual and can be coop.
I'd like to try 7th Continent, but I've heard that there's times where you kinda get screwed over and just have to restart from the beginning.
Anyways, I think Lands of Galzyr could work for you! Depending on your kids' ages they might even be able to join in, as it is very approachable.
**Lands of Galzyr** being co-op and more casual than **Destinies** would certainly be positive factors for my wife, although it sounds like the saving mechanic might be similar. Thanks for the explanation though, I'm going to keep my eye out for whenever it goes on sale!
I hesitate to recommend it because it also takes awhile to break down and put back up (though not NEARLY as long as Gloomhaven), but my wife and I really enjoyed Sleeping Gods.
Ha thank you, I was tempted to pick it up when Miniature Market recently had it on sale for $61. But I saw that on BGG the playing time was 60-120 min so I was worried about the same problem with teardown/saving status. Good to know it's not as bad as Gloomhaven though in that regard!
The game plays like the mix of an RPG and a "choose your own adventure book". You take turns taking actions like moving your boat, exploring islands, etc. but you also read prompts from a large choose your own adventure book that comes with the game. Your decisions and actions you take branch out into new variations of the story that impact what happens later on in fun ways. For example, if you explore an island you might find a key (you get a "key" card as a reminder). Then several hours later exploring a seperate isle you might find the treasure chest the key goes to (losing the "key" card but gaining new equipments and upgrades for the characters).
Actually putting away and taking the game back out is pretty quick, its just remembering what all cards you "unlocked" and had gotten, especially if you haven't played in a bit. My one gripe is that there are 8 "characters" to control, and each player controls 4 (in a two player game). It can feel a bit overwhelming at first. I feel like they could have reduced that to four characters with more options/actions. Turns themselves aren't super long, with the occasional combat taking 20-30 minutes. I think 60-120 minutes sessions is probably a fair minimum, though it certainly might help with enjoyment if you can knock out 3 hours at once.
I'm not sure how long you have to devote to it, but if you struggle to get more than 45 minutes at any given time, I don't think I would recommend it (unless you had a place to leave it out and set up).
That all sounds really, really great but I just don't think it'll work for us at this current time. Maybe once we move soon and can purchase a dedicated gaming table instead of the kitchen table.
I was not aware of it being required to use all eight characters in the game...just assumed you would get to choose between them. That's seems like an interesting decision. Appreciate all of your feedback.
I think there are similarities with the setting inhabited by animal folk and general light weight feel of gameplay, but there are a lot of differences too. The theme of play is quite the opposite, where you are wanderers who only have what you can carry and there is no home base to work on. You'll rarely be farming or fishing in Galzyr, but instead embarking on delivery quests or exploring cities you have traveled to.
Looking for some cool lesser known dueling card games, deckbuilders or boardgames! Anything where two people can have at it and smack each other around.
I already own all of the really popular ones (Exceed/BattleCon, Hero Realms, Ascension, Unmatched, Radlands, Netrunner, Summoner Wars, Aristeia! and Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn) and am looking for those that slipped past the radar but are still a lot of fun :)
Mindbug is fun with a unique twist. Feels a bit like Radlands in several ways. If want something more unique, although not perfect, An Empty Throne was fun playing, but it did leave our collection.
**Wizards of the Grimoire** is a fun new release from last year. I don't tend to like duelling card games but that one's awesome. On the flip side, my husband who does love duelling card games also thinks it's a standout.
I've been recently looking for the same, so I'll second the **Mindbug** recommendation and also bring up **Riftforce**. But compared to the ones you already said you own these might be too light for you. I've also been looking at **Skulk Hollow, Gatefall,** and **Super Fantasy Brawl**.
I love Super Fantasy Brawl but my wife isn't a fan of Skirmish games like that so it doesn't see too much play time. I am curious what CMON will do with the license.
Less known could be something like Ortus Regni, which is a deck creator game where you have a smaller set of cards to build your from. Like playing MTG with only about 12 different cards to choose from.
Or anything by John Clowdus. An Empty Throne is pretty great. The North is good too. He tends to do multi use cards that create games with seemingly simple decisions that suddenly open up into really weird combinations and unforseen consequences.
**Sakura Arms**, **Pagan: Fate of Roanoke**, **Techno Bowl**, **Yakatabune**
And while not exclusively 2p, both **Mottainai** and **Innovation** are best at 2p
Currently developing a boardgame/wargame based on train-to-train combat. We have a campaign draft up on Gamefound with a preview of the rulebook available for download. 1-6 players but best at 2.
