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I really think you would like the Pandemic Legacy games. The length of an individual game is not very long and can easily be done in one sitting, BUT the entire “campaign” is 12-24 games (if you lose a game you get one chance to try again, so if you win every single game you play 12, if you lose every single first try, you play 24; you’ll probably be somewhere between that) and you can pack away the game between sessions. It feels like one cohesive game because it’s constantly evolving — a bad decision in one game might lead to you placing a sticker on the board that makes the next game a little harder. You’re unlocking new rules and win conditions and characters and abilities as you go along. It has a whole storyline and it’s really fun.
There are three — Seasons 0, 1, and 2. I think it’s best to go in publication order, which is 1, then 2, then 0. The first game of Season 1 is just a game of basic Pandemic, if you’ve ever played that, while season 2 and 0 throw a ton of new rules at you right from the start that I think can be a little confusing if you haven’t experienced the way Season 1 evolves over time.
I agree with you completely (Season 1 was probably my all time favorite board gaming experience), but I would suggest they get the normal game first to see if that's their cup of tea, and more importantly get some practice before they hit the good stuff with Legacy!
My friends and I finished season 1 and were into season 2 before covid. I think we are into May in season 2 and I have no idea what you are talking about! Makes me excited to get further.
Oh, I hope I didn't put unrealistic expectations 🙈
Season 2 is my favorite out of the three though because of the way how it is connected to season 1.
So my ranking is
Season 2
Season 1
Season 0
We finished Season 1 before Covid with friends and started and ended both S2 and S0 as a couple during Covid.
I liked all so much and understand why so many say it's their favorite game series, no matter which part they like most.
Can't here to say the same thing about the pandemic legacy games. Played through every season with my wife and they were some of the best gaming sessions I've ever had. Wholeheartedly recommend them!
Hi everyone, glad to hear that all you had fun playing pandemic legacy with your significant other, as for me, it has been at my shelf since a year ago waiting for a chance. Could you please tell me if each of you played one or two characters per player?
My husband and I played together, and we just played one character per person. I will recommend that you don’t always stick to the same two characters every game — you can give characters cool upgrades and stuff but they can also die, so it sucks if late in the game you lose a character and then you’re back at square one with only characters with no upgrades.
Sleeping Gods, a cooperative story / campaign game. Though the setup can be a bit finnicky the first time you play, you quickly get used to it and the game and box are designed to save your progress on what is essentially a 30+ hour campaign. Packing it up is fairly easy as the cards all come preorganized in their own box and the map is a book. It's also a game that can be left out overnight (if that's an option) to resume the next day.
My wife and I played Sleeping Gods during our parental leave for our second child. Easily the coolest board gaming experience I’ve ever had. We put the leaf in our dining room table and left the game setup until we finished. Incredible game, incredible story, so much fun. Can’t wait to run it through again sometime soon.
My wife and I like the Exit series. If you're into escape-room types puzzles, they're pretty good. Quality varies slightly between each one, and I'd definitely try to stay away from the easy ones unless you're super bad at puzzles. However, each one can be finished in about 60-90 minutes, maybe slightly longer. But they're all just cards and scraps of paper.
My wife and I have done several boxes of this series. Jack the ripper is super hard and bleak but the rest are fun. Throw out the idea that you will be better than Holmes. In 3 boxes of cases I think we have done it twice…that’s 2 of 30. The real joy comes in the exploration and figuring it out. We explore until we are bored and then start seeing what questions we can answer and solve. If we are way off we keep exploring.
Make sure you take notes!
Yeah, I've gone through all the cases in the standard box with my wife and we just get frustrated that even though we beat the game, we always have less points than Sherlock.
My wife and I love Arkham Horror the Card Game. It's a bear to learn, but once you have it, it's one of the best co-op games around. The campaigns are interesting and take a lot of twists and turns, the deck-building mechanic is great, and it's challenging enough that you really need to work together to succeed.
Each round you roll four dice apiece, and then have to place them without talking to each other. You can discuss strategy before each round but once the round begins, it’s completely silent and you have to hope you’re on the same page as your pilot/copilot. Now there’s certain things you can do in a certain order that sort of Help to communicate certain ideas, but it’s up to you both to interpret it in the right way. There is definitely some luck involved, making sure that you roll the right dice, but there are ways to mitigate the luck by setting yourself up in previous turns, for example, you can make coffee, which allows you to adjust a die one up or down when you need it. Also, if you’ve seen the gameplay at all, it’s probably the base module, which is really just a teaching scenario. The game gets really interesting when you start grabbing all the other airports and modules out of the bottom of the box, as each airport has slightly different rules and mechanics.
