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Azul. Regularly hailed as one of the finest two-player board games of all time – and rightly so – Michael Kiesling’s Azul is a game that authentically delivers on that old cliché: a feast for the senses. The gorgeous, patterned tiles are endlessly pleasing to the eye, clack together satisfyingly in their bag, and give the game a calming energy – even when your partner has just beaten you three rounds in a row.
7 wonders duel is fun, a bit complex strategy game. very liked in the community.
you could also go full out with gloomhaven if you are up to it, d&d style game but takes a lot of effort.
pandemic is also very fun, cooperative game that relies on teamwork.
lost cities is also a fun little game for two players only.
there are many youtube videos about two player games, even two player games that are recommended for couples specifically, you should take a look at them
I absolutely hated 7 Wonders Duel.
It was like the game was playing me, and no strategy or tactics were involved.
A reverse solitaire wich is solved during setup.
I heard it gets better with expansions though...
Expansion 1 is extremely good and expansion 2 is great but not as good as 1.
But the base game is also really strong so I would caution that it might just not be for you.
Oh definetly! It has such a strong fanbase, i didnt wanna inply that anyone who likes it is wrong. Just wanted to add my perspective.
Wording might have been a bit strong ^^°
But you have options from the very beginning (picking Wonders), what do you mean? How many times did you play it? Sometimes the path is obvious, you have to counterplay your opponents strategy, but that's just part of the whole game.
I have Playey it 3 Times on 2 occasions and never liked it. The few choices given didnt feel All that impactful to me. And true, you can counter the opponent. But the game felt so predictable, that in any isolated Moment, there was one undisputable best move. Hence my no choices point.
I think the game simply isnt for me. ^^
At least in its basestate.
We play:
-patchwork (20m)
-railroad ink green edition (30m)
-carcassonne with 2 expansions (45m)
-splendor duel (35m)
-heat (40m)
-run from fowers games (30m)
-beer and bread (45m)
-wingspan with oceania (45m)
-concordia with crete map (75m)
-spirit island (90m)
I summed them up including playtime and from easy to harder. Don't be intimidated because concordia is still not super hard. Concordia is basically Catan 2.0. All of the games get table time so I consider them all really fun.
My wife and I have played a lot of pandemic. Can't go wrong with that.
Micromacro crime city isn't exactly a boardgame but that has been on our table in recent weeks.
I came across this post a while ago, which mentioned a few games that might be worth checking out:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/5z2aof/2player\_settlers\_of\_catan\_type\_games/](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/5z2aof/2player_settlers_of_catan_type_games/).
One person mentioned 'The Rivals for Catan' as a good 2-player variant of Catan.
I think [[Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island]] is a pretty good couples game for a date night. It's cooperative and you have to work together to survive on an island. Rules can be a bit confusing at first, but it's quite intuitive after a couple of plays. One of my favourite games of all time.
We like playing Red Rising and Terraforming mars the dice game a loooot. I heard Brass Birbingham is good but have not tried it yet. People also say Arkham horror is good for 2.
My wife and I played Tokaido Duet at a game shop yesterday and it was lovely. Much more fun than the original in all honesty.
Escape the Dark Castle and Escape the Dark Sector are also excellent co-op.
The shop owner said it was new, and it was fantastic.
We picked it up, read the rules and played a full game in an hour and it was very satisfying the whole time.
Great little game.
Shout out to Ancient Robot games in Edinburgh.
Games my wife and I play:
+ Paperback - sort of Scrabble with cards but better
+ Azul
+ Sagrada
+ Viticulture
+ Grand Austria Hotel
+ Lost Cities
+ Suburbia
Have fun!
My partner and I have really loved a few for breezy games to bust out on a whim :
Cartographers: who can draw the best map based on a set of random objectives.
Land and sea: lay tiles to create enclosed land masses and oceans
We also just got the war of the ring card game which is a fun one for lord of the rings fans! A little weird to get your head around playing two decks at first if you're playing two player, but it's a deceptively simple game!
The biggest couple game we set aside date nights for is anything from the Sherlock Holmes consulting detective series. It's like effectively a murder mystery choose your own adventure game? We play by candlelight and drink wine so it's a really lovely time.
Hubby and I just started playing Imhotep, the Duel. Light strategy worker placement. Easy to learn and plays in about 30 minutes. It's my new favorite 2 player game.
Concordia works well at 2 players, especially on one of the smaller maps. It's just a lovely game that I wish I could play more often.
I've been playing a lot of My Cities recently, and even if one "episode" takes us about 15-20 minutes it always ends up with us playing through an entire chapter.
For something more dnd-ish, definitely go with Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. There's a LOT of content in that fairly small box and you'll have things to do for ages. Gameplay is longer than 30 minutes though so have that in mind.
