1781

That is true, but she really enjoyed Ticket to Ride and I would say has a 35% win ratio which is enough to keep us both interested.

1782

What was it you didn’t like about Carcassonne? It’s hard to say what’s “like” that game if we don’t know what rubbed you the wrong way. Attika’s a tile-laying game, for example, and there’s definitely an element of randomness in the order you draw tiles, even if it’s a much deeper game than Carcassonne and it’s much fairer since you each draw from your own private tile stocks.

Puerto Rico should not be on that list. Puerto Rico is a great game, but it’s also complex and difficult to play well. It’s something you should really reserve for more serious players. San Juan, the card version, is much more accessible.

I hadn’t realized Attika was out of print. I bought my copy from Funagain about 5 years ago.

1783

Ok. Narrowing the list. Puerto Rico off.

Carcassonne just didn’t click with me. It could be because I had never tried a tile laying game before and didn’t get it, but after 5 attempts we gave up. Maybe tile layers should be removed from consideration in general for this next attempt at married gaming.

1784

That’s good, but Ticket to Ride is a very simple eurogame. The complexity of that game compared to something like Civ is comparing Chutes and Ladders to Chess.

Puerto Rico should not be on anyone’s 2-player game list. Both Pandemic and Dominion are better with 3-4 players.

My suggestion would be to pick up Battle Line, Lost Cities, and Citadels and then work your way up to Twilight Struggle. Also, if she can get past the theme Claustrophobia is a fun 2-player game and Arkham Horror is a good co-op 2-player experience.

1785

You can fire magic missiles, or any ranged attacks really, around corners. There are no line of sight or line of effect rules in Ravenloft.

4E is already D&D Lite, so 4E Lite is so transient that I’m not sure there’s even anything there.

1786

If it’s just the two of you, there are several 2-player games that work great.

  • San Juan
  • Lost Cities
  • Odin’s Ravens

If you have 3-5, these are all great “intro” games:

  • Carcasonne (it isn’t that complex–what you see is what you get)
  • Ticket to Ride
  • Bang!
  • Bohnanza
  • Guillotine

I consider these to be more complex, but probably still accessible for beginners:

  • Dominion
  • Settlers of Catan
  • Ra

Titles like Pandemic, Puerto Rico, and Elfenland are definitely better with a more advanced crowd.

  • Alan
1787

Thanks everyone. Lost Cities has been purchased since it was listed here repeatedly and all over the 2 player game thread. We have some time off before we see the families in Philly and Buffalo to get this started. I am very much looking forward to it.

Now I need to convince my friends to see the light and get into the board game Civ. Rockpapershotgun had a review recently from their new boardgame guy and he gave 98% with a walkthrough of the game turns. It sounds and looks very fun. I may just get that as well (on sale at Amazon for $45, usually $60 with free Prime shipping) and use my size and charm to suggest they set aside a weekend afternoon-evening for drinks and gaming and not just drinks.

1788

Few more two player games that my wife and I enjoy. I’m sticking to the lighter stuff, as we also play Advanced Squad Leader, but that might be a bit much for your wife to start out with. :)

Settlers of Catan Card Game
Race for the Galaxy (this one might be a bit too complex, but a lot of people really like it)
Carcassonne the Castle (I know you wrote off tile playing games, but if you were interested in one, this one works better with just two players)
Caesar and Cleopatra
Hera and Zeus

If she has any interest whatsoever in military things, perhaps think of something like Manoeuvre. It is light for a wargame - in fact, the wargame aspect of it is pretty much tacked on to what is really just a simple tactics game.

1789

Twilight Struggle looks fascinating to me, but I can’t see working my wife up to something like that. She’s really not interested in most games - usually we only play when my mother-in-law is around, because she is into games, and my wife will play then to be social. That my wife likes Attika was kind of unusual, which is why I mentioned it.

I love Race for the Galaxy, but I think you have to enjoy the theme to get past the cryptic icons. Which I do. I’ve played so many games with the computer and online versions, the icons are all second nature to me now, but they’re quite an energy barrier to overcome for someone who doesn’t care for the theme of interstellar empire building.

1790

Hive? It’s puzzly but good.

1791

It’s a rather abstract tile-laying game. Probably too close to Carcassonne, given what he’s said.

1792

My wife won’t play Race as the icons are too much for her. She has no desire to take the time to learn them and the game is frustrating if you can’t figure out what the cards do.

