I need some fun, short, 2-3 player board games as gift ideas.
I like simple strategy games like Ticket to Ride; the farming board game Agricola (only played it once, though); the neat geometry game Blokus. I like Munchkins but hate Killer Bunnies. I think Settlers of Catan has too many flaws, including endgame balance issues, but Puerto Rico does it better.
Recommend me some games I may enjoy. Bonus if I can play them with just one other person; super bonus points if they scale to 5 people.
Winners Circle, very simple ,very fun I have yet to see a group that doesnt love it AND as a bonus its gem of game design that rewards close study. Tends to play better with 3 and above.
Carcasonne!!! Fun for two, great for more people. Plus, you can practice on the xBox.
Also: Yinsh. We love this game. It’s only for two though.
I like Set, too.
I’m a big fan of Caylus, as you know! Yay!
Frag is great fun for 3+ players, it’s a little bit dull with two.
My favorite 2-player board game is Chess. Stratego is fun, too. Scrabble is bad for friendships.
My wife and I are big fans of Lost Cities, but I recall that mine was a minority opinion here the last time I brought it up.
Oh wait, since you mentioned Settlers I thought of another one – Starship Catan. It’s sort of a stripped-down version of Starfarers of Catan (which I also love, but is definitely not made with 2 players in mind). It’s a mission-based sort of game, where you take your spaceship through phases of building, trading and pirate combat.
Oh, yeah, we played Lost Cities on the QT3 San Diego trip, Tom brought it along. That’s a nice light and fast game.
Carcassonne is a definite winner. As silly as it sounds, Stratego and Battleship are still pretty damn entertaining.
Checkers.
Carcassonne +1
Lost Cities +1
If you have never played Carcassonne, that is an easy one.
Stratego and Battleship!?!?!
Yawn. (I am bringing that back.)
You consider Agricola a short, simple game? :-)
I’ll also recommend Lost Cities. At our game nights it tends to be the go-to game for filling a short period of time between longer games.
I’m personally tired of Carcassonne at this point, but I agree it’s a good choice if you haven’t played before. There are a million expansions to spice it up, too.
My most recent purchase was Galaxy Trucker, which I’m really liking so far. The mechanic of building a frankenship and then having it torn apart appeals to me. Luck can be an issue, so if you prefer your games to be more like Puerto Rico with little randomness you might not enjoy it. And it is expensive.
Also, it’s nice to hear about another board game afficionado who doesn’t like Settlers of Catan.
I’ll be more specific: Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers is probably the most balanced and enjoyable game off the shelf (without requiring a million expansions), and it plays nicely with 2-5 players. Carcassone: The Castle is designed by Reiner Knizia and is specifically made for 2 players, and has its own brand of sheer awesomeness. I’ve known people that love one but dislike the other, so your mileage may vary. Either one of these two games is your cheapest entry point into the series. For various reasons, I’d recommend against vanilla Carcassonne.
There’s also a new version of C out that I haven’t played (The Discovery) that’s apparently quite good, if simple. boardgamegeeks would help you there.
Carcasonne, Dungeon Twister or Infernal Contraption
for 2 people: Cathedral and Ta Yü
Zeus and Hera (card game for two) is pretty fun. I also enjoyed the Blue Moon Card game + expansions (they sell extra decks for different factions as well, which adds some nice variety to the game.)
Check here for some good ones.
Duel of Ages and Kahuna are both great. There’s a good two-player specific version of Carcassonne, but the name escapes me. The Castle, I think.
You mentioned Munchkin, so that opens it up to all sorts of wacky card games:[ul]
[li]Chrononauts: The “board” is a timeline that you can alter by flipping “linchpins” (John Lennon survives! Titanic avoids iceberg!) that have effects years or even decades later. Players come from different alternate histories trying to get home.[/li][li]Fluxx: Each card adds or replaces an existing rule. Starts simple, gets chaotic fast. Lots of variants, including Monty Python Fluxx.[/li][li]Gloom: Inflict the most misery on your chosen family (while playing kittens and unicorns on your opponents) before granting them the sweet respite of death. Cool gimmick: The cards are transparent, so playing one atop another eliminates only some or none of the original’s effects.[/li][li]Chez Geek series: As underachieving roommates sharing an apartment, you compete to gain Slack faster than your friends.[/li][li]Brawl series: A real-time card game simulating a barroom brawl. “Real-Time” meaning, no turns – you play cards as fast as you can draw them – so games can take as little as 30 seconds to play.[/li][*]Fightball series: Another real-time card game, this one inspired by no-holds-barred futurey sports like “Rollerball” or “(Salute of the) Jugger”.[/ul]Brawl and Fightball are tough to find nowadays; I think you can only get them from the Paizo site.
Twilight Struggle!
Carcasonne is great, you can’t go wrong with it.
It’s not a very light-hearted game, but I’ve found Memoir '44 to be one of the best 2-player games I’ve played, it plays in well under an hour, has cool little tank and soldier miniatures, and the real world setting might be a bit more approachable for non gamers.
Memoir '44 is not ‘light hearted’, but it’s definitely a ‘beer and pretzels’ game… Easy to pick up and fun for an quick 90 minute game.