Spicy Brutality

• Undaunted Series — If you’re looking for a war-game experience that is approachable, quick, and streamlined, then Undaunted is the best in the business. There are several unique experiences in this ongoing series of standalone games. Across the games that I’ve tried, I now have roughly 30 plays. We’ve really enjoyed how Undaunted merges smooth deck building with tense tactical skirmishes across many different scenarios.
• Radlands — If you’ve ever wished you could try Magic: The Gathering or similar dueling card games but been scared off by the steep barriers to entry, then Radlands might be the answer. Everything is contained in a single small box where players draw from the same deck to play out and command a team of post-apocalyptic fighters. The goal is to take out the enemy’s camps first, and you’ll have plenty of tools at your disposal. Despite the aggressive gameplay, the rules are very easy to get into, making this a breeze to teach and play.
• Marabunta — One of the newest 2-player designs from the legendary Reiner Knizia is a game of ants, dice, and dry erase markers. Although this one has been billed as a roll and write, it plays nothing like the genre. You feel that the most in how agonizing and cutthroat this game is. Marabunta combines painful “I split, you choose” decisions with cold-blooded area majorities on a shared board. Rarely has a game hurt so good to play.
• Caesar!: Seize Rome in 20 Minutes! — Designer Paolo Mori has proven himself to be a reliable 2-player game designer across several titles which are on this list, but the first one we’ll cover is Caesar. Don’t be fooled by the cheap production, Caesar is a firecracker of a game. You and your opponent take turns deploying units onto the map, covering the spots that border two different regions. Once a region is completely surrounding by tokens, the player with the most strength wins the region. Yet whoever closes the region (covers the final border space) claims a bonus, so sometimes you even help your rival to finish taking over a battleground. That makes this sound like a nice game, but there are plenty of opportunities to undermine your opponents plans and abilities.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation — If you love the idea of Stratego, but perhaps not the execution, then this one is absolutely for you. Reiner Knizia offers his take on Stratego’s experience with a game that is also inspired by the Lord of the Rings trilogy. One player is trying to sneak Frodo all the way to Mordor without him getting captured, and the other player is trying to reclaim the ring or basically take over Middle Earth before the fellowship stops them. Devious bluffing and brutal conflicts abound in this highly revered classic from the Good Doctor Knizia that sadly hasn’t seen a new edition in many years.

Not Too Aggressive

• Lost Cities — This is perhaps Reiner Knizia’s most popular 2-player game ever, and for good reason! Many people have pointed to Lost Cities as the best game to play with your significant other. The decisions you make in this game can still be quite rude, but the key is that your opponent doesn’t know you are being rude. You’ve been holding that green 10 in your hand that they so desperately wanted the entire game… and you never even intended to use it for yourself? That’s Lost Cities for you. The hand management decisions in this game are fantastic. You’ll sweat over which cards to hang on to and which expeditions to commit to.
• Patchwork — Like Lost Cities, Patchwork is yet another widely recommended 2-player game, and for good reason! It combines the satisfaction of polyomino puzzling with smart economic considerations including time management and a button economy. There is a reason why this one has been endlessly in print for 10 straight years.
• Jaipur — I don’t think I appreciated Jaipur at first as much as I do now. Admittedly, it presents itself as a generic set collection game of spices and gems and camels. These games are a dime a dozen, right? Yet Jaipur sets itself apart by being so dang perfect and paced. You’ll feel yourself pulled in every direction as you race to meld sets first yet wait to build bigger sets, want to spend your turn doing one thing but feel compelled to do another thing, both curse and covet the camels, and so on.
• Battle Line / Schotten Totten — It’s hard to mention Knizia’s Lost Cities without also acknowledging Battle Line (aka Schotten Totten). Both of these simple card games are ripe with tough hand management decisions, yet they end up feeling very different on the table. Battle Line is about forming poker-style sets of cards across multiple fields of battle against your opponent. As far as I know, this design kicked off the genre known as “lane battlers,” and it is still one of the very best thanks to its timeless elegance.