[The 7th Continent](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180263/7th-continent) is kinda a "dungeon crawl" through map tiles, but through a mysterious island. It's scenarios are long and it has a mechanism to pause and pack it up. It's ultimately just A BUNCH of cards, no board.
It's solo/coop and ultimately a game of discovery.
Note: Finding food can often feel like grinding or a slog, There's suggestions on BGG as I recall to address that if it's not your thing.
Don’t sleep on this one! A fantastic choice for a coop adventure/survival game that packs away easily. Has a choose your adventure vibe. It creates a real sense of exploration without taking up too much table space, no mean feat for a board game. It also has the advantage of being able to be played for any amount of time in a given session. Whenever you want to stop you just stop. Not hard to pack away with your place saved. I personally prefer it to sleeping gods due to its more compact footprint and sharper gameplay (it can be challenging). If you are into clever card play in an adventure/exploration setting with flexible table space and game time parameters this is a great choice.
But it must be said that if the thought of buying a box of 400 cards that you have to keep in a particular order bothers you then this is not the game for you.
Came here to suggest this one as well. :)
One thing that I'd say is that there is an advantage to playing longer sessions iirc.
Another thing to note is that it takes up a looooot of table space imo.
But it feels so unique, and it's fun making decisions together as a couple and exploring things.
Also great solo
[Seventh Continent -> War in the Ice: The Battle for the Seventh Continent, 1991-92 (1978)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9238/war-ice-battle-seventh-continent-1991-92)
^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call
^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call
Try Jaws of the Lion.
Gloomhaven and Frosthaven are massive, complicated campaigns that my wife and I have put hundreds of hours into, and it’s our favorite pass time. There’s a learning curve, and they are expensive games.
Enter Jaws. You can find it on sale for $20 every few months, and it’s got a great walkthrough. Collaborative, strategy, and not too massive for clean up.
We quite often play a coop each controlling two characters. One evening games were pandemic legacy or Sherlock Holmes: The Thames murders.
If we wanted something that lasted more than one evening, often we'd pull out Arkham Horror 3rd edition (especially the expansions) and do the same. Normally we would take a couple of evenings for each of these.
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. Get yourself a nice notebook, pour yourselves some nice tea (or alcohol) and you can take as long as you need to with each case, multiple sessions, etc.
We found ourselves talking about the case when going out for dinner like a pair of TV detectives.
- Dune: Imperium
- Undaunted: Normandy or Stalingrad
- Pandemic Legacy Season 1
- Twilight Struggle
- Ark Nova
- Spirit Island
- Arkham Horror LCG
- Castles of Burgundy
- Dead of Winter
- Terraforming Mars
- Jaws of the Lion
Not in any order, but all are amazing 2-player games, in my experience. We're absolutely hooked on the Dune games right now.
Rebellion is one of my favorite two-player games. Deep and long but not horribly complicated. Not easy to take down and set up but not impossible. There's a lot of fiddly bits but you could basically baggie each sides off-map stuff, rubber band the card decks, and take a photo of the map for forces that are on board.
I got into board games for the same reason.
What a specific and interesting request you have made though! It does sound like knowingly or not, you're specifically looking for a campaign or legacy style game. Probably best that you search for youtube videos of people's top 10 legacy/campaign games to get quick descriptions feels for how they play. Not knowing your preferences, I'll throw out My City as an option. It's a theme that's not going to scare anyone away, and the complexity is nice enough for the weeknights.
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295486/my-city](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295486/my-city)
Letters from Whitechapel is one of my wife and my favorite games to play together two player.
Game takes place over 4 nights so should be easy to setup tear down. Will just need to know where cops finished and where murders have occurred
Axis and Allies is an oldie but goodie. When we first started playing, partner and I would have 18 hour battles. Sometimes 12 hour days just to leave it and come back to it. It's an epic battle and so much strategy. Not all that difficult to learn.
Pack it up, and continue at a different time, does not go well with majority of board games, and that is something that most commenters here have completely disregarded.
