Is Kingsburg still in print? If so, get it for them. If not… then nothing is right in the world.
Since they like other Lovecraftian games, the next best thing is Kingsport Festival, which uses variants on the same mechanics.
If you can find it (it’s been really popular and stock seems limited), I’m guessing the Arkham Horror LCG would be a winner (given the enjoyment of Arkham Horror itself and Elder Sign). Eldritch Horror might also be a good bet, as would Sentinels of the Multiverse (technically 3-5, but one or both players could play two characters in a 2 player run).
Some bigger stretches might include Pandemic Legacy (2-4 player) or the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (1-6 player, Skull and Shackles or later - Rise of the Runelords was fun but feels like a proof of concept next to what they’ve done with later sets), or Darkest Night (4 characters, optionally 5, split among whoever). Pandemic Legacy and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game are great coops but are campaign games that work best with a consistent group that it sounds like they may not have. Darkest Night is also superb but first edition is out of print and second hasn’t hit shelves yet.
Oh, and Mage Knight is awesome but so bloody long that I can’t seriously recommend it to most people. If you think they might have the stamina and time for 5+ hour coop fests (and that with only two players), it really doesn’t get much better.
Thanks much! That should give me plenty to chew on.
I agree with Malkav that Arkham Horror LCG seems like a really good choice if you can find it. It’s got that shiny-newness too.
I’d recommend Aeon’s End as well. It’s only 2-4 players, but plays really well at all those player counts. It’s a co-operative deckbuilder about post-apocalyptic wizards fighting metal-album-cover nightmare demons. It plays in an hour and has a wide range of clever ways to adjust difficulty. It looks like it’s got some copies on Amazon at the moment. I think it’s a really good couples game since it’s so strong at 2 players, co-operative, and has badass characters of both genders well represented.
I second Eldritch Horror, if they like Arkham Horror, this is a new streamlined system that does improve the experience, I think. I would try to include the first expansion in the package if possible (it rounds up the game), but does jump your budget. Plus, expansions make for great secondary gifts from other people.
The new Mansions of Madness is slightly different but equally thematic, and has the app thingie which might be a plus or a minus depending on the group.
Of course, Pandemic Legacy and Mech vs. Minions are really, really great (at least in my group -very mixed- they are a huge success), co-op and thematic, but the player count stops at 4.
I’m wondering if it’s too early for the 2017 version of this thread, or if it’s even needed!
If you can, please list your favourite boardgame (EDIT, Idid ask for 3 then realised that there are many ppl in this thread!) that work well for singleplay (although not that important because I tend to use pc games for that!) bu definitely for 2 players.
As a steer, we love:
Merchants and Marauders (my fave)
Concordia
Cyclades (her fave)
5 Tribes
and we trot out King of Tokyo for when we have visitors and we want something relaxing, quick to play, easy to set up, explain and put away. It’s not the greatest game lol.
Plus, for kicks, mention Mage Knight to bring down the wrath of you know who!
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Okay, that’s two approving comments about Mage Knight in one day. Have you people lost your minds??? For serious though, I do enjoy the mutual griefing about this. And I can completely understand the appeal of Mage Knight for some folks. It’s super crunchy, super finicky, really indepth, and really challenging. Have I mentioned that, well, I kinda like the Star Trek version? How weird is that? I don’t even like Star Trek. However, I do think Mage Knight is probably not a good recommendation for BiggerBoat to get for his wife and son, given the list of games they’ve played. Let me remind you:
That’s not the sort of collection that’s ready for a Mage Knight. :)
And just so that this isn’t just a post of me whinging about Mage Knight, I’ll throw out a recommendation that I think would fit neatly into BiggerBoat’s requirements.
I’ve been meaning to write up a review, since it’s currently one of my favorites. It’s gone over very well with a variety of folks in our group. Very simple, but not dumb; super quick and short; works as well with two as five*, and really replayable since you never know what buildings are going to show up in any given game.
-Tom
* Although to play with five, you need the expansion, which is also worth getting for the extra buildings and the random events:
Ok so what is the deal with the Arkham Horror LCG? Ridiculous boondoggle? Lifechanging classic? In between? Someone on BGG called it “the greatest LCG ever” which is the standard BGG hyperbole about a new product.
Well @BiggerBoat I’m going to be a wet blanket on Pandemic here. You know how Tom feels about Mage Knight? Well I have the same depth of distaste for Pandemic. Some people love it. I am not one of those people.
@CraigM Have you played the Legacy version? I don’t care about regular Pandemic, but I think Pandemic Legacy is indeed very special.
