Board Games

[Fluke]

I actually don't think I've ever bought one before but I'm after a board game, I barely know where to start, I have it on good authority that Carcassonne is good, anyone? I was thinking more Back Gammon. I'm after something that would keep 2 people happily occupied for an hour or two at a time. Must not cause too many arguments. I will consider any and all suggestions.

[UncleEbenezer]

A chess board gets you several good two-person games.

A Go set gets you Go itself - probably the best board game of all - and some others like phutball.

Avoid "family" games, like monopoly. Even the best of them[1] need more than two players to have any interest.

[1] Unless someone knows otherwise

[swill453]

Scrabble? Reversi?

Scott.

[bluedonkey]

Backgammon is a good suggestion. Good combination of skill and luck and clearly designed as a two person game. Double Six! Learn the dice probabilities, all great fun. Most backgammon kits are easily portable too.

[dealtn]

I actually don't think I've ever bought one before but I'm after a board game, I barely know where to start, I have it on good authority that Carcassonne is good, anyone? I was thinking more Back Gammon. I'm after something that would keep 2 people happily occupied for an hour or two at a time. Must not cause too many arguments. I will consider any and all suggestions.

What are the relative skill levels of the 2 people? If they are likely to be different then I think you are going to struggle to keep both "happily occupied" for long with something other than an game with a high luck/skill ratio.

[SalvorHardin]

Avoid "family" games, like monopoly. Even the best of them[1] need more than two players to have any interest.

[1] Unless someone knows otherwise

Nope. Monopoly is rubbish. Too much luck, poor game mechanics, whilst the elimination of players during the game means that people are sitting around not playing a game whilst others are.

Our group has been playing boardgames for the best part of 40 years. We would need to be paid to play the more famous board games like Monopoly, Risk and Cluedo, because they are pretty poor games and we have much better alternatives.

Unfortunately most of the better "modern" boardgames, such as Settlers of Catan, are designed for three or more players.

I'll do a longer post in a few hours with a few ideas. From experience "Terraforming Mars" and "Ticket to Ride" work well with two players.

[SalvorHardin]

Boardgame Geek is a good place to look for ideas

https://boardgamegeek.com/

[GrahamPlatt]

Rummikub is pretty good for two to four players

[SalvorHardin]

"Modern” board games, aka “Eurogames”, generally have easy to understand rules, game mechanics which don’t rely much on luck, have quite a bit of interaction between the players and most players have a chance of winning for most of the game. In contrast the better known games such as Monopoly and Risk rely heavily on luck, have poor game mechanics and grind players down to the point where it is clear that they have no chance of winning but are still forced to play on, seemingly for hours, until they are eliminated or they quit. Monopoly may be the most popular boardgame on the planet but it's a poor game in comparison with the vast majority of EuroGames.

The bit about the rules is important; many boardgames designed in the 1970s and 1980s have lengthy and often hard-to-follow rulebooks (e.g. most wargames from this era). Modern games have short rulebooks which don’t read like a legal textbook.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurogame

Best game companies: If a game is made by Days of Wonder, Gale Force Nine, Ravensburger or Rio Grande Games, the chances are that it’s a pretty good game (most of our group’s games come from these four companies).

We have played Carcassonne. From what I remember it was pretty good, but Settlers of Catan appeared soon afterwards and took over the group. Here’s what our group of four players prefers in rough order of popularity / frequency of play (most of these games have their own Wikipedia page):

Games which play well with two players, but also play well with more players

Terraforming Mars – build colonies on Mars and make the planet habitable over many generations. Can be played as a solo game. In the year before lockdown, we played this more than anything else. There isn’t too much player interaction, but we found that given all the possible combinations of project and event cards in the game players were too busy thinking about their own position to worry much about the other players (especially when you add the expansion sets which introduce colonies on many moons within the Solar System). Like many EuroGames, it is a race to collect the most victory points by game end. We have experimented with allowing players to trade and sell project and event cards with each other, but this greatly slowed down the game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_Mars_(board_game)

Small World – players run tribes in a fantasy “Small World”, exploring and fighting with their neighbours. Lots of expansion sets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_World_(board_game)

Ticket to Ride – travelling on the railways, score victory points for completing routes. Arguably the easiest game to learn on this list. There are many versions, including super quick games that usually take no more than 15 minutes. Start with the original Ticket to Ride, which covers North America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_to_Ride_(board_game)

Dominion – deck building card game, set in a medieval world. It’s really a race to build your deck and acquire victory cards, but there isn't much interaction with the other players. There are a lot of expansion sets for Dominion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_(card_game)

Caylus – build a medieval town and castle. This is a worker placement game; put your “men” on spaces on the board, such as the builder, and then use that space to do something (doing so excludes others from using that space this turn – the race to use certain spaces during the turn is a key mechanic in games like this)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caylus_(game)

Ys – Another worker placement game, this time it concerns controlling parts of a port-city.