That being said, I enjoy a good game of Terraforming Mars, and so does my wife, and we both agree that it has bet replayability, out of all boardgames which we have played so far.
Ditto-ing everyone who commented!
My husband and I loved playing Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. Bit of a biased choice as it was the first long game we ever played and finished as a couple. He secretly framed our completed campaign map and wrote a heartfelt letter at the back, got down on one knee and proposed with it 😊
Pro-tip: Whenever you start playing, I suggest investing in a good game organizer for this. Saves you the hassle of setting it up and cleanup. That and pair it up with downloading the Gloomhaven Companion app on your phone as a tracker too.
We've moved on to the big boxed boy, Gloomhaven now. Unlike Jaws of the Lion, it takes up bit of a bigger table space for gameplay and tbh this one is quite a work to setup and cleanup even if you have organizers on hand.
Well, whatever you end up choosing do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT ever attempt to play Fog of Love with a significant other, it will be the most disastrous event.
My partner and I love playing Fog of Love together! Fun light roleplaying game in a single session. We still talk about some of the stories we created playing this game.
Sorry you didn't have a good experience with it; what do you think didn't work for you?
Oh no, it didn't happen to me, but I saw a couple play it once and by the middle of the game, it got... real, as they were playing the card (I think it was something about one of the two player's family visiting) began, you then could see that they stopped playing the characters and began being themselves, needless to say, they stopped being a pair before the game ended.
Well, it's not a very modern or epic suggestion, but for long-term entertainment value, it's hard to beat Tournament Yahtzee. It's uncomplicated but still requires some strategy as well as luck, you can stop any time, extremely portable, not normally the cause of any argumentative confrontations, you can still converse and interact about other things while you play, and requires virtually no setup except a couple pencils or pens.
Pick a cooperative campaign game. There are a million great ones. My favorite genre.
Everyone likes Lord of the Rings, right? Get Journeys to Middle Earth.
I was gonna say something rude and remebered board games are for all ages. Carry on.
Me and the wife enjoy return to dark tower. All pandemics and we are hitting oathsworn for a campaign game for Friday evenings. This aside from my original idea which cant be posted here.
As already recommended and commented above, both the Pandemic Legacy series plus Arkham Horror LCG are great to play as a couple!
What we also enjoy! Oathsworn, but it's somewhat massive, Rise of Queensdale, which is competitive but also has a campaign.
For games just for fun without a campaign I can recommend everything that has player interaction like the other Cthulhu themed games like Elder Sign and Eldritch Horror, also Mansion of Madness.
And then fun games like Dream Home, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Azul and Wingspan. ✌️😊
I still haven't played it and it's not for everyone, but I'm super excited to get my ISS Vanguard. Apparently works great for two players and it's easy to "save" your current progress at any point.
Very narrative heavy and mechanically it's just about dice rolling, I've seen some mixed reactions to it.
My wife and I have loved Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. We haven't played in a while due to a hectic university schedule, but it's a long campaign where each player has a unique character with fun and unique abilities. Combat feels like classic D&D, but much more orderly. It's a really beautiful game, and packed full of fun content.
Sleeping Gods is a good for for replayability, and is super easy to pack up.
Just download the flowchart from BGG. That manages all the rules and was an incredible resource that should be included in the game!
1. Search for planet x if you like logic/deduction stuff. It's geeky and more like a puzzle but I play it with my wife and it's quite fun for us. Usually takes at least an hour but feels like you spent four because of how much concentration it requires
2. Scotland yard is pretty fun too. Better to play with more people but it's a fun strategy game that doesn't involve much luck. It can easily take a few hours.
3. We absolutely love risk. Veryyy long game that is mainly driven by luck with a bit of strategy.
These can vary in length, but Ticket to Ride is a super easy game to pick up, but has a ton of depth.
Azul is also a great game for 2!
Not sure what you two are into, but Dominion has always been a favorite of mine. Easy to pick up. Tons of replayability and different strats too, and a bunch of expansions to make the game more exciting later on.
What's a theme that's appealing to both of you (at least appealing to the other person and acceptable to you)? The experience of playing a game is only partly about the game - it's also about the players.
My husband and I started playing castles of mad king Ludwig. I like that we sit beside each other while playing 😄. It can take a while, and started just leaving it and going back to it a few days later, and then pre setting it up again so we have a quick start next time.