Tug of War Trifecta

• Watergate — Based on the Watergate scandal from American history, this one has been a big hit in the last five years of hobbyist gaming. If you want a taste of Twilight Struggle (a famous but sprawling war game) in a fraction of the time and effort, then Watergate is hands down the best option. Watergate presents a cat and mouse tussle between the corrupt Nixon Administration and the courageous press who are out to expose them. You’ll be competing to drag key evidence onto your end of the tug of war track and throwing down powerful event cards in this slick tactical romp.
• Royal Visit — While it hasn’t even come close to the popularity and success of Knizia’s other 2-player titles, Royal Visit has proven to be another favorite for my wife and I to get to the table. Royal Visit is the purest Tug of War game of this Trifecta. All you have is 1 track and a hand of cards of four possible suits. On your turn you may only play one suit of card, the suit matches a character on the track, and the more cards you play drags that character closer to your end of the track. It sounds almost too simple to be any good, and by the looks of it some people actually do feel that way, but I find that the functional differences of each character and their cards makes this a surprisingly nuanced game. It’s hidden yet satisfying depth has proven itself to me across our many plays.
• Biltzkrieg!: World War Two in 20 Minutes — Those of you with a keen eye will notice that this game’s title has a lot in common with Caesar’s full title. That’s because both games are from the same designer and publisher team, and they both share the same idea of putting out a tile that is hidden behind your screen. The difference is that Caesar has a bunch of area majority battles while Blitzkrieg presents a bunch of tug of war tracks. Which is better between the two? That’s difficult to say. Depends on who you ask, really. But I’m more than happy to own and enjoy both. The other notable thing about Blitzkrieg is that it is basically a 2-player version of Paolo Mori’s cult classic game, Dogs of War.

Best Cooperative Games

• Sky Team — If you want the latest and greatest hotness in the 2-player-only genre, then Sky Team should be the first place you look. It’s one that I rated highly on my Top 15 Games of 2023 list, and it is one of my wife’s favorite games in recent years. In this airborne thriller, you and your partner play as pilots of a commercial airplane with a mysterious communication problems. You’ll take turns putting out your hidden dice as you try to land the plane without causing a catastrophe. The big hurdle is that you can’t communicate what dice you have or where you want your copilot to put their dice. Sky Team entices you to come back for many more plays thanks to the various modules and scenarios that mix up the challenge.
• Sail — Sail is another major hit from 2023 where you are also piloting a ship together… only in this case you are trying to avoid the kraken via the medium of trick taking. This one is gorgeously illustrated by Weberson Santiago (one of my favorite board game artists) and also presents a variety of challenging scenarios featuring unique maps.
• MicroMacro Series — If you, like me, have a certain fondness or nostalgia for Where’s Waldo books, then MicroMacro should be right up your alley. This series of games takes the experience of Where’s Waldo and turns it into a bunch of murder mystery style cases that you and your partner must solve. The weird thing about this huge city map crammed with thousands of details is that it shows events taking place over time. You can follow a person walking down the street, around the corner, and into a building where they shove a victim out a window to their death. Yes, it is somehow both cute and dark.
• Pandemic: Iberia — I can’t list the best 2-player cooperative games without mentioning the titanic series, Pandemic. Where there are so many versions of this game at this point, I’ll just list one of our favorites — Pandemic: Iberia. You are still racing to cure diseases and contain outbreaks, but here it takes place in Iberia with a few interesting twists such as building a railroad infrastructure to shuttle you around faster.