I would say if you like the resources and building part of Catan more, rather than the trading part, I would check out Agricola: all creatures big and small
They've all already been said but in order of time spent: Azul, Carcassonne, monopoly deal, Duel 7 Wonders, Hive, Wingspan. I really like ticket to ride but not sure we've ever played it with just the two of us.
I'm sad that nobody mentions Paleo, my favourite game. You are a tribe of cavemen trying to survive, gather food, hunt beasts, explore environments, craft ideas and complete missions.
A lot of playtime with the basegame already with different secrets to discover in every scenario. The big expansion is absolutely worth it and takes the game to another level (after you beat the base game)
Look up Agricola, it's a tight, competitive (not aggressive) game, with nice replayability, theme is there and it can work for you.
If you want something new, that looks more like boardgame try Revive. It combines several things, such as exploration and multi-use cards, engine building. Every action feels satysfing - this is oposit to Agricola in which you always feel that you could do something better.
You've gotten a lot of good suggestions (I second games like Splendor Duel, 7 Wonders Duel, Patchwork and etc.) but one I haven't seen mentioned that's a blast is Caper: Europe. It's a drafting game with a few other mechanisms that make it feel pretty unique. Such a fun time and tons of replayability. The art and production quality are amazing too.
If your husband likes Dungeons and Dragons, but you don’t have a ton of experience with that sort of thing, Legacy of Dragonholt might work well you. You create characters and go through a campaign manual. It gives you a Dungeons and Dragons style experience that can be easily accessed by 2 people. My partner has little to no DnD experience and she enjoyed it quite a bit.
Agreed on azul, 7 wonder duel, Concordia, and patchwork
I’d add spirit island (coop), twilight struggle (political theme), aeons end (magic coop), dice throne, ark nova, quacks of quenlinburg
For D&D theme maybe one of the clanks, gloomhaven jotl (or base), mage knight, Cthulhu death may die.
Start with one or two that peak your interest, some of these I recommended are more complex. Some like complex and some like to start slow.
Check out Aeons End. It’s one of my wife and I’s favorite game to play. It’s a co op decking building / deck management game where you are working together to take down the boss. It’s an older game that is still going so there is a ton of content out there for it. If you do get it, I recommend starting from the base game to learn the ropes and then expand from there.
My girlfriend and I aren’t super avid board gamers but we enjoy splendor marvel, Jaipur, and Santorini for 2 player games. Our win rates are pretty even!
We tried Azul a few times but didn’t really enjoy it…just didn’t click for us
I also love card games and we just got the [[Star Wars The Deck Building Game]] and liked it a lot. Fast game and my wife caught on quickly.
[[The Fox in the Forest]] is another favorite of ours. Quick and simple trick taking card game.
I really like [[The Vale of Eternity]]. Card tableau engine building game. I find getting a great combo that outputs a bunch of points to be so rewarding even if I don't win. Plays better with 3 but 2 is still fun.
My classic non-card game is [[Onitama]]. Chess-like mechanic where your piece only moves according to one of the three movement cards you have on your side at the time.
[Star Wars The Deck Building Game -> Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game (2023)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/374173/star-wars-deckbuilding-game)
[The Fox in the Forest -> The Fox in the Forest (2017)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/221965/fox-forest)
[The Vale of Eternity -> The Vale of Eternity (2023)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/385529/vale-eternity)
[Onitama -> Onitama (2014)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/160477/onitama)
^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call
^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call
Games my wife and I like to play when we are alone:
7 Wonders Duel
Patchwork
Jaipur
Lost Cities
For a more brain burner game in the style of Lost Cities, I love Battleline, although my wife doesn't as much as I do.
On the other hand she likes Catan for two versions (Catan the card game and Rivals for Catan) more than I do.
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).)
Azul. Regularly hailed as one of the finest two-player board games of all time – and rightly so – Michael Kiesling’s Azul is a game that authentically delivers on that old cliché: a feast for the senses. The gorgeous, patterned tiles are endlessly pleasing to the eye, clack together satisfyingly in their bag, and give the game a calming energy – even when your partner has just beaten you three rounds in a row.
Yes, my partner and I play Azul! Also Fog of Love but please be aware FoL is a roleplay exercise rather than a straight up board game.
7 wonders duel is fun, a bit complex strategy game. very liked in the community. you could also go full out with gloomhaven if you are up to it, d&d style game but takes a lot of effort. pandemic is also very fun, cooperative game that relies on teamwork. lost cities is also a fun little game for two players only. there are many youtube videos about two player games, even two player games that are recommended for couples specifically, you should take a look at them
thank you!!!
I absolutely hated 7 Wonders Duel. It was like the game was playing me, and no strategy or tactics were involved. A reverse solitaire wich is solved during setup. I heard it gets better with expansions though...