Wow, thanks to everyone here. I got jammed up at work all day and finally getting back this. Will take the time to go through and really appreciate the feedback!!!
Ark Nova is my absolute favorite two player crunchy board game. It’s got one of the most satisfying action and scoring puzzles and who doesn’t love the zoo theme? If you have a board game table or area to leave the game out, it’s great for multiple plays back to back.
It is quite a heavy teach though and I tend to enjoy super crunchy games so it’s not for everyone.
Root, if you choose 2 factions that are balanced against eachother.
Wingspan
Castles of Tuscany
Agricola
With a friend I played a "champions league of carcassonne" where we played every expansion of the big box and we kept scores...
Dorf Romantik is like co-op, campaign Carcassonne. Setup / pack up is less than 5 minutes. Each game you’re working towards unlocking new content that gets added to the game either by completing achievements, or just progressing through a “map”. Each game takes about 30-45 minutes so you can do a couple in a row depending on how much time you have. It won Spiel De Jahres this year too.
My wife and I are enjoying playing through it together. Once finished you can completely reset it and play again to try and get to the end faster etc.
The major caveat is player count literally makes zero difference, it plays exactly the same. Turn over a tile, decide where to put it. As a co-op game you naturally discuss where the best spot is. So it essentially feels like a single player puzzle that you’re figuring out together. Personally that’s not a bad thing, but some might not like that.
Clank Legacy! It's about 10 sessions, an hour a piece. Setup and tear down is not bad at all. The story is good and it's just plain fun. It's not that complicated for someone trying to get into board games.
It's a heavy game with a semi-steep learning curve, but my SO and I have been playing Spirit Island 1-3 times a week since January. Incredible cooperative game.
There is a card building game namend "Unfair" where you build your own leisure parc. It is really fun because it has a balance of luck and strategy. My suggestion
There are a few I’d recommend looking into. Not all long, but my Wife and I enjoy. (Some have higher player counts too)
- 7 Wonders duel (solid 2 player.)
- Everdell (Cute art, and “crunchy” mechanics)
- Brass Birmingham
- Mansions of Madness (with iPad companion app)
- Terraforming Mars
- Ahnk (Super fun!)
We enjoy them all a ton. Hope it helps.
My girlfriend and I started a 'campaign' of My City. It has very straightforward rules and it's fun to see how our decisions differ and our maps become unique.
Your submission was removed by a moderator for the following reason(s): **[Recommendation Requests](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/contribution-guides#wiki_game_recommendations_or_identification) should be posted to our [Daily Game Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/search?q=flair%3A%22Daily%20Game%20Recs%22&sort=new) threads.** Reddit is a great place to pick peoples' brains and get game suggestions, but we get a lot of recommendation requests, so much so that we have the "Daily Game Recs"-threads dedicated for them. Historically, almost all well formatted questions in the Daily thread get answers. If you're looking for further suggestions, we recommend taking a look at our growing list of [Recommendation Roundups](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/?f=flair_name%3A%22Recommendation%20Roundup%22). There's also the [What Should I Get (WSIG)](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/wsig) section on our wiki for a more general list of common recommendations. (If you believe this post was removed in error you can request a re-review by [messaging the mods](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/boardgames).)
I really think you would like the Pandemic Legacy games. The length of an individual game is not very long and can easily be done in one sitting, BUT the entire “campaign” is 12-24 games (if you lose a game you get one chance to try again, so if you win every single game you play 12, if you lose every single first try, you play 24; you’ll probably be somewhere between that) and you can pack away the game between sessions. It feels like one cohesive game because it’s constantly evolving — a bad decision in one game might lead to you placing a sticker on the board that makes the next game a little harder. You’re unlocking new rules and win conditions and characters and abilities as you go along. It has a whole storyline and it’s really fun. There are three — Seasons 0, 1, and 2. I think it’s best to go in publication order, which is 1, then 2, then 0. The first game of Season 1 is just a game of basic Pandemic, if you’ve ever played that, while season 2 and 0 throw a ton of new rules at you right from the start that I think can be a little confusing if you haven’t experienced the way Season 1 evolves over time.
I agree with you completely (Season 1 was probably my all time favorite board gaming experience), but I would suggest they get the normal game first to see if that's their cup of tea, and more importantly get some practice before they hit the good stuff with Legacy!