Best Positional Abstracts

• Onitama — Onitama is a dead simple abstract strategy game. To win, either capture your opponent’s leader, or move your leader into their leader’s starting space. Easy as that. The thing that makes this game so neat is that your pawn movement is dictated by whatever two movement cards are sitting in front of you. Any time you use a card, it gets rotated over to your opponent for them to be able to use on a future turn. So you end up dictating the future options of your rival. On top of that, Onitiama (and its expansions) provide a large variety movement cards, meaning that no two games will be alike.
• Project GIPF Series, Tzaar and Yinsh — Back in middle school (or sometime around then) I went through my Chess phase. Learning, exploring, and obsessing over the game as I played it with family members and on digital adaptations. Well some time after that (maybe in high school), I entered a project GIPF phase. Project GIPF is a newer line of games (relative to Chess, at least) that features zero theme but plenty of strategy. I call it a phase, but I only ever got deep into two games in this series: Tzaar and Yinsh. Tzaar forces you decide whether to make yourself stronger or your opponent weaker as you protect your three types of discs and try to wipe out one type of your opponent’s discs. Yinsh has you leaping your rings over a line of tiles, causing them to flip to the opposing player’s color. Once you have a line of five tiles of your color, you discard one of your rings from the board. The first person to discard three of their rings wins. I’ve enjoyed both of these games for how they twist and contort your brain in challenging new ways. If you have a gaming partner that is willing to take the plunge on these dry yet approachable boxes, then you’ll find plenty of strategic depth at their core.
• Santorini — This one stands out thanks to its verticality and its huge deck of asymmetric god powers. Players are moving their figures around and building up 3-layered structures. The objective is to position your figure on top of a 3-story building in order to win. But if your opponent is in an adjacent space, then they can stop you from reaching the top by capping the building off with a dome top. Once you have dabbled in the core game, then you can add in god abilities which mix up the challenges and opportunities of each play.
• Hive — Hive (specifically Hive Pocket) might just be the most travel-friendly board game ever. That’s because this one has no board or cards. It simply uses a handful of chunky plastic tiles… meaning you can play this one on virtually any flat-ish surface (including the sandy beach!). The point of Hive is to surround your opponent’s queen bee with tiles. All of the bug tiles move in unique and interesting ways… Grasshoppers can jump over a line of tiles to the opposite side. Beetles can climb on top of (and trap) other tiles. Ants can move anywhere they want (a very powerful bug). But all of the tiles must stay grouped together in one connected hive, so there are ways to block your opponent from moving certain bugs. Despite its simplicity, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of Hive.
• Chess and Go — It would be downright rude to not include Chess and Go, the two ancient titans of the genre, somewhere on this list. So here they are. Give them a play, scratch them off your bucket list, and who knows, maybe you’ll fall deep into their strategic rabbit holes. You wouldn’t be the first to do so.

Best Euro-Abstracts

• Great Plains — Speaking of Go, there are many excellent modern games inspired by this old classic. Great Plains is one such design. Players are spreading out their figures into valuable territories, seeking to have majority in these point-scoring territories at the end of the game. I find that two key features make Great Plains so… well, great: (1) Players can earn animal abilities that let them break the normal placement restrictions. (2) The map is randomly generated each game. Great Plains is one of my most recent discoveries, yet I’m already in love with it.
• Mandala — This one is a brilliant little card game where players are seeking to claim the most valuable cards, but the values of the cards and opportunities to earn them are steered entirely by the players throughout the game. All you do is add cards to a middle market or bid cards to your side to try and claim first dibs at the cards in that market. The entire deck is nothing more than six different colors of cards. Yet the depth that unfolds is sneakily satisfying.
• Patterns — Patterns is branded as a sequel to Mandala, although they don’t share much beyond the scoring system and creators. Actually, all three of the above games come from the same design duo: Trevor Benjamin and Brett J Gilbert. Considering the fact that these games are all only from the last five years, I’m starting to suspect that Trevor and Brett might be the best abstract game designers currently working in the industry. Patterns is phenomenal (another of my top rated games from 2023) due to its layered decisions of tile placement and claiming.
• Lacuna — I mentioned it in the past, but last year was a great year for 2-player-only games. Sky Team, Sail, Patterns, and Lacuna were all excellent. Lacuna is a tough to categorize because it is so unique, but I lumped it here due to the end of game flower majorities that happen for scoring. You start by using the cylindrical box like a salt shaker to sprinkle out the flower tokens onto a large cloth mat. Then you take turns positioning your pawns between two matching flowers to claim them both. After all pawns are out, the remaining flowers are claimed by the nearest pawns. So there is a refreshing spatial challenge of positioning your pawns in the best places to claim the most important flowers. For how quick and breezy this one is, it is an easy recommendation.
• Chartae — Chartae has impressed me in a way that no other 2-player game has. It crams a surprisingly rich filler game into a tiny little box. With only 9 tiles, the game packs a surprising punch. Either add a tile to the map or rotate a tile. The winner is the player who has the largest connected territory once the map is complete. Perhaps this isn’t one that you should go out of your way to acquire and play — the end result would likely feel underwhelming relative to the effort invested. But if you appreciate discovering surprising depth beneath absolute simplicity, then Chartae is a great choice.

Best Campaign/Legacy

• Undaunted: Stalingrad — Undaunted: Stalingrad remains my favorite game in the Undaunted series. That is precisely because it is such a great legacy/campaign experience where your troops and environment change across many scenarios. The decisions you make in one battle will have ripple effects throughout the war.
• My City (and its spinoffs) — Those who enjoy polyomino games owe it to themselves to try My City. Across 24 episodes of evolving rules and challenges, you’ll agonize of the placement of your building tiles as you try to satisfy the various scoring objectives. My City is also one of the more approachable legacy games in existence, and intentionally so. I’ve found it to be a great game for couples or families who want to knock out a play or more each evening for a few weeks. The spinoff games, My City: Roll & Build and My Island, perhaps don’t reach the same heights as the original experience, but they still offer plenty of fun if you are hungry for more.