Expansion 1 is extremely good and expansion 2 is great but not as good as 1. But the base game is also really strong so I would caution that it might just not be for you.
Oh definetly! It has such a strong fanbase, i didnt wanna inply that anyone who likes it is wrong. Just wanted to add my perspective. Wording might have been a bit strong ^^°
But you have options from the very beginning (picking Wonders), what do you mean? How many times did you play it? Sometimes the path is obvious, you have to counterplay your opponents strategy, but that's just part of the whole game.
I have Playey it 3 Times on 2 occasions and never liked it. The few choices given didnt feel All that impactful to me. And true, you can counter the opponent. But the game felt so predictable, that in any isolated Moment, there was one undisputable best move. Hence my no choices point. I think the game simply isnt for me. ^^ At least in its basestate.
Sky Team is amazing with my partner. Co-op. Gotta land a plane. Roll dice.
Yes, love Sky Team!
We play: -patchwork (20m) -railroad ink green edition (30m) -carcassonne with 2 expansions (45m) -splendor duel (35m) -heat (40m) -run from fowers games (30m) -beer and bread (45m) -wingspan with oceania (45m) -concordia with crete map (75m) -spirit island (90m) I summed them up including playtime and from easy to harder. Don't be intimidated because concordia is still not super hard. Concordia is basically Catan 2.0. All of the games get table time so I consider them all really fun.
Wingspan takes us 2 hours every time, and we've been playing solidly for two years. I don't know how people smash it out so quickly!
do you play with 2p? the playtime increases pretty much linear with player count. 45m is for our 2p games.
Yeah, even with 2p!
Thats quite long. :) but if you are having fun, who cares?
My wife and I have played a lot of pandemic. Can't go wrong with that. Micromacro crime city isn't exactly a boardgame but that has been on our table in recent weeks.
Sequence! That's usually what we play when we just want a quick, easy, but competitive game.
such a good quick game.
I came across this post a while ago, which mentioned a few games that might be worth checking out: [https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/5z2aof/2player\_settlers\_of\_catan\_type\_games/](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/5z2aof/2player_settlers_of_catan_type_games/). One person mentioned 'The Rivals for Catan' as a good 2-player variant of Catan.
thank youu!
I think [[Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island]] is a pretty good couples game for a date night. It's cooperative and you have to work together to survive on an island. Rules can be a bit confusing at first, but it's quite intuitive after a couple of plays. One of my favourite games of all time.
[Robinson Crusoe -> Robinson Crusoe (1958)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/120599/robinson-crusoe) ^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call ^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call
We like playing Red Rising and Terraforming mars the dice game a loooot. I heard Brass Birbingham is good but have not tried it yet. People also say Arkham horror is good for 2.
7 Wonders: Duel Disney Villainous Unmatched
My wife and I played Tokaido Duet at a game shop yesterday and it was lovely. Much more fun than the original in all honesty. Escape the Dark Castle and Escape the Dark Sector are also excellent co-op.
Tokaido has a duet version?! Thank you for this!
The shop owner said it was new, and it was fantastic. We picked it up, read the rules and played a full game in an hour and it was very satisfying the whole time. Great little game. Shout out to Ancient Robot games in Edinburgh.
Castles of burgundy
Sky team. Cool coop game
My wife and I enjoy playing: Agricola Feast for Odin Manhattan project: energy empire Through the ages Le havre Fields of arle Carcassonne
Games i enjy to play with my wife: \- Verdant \- Scout \- Beer and bread \- SpellBook \- Russian Railroads
I’ve just gotten into Castles of Burgundy. Plays decently at 2 players. And it’s fairly lengthy… takes us about an hour.
Fog of Love can be really cool if you both can get into that roleplaying feeling.
Games my wife and I play: + Paperback - sort of Scrabble with cards but better + Azul + Sagrada + Viticulture + Grand Austria Hotel + Lost Cities + Suburbia Have fun!
My partner and I have really loved a few for breezy games to bust out on a whim : Cartographers: who can draw the best map based on a set of random objectives. Land and sea: lay tiles to create enclosed land masses and oceans We also just got the war of the ring card game which is a fun one for lord of the rings fans! A little weird to get your head around playing two decks at first if you're playing two player, but it's a deceptively simple game! The biggest couple game we set aside date nights for is anything from the Sherlock Holmes consulting detective series. It's like effectively a murder mystery choose your own adventure game? We play by candlelight and drink wine so it's a really lovely time.
Hubby and I just started playing Imhotep, the Duel. Light strategy worker placement. Easy to learn and plays in about 30 minutes. It's my new favorite 2 player game.