1793

They could probably have included short text on most cards duplicating the icon text. A fair number of cards that do somewhat unusual things have such text. “Secluded world” could read “IV: discard 1 good to draw one card. V: produce one blue good.” It would have covered up a lot of the art, though.

1794

Who owns Small World and enjoys playing it?

1795

I do. I like it enough to give a copy (plus some expansions) to my BGG Secret Santa.

It’s not the deepest game on the planet, but it’s well produced, doesn’t overstay its welcome & offers enough interesting choices to make it worthwhile for me. Easy to teach too.

1796

The reason I ask is to gauge interest in a Qt3 PBF game. It looks like people enjoy playing them on BGG, and I think I’ve figured out how to use GIMP to provide images of the current game board state.

1797

Worth mentioning, in this context, that Carcasonne: Hunters and Gatherers is a significantly better two player game than the basic Carcasonne system. If you weren’t playing H&G, I’d suggest giving it a chance if you get the opportunity. I don’t like base Carcasonne, but H&G adds just enough additional elements to the base game to make it fairly enjoyable and strategic.

Lost Cities is a great spouse game - it is one of the very few games that my non-gamer wife actually enjoys playing. Simple, yet satisfying. Get it.

Caesar and Cleopatra and Hera and Zeus are designed as spouse games; both are playable.

Guillotine is a fun game, but I’d never play it again with 2 players. It needs several players for it to be worthwhile playing.

A couple of suggestions that I haven’t seen anyone else mention yet:

Reiner Knizia’s Battle Line. A variant on the Lost Cities gameplay (a little more complex and random) and based around ancient warfare.

Reiner Knizia’s Lord of the Rings. Definitely not a game to everyone’s taste, but I like it. As a spouse game it has two definite advantages: it’s simple and it’s cooperative. Being Knizia, it is also surprisingly deep given the simplicity of its rules and it’s one of the few Knizia games where the theme actually feels right, IMO.

The Lords of the Rings: The Confronation may also be interesting, being specifically 2 player, but I haven’t played it.

Blue Moon City. Another Knizia (hmm). It has a very weird theme - fantasy races are rebuilding their capital city after a civil war - but the game itself is just a fantastic strategic area control and resource management racing game. The modular board makes it highly replayable, and it plays 2-4 players in about 60 minutes. It’s really a pity the theme is so obscure, because this is without a doubt the best family game in my collection.

Just to round out the Knizia-ton, one might as well mention Blue Moon. It is a two-player battle game (which “precedes” Blue Moon City). Haven’t played it, but the game does have its fans.

1798

I have Blue Moon, but I’m not a big fan. The balance is off and the decision-making is often not very interesting.

1799

Thanks for the other game mentions Strategy. Caesar and Cleopatra looks interesting and is described in all reviews at Boardgamegeek as “light” which is perfect.

After our Lost Cities experience, this will probably be the next one to attempt.

1800

Citadelsis probably my most frequently played game, and most of my plays have been 2p with individuals of wildly varying personalities and tastes. It’s a game with a strong bluffing component that gets very strategic in the 2p variant thanks to the fact that you choose two roles per turn, and it generally gets explained in a couple of minutes with a < 30 minute playtimes. It’s also the number one game I’ve ended up giving away after introducing people to, and since it’s relatively inexpensive and easy to replace I don’t mind one bit. I consider it the closest thing to a “gateway” game that has enough substance for experienced players to keep at years later. There are a variety of teaching aids and cheat sheets on BGG, but I recommend simply photocopying the eight basic role cards onto a sheet of paper and keeping that in front of new players as they choose their role, as it makes the process of elimination less of a memory issue (one that goes away after the 2nd or 3rd play, usually). It’s also really exciting for someone who has played previously only in the 2p version to add more people and see how the game changes, especially with good friends that do some heckling in between rounds.

Other than that, I think Hive is a fantastic 2p game that combines a light chess-like asymmetry of moves between pieces with chunky plastic tiles that are really appealing on a tactile level. While more experienced players will have an edge simply because it takes a bit to get used to the different movement styles, it can be explained in a couple of minutes, played in 10-20 minute rounds usually, and has a really interesting back-and-forth between offense and defense and knowing when to go on either.

I could recommend more but those two are the ones that have endured with the most favorable impressions from me over time and from newly introduced players in a variety of settings. They’re portable, cheap, and require no expansions to lead to relatively diverse play experiences.

Knizia is well represented here, and for good reason. Any of the ones described above would probably be fine, and if my experience is any guide it will be some random factor about the game’s theme or mechanics that will make it stick over other Knizia titles.