Skill-based Thrills

• KLASK — KLASK is like miniature air hockey, but even better than the real thing. Or at least I would argue that because KLASK is so dang funny and enjoyable. Using the magnetic pawns that you control beneath the table, the goal is to knock the ball in your opponent’s goal… or stick two magnetic “biscuits” to their pawn… or hope they accidentally “KLASK” (move their pawn into their own goal). If any of those things happen, then you get a point. KLASK never fails to deliver a bombastic and lively experience. This game belongs in every household.
• Crokinole — The best thing that Canadians ever gave to the world was the game of Crokinole. That’s no slight against Canada — Crokinole is fantastic. Our Crokinole board hangs on our wall like a family heirloom. Usually people who see it assume it is some kind of dartboard. But the moment I pull it off the wall and dump out the discs, they are hooked. Crokinole is one of my most played games in my entire collection thanks to its broad appeal and supreme satisfaction of flicking and ricocheting discs across a slippery board.

Happy Hobbyist

• Innovation — This civilization-themed card game may very well be the best of its class for having a streamlined ruleset with massive and chaotic potential, but it is not for everyone. Innovation is less about outwitting your opponent within an open information playing field and more about wacky opportunism. That means you get plenty of moments of surprise attacks, last-minute scrambles, and tactical lunges. It’s a game that keeps you on your toes from start to finish — the more nimble player will win. But it’s only enjoyable if you are willing to let the craziness sweep you away. It’s only worthwhile if you find endless wordy abilities to be exciting rather than exhausting.
• Splendor Duel — If Splendor is a bit too simple or light for your tastes, then Splendor Duel might be what you are looking for. Here there are a few more considerations to deal with as you claim gems, earn cards, and build your engine. I love how it cranks up the heat by allowing players to pressure each other on multiple possible victory conditions.
• Match of the Century — This one is Paolo Mori’s take on a lane battler (like Battle Line) and a pseudo-sibling to Watergate. You’ll be reenacting the chess match of the century by playing a game about chess that isn’t actually chess. By committing cards to each lane and utilizing card powers, you’ll determine who comes out on top during each “match” or round. It is a game about making short-term sacrifices for long-term gains. I dig it!
• Zamek / Carcassonne The Castle — Carcassonne provides a great 2-player experience on its own, but like Pandemic it has seen many spin-offs due to its popularity. One of those spin-off games is a 2-player-only version designed by the one and only Reiner Knizia that introduces some fantastic features to the Carcassonne system. Players are confined to adding tiles within a wall, and the wall itself functions as a score track with bonus corners that encourage you to stop on them exactly. Subtle changes like these make you think all the harder about where you want to place tiles and when you want to score them. It’s easily my favorite way to play Carcassonne. Unfortunatley, this one is very difficult to obtain (unless you track down a used copy or order Zamek from Poland).
• 7 Wonders Duel — Based on the big box hit, 7 Wonders, 7 Wonders Duel has the honor of being the second highest rated 2-player-only game on BoardGameGeek. Does that mean it is the second best 2-player-only game ever created? That’s for you to decide. All I know is that it is mega popular and mega fun. Players take turns drafting cards from a pyramid display as they build their civilization and wonders. Like Splendor Duel (both co-designed by Bruno Cathala), it allows you to gun for 3 possible victory objectives and pressure your rival in their weakest categories.

Great at 2, and other counts too!

• The Quest for El Dorado — How many racing games do you know that are amazing at 2 players? The Quest for El Dorado is yet another Knizia classic that has sold gangbusters, and for good reason. Through building your deck and playing out cards, you’ll race across the different types of terrain. It works so well at 2-players because each player controls 2 explorers that both must reach the finish line in order to win. With infinite map possibilities and oodles of expansion content, El Dorado has been a blast for us every time it hits the table.
• A Feast for Odin — These next two games are without a doubt the meatiest on my list. Despite the long playtime (usually 2-3 hours when you include setup and teardown), A Feast for Odin is comfort food gaming. You’re given a big board of spaces that demand to be filled with tiles and a huge sandbox of viking-style options for how to acquire those tiles. Just like any good feast, you’ll come away satisfied