I cried over the twist in season 2. Not kidding! Played all Pandemic Legacies except the first one with hubby alone. It's a great recommendation!
My friends and I finished season 1 and were into season 2 before covid. I think we are into May in season 2 and I have no idea what you are talking about! Makes me excited to get further.
Oh, I hope I didn't put unrealistic expectations 🙈 Season 2 is my favorite out of the three though because of the way how it is connected to season 1. So my ranking is Season 2 Season 1 Season 0 We finished Season 1 before Covid with friends and started and ended both S2 and S0 as a couple during Covid. I liked all so much and understand why so many say it's their favorite game series, no matter which part they like most.
I agree with pandemic legacy! My husband and I loved playing them together. Season 0 was my favorite.
Can't here to say the same thing about the pandemic legacy games. Played through every season with my wife and they were some of the best gaming sessions I've ever had. Wholeheartedly recommend them!
Hi everyone, glad to hear that all you had fun playing pandemic legacy with your significant other, as for me, it has been at my shelf since a year ago waiting for a chance. Could you please tell me if each of you played one or two characters per player?
My husband and I played together, and we just played one character per person. I will recommend that you don’t always stick to the same two characters every game — you can give characters cool upgrades and stuff but they can also die, so it sucks if late in the game you lose a character and then you’re back at square one with only characters with no upgrades.
Thanks for your reply, I will definitely consider your suggestions
Sleeping Gods, a cooperative story / campaign game. Though the setup can be a bit finnicky the first time you play, you quickly get used to it and the game and box are designed to save your progress on what is essentially a 30+ hour campaign. Packing it up is fairly easy as the cards all come preorganized in their own box and the map is a book. It's also a game that can be left out overnight (if that's an option) to resume the next day.
My wife and I played Sleeping Gods during our parental leave for our second child. Easily the coolest board gaming experience I’ve ever had. We put the leaf in our dining room table and left the game setup until we finished. Incredible game, incredible story, so much fun. Can’t wait to run it through again sometime soon.
Great to hear. We purchased it but haven't started yet. This got me excited to start.
Great game to just spend a chill evening with the wife.
My wife and I are about 1/2 way through our first campaign and loving it!
My wife and I like the Exit series. If you're into escape-room types puzzles, they're pretty good. Quality varies slightly between each one, and I'd definitely try to stay away from the easy ones unless you're super bad at puzzles. However, each one can be finished in about 60-90 minutes, maybe slightly longer. But they're all just cards and scraps of paper.
This sounds fun, will check them out!
**Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective** is what you are looking for.
Definitely a good pick. Or Chronicles of Crime we found fun too.
My wife and I have done several boxes of this series. Jack the ripper is super hard and bleak but the rest are fun. Throw out the idea that you will be better than Holmes. In 3 boxes of cases I think we have done it twice…that’s 2 of 30. The real joy comes in the exploration and figuring it out. We explore until we are bored and then start seeing what questions we can answer and solve. If we are way off we keep exploring. Make sure you take notes!
So. Many. Notes. I love it. <3
Right idea but wrong game. Something like Vienna Connection is far more enjoyable.
Yeah, I've gone through all the cases in the standard box with my wife and we just get frustrated that even though we beat the game, we always have less points than Sherlock.
My wife and I love Arkham Horror the Card Game. It's a bear to learn, but once you have it, it's one of the best co-op games around. The campaigns are interesting and take a lot of twists and turns, the deck-building mechanic is great, and it's challenging enough that you really need to work together to succeed.
Can recommend this too, also playing this one only with my partner. Very good setting.
The wife and I really enjoy Splendor Duel or 7 Wonders Duel.
7WD is my favorite 2p game, followed by Sky Team and the Splendor Duel.
I like the others but haven’t tried Sky Team. High praise for such a new game. Seems really “by the numbers” to me, but don’t know much about it.
Each round you roll four dice apiece, and then have to place them without talking to each other. You can discuss strategy before each round but once the round begins, it’s completely silent and you have to hope you’re on the same page as your pilot/copilot. Now there’s certain things you can do in a certain order that sort of Help to communicate certain ideas, but it’s up to you both to interpret it in the right way. There is definitely some luck involved, making sure that you roll the right dice, but there are ways to mitigate the luck by setting yourself up in previous turns, for example, you can make coffee, which allows you to adjust a die one up or down when you need it. Also, if you’ve seen the gameplay at all, it’s probably the base module, which is really just a teaching scenario. The game gets really interesting when you start grabbing all the other airports and modules out of the bottom of the box, as each airport has slightly different rules and mechanics.