Other games. These can be played by two, but they are much better games with more players:

Settlers of Catan – establishing settlements on the newly discovered island of Catan. Produce resource, trade these with the other players, use them to build settlements, cities and roads. Settlers has lots of expansions and is extremely popular amongst Eurogamers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catan

Five Tribes – Five Middle Eastern tribes trade and explore, whilst in some cases summoning Djinn / Genies to help them. Another worker placement game, this one has the theme of 1,001 Arabian nights. There are plenty of ways to stitch up, I mean "interact with" your opponents in this game. Of all the games I've played where players collect victory points to determine the winner, this is the one with the most variety of ways in which to collect points.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Tribes_(board_game)

Puerto Rico – Colonial Governors importing workers to grow crops, build buildings and export goods from the island of Puerto Rico. For many years Puerto Rico was the top rated game amongst Eurogamers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_(board_game)

Thurn und Taxis – building postal networks in 16th century Bavaria and its surroundings. Very easy to learn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurn_and_Taxis_(board_game)

Sons of Anarchy. Based on the TV series, each player runs an outlaw motorcycle gang where the object is to make the most money. Another “worker placement” game. As a rule, if a board game is named after a TV series or film it will probably be a poor game; Sons of Anarchy is one of the exceptions. The other exceptions to the TV series rule that I’ve played are Firefly (good with two players) and “Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery” (which requires at least three and preferably more players).

Just before lockdown we played our one and only game of “Horrified”, which feels like a Hammer Horror film turned into a board game. Here a small town is under siege from various monsters such as Frankenstein, The Mummy, Dracula and Wolfman. The players work as a team to protect their small town from these monsters, each playing the sort of character that you’d expect to see in a Hammer Horror film / HP Lovecraft book. Horrified works well with two players and is pretty good as a one-player game.

Don’t play Monopoly. It’s a very poor game, particularly when you have more than two players because the elimination of players during the game means that people end up sitting around when they’d rather be gaming. As a rule if a game is well known amongst people who don’t regularly play boardgames then people who do play a lot of boardgames won’t like it. Far too many have player elimination and rely too much on luck.

I used to play a lot of Avalon Hill’s “Squad Leader", the definitive small unit wargame covering the Eastern Front of World War Two. This is a two-player game. Complicated rules, it isn’t a Eurogame. It isn't a game for beginners, though of the games of its era it's one of the easiest to learn.

[jfgw]

Nope. Monopoly is rubbish. Too much luck, poor game mechanics

I am not a Monopoly player but it does make a difference how you play. The rules state that, if anyone lands on an unowned property but does not buy it, it must be auctioned - a rule often ignored. It is also important to remember that it is a property trading game - the idea is that you trade with other players. If all you do is buy what you can when you land on it and then let the dice do the work, it will be as exciting as a dripping tap.


Julian F. G. W.

[bluedonkey]

Salvor,

Wow! That's a whole world of games that has completely passed me by. Are the games you mention physical board games or instead computer based in some way?

For a simple but still enjoyable board game, what about Careers? My adolescent self used to enjoy it and it works for two players. Fairly straightforward in terms of rules. I think the choice might come down to how much brain power the participants want to use. We all like to "chillax" sometimes.

[SalvorHardin]

Salvor,

Wow! That's a whole world of games that has completely passed me by. Are the games you mention physical board games or instead computer based in some way?

For a simple but still enjoyable board game, what about Careers? My adolescent self used to enjoy it and it works for two players. Fairly straightforward in terms of rules. I think the choice might come down to how much brain power the participants want to use. We all like to "chillax" sometimes.

I remember Careers. At the time it was interesting, and better than Monopoly though I wouldn't choose to play it nowadays. As jfgw has said, Monopoly without auctions and trading (rules which most people ignore) is as exciting as a dripping tap. With auctions and trading I'd still avoid it

All the games I mentioned are physical board games. Ticket To Ride also has a version for computers and it can be played online on Days of Wonder's website (you may need a code which comes with a copy of the game - I've never played it online but everyone else ini our gaming group has). The official website is: https://www.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride/en/

Ticket To Ride requires the least amount of brain power of the games mentioned. I'd recommend it as a starter for people who haven't played EuroGames before. Our group still plays it if we prefer something easy to play. Here are the rules to Ticket To Ride (I've paraphrased them):

Setup: The object of the game is to score the most Victory Points (VPs) at game end. Get VPs by playing sets of coloured train cards to complete routes between two cities (this represents you having travelled between these cities). Players start with 3 destination cards at random (must keep at least 2) which represent long routes between two cities, 4 coloured train cards at random and 45 train car pieces which they place on the board when they complete a route. Placing your train car pieces on a route stops anyone else from completing the same route (much of the fun of the game comes from two or more players competing to complete the same route and stopping the others in the process).