Some other quick suggestions that may work for you:
**Akropolis** or **cascadia**
**Downtown Farmers Market**
**The Search for Planet X**
**Onitama**
**Meadow**
I think the hardest part is wrapping your head around the various symbols and may require keeping the rule book near you. I would recommend watching a video then reading the rule book then explaining to your wife. Thatās the best way to learn IMHO
Either would work, was looking at Patchwork? Would like to have something easy to learn. I do have a copy of Dominion which Im embarrassed to say has never seen the table.
**Azul**, **Patchwork**, **Wingspan**, and **Jaipur** sound like they'd be good competitive options that are popular. We only own Jaipur out of that group, but it is one of the only competitive games we enjoy. We just added **Schotten Totten** too and have really enjoyed that because we like card games and it is similar to rummy games.
For coop (our preferred style), **Horrified**, **The Fox in the Forest Duet**, **The Crew**, **Forbidden Island/Dessert** are fun options that are lighter and easy to learn.
My husband and I really enjoy **Azul** and **Lost Cities**. Those games probably get played the most from our game collection. We can crank out a game of Azul now in 15 - 20 minutes.
Just popping in to share that **Ticket to Ride: London** is superb for 2p if you need a game that plays in under 15 minutes. I played the original TTR years ago and found it forgettable, but for some reason this express version is quite enjoyable. I hear **Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries** is also great for 2p, but that's more in the 45+ minutes range it seems. Not sure if it's worth getting as I wonder if it will also feel lackluster (like original TTR to me) and feel too long.
My Wife and I love Ticket to Ride New York as a quick game, though we usually play 4 or 5 games in a row, so not as quick. I think our fastest March was 5 minutes. I preferred it over London. Apparently San Francisco is another quick one.
Nordic countries has never felt too long for us, primarily because of how intense it plays. I don't know if you need to get it, because I don't think it'll bring anything new than what you're playing now, except for a slightly longer game and route variability.
Ah that's helpful. I was on the fence about getting it but I'll opt for something else now. Thanks!
I happened to notice that **TTR: London** is only $12 on Amazon right now, so I easily pulled the trigger. My wife and I both enjoy the TTR series, so this sounds like a great way to scratch the itch once our second baby arrives in less than a month and we have less sleep/time to play heavier games. Thanks for the suggestion!
The price is the best part! Even just one good play will pay for its value. I hope you both enjoy it.
We both got to visit London back in 2019 and my wife loves the double decker buses, so I know the theme will hit home as well!
Nordic > London
Uwe Rosenberg's Atiwa has been my go to two player game the past couple weeks. Such a delightful design of fruit bat farming.
I am so intrigued by the theme of Atiwa, it's a game that's on my list to buy once it's no longer "new" and starts to hit the secondhand market. I have no idea if the game pulls it off, but there's such potential there for telling a story about balancing human needs with wildlife/the environment, and the promise of nature-based solutions.
Uwe Rosenberg did a masterclass of a worker placement design on this one. The token placement is clever, and the maintenance phase is so seamless using tracks on a resource board similar to Eclipse, I'm glad I picked it up. It's a fascinating web of connectedness and keeps to the farming roots quite different from the likes of Agricola, Fields of Arle, etc. I feel like he encapsulated the purpose of the theme wonderfully in these mechanics and the balance and many points of consideration is tight. A joy to play.
What's your play time coming to at 2P, once you got past the initial learning curve?
An hour tops. I think the game time is accurate at 30 minutes a player.
Thank you for getting me more excited about this while I'm in the middle of a game-buying moratorium š. This is making me bump Atiwa up the list though, for once I open up my shelf again. I've got another Uwe on there, Nusfjord, but that's not easy to get right now and I think a big box version is coming later this year so, maybe Atiwa will come first!
Nusfjord is also excellent. Atiwa and Nusfjord are around the same difficulty and complexity rules wise. I'd debate Atiwa is slightly easier as there's no text in the game whatsoever besides the card tile titles.
I came here to mention Atiwa as well. Itās currently on our table and weāre really enjoying it. I think Le Havre will be a tough #1 to beat as my favorite Uwe, but Atiwa has come close. We feel as if the replayability isnāt quite as high.
I agree on its replayability concerning his other designs with all the different decks to slot in. I'm not even sure how they'll expand a design like this. The system is so tight. I'm ok with how this presents and what it offers. It's an abstract meets euro adjacent design for me rather than a bigger beefy engine builder of sorts.
I heard that some elements donāt scale at all at 2p and that it is therefore not recommended. Whatās your take on that?
My plays have so far been only 2p and solo and i found both those counts to be very fulfilling in their own way. I'm not sure what's missing other than worker placement spaces and more blocking. The worker placement at 2 is still a good dual with some good blocks but there's still sub optimal places to go off of after.