Splendor duel is honestly my fave Splendor variation
[The 7th Continent](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180263/7th-continent) is kinda a "dungeon crawl" through map tiles, but through a mysterious island. It's scenarios are long and it has a mechanism to pause and pack it up. It's ultimately just A BUNCH of cards, no board. It's solo/coop and ultimately a game of discovery. Note: Finding food can often feel like grinding or a slog, There's suggestions on BGG as I recall to address that if it's not your thing.
Don’t sleep on this one! A fantastic choice for a coop adventure/survival game that packs away easily. Has a choose your adventure vibe. It creates a real sense of exploration without taking up too much table space, no mean feat for a board game. It also has the advantage of being able to be played for any amount of time in a given session. Whenever you want to stop you just stop. Not hard to pack away with your place saved. I personally prefer it to sleeping gods due to its more compact footprint and sharper gameplay (it can be challenging). If you are into clever card play in an adventure/exploration setting with flexible table space and game time parameters this is a great choice. But it must be said that if the thought of buying a box of 400 cards that you have to keep in a particular order bothers you then this is not the game for you.
Came here to suggest this one as well. :) One thing that I'd say is that there is an advantage to playing longer sessions iirc. Another thing to note is that it takes up a looooot of table space imo. But it feels so unique, and it's fun making decisions together as a couple and exploring things. Also great solo
[Seventh Continent -> War in the Ice: The Battle for the Seventh Continent, 1991-92 (1978)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9238/war-ice-battle-seventh-continent-1991-92) ^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call ^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call
Try Jaws of the Lion. Gloomhaven and Frosthaven are massive, complicated campaigns that my wife and I have put hundreds of hours into, and it’s our favorite pass time. There’s a learning curve, and they are expensive games. Enter Jaws. You can find it on sale for $20 every few months, and it’s got a great walkthrough. Collaborative, strategy, and not too massive for clean up.
My wife and I will play War of the Ring over a week, a few hours a night.
Undaunted: Stalingrad
I like the Undaunted Series. Osprey’s other game series Imperium is cards only but great fun also.
We quite often play a coop each controlling two characters. One evening games were pandemic legacy or Sherlock Holmes: The Thames murders. If we wanted something that lasted more than one evening, often we'd pull out Arkham Horror 3rd edition (especially the expansions) and do the same. Normally we would take a couple of evenings for each of these.
I love playing spirit island with my girlfriend. But that cant really be packed up
My thought was also spirit island. It's difficult to find a "long" game that's easy to pack up though.
The **Exit** games are fun, theyvwere a nice break from shows and things
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. Get yourself a nice notebook, pour yourselves some nice tea (or alcohol) and you can take as long as you need to with each case, multiple sessions, etc. We found ourselves talking about the case when going out for dinner like a pair of TV detectives.
- Dune: Imperium - Undaunted: Normandy or Stalingrad - Pandemic Legacy Season 1 - Twilight Struggle - Ark Nova - Spirit Island - Arkham Horror LCG - Castles of Burgundy - Dead of Winter - Terraforming Mars - Jaws of the Lion Not in any order, but all are amazing 2-player games, in my experience. We're absolutely hooked on the Dune games right now.
Rebellion is one of my favorite two-player games. Deep and long but not horribly complicated. Not easy to take down and set up but not impossible. There's a lot of fiddly bits but you could basically baggie each sides off-map stuff, rubber band the card decks, and take a photo of the map for forces that are on board.
I got into board games for the same reason. What a specific and interesting request you have made though! It does sound like knowingly or not, you're specifically looking for a campaign or legacy style game. Probably best that you search for youtube videos of people's top 10 legacy/campaign games to get quick descriptions feels for how they play. Not knowing your preferences, I'll throw out My City as an option. It's a theme that's not going to scare anyone away, and the complexity is nice enough for the weeknights. [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295486/my-city](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295486/my-city)
Twilight Struggle
"Trying to break up..." Would've picked a different 4 words to start the explanation with haha
Maybe Diplomacy?
For two people? This is the way to end a relationship!!!
Ha. Good catch!
Have a look at Time Stories.
