2 Player Table Top games

Hi Duders,

I'm going to be going on honeymoon with my better half to a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere, and I think this would be the perfect time to have a few table top games on hand. Can you recommend any two player games, preferably lighter on the rules set, as neither of us have much experience in the area.

Thanks,

Joe.

On a honeymoon... Twister?

Just kididng, it's not even tabletop. I haven't played them myself, but I've heard good things about Android: Netrunner and Blood Bowl.

Smallworld, trust me on this one, the rules are dead simple, but is an absolute blast, 2 players would be under an hour to finish, and between the somewhat random nature of what you get keeps each game different and requiring you to switch up your strategy. It's probably one of my current favorite small group games right now.

Ra - The Dice Game is another good one, games pretty small making it easier to transport, and once again is super simple to understand.

Those are two on the top of my head, if you're looking for more I could probably throw out a few more good choices. Warning, I am not responsible for any breakup that might happen through the cut throat nature of board games.

@audiobusting I've already got twister packed. Going to be a bit hard spinning the spinner though. :) I've played bloodbowl before - if I was marrying my male best friend it would be fine, but the amount of bullshittery that goes on in it would probably end up with fights with my lady.

@llamaegg Those both sound great! I'll definitely check out smallworld. Do you reckon board game geek is a good site to check out for more?

Thanks again guys!

Netrunner is great and very affordable for a card game since there's no boosters, you just buy the box and get all the cards.

Blood Bowl is really fun but incredibly expensive and time consuming since it's a miniature game like Warhammer.

@corruptedevil is the ruleset for netrunner suitable for a lady who is starting to get into table top games?

Probably not? Can't say I've ever tried teaching anyone it without them having prior experience with TCGs (MtG, Pokemon, YuGiOh).

HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING FROM MOVIES?!?

Carcassonne is generally a really good game to play 2 players, and it's got a really good balance between approachability and complexity. That said, you're basically required to get a few of the first expansions in order to make it really interesting.

Reading the title, I got super excited and wanted to come in here to recommend Twilight Struggle, but it seems you're not into incredibly dense(but actually not terribly) and plodding Cold War strategy games. If you guys end up really liking playing board games I'd recommend picking it up at some point, especially if you are history buffs. It does take a long while to get to grips with the ruleset, though.

This, although me and my girlfriend have had fun just playing vanilla. She's completely new to board games also, and picked it up really easily.

I play Netrunner and the rules are easy once you know them, but they can be a bit complex to get into. It doesn't help that for flavour of the game, similar things have different names depending on what side you're playing and it also doesn't help that the company who make is still cannot write a good rule book to save their life.

For example, your hand is called your HQ if you're the Corporation and it's called your Grip if you're the Runner. Your discard pile is the Archives/Heap, your library is R&D/Stack and the runner has a play area called their Rig while the Corp has a play area made up of servers. This use of terminology can get a bit confusing at the start. There's also timing structures and card interactions which get a bit tough for someone who might not have ever played a table top game before. But it is a really good game and the starter box is cheap and comes with enough pre-made decks to give you a good idea of the game.

X-Wing is good if you're both into Star Wars or if Star Trek is more you're thing go for Attack Wing but outside of the starter box these two games get expensive. If you're just looking for something out of the box, both Summoner Wars and Mage Wars are good.

@damodar Fortunately, it is a cabin in the middle of nowhere, in the Lake District, UK. More likely going to be reading poetry than meeting crazy psycho murderers.

@hugh_jazz I'll pick up Twilight Struggle anyway, I'm sure I'll have a few friends up for the challenge. Sounds awesome. Looks like things are about to get expensive! Well, they were already with the wedding and all, but you get what I mean.

@bollard Thanks for your recommendation, I was about to dismiss the game if I needed to buy a ton of expansions.

Looks like I'm going to pick up Carcasonne, Small World and Ra, with a helping of Unspeakable Words, as the lady loves word games. Thanks for your help guys! @llamaegg gets best answer for getting me two interesting games.

Maybe not what you are looking for, but do you play Backgammon? It's a great one to learn for travelling, and the rules are surprisingly simple. I like playing it as an add-on to conversation. Backgammon is social DLC yo.

Other than that... I dont know. Magic the Gathering?

@gerbilsinspace: While I do agree that Carcassonne is enjoyable without any expansions, I have found that it gets stale pretty quickly(not in the course of a single weekend, for sure). I've found that of all the expansions only the first two are worth getting(to an extent). They add a bit more complexity in the different followers you can place, add some more tiles and followers for a sixth player. The problem with that value-proposition is that the base game and two expansions, while certainly not expansive, starts to get close to the cost of a Big Box with all of the expansions included. So while vanilla Carcassonne would do you for a while, if you enjoyed it then you'd want at least two expansions, and at the point you'd be better off getting the Big Box. Buying a Big Box at the outset, however, is pretty crazy stuff :).

Oh, and hey, if you're making a bulk order you should get Love Letter as well, as that's a really simple and smart card game for 2-4 players that is good as a palate cleanser.

Me and some friends fucking love Sentinels of the Multiverse. It's co-op, 2-5 player game. Better with 3 to 4 players, but since you're working together, you can each play two characters or just have a third that you both decide what to do with. It's a bit on the comic-book nerdy side.

BattleCON is a pretty good two player game. Though i'm not sure if it's still backers only, or if they've done a print run for general sale.

It's a board game that borrows a lot from fighting games.

Netrunner is also good - for me, its as fun as playing a CCG, but without the meta game and investment in buying singles for deckbuilding. Though I suppose the game costs a bit more up front.

As I expected, a ton of good ideas. I'll pick up Love Letter alongside the others. Thanks again for all your help. :)

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective

It's a deduction game, that comes with ten cases, oldy timey news papers and an oldy timey map of London. With each case you'll have to figure out the culprit and follow a trail of clues all over town. In that sense it's probably more like a role playing game than a table top game as there are no game pieces or decks of cards, just stories of crime and intrigue. And crime. Lot's and lot's of crime.

@hugh_jazz: I wanted to do the very same thing, only with A Few Acres of Snow.

If your playing with your other half you defiantly need some coop table top games. Playing competitive two player we find get a bit tiresome after a while. I would say get pandemic and forbidden island. Pandemic is the better of the two games and has more legs in it and takes longer.

Just wanted to say thanks again, and to let you know that after consideration I've gone for Love Letter, Gloom and Fluxx, mostly due to their none bulkiness, and they look like they will be about right for the fiancees tastes.

This forum is awesome, thanks!

The answer is always Scrabble. You can get a board relatively cheap, a basic ability to spell is all you need, the games don't take to long, and you can easily play in bed (wink wink nudge nudge know what I mean?).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1902488383/divorce-the-game

I really want to play this.

BioShock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia and Star Wars: Edge of the Empire