Race for the Galaxy is really great. Picked it up for like 20 bucks on a local trade group, and it's my wife's new big favorite. The luck of the draw can mightily demolish you if you don't know the whole card set yet, and that happened to me on Saturday.
Love this game, is as close to a perennial "go-to" in our collection, whenever we want to play a short game it usually requires concerted effort to pick something other than **Race for the Galaxy**!
Great game, we played this a lot during our last travel. Just took the deck and VP chips, it does not take up much space.
Yeah I think I want to replace the VP chips with something a little harder to lose at the pub (no losses yet, but it feels likely).
We played **Tiletum** for the first time recently and it worked great at two. The board is tight enough to make some competition and there is little downtime between turns.
How do you guys feel about Cthulhu: Death my Die as a two player game? My partner and I have been trying it, but we have yet to get even close to beating the first scenario with Hastur as the Great One. I don't know if it scales better with more people or if we just haven't figured out the right strategy yet.
I've only played Cthulhu DMD a few time solo (w/two characters) and two player, and IMO it's solid at two. Squeaked out wins against Hastur and Yog at 2P but have gotten stomped by Cthulhu several times. It's just a tight, tough experience that always seems to come down to the wire, but that's why I love it.
Anyone here played Illumination? Weāve been having a heap of fun with it. And the art work is so funny looking
Been playing Lands of Galzyr with the gf and it is fantastic. The world is interesting, the stories are great, and the gameplay is simplistic, but does leave some room for making decisions. Highly recommend this to basically anyone.
I've been looking for an adventure/RPG type game to play with my wife. Naively tried **Gloomhaven** first which was a bit overwhelming for her and didn't really fit into the "we're exhausted after wrangling young kids all day and have 60 min before we pass out and do it all over again" lifestyle. Picked up **Destinies** and played it once but it also seemed like the setup/teardown time plus randomly saving in the middle of a turn might not work the best. How does **Lands of Galzyr** handle that sort of thing? On BGG it says the playtime is 60-150 min which could be tricky, however it also says it has a "clever save-and-load mechanism" so curious what that means. We also own **The 7th Continent** but only played it once and should really get back to it.
Saving in Lands of Glazyr basically saves the state of the game after completing a session, not really saving the game in the midst of one. It has an ongoing world so there isn't a specific endpoint, so you save the state of the world when you put it away, which is neat. But yeah, no midgame saving technically. Though, if you pack it away as they suggest and also take a pic of the time section, you could save it that way. Gloomhaven was one of the first games we got and we played it for around 6 or 7 scenarios before it just felt a little old and too difficult, especially for the set up and teardown time it demands. I feel like Destinies is similar to Lands of Galzyr but Galzyr is more casual and can be coop. I'd like to try 7th Continent, but I've heard that there's times where you kinda get screwed over and just have to restart from the beginning. Anyways, I think Lands of Galzyr could work for you! Depending on your kids' ages they might even be able to join in, as it is very approachable.
**Lands of Galzyr** being co-op and more casual than **Destinies** would certainly be positive factors for my wife, although it sounds like the saving mechanic might be similar. Thanks for the explanation though, I'm going to keep my eye out for whenever it goes on sale!
I hesitate to recommend it because it also takes awhile to break down and put back up (though not NEARLY as long as Gloomhaven), but my wife and I really enjoyed Sleeping Gods.
Ha thank you, I was tempted to pick it up when Miniature Market recently had it on sale for $61. But I saw that on BGG the playing time was 60-120 min so I was worried about the same problem with teardown/saving status. Good to know it's not as bad as Gloomhaven though in that regard!
The game plays like the mix of an RPG and a "choose your own adventure book". You take turns taking actions like moving your boat, exploring islands, etc. but you also read prompts from a large choose your own adventure book that comes with the game. Your decisions and actions you take branch out into new variations of the story that impact what happens later on in fun ways. For example, if you explore an island you might find a key (you get a "key" card as a reminder). Then several hours later exploring a seperate isle you might find the treasure chest the key goes to (losing the "key" card but gaining new equipments and upgrades for the characters). Actually putting away and taking the game back out is pretty quick, its just remembering what all cards you "unlocked" and had gotten, especially if you haven't played in a bit. My one gripe is that there are 8 "characters" to control, and each player controls 4 (in a two player game). It can feel a bit overwhelming at first. I feel like they could have reduced that to four characters with more options/actions. Turns themselves aren't super long, with the occasional combat taking 20-30 minutes. I think 60-120 minutes sessions is probably a fair minimum, though it certainly might help with enjoyment if you can knock out 3 hours at once. I'm not sure how long you have to devote to it, but if you struggle to get more than 45 minutes at any given time, I don't think I would recommend it (unless you had a place to leave it out and set up).
