I don’t think the website for purchase has launched yet but Nineveh Cards is a new release created by a friend of mine. It has taken off with the “gamer” and “fantasy” groups at expos this year and will be out in time for the holidays. It is a card deck that incorporates original paintings into the cards and can be used to play over 30 different games at this point, with more being developed all the time. Currently there are games for 1 to 13 players.
If you google Nineveh Cards there is a twitter, website (may not be up yet), videos, etc.
This is a bit of a shameless plug for a friend that has been working on this for 7+ years with most of it being eaten up by the patent office.
@“Cardinal Fang” I have played Pandemic and hated it. I don’t generally like cooperative games because one person (usually my nephew) takes charge and the rest of us just do what he tells us to. The only cooperative game I think that worked pretty well was Space Alert, where you can go over general strategy, but for large parts of the game you aren’t allowed to talk to each other. We’ve talked about trying Gloomhaven, but no one in the family has sprung for it yet. So $$$! Spirit Island looks interesting - I’m guessing our kids would like it and I would think it’s too complicated the first time, but would like it eventually.
I see Wingspan is compared to Terraforming Mars which is one of those games I thought was too complicated, but I’ve only played once. I played Lost Cities this summer and enjoyed it.
We have been playing Carcassonne for years. It plays great as a 2 player game. You can watch Wil Wheaton play it on Tabletop on YouTube, though he plays a 4 player game.
It depends on the person. I’m a fan of Dominion, especially with expansions. I prefer 2 player Dominion games to other numbers of players. Android: Netrunner is another 2 player card type game that works well, and has far more player interaction than with Dominion. Among more traditional games, I like Scrabble.
Some dislike the above games because they are too complicated, too long, or because the experienced player has a huge advantage. With this type of person, I’ll suggest Hey That’s My Fish. It’s quick to play, simple enough for small children to pick up, and there is little perceived advantage between experienced and inexperienced. However, there is still a notable strategy over luck component, with thinking many moves in advance, so much so that I’ve never lost a 2 player game of Hey That’s My Fish. It’s also far less expensive than the others I mentioned. I bought my copy for under $10.
BoardGameGeek is a good source to find games, although the reviews/ratings tend to be from experienced gamers who favor long and complex games. Some of the ones rated especially well for 2 players on BGG are Twilight Struggle, Star Wars: Rebellion, and War of the Ring.
We like Go, Bohnanza, Machi Koro, TransAmerica, and Backgammon. And one of the fun things we do is have matching Sudoku and Kakuro books, and we race each other.
@mathmom Alpha players are a well-known problem in cooperative games, so much so that Gloomhaven has rules that are explicitly intended to, and if you follow the rules largely do, discourage alpha players from taking over.
We have over 100 games on our board-game shelves. Gloomhaven is probably the one that has cost the least per hour of play.
My brother’s kids have 2 gloomhaven games but I have never seen it played yet. It is heavy and looks quite intricate. I’m taking sounds very engrossing but sounds like it takes some time.
Our favorite game when it is just the two of us is Splendor. It is for 2-4 players, but we think it is best with 2. It is easy to learn, and the rules and game mechanism aren’t really complicated, but it allows for some fun strategizing. We like Carcassonne too!
I don’t think of Gloomhaven as “heavy,” other than the literal fact that the box weighs 20 pounds. I would call it medium, more tactical than strategic, unlike, say, a game like Dominion where the player has to do a lot of combinatorics in their head.
It certainly doesn’t fit the “newer” criterion, but when my D was homebound for an extended period, we played two person Sorry, each taking 2 colors. With the opportunity to act on the “other you” it put a new twist to the nostalgia. We alternated between playing one card/turn by color and one card/turn by player with the choice of which color to apply it to.
We just played Unearth for the first time last night. Though we played with 3 players, I think it would work well for 2. We liked it because it mixes luck and skill. The person who wins all of the skill games wasn’t guaranteed to win before we even started. (Although that person did win…lol)
H and S love to play the Catan board game when you can find a third or fourth player. They will play Rivals for Catan when it’s just the two of them. Rivals is a 2 player card game.
My H and I played Carcassonne for the first time on a trip last week. My H generally just tolerates playing any game, but this one he seemed to genuinely enjoy.
I just purchased Wingspan from Barnes & Noble. It will be a perfect gift for S, who loves board games & nature. It’s in short supply and the price is an extra $35 at Amazon & there is only 1 in stock there.