Wait what is this? I’ve never even heard of this game, can you give us a quick summary of what makes it great?
:P
Game of Thrones…totally forgot about that. My impression was that it was quite finicky?
Also, it turns out we bought Marco Polo a while ago and haven’t even unboxed it yet. SUSD thinks highly of it. Your thoughts Mr. Chick?
Thanks for the recommendations btw.
Well, pretty much the things I wrote to BiggerBoat.
But to elaborate, I’m kind of over worker placement. However, New Bedford is a solid and streamlined worker placement design with a healthy dose of randomness and competition to represent the whaling. Each turn you draw whale tiles from a bag and the players get to choose among them based on ship placement. You want your boats farther out to sea than everyone else’s so you can get first dibs on the bow whales and sperm whales. Sometimes you just get bupkis. Really thematic buildings, too. How many worker placement games have a tryworks and a seaman’s bethel? I don’t know if it was just a Kickstarter thing, but my copy included a mini-add-on that gives you a Moby Dick and a Robinson Crusoe tile.
-Tom
I think a table that’s willing to take on the big sprawling mess that is Arkham Horror could very well be equipped to take on Mage Knight, although it’s certainly a harder game to master. I didn’t recommend Mansions of Madness 2E because it’s $100 MSRP and the lowest I’ve EVER seen it sold (around Black Friday) was $80, which is a bit over the $70 cap that was given.
@CraigM, I hate regular Pandemic and the Legacy version is great, FWIW.
@Brooski, SU&SD did a video of playing the first scenario that might give you some sense of what you’d think about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOBTBGwI1X0
Personally I’m excited to check it out but haven’t seen it in stock at a reasonable price and since it’s Christmas season, I’m trying to focus my spending on gifts for my family and not me.
One half of the SU&SD podcast called Arkham LCG game of the year, FWIW.
I’ve only played a few games, but so far loving it.
Mage Knight is good but takes a lot of commitment. I will do a solo round one of these weekends.
As far as Arkham Horror:TCG. Six months ago I bought and started playing LOTR:TCG, bought a few of the cycles and “kind” of enjoy the game. Too much deck building for me.
I bought AH:TCG a few months back when it came out and played it a few times and enjoyed it more than LOTR. Not as much deck building…obviously not yet with the limited cards…but I really enjoyed trying the different investigators to really see their individual strengths and weaknesses…I bought that first stand alone adventure but have not had a chance to play it yet. I did not have to hit the rule book or BGG nearly as much with this game than LOTR…that’s a plus. We’ll see when the first major expansion comes out how much deck building is really going to be needed but right now I’m very happy with the game.
So, we got to play Captain Sonar on Sunday.
The game turned out every bit as good as it seems to be in the reviews. We finished the first game, talked excitedly about the hunt and dove right back into a second one with shuffled crews. Good times.
There were 7 of us playing and I think a group of 6 is pretty much perfect, unless 2 in the group prefer a stress free experience focused more on coordination (i.e. want to play the First Mate, like my youngest did). In that case, 8 is awesome too.
I was worried before the game that it would be too stressful, frantic or devolve into an unintelligible shouting match. But the game is cleverly designed. It imposes a rhythm that’s steady, rather than frantic (with the sequence of 1 order, 2 acknowledgements). And yet, there are times when you are closing in on the other submarine where both the hunter and hunted are caught up in the excitement. Then the game is paused and a torpedo is launched. Everybody holds their breath waiting for the coordinates and the result.
The themes comes out so well in this game.
It’s not a heavy game. But if you want a team based experience where all roles are collaborating to deliver victory, this seems like it.
Each crew won once. All players left the table satisfied and looking forward to more.
Wendelius
How is the learning curve on this? Can you read the manual and just go or is there a lot of studying before hand?
It’s a very simple game. The owner definitely needs to read the manual (I also watched the JonGetsGames video about it to hear a second explanation in case I missed anything). But, after that, each role is very straightforward.
The manual is only 7 pages and 1 page of information on the various maps, by the way.
I spent a couple of minutes on each and what the ship systems do, giving a few tricks (have the sonar start tracing in the middle of their plastic sheet, be aware that, due to its limited range, a torpedo will betray your general position, …) then we dived right in.
During the first game, we paused a couple of times to clarify a rule. For instance, the first time a crew surfaced, I quickly re-explained what they would have to do before diving.
But that’s it. Because each player gets to focus on one role, there really isn’t much of a learning curve. The game is designed to be simple and focus on the interactions.