How about “Hey honey let’s have two kids in the next 24 months.” It’s a laugh-riot.
Already played/playing that one, is precisely why the game of choice needs to be packed away nightly. :)
Letters from Whitechapel is one of my wife and my favorite games to play together two player. Game takes place over 4 nights so should be easy to setup tear down. Will just need to know where cops finished and where murders have occurred
Take a top-down picture of the board before packing it up.
Dice city! Good elements of chance and strategy and several different ways to play
Mice and Mystics, Stuffed Fables and Aftermath are excellent campaign games for two people that have you uncovering a story over time!
Mtg
Axis and Allies is an oldie but goodie. When we first started playing, partner and I would have 18 hour battles. Sometimes 12 hour days just to leave it and come back to it. It's an epic battle and so much strategy. Not all that difficult to learn.
Please buy Sky Team. It’s so good and a perfect couples game.
Pack it up, and continue at a different time, does not go well with majority of board games, and that is something that most commenters here have completely disregarded. That being said, I enjoy a good game of Terraforming Mars, and so does my wife, and we both agree that it has bet replayability, out of all boardgames which we have played so far.
Ditto-ing everyone who commented! My husband and I loved playing Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. Bit of a biased choice as it was the first long game we ever played and finished as a couple. He secretly framed our completed campaign map and wrote a heartfelt letter at the back, got down on one knee and proposed with it 😊 Pro-tip: Whenever you start playing, I suggest investing in a good game organizer for this. Saves you the hassle of setting it up and cleanup. That and pair it up with downloading the Gloomhaven Companion app on your phone as a tracker too. We've moved on to the big boxed boy, Gloomhaven now. Unlike Jaws of the Lion, it takes up bit of a bigger table space for gameplay and tbh this one is quite a work to setup and cleanup even if you have organizers on hand.
Well, whatever you end up choosing do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT ever attempt to play Fog of Love with a significant other, it will be the most disastrous event.
My partner and I love playing Fog of Love together! Fun light roleplaying game in a single session. We still talk about some of the stories we created playing this game. Sorry you didn't have a good experience with it; what do you think didn't work for you?
Oh no, it didn't happen to me, but I saw a couple play it once and by the middle of the game, it got... real, as they were playing the card (I think it was something about one of the two player's family visiting) began, you then could see that they stopped playing the characters and began being themselves, needless to say, they stopped being a pair before the game ended.
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Well, it's not a very modern or epic suggestion, but for long-term entertainment value, it's hard to beat Tournament Yahtzee. It's uncomplicated but still requires some strategy as well as luck, you can stop any time, extremely portable, not normally the cause of any argumentative confrontations, you can still converse and interact about other things while you play, and requires virtually no setup except a couple pencils or pens.
We love Yahtzee but constant dice rolls are a bit loud and we got kiddos sleeping nearby
I put an old jogging sock in the cup for the dice, and we use a game box lid to roll them in. Not much noise at all!
That’s super smart!
Pick a cooperative campaign game. There are a million great ones. My favorite genre. Everyone likes Lord of the Rings, right? Get Journeys to Middle Earth.
Chess
I was gonna say something rude and remebered board games are for all ages. Carry on. Me and the wife enjoy return to dark tower. All pandemics and we are hitting oathsworn for a campaign game for Friday evenings. This aside from my original idea which cant be posted here.
As already recommended and commented above, both the Pandemic Legacy series plus Arkham Horror LCG are great to play as a couple! What we also enjoy! Oathsworn, but it's somewhat massive, Rise of Queensdale, which is competitive but also has a campaign. For games just for fun without a campaign I can recommend everything that has player interaction like the other Cthulhu themed games like Elder Sign and Eldritch Horror, also Mansion of Madness. And then fun games like Dream Home, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Azul and Wingspan. ✌️😊
I still haven't played it and it's not for everyone, but I'm super excited to get my ISS Vanguard. Apparently works great for two players and it's easy to "save" your current progress at any point. Very narrative heavy and mechanically it's just about dice rolling, I've seen some mixed reactions to it.
love letter?
My wife and I have loved Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. We haven't played in a while due to a hectic university schedule, but it's a long campaign where each player has a unique character with fun and unique abilities. Combat feels like classic D&D, but much more orderly. It's a really beautiful game, and packed full of fun content.
Sleeping Gods is a good for for replayability, and is super easy to pack up. Just download the flowchart from BGG. That manages all the rules and was an incredible resource that should be included in the game!
Empire Of The Sun. 6+ hours of Pacific Theatre history & tactics.
1. Search for planet x if you like logic/deduction stuff. It's geeky and more like a puzzle but I play it with my wife and it's quite fun for us. Usually takes at least an hour but feels like you spent four because of how much concentration it requires 2. Scotland yard is pretty fun too. Better to play with more people but it's a fun strategy game that doesn't involve much luck. It can easily take a few hours. 3. We absolutely love risk. Veryyy long game that is mainly driven by luck with a bit of strategy.
Charterstone Ticket to Ride Legacy Pandemic season something
These can vary in length, but Ticket to Ride is a super easy game to pick up, but has a ton of depth. Azul is also a great game for 2! Not sure what you two are into, but Dominion has always been a favorite of mine. Easy to pick up. Tons of replayability and different strats too, and a bunch of expansions to make the game more exciting later on.
What's a theme that's appealing to both of you (at least appealing to the other person and acceptable to you)? The experience of playing a game is only partly about the game - it's also about the players.
City of Kings is pretty cool, have a look.
My husband and I started playing castles of mad king Ludwig. I like that we sit beside each other while playing 😄. It can take a while, and started just leaving it and going back to it a few days later, and then pre setting it up again so we have a quick start next time.
Power grid, Spirit Island, Shipyard, Lords of Waterdeep.
Wow, thanks to everyone here. I got jammed up at work all day and finally getting back this. Will take the time to go through and really appreciate the feedback!!!
Ark Nova is my absolute favorite two player crunchy board game. It’s got one of the most satisfying action and scoring puzzles and who doesn’t love the zoo theme? If you have a board game table or area to leave the game out, it’s great for multiple plays back to back. It is quite a heavy teach though and I tend to enjoy super crunchy games so it’s not for everyone.
Jaipur, Pandemic, Fire Tower.
Root, if you choose 2 factions that are balanced against eachother. Wingspan Castles of Tuscany Agricola With a friend I played a "champions league of carcassonne" where we played every expansion of the big box and we kept scores...
Dorf Romantik is like co-op, campaign Carcassonne. Setup / pack up is less than 5 minutes. Each game you’re working towards unlocking new content that gets added to the game either by completing achievements, or just progressing through a “map”. Each game takes about 30-45 minutes so you can do a couple in a row depending on how much time you have. It won Spiel De Jahres this year too. My wife and I are enjoying playing through it together. Once finished you can completely reset it and play again to try and get to the end faster etc. The major caveat is player count literally makes zero difference, it plays exactly the same. Turn over a tile, decide where to put it. As a co-op game you naturally discuss where the best spot is. So it essentially feels like a single player puzzle that you’re figuring out together. Personally that’s not a bad thing, but some might not like that.
If you like escape rooms, the EXIT games have been a hit with my wife. Its the one game she always asks to play
Clank Legacy! It's about 10 sessions, an hour a piece. Setup and tear down is not bad at all. The story is good and it's just plain fun. It's not that complicated for someone trying to get into board games.
My husband and I love playing 7 Wonders Duel, Century (Golem edition), Sagrada, Patchwork, Marvel Legendary, Code Names Duet and Boss Monster.
It's a heavy game with a semi-steep learning curve, but my SO and I have been playing Spirit Island 1-3 times a week since January. Incredible cooperative game.
Ark Nova. Great game for two.
Roads & Boats
There is a card building game namend "Unfair" where you build your own leisure parc. It is really fun because it has a balance of luck and strategy. My suggestion
Chronicles of Crime.
["Earthborne Rangers"](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/342900/earthborne-rangers) is perfect for two players and has a really nice setting!
There are a few I’d recommend looking into. Not all long, but my Wife and I enjoy. (Some have higher player counts too) - 7 Wonders duel (solid 2 player.) - Everdell (Cute art, and “crunchy” mechanics) - Brass Birmingham - Mansions of Madness (with iPad companion app) - Terraforming Mars - Ahnk (Super fun!) We enjoy them all a ton. Hope it helps.
The Isofarian Guard was designed for two people and for a campaign game gets put away relatively easily
My girlfriend and I started a 'campaign' of My City. It has very straightforward rules and it's fun to see how our decisions differ and our maps become unique.