2 player game suggestions

Hi
I am looking for some fun 2 player games that are not too complex to play with my partner. We have Carcassonne and various expansions but it's getting a bit stale. She is willing to give most games a go as long as it doesn't require hours to play and learn. I tried xwing once with her and it went down like a lead balloon.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

7 wonders duel
Patchwork
Cottage Garden

Here are five of my favourites:

Lost Cities is a great card game which is super quick to learn but has a lot of replayability.

Jaipur is a very fun set collection / trading game.

Castles of Burgundy works well with two (and the card game probably even more so).

Lanterns: The Harvest Festival is a tile laying game that works great for two.

Tak is a lovely little abstract along the lines of chess.

And, by coincidence, Wil Wheaton has recently suggested his favourite 2-player games....

Any other games that she likes, Ianm?

I recommend Star Realms, or Hero Realms. Super easy to set up and explain, plays quickly, no fiddly rules, it's got lots of pretty pictures of spaceships (or fantasy characters/locations in the case of Hero Realms), lots of randomness that can lead to unexpected but exciting situations (and can make up for differences in skill), but there is a fair bit of strategy there as you start learning the cards (enough to play a forum league of Star Realms two years in a row, anyway).

Star Realms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAHasm3dWyU

Hero Realms:



I think Patchwork is a great suggestion that will appeal to anyone. It's got Tetris-y tile arranging, and a fair bit of thought will go into using your time and button resources to best fill your grid.

How do you feel about co-ops?

Shadi Torbey has a few games set in the same universe (oniverse) designed for 1 or 2 players only. They're all different and have modular components leading to lots of variability. He's a very interesting designer.

Onirim is card driven, Castellion is tile laying, and Sylvion is tower defence. Nautillion is dice driven and came out at the end of last year, and one of his older games called Urbion is said to be getting a 2.0 upgrade this year to include the modular expansions (and an Onirim reprint is out this year too).

Other 2 player only games I'd recommend, and some have already been mentioned:

Targi
Patchwork
Jaipur
Morels/Fungi
Lost Cities
Trambahn
Carcassonne: The Castle
The Ravens of Thri Sahashri
The institute for Magical Arts
7 Wonders Duel
Akrotiri
Fjords


Of coure, this isn't even getting into bigger games that are still awesome with 2 players

Dominion. Hard to beat it for replayability. If you ever get bored, you just buy one of the dozen or so expansions.

Onitama - chess-ish strategy
Codenames - in my opinion, the 2 player co-op variant works really well

A variety of games which probably work better with more, but which my wife and I still really enjoy with only 2:
Forbidden Desert - Lightweight strategy co-op
Above and Below - Charming, story-driven worker-placement sort of game
Dead of Winter - The fully co-op 2 player variant is slightly simpler than with higher player counts, but still fun. Highly thematic.
Guilds of London - Fantastically polished area-control game. It can be a bit harshly take-that and isn't a particularly short game. Scales really well for all player counts

I'd recommend checking out Rahdo Runs Through (the BGG guild, Youtube channel, and podcast), as Rahdo exclusively reviews games which he feels work well with 2.

Hi all
Thanks for the recommendations, lots to go on!
I have picked up fungi and ordered patchwork to start with.
Cheers

Give us an update with the results

Patchwork was a hit!
Really lovely game.
I'll keep you posted on how the other suggestions go down
Cheers

Case Blue

Splendour works well with two.

I picked up Patchwork, for my wife's birthday, on the back of this thread. Happy to say that it went down well. It's a nice little game that despite its simplicity, isn't as straight forward as you'd think.

I just realised no one has mentioned Hive - a grave error! Standard Hive has lovely pieces and is very transportable. Pocket Hive has smaller pieces but can fit in a pocket - useful on cheap flights etc. Either way, great game. Gorgeous little abstract which doesn't require a board and is perfect for playing in coffee shops etc.

Sadly, my other half will no longer play with me as I win too much these days. I'm playing the occasional game on boardgamearena, but if anyone fancies a game at some point, just let me know!

psychomansam wrote:I just realised no one has mentioned Hive - a grave error! Standard Hive has lovely pieces and is very transportable. Pocket Hive has smaller pieces but can fit in a pocket - useful on cheap flights etc. Either way, great game. Gorgeous little abstract which doesn't require a board and is perfect for playing in coffee shops etc.

Sadly, my other half will no longer play with me as I win too much these days. I'm playing the occasional game on boardgamearena, but if anyone fancies a game at some point, just let me know!

I fear I have exactly the wrong type of brain for it (aphantasia and issues with spatial stuff) but I did win a copy in the Roll With It raffle so would be happy to let you beat me at it some time I played it once against someone else who was terrible at it and Kat got so angry watching us that she started taking moves for both of us and playing a solitaire game against herself!

paulyg wrote:

psychomansam wrote:I just realised no one has mentioned Hive - a grave error! Standard Hive has lovely pieces and is very transportable. Pocket Hive has smaller pieces but can fit in a pocket - useful on cheap flights etc. Either way, great game. Gorgeous little abstract which doesn't require a board and is perfect for playing in coffee shops etc.

Sadly, my other half will no longer play with me as I win too much these days. I'm playing the occasional game on boardgamearena, but if anyone fancies a game at some point, just let me know!

I fear I have exactly the wrong type of brain for it (aphantasia and issues with spatial stuff) but I did win a copy in the Roll With It raffle so would be happy to let you beat me at it some time I played it once against someone else who was terrible at it and Kat got so angry watching us that she started taking moves for both of us and playing a solitaire game against herself!

Well it sounds like it would be amusing. There's lots of little things to learn to improve your strategy, but you can learn quickly just by playing people who have some ideas already. I have so many 'aha' moments playing people who are better, which is actually really enjoyable.

Can I recommend you either: A) Never play Tash Kalar, as it depends entirely on looking at diagrams, mentally flipping and mirroring them and creating them on a board - and you'd apparently be terrible at it. B) Definitely play Tash Kalar, as it depends entirely on looking at diagrams, mentally flipping and mirroring them and creating them on a board - and you'd probably find it to be a good brain-training exercise.

psychomansam wrote:Well it sounds like it would be amusing. There's lots of little things to learn to improve your strategy, but you can learn quickly just by playing people who have some ideas already. I have so many 'aha' moments playing people who are better, which is actually really enjoyable.

Can I recommend you either: A) Never play Tash Kalar, as it depends entirely on looking at diagrams, mentally flipping and mirroring them and creating them on a board - and you'd apparently be terrible at it. B) Definitely play Tash Kalar, as it depends entirely on looking at diagrams, mentally flipping and mirroring them and creating them on a board - and you'd probably find it to be a good brain-training exercise.

Yes, I think picking up those sorts of tips would probably help me a lot with Hive. I am much better at "apply method Y here" than "examine board state and imagine what it might be like in 3 turns when these 6 things have moved".

And I am DEFINITELY down for playing Tash Kalar. I'm pretty certain I'll be horrible at it, but I've been fascinated by it ever since I saw the SU&SD coverage.

There's a good adaptation of Tash Kalar on BoardGameArena too fyi. You can challenge me on there if you like. I'll let you guess my username.

Tash Kalar was pretty great! Definitely have the itch to play more 2-player games. Totally addictive.

Hive is also on steam for £1.70. Picked it up last week, its not fantastic but it gets the job done.

I also recently backed two little games on kickstarter, Tao-Long & Dark is the Night