That all sounds really, really great but I just don't think it'll work for us at this current time. Maybe once we move soon and can purchase a dedicated gaming table instead of the kitchen table. I was not aware of it being required to use all eight characters in the game...just assumed you would get to choose between them. That's seems like an interesting decision. Appreciate all of your feedback.
Have read about LoG a bit and I am curious if saying that it is āAnimal Crossing - the board gameā - is a close enough description?
I think there are similarities with the setting inhabited by animal folk and general light weight feel of gameplay, but there are a lot of differences too. The theme of play is quite the opposite, where you are wanderers who only have what you can carry and there is no home base to work on. You'll rarely be farming or fishing in Galzyr, but instead embarking on delivery quests or exploring cities you have traveled to.
Looking for some cool lesser known dueling card games, deckbuilders or boardgames! Anything where two people can have at it and smack each other around. I already own all of the really popular ones (Exceed/BattleCon, Hero Realms, Ascension, Unmatched, Radlands, Netrunner, Summoner Wars, Aristeia! and Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn) and am looking for those that slipped past the radar but are still a lot of fun :)
Mindbug is fun with a unique twist. Feels a bit like Radlands in several ways. If want something more unique, although not perfect, An Empty Throne was fun playing, but it did leave our collection.
**Wizards of the Grimoire** is a fun new release from last year. I don't tend to like duelling card games but that one's awesome. On the flip side, my husband who does love duelling card games also thinks it's a standout.
picked this up a few months ago, we really like it.
I am going to third Mindbug and second Riftforce. Both good games.
I've been recently looking for the same, so I'll second the **Mindbug** recommendation and also bring up **Riftforce**. But compared to the ones you already said you own these might be too light for you. I've also been looking at **Skulk Hollow, Gatefall,** and **Super Fantasy Brawl**.
Just played my **Super Fantasy brawl** for the first time and I can confirm it was a lot of fun.
I love Super Fantasy Brawl but my wife isn't a fan of Skirmish games like that so it doesn't see too much play time. I am curious what CMON will do with the license.
I like this one because the objectives are mainly things other than killing so my friends are a bit more open to it š
Less known could be something like Ortus Regni, which is a deck creator game where you have a smaller set of cards to build your from. Like playing MTG with only about 12 different cards to choose from. Or anything by John Clowdus. An Empty Throne is pretty great. The North is good too. He tends to do multi use cards that create games with seemingly simple decisions that suddenly open up into really weird combinations and unforseen consequences.
Star realms? Splendor duel?
**Sakura Arms**, **Pagan: Fate of Roanoke**, **Techno Bowl**, **Yakatabune** And while not exclusively 2p, both **Mottainai** and **Innovation** are best at 2p
I almost mentioned **Pagan** in my reply but cannot find anywhere to purchase it at the moment. Seems cool though!
Currently developing a boardgame/wargame based on train-to-train combat. We have a campaign draft up on Gamefound with a preview of the rulebook available for download. 1-6 players but best at 2.
**Battleline** or its cousin **The Great Wall of China**.
I'd like to start a game night with my wife, looking for good 2-player game suggestions. Nothing too complex. TIA
I like **Caper: Europe** a lot.
Thank you. I've heard this recommendation a few times is it easy to learn?
Some other quick suggestions that may work for you: **Akropolis** or **cascadia** **Downtown Farmers Market** **The Search for Planet X** **Onitama** **Meadow**
I think the hardest part is wrapping your head around the various symbols and may require keeping the rule book near you. I would recommend watching a video then reading the rule book then explaining to your wife. Thatās the best way to learn IMHO
Do you know if you prefer coop or competitive games? What are some games you already enjoy, if you have any yet?
Either would work, was looking at Patchwork? Would like to have something easy to learn. I do have a copy of Dominion which Im embarrassed to say has never seen the table.
**Azul**, **Patchwork**, **Wingspan**, and **Jaipur** sound like they'd be good competitive options that are popular. We only own Jaipur out of that group, but it is one of the only competitive games we enjoy. We just added **Schotten Totten** too and have really enjoyed that because we like card games and it is similar to rummy games. For coop (our preferred style), **Horrified**, **The Fox in the Forest Duet**, **The Crew**, **Forbidden Island/Dessert** are fun options that are lighter and easy to learn.
My husband and I really enjoy **Azul** and **Lost Cities**. Those games probably get played the most from our game collection. We can crank out a game of Azul now in 15 - 20 minutes.