Play: Each turn you can choose two coloured train car cards from the five face up cards, or one face up wild card, or draw two cards at random from the pack, or draw more destination cards. Or instead of drawing cards you can play multiple ticket cards of the same colour to complete a route on the board between two cities to score (VPs). Number of cards = length of route, so 6 yellow cards are needed to complete Seattle to Helena (for 15 VPs), but just 2 cards of any colour will complete Atlanta to Charleston for 2 VPs). Longer routes score more VPs. There are multicoloured "wild" train cards which can be played as any colour and grey routes on the board can be completed by a set of cards any colour.

Completing a destination card scores VPs at the end of the game. Some of these are difficult to complete so score more VPs (Vancouver to New York is much harder than New York to Boston).

Game end: The game ends when one player has two or less train tokens which haven't been put on the board (everyone then gets one more turn). Lose VPs for uncompleted destination cards. That's the rules to Ticket To Ride.

Thurn und Taxis is pretty easy, it has similar mechanics to Ticket To Ride (draw cards, play to complete routes for VPs).

Terraforming Mars is the hardest on the brain.

[BobbyD]

Dominion works well heads up and probably has the best online version of a physical board game going: https://dominion.games/

Free to play, or a small sub for access to all the expansions. You also get access to the expansions if your opponent has it, and you can make your opponent having it a pre-condition of the matching, but the base set will be enough for first timers/those deciding whether to play the physical game.

[bluedonkey]

Nope. Monopoly is rubbish. Too much luck, poor game mechanics

I am not a Monopoly player but it does make a difference how you play. The rules state that, if anyone lands on an unowned property but does not buy it, it must be auctioned - a rule often ignored. It is also important to remember that it is a property trading game - the idea is that you trade with other players. If all you do is buy what you can when you land on it and then let the dice do the work, it will be as exciting as a dripping tap.


Julian F. G. W.

I agree, it is important to play that rule. Every property landed on either gets bought by that player at face value or auctioned with that player also being able to bid.

A harmless variation is to accumulate into a pot any fines from Chance and Community Chest. When a player lands on No Parking they collect that pot.

[AsleepInYorkshire]

The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game.

If your horse doesn't win you can still win

It's not over until the last race of the day

AiY

[EverybodyKnows]

I would recommend Carcassonne as a fun and accessible game. Very quick to setup and tidy away. Great for 2 players but not so good with more.

7 Wonders Duel is a 2 player game. There is more setup and it requires a bit more thought but we often end with close scores.

Agricola is an excellent 2 player game that has very little luck and stands up to many repeated games. It is a sequencing game so tends to favour the more logical mind. Takes a while to setup too.

Settlers of Catan is a good multiplayer - you can try it out online for free. https://colonist.io

I would note that the indicative timings on the boxes are usually half the reality.

[Fluke]

Gosh! Thank you everybody and especially to Salvor for the background and that fantastic run down of current games. I had no idea! I love the sound of that Mars one, wouldn't touch Monopoly, too many bad Christmas memories of people stomping off in a huff. Glad Carcassonne got a vote, I had heard from a friend that it was very good. Coming back to back gammon I do like it's relative simplicity and portability. Lots of food for thought though.

[SalvorHardin]

Gosh! Thank you everybody and especially to Salvor for the background and that fantastic run down of current games. I had no idea! I love the sound of that Mars one, wouldn't touch Monopoly, too many bad Christmas memories of people stomping off in a huff.

Glad to help I've just had a look at the overall ratings on Boardgame Geek:

Terraforming Mars is rated the 4th best overall game. IMHO some of this high rating is because it is fairly new (and has a huge variety of options) so the serious gamers are still very interested in it. It's one of the few games where everyone in our group has their own copy (it helps that it's a multiplayer game that plays well with one player taking on the game system).

"Gloomhaven" is currently the top rated game. It's a combination of boardgame and fantasy role playing game. I've played a few scenarios, the problem for me is that it is structured like a role playing campaign so it can take hundreds of hours to complete (I dropped out of my friend's campaign last year as I didn't have enough spare time). A very clever design with lots of gameplay and variety.

Monopoly is 19,908th (and a mere 2,129th in the family games ratings).

[servodude]

Gosh! Thank you everybody and especially to Salvor for the background and that fantastic run down of current games. I had no idea! I love the sound of that Mars one, wouldn't touch Monopoly, too many bad Christmas memories of people stomping off in a huff.

Glad to help I've just had a look at the overall ratings on Boardgame Geek:

Great thread with some great suggestions - and a reminder to myself that Boardgame Geek exists!

One of my daughters was given Azul for Xmas last year
- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230802/azul

It has been played surprisingly often (and regularly without a kid in sight)
- heartily recommend it - my sister-in-law is getting a copy for her Xmas this year

- sd

[9873210]

What are the relative skill levels of the 2 people? If they are likely to be different then I think you are going to struggle to keep both "happily occupied" for long with something other than an game with a high luck/skill ratio.

Some games, such as go and golf, lend themselves to, and have a tradition of, handicapping. This may keep unequal players happily occupied. You could do this ad hoc in most games, but it's much better if somebody has already worked out the mechanics; with incremental steps that don't alter the basic nature of the game.