Hi all, Sarah here. Today I’m going to talk about some fantastic two player games that have come out in the past couple of years. Two player games have been around forever. Ancient games like Chess, Go and Mancala are still played today. There are also two player war games, quite a few chess variants (such as The Duke and Hive) as well many other two player abstract strategy games (such as Checkers and Quarto). It seems like over the past two years there has been an amazing array of two player only games released and I’m here to highlight a few of these.
In Patchwork, each player has their own quilt board in which they are trying to build the the most complete quilt possible. Each player collects quilt tiles and pays in both time and buttons (the currency in this game). Choosing the right tiles can be quite tricky. You want to pick pieces that fill in the empty spots in the game board, create an income, and don’t make you pay too much in buttons or time. There is also a central board that allows each player to track their time. The last player always goes first so often you are able to take multiple turns in a row allowing a player to capitalize on the quilt tiles.
Tides of Time is a card game consisting of only 18 cards. This is a drafting game, meaning that each player is dealt a hand of cards and then passes the hand to other player after selecting a card to use for themselves. In Tides of Time you are trying to collect sets of cards to earn points. The drafting mechanic is interesting because it allows you to have some idea of what your opponent is collecting without having absolute knowledge.
Matcha is another set collection game. In this game you are making tea and need to collect the utensils to serve your guests. Your cards each have a number and a suit and you collect utensils by playing these down on the appropriate cards in the center of the table. There is a small amount of bluffing and quite a bit of strategy.
7 Wonders Duel is a two player take on one of my favorite multi player games, 7 Wonders. In this game you are trying to build up your civilization by collecting cards from the center of the table. This game reminds me quite a bit of solitaire games where you would build a pyramid and uncover cards as you use the cards on top of them. In 7 Wonders Duel you not only need to think about what cards you need, but also try to keep your opponent from gaining access to the cards that they need.
In RESISTOR_ each player is controlling a computer while on the brink of nuclear war. This is basically a pipe laying game, where you try to connect your computer to your opponent’s computer. Each card is double sided allowing the players to flip cards and rearrange the circuits. The resistor cards add a bit of chaos to the game, so you never know exactly what lays ahead.
This last game, I’ve actually never played, but I wanted to include it because it’s on my wishlist and I think it’ll make an awesome addition to any collection. Onitama is a Chess variant where each player has limited moves that can be made. The interesting part of game is that once you use one of your moves it then become available move for your opponent, making you sometimes choose whether it’s better to keep a move you might need right now, to keep your opponent from being able to use that move against you.
This is just a small handful of the many amazing two player only games available, not to mention all of the great multiplayer games that work well for two players. What are your favorite board games to play with two players? I’d love to know!
Johanna (grrfluudy) says
Thanks so much for this post! I love board games! Unfortunately, most of the games we have are for more than 2 players (there is four of us all together) but it seems like only my sister and I want to play.