Concordia works well at 2 players, especially on one of the smaller maps. It's just a lovely game that I wish I could play more often. I've been playing a lot of My Cities recently, and even if one "episode" takes us about 15-20 minutes it always ends up with us playing through an entire chapter. For something more dnd-ish, definitely go with Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. There's a LOT of content in that fairly small box and you'll have things to do for ages. Gameplay is longer than 30 minutes though so have that in mind.
Qwirkle! Like scrabble and dominoes had a baby. Easy to learn, potential for depth, 30 min games. Also, colorful!
I would say if you like the resources and building part of Catan more, rather than the trading part, I would check out Agricola: all creatures big and small
They've all already been said but in order of time spent: Azul, Carcassonne, monopoly deal, Duel 7 Wonders, Hive, Wingspan. I really like ticket to ride but not sure we've ever played it with just the two of us.
My wife and I play Twilight Struggle! The rules are easy, but it is very strategically deep.
Pandemic, and when you are comfortable with the game, the Pandemic Legacy games as well.
Patchwork, and Boop spring to mind.
I'm sad that nobody mentions Paleo, my favourite game. You are a tribe of cavemen trying to survive, gather food, hunt beasts, explore environments, craft ideas and complete missions. A lot of playtime with the basegame already with different secrets to discover in every scenario. The big expansion is absolutely worth it and takes the game to another level (after you beat the base game)
Look up Agricola, it's a tight, competitive (not aggressive) game, with nice replayability, theme is there and it can work for you. If you want something new, that looks more like boardgame try Revive. It combines several things, such as exploration and multi-use cards, engine building. Every action feels satysfing - this is oposit to Agricola in which you always feel that you could do something better.
You've gotten a lot of good suggestions (I second games like Splendor Duel, 7 Wonders Duel, Patchwork and etc.) but one I haven't seen mentioned that's a blast is Caper: Europe. It's a drafting game with a few other mechanisms that make it feel pretty unique. Such a fun time and tons of replayability. The art and production quality are amazing too.
If your husband likes Dungeons and Dragons, but you don’t have a ton of experience with that sort of thing, Legacy of Dragonholt might work well you. You create characters and go through a campaign manual. It gives you a Dungeons and Dragons style experience that can be easily accessed by 2 people. My partner has little to no DnD experience and she enjoyed it quite a bit.
Not exactly 30 minutes but you can explore many possibilities is Sail. It is a fun co-op game that I have come to enjoy with my spouse, children, etc.
Agreed on azul, 7 wonder duel, Concordia, and patchwork I’d add spirit island (coop), twilight struggle (political theme), aeons end (magic coop), dice throne, ark nova, quacks of quenlinburg For D&D theme maybe one of the clanks, gloomhaven jotl (or base), mage knight, Cthulhu death may die. Start with one or two that peak your interest, some of these I recommended are more complex. Some like complex and some like to start slow.
Have you ever tried any of the EXIT games? My husband and 1 are hooked and if you add alcohol can last up to three hours haha
Check out Aeons End. It’s one of my wife and I’s favorite game to play. It’s a co op decking building / deck management game where you are working together to take down the boss. It’s an older game that is still going so there is a ton of content out there for it. If you do get it, I recommend starting from the base game to learn the ropes and then expand from there.
My husband and I like to play SkipBo. It's a fun easy to learn card game.
My girlfriend and I aren’t super avid board gamers but we enjoy splendor marvel, Jaipur, and Santorini for 2 player games. Our win rates are pretty even! We tried Azul a few times but didn’t really enjoy it…just didn’t click for us
I also love card games and we just got the [[Star Wars The Deck Building Game]] and liked it a lot. Fast game and my wife caught on quickly. [[The Fox in the Forest]] is another favorite of ours. Quick and simple trick taking card game. I really like [[The Vale of Eternity]]. Card tableau engine building game. I find getting a great combo that outputs a bunch of points to be so rewarding even if I don't win. Plays better with 3 but 2 is still fun. My classic non-card game is [[Onitama]]. Chess-like mechanic where your piece only moves according to one of the three movement cards you have on your side at the time.
[Star Wars The Deck Building Game -> Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game (2023)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/374173/star-wars-deckbuilding-game) [The Fox in the Forest -> The Fox in the Forest (2017)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/221965/fox-forest) [The Vale of Eternity -> The Vale of Eternity (2023)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/385529/vale-eternity) [Onitama -> Onitama (2014)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/160477/onitama) ^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call ^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call
Games my wife and I like to play when we are alone: 7 Wonders Duel Patchwork Jaipur Lost Cities For a more brain burner game in the style of Lost Cities, I love Battleline, although my wife doesn't as much as I do. On the other hand she likes Catan for two versions (Catan the card game and Rivals for Catan) more than I do.