Tabletop Game Talk, Anyone?

Powerthirteen -- here are some suggestion for 2-player games.  (This is one of my favorite topics in life right now, so apologizes for the mega-post.  I got writing and couldn't stop myself.)

The Essentials: seriously, go buy these, you won't regret it

Lost Cities
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50/lost-cities

This is a quick-playing card game. It’s one of those “a minute to learn – a lifetime to master” games. There are five colored suits (each themed to a different kind of adventure expedition, like “undersea” or “jungle”), with cards 0 to 10. The object of the game is to get the most points. On your turn you have to play a card, either to one of your expeditions or to the discard board, then draw a new card from the draw pile or off the discard board. To play a card on an expedition, you have to play a card of the same suit and of a higher value. Play ends when the draw pile is exhausted. Sounds simple and boring, right? Wrong! Because there’s two extra twists to make it fun. The first twist is that points aren’t determined by just adding up the values of the cards you played to each expedition. You have to break 20 points in that expedition before the values start scoring. If you don’t break 20, you score the value of the cards you played subtracted from 20. That still sounds sort of lame, but the second twist is that there are multiplier cards, that can multiply your score by 2, 3 or 4. The catch with them is you have to play them first, before any numbered cards. And if you have a multiplier on an expedition but you don’t break 20? Your negative score is multiplied! Noooo! Worst expedition to the jungle ever!

Seriously, I can’t recommend this game highly enough. Every game plays out differently. Do you wait a few more rounds waiting to draw that multiplier for the one suit that you have great cards? Do you take a chance dumping that sort of good card that you don’t want to the discard board in the hopes that the other player won’t be going for that suit? Why won’t that red 10 I desperately need ever come up in the draw?! I’ve played this game dozens of times and it delights me every time. And if you end up having a terrible game (like this past weekend when Liz got a negative 23 on one of her expeditions but still beat me by 30 points overall), it’s not a problem because it’s such a quick game with no set-up time that you can be staging that rematch right away!

Jaipur
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54043/jaipur
This is a quick-playing, gorgeous little set collection card game, themed around a market in India. Each player has a hand of goods cards and a supply of camel cards, and there’s a central market place of more goods cards. On your turn you have the choice of drawing one card from the central market, trading multiple cards between your hand and the market using the camel cards, or selling your wares for coins worth points. The person with the most points at the end of the game wins. The catch is the coins are arranged in stacks, one for each type of goods represented on the cards, and the coins at the top of the stacks are worth more than those at the bottom. Moreover, there are bonus coins for selling sets of 3, 4 or 5. So there’s incentive to sell early, to get the more valuable coins at the top of the stack, but there’s also incentive to wait until you collect enough to sell a set of 4 or 5 to get tasty bonus coins.

Do you sell your pair of high-priced silver cards now, before your opponent sells the one silver you saw her pick up out of the market, or do you wait for a third or fourth on to come along? You’re getting up towards your hand limit – do you put those silks you were saving for a rainy day back into the market in favor of collecting higher-scoring rubies, or are you too worried your opponent will snatch them up and make a killing? And what about the fact that you’ve depleted your camel supply? There are so many fun things to be taking into consideration, but its light enough that there’s really no room for analysis paralysis.

The components are really well made, and the small box makes this my go-to game to play in airports to kill time.

Both Lost Cities and Jaipur are strictly two-player only games.

Highly Recommended:

Sushi Go!
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/133473/sushi-go
This game is quick, cheap, readily available, adorable, and so, so, so much fun. It’s pretty much perfect. It’s a card-drafting card game with the cutest artwork ever. It’s generally meant to be played with more players, but there’s a 2-player variant that’s a blast. It’s incredibly portable and insanely replayable which makes it my go-to 2-player game for when I’m on an airplane. If you’re interested in it, let me know and I can shoot you the rules for the 2-player variant (it’s not in the official rulebook).

Patchwork
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163412/patchwork
One of the hottest games of last year. This is a 2-player-only tile placement game. You each have a board with a grid on it, and you take turns selecting tetronimo pieces to place on your board. The pieces determine how many buttons you earn, and how many spaces you advance along the time tracker. When both players reach the end of the time track, the game ends. At the end of the game, you lose buttons for every space you left uncovered on your board. The player with the most buttons wins. It’s a fun little puzzle, but there are a lot of choices in play on each turn, so it can bring out some serious analysis paralysis in people.

There’s an excellent iOS version of this that helps to play first, as the scoring mechanics are a little fiddly to learn based on just the rulebook. Plus, it works as pass-and-play with 2 local players, so it’s another good game for when you’re traveling or just stuck in a waiting room or something.

New York 1901
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/174660/new-york-1901
This is fun for when you want to play a proper board game with lots of little pieces and cards and scoring tokens. It’s a worker-placement, tile-laying game themed around building skyscrapers in NYC. The artwork is really pretty, and the components are very high quality. I think this would be a great choice if you enjoy Ticket to Ride and Carcassone! You can play it very cut-throatedly, or you can each sort of stick to your own part of the city and build up your buildings in relative piece. There are multiple ways to score points, so it becomes a nice puzzle to maximize your building. I’ve only played this twice, but now that I’m getting the hang of it, I really like it.

Dominion
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36218/dominion
It’s a classic for a reason! I think a lot of people don’t like playing it with two people, but I still think it’s fun.  Sure it's more fun with 3 or 4, but with 2 it almost becomes a solitaire game you're playing with a friend.  It’s a deck building game, with lots of replayability.  It's the one I find myself wanting to play the most, even though it's not the best two-player game in my collection.

Flip City
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/168679/flip-city
If deck-building is your thing, this is also super-fun.  It's a "micro-deck-builder" with a press-your-luck mechanic.  It's a teensy, tiny little deck of double-sided cards. Each card has a different power.   On your turn, you play as many cards as you want or until you bust (based on symbols on the cards).  You earn coins by playing cards, and can buy new cards or pay to flip over a double-sided card to gain a new power.  It plays fast, and is crazy-portable. 

Castles of Mad King Ludwig
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/155426/castles-mad-king-ludwig
This is a much weightier game than anything else on this list. It takes a little while to set-up (maybe 5 or 10 minutes) and then takes around 45 minutes to play with 2 players. But boy is it fun! It’s a tile-laying game where you build a castle for the mad king, one room at a time. You get points for the rooms you build, and each kind of room has a different bonus for playing it. It’s got a bit of a learning curve (thanks to an auction system that takes some getting used to) but once you’ve got it down, it’s a total blast.

Archaeoogy: The New Expedition
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191300/archaeology-new-expedition
Another set-collection card game in a lovely small box! This one can play up to 4, but plays nicely with 2. This has a pretty nasty push-your-luck mechanic that I love, but YMMV. It also has a fun little bonus set-up with monument cards that play differently from each other, so there’s variety from game to game. It’s not a world-beater but it’s always fun to play.

Morels (or Fungi)
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122298/morels
Yet another set-collection card game in a lovely small box! Can you sense a theme in the games I’m drawn to? This one is much fiddlier than the others, but it’s got an unusual theme (collecting mushrooms while on a walk through the woods) and gorgeous art. It’s also got some interesting mechanics that set it apart from other games.

Other Recommendations:
I read a lot of game reviews and have seen good things about the following 2-player games but I haven't tried them out yet
Sansoucci
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small
Baseball Highlights 2045
Battle Lines (or Schottentotten) -- same game, just a re-theme