Princes of the Rennaisance. Such a fantastic game; somewhat put into shadow by Martin Wallace’s later (and somewhat similar, mechanics wise) effort, “Struggle of Empires”. SoE has the better theme, but PotR is arguably the better game. There have been rumors of a reprint for a while now, but nothing concrete.
Age of Napoleon by Renaud Verlaque. The only game that manages to do the entirety of the Napoleonic Wars in a 4-hour game, and still make it feel truly epic. Sadly, the rules are almost a guarantee that people will make mistakes the first couple or three times they play it, which can be rather off-putting.
In the Shadow of the Emperor - a game about the power struggles in the Holy Roman Empire. It mixes a lot of elements to create something that plays a bit like a mix between a traditional Eurogame (area placement, limited actions) and my all-time favorite game of intrigue, Republic of Rome (elections, nobles). Plays best with exactly 4 players, though, and the rules… ouch.
Thanks guys - after some research I ended up picking up Kingsburg and the Asia expansion to Ticket to Ride. Looking forward to trying it out soon!
nKoan
5403
This may have already been answered in the thread, but there are a lot of pages here.
Can someone recommend some cooperative games that can be played successfully with 2 players? I’m thinking in the vein of Castle Panic and Forbidden Island.
Ghost Stories is probably my favorite non-bloated coop boardgame and would work with two players. Basically, you do lose some firepower, but you’re given limited access to the powers of the nonplayed monks (or you could just play two of them each) which can actually be more flexible, and the number of ghosts spawning is smaller.
Arkham Horror is of course the classic and if you run two investigators each works excellently in two player. But it’s a lot more of an undertaking than either game you mention, and has an enormous number of expansions, so you may not want to get into it just yet.
nKoan
5405
I am looking for lighter fare at the moment, but thanks for the suggestions. I’ll have to keep those in mind.
Reldan
5406
I’d take a good look at Trajan. It was a big hit at Essen and has seen play with favorable reviews at pretty much every large gaming event I’ve been to in the past six months. I finally had a chance to play it at Gencon and it combines a lot of solid Euro elements in very interesting ways with a catchy mancala-themed way of taking actions each turn.
It’s also finally hitting the states, meaning you can buy it for a reasonable price instead of having to import it.
Netrunner is quite good. I didn’t get a chance to play it when it first came out, but I like it a lot and like with FFG is doing with it. I picked up two copies and actually took third place at the Netrunner tournament at Gencon. Very nice mechanics with truly asymmetric sides - the corp player and runner player both play and interact with different sets of cards in completely different ways.
People have been saying great things about the Lord of the Rings Card Game. Not sure how complicated it is, but it’s lighter than Arkham!
Careful of Ghost Stories. It is HARD. But it’s good. Better for 4.
There’s Pandemic, which is great, but it’s almost the exact same mechanics as Forbidden Island.
Oh, and I think Fantasy Flight just released a new edition of Reiner Knizia’s Lord of the Rings boardgame–arguably the game that started the renaissance in co-op games a number of years ago. Some folks don’t like it, but I think it’s really great.
There’s Shadows over Camelot, but I don’t think it works for 2. And there’s the new-ish Island of Doctor Necreaux. I haven’t tried it. It has a pulp theme. Maybe someone here can speak to it.
Shadows over Camelot arguably doesn’t work at all (I hate it) but definitely not for two what with the traitor mechanic.
Death Angel is kind of awesome. Squads of space marines investigate abandoned star bases in the Warhammer 40,000/Space Hulk universe. You’re continually fighting off swarms of aliens (“genestealers”) so it has that Castle Panic feel.
We misunderstood most every rule at first, so you might want the Headless Hollow summary sheet (http://www.headlesshollow.com/freebies_games.html#hulkcard).
My best recommendation for a 2 player coop is LotR card game. Great coop that really requires the players to work together rather than just exist in the same space. It can end up being a bit pricey though since it is definitely a good idea to pick up the Mirkwood cycle. You get 6 more quests and a lot of player cards that are handy for deck building.
Chaplin
5411
I agree. My girlfriend and I got the LotR card game as a coop game to low tech geek out together. It works really well. Every now and then we pack up the DS and go to the local gaming shop where we can plunk down in a corner and play a game just the two of us while the little guy gets some mario time in).
It can get very pricey, but we have had a lot of fun with just the starter (and more recently some mirkwood cycle expansion decks generously found their way my direction from Mr. Prankster-- Cheers bud).
I’m definitely thinking about getting into the LOTR card game, so if I were to buy two or maybe three sets, what would they be. Merryprankster, you recommend the starter and Mirkwood? What other sets are cool? Anyone tried the Hobbit set?
LOTR suggestions: Base game for sure.
Skip ‘A journey to Rhogesbel’ and the Dwarven deluxe expansion. Rhogesbel is painfully hard because it depends on you drawing specific cards from the quest deck. The Dwarven expansion is nice, but the quests are not new player friendly. Any of the other packs should be fine. I’ve not yet picked up the Hobbit box yet.
I didn’t mean “Return to Mirkwood” specifically, but rather the Mirkwood Cycle in general. From The Mirkwood Cycle I would say that the weakest ones are “Rhosgobel” and “Hunt for Gollum”. The rest are all good.
I haven’t tried the Hobbit yet so I can’t comment. I will say this though, the Dwarrowdelf Cycle has better quests the the Mirkwood Cycle (Mirkwood stuff is still fun, but the later stuff gets more complex). However you need Kazad Dum to play them (given the way encounter decks are built) and probably a number of Dwarrowdelf AP’s.
The game suffers a bit from power creep mostly because you have more options and more combos as you get more cards, so the quests are getting harder as they release new ones to keep pace with that. If you just jump into Dwarrowdelf you might get frustrated easily given that you have neither the experience or the cardpool to deal with those quests. The game is actually pretty tough.
I actually think that getting “The Hobbit” might be a good idea, since it is supposed to be a bit more self contained. Can’t say for sure though, since I haven’t played it yet. Also I have no way to really predict how the later stuff will play if you have limited player cards to choose from since I like the game enough that I have basically just gotten all of it. :)
Chaplin
5415
For what it is worth, this is what we did and I feel it was a great way to experience the game:
- Starter set only. only! resist for a bit if you can
- Play quest 1 a few times with default “mono color” decks to get an appreciation for what each faction offers and what the default decks do.
- Switch up who was which deck as you play a few times
- If you are feeling brave, try quest 2 with mono decks.
- Once you get a feel for who likes what, merge the mono decks so that each person has two of the four factions that they enjoy the most. You will have to trim a few cards and it will be the first taste of deck building.
- Play all three quests as per difficulty you want
- Follow whoever’s advice you feel is best and sprinkle in a few of the add on decks (mini expansions that give a few new cards and a quest to play with) from a “cycle” (like a story arc that contains several decks) of your choice. If you like the movies, Kazhad Dun is very cool.
Ignore my advice, Chappy’s is better.
Vesper
5417
Another great coop game is Flash Point Fire Rescue. I had previously heard good things about this game and then I finally sat down for a full demo game at Gencon. Fabulous game that gives everyone something to do all of the time, and largely avoids the alpha player problem most coop games have. You play firefighters in a burning building trying to hold off the fire while you drag out survivors. The fire spreads quickly and unpredictably and there is a great sense of urgency to get the survivors out. The main game comes with 2 buildings (double sided board) and theres one expansion out already. I picked up the main game immediately and everyone who has played it with me (including my wife) absolutely loves it.
Shadows over Camelot was a HUGE hit for my group. We all very much liked it. I put off buying it because of the reviews from (here, I think). I finally put down the cash for it, and regret not buying it sooner…
As far as I know there’s two camps here: people who hate it, like me, and people who like it okay but think Battlestar Galactica does the whole thing much better. I’m not really a huge fan of BSG either, because neither game lets a player do much on their turn yet it takes forever between turns and I really don’t want a traitor mechanic in my cooperative boardgame. But if I were going to play one of the two it would be BSG every time. More variety, more theme, tougher decisions. I might even like it with the Exodus expansion, though I’ve never gotten a chance to play that.
I fall into camp two but feel that SOC has a place on my game shelf.
I will say play with the merlin expansion. Makes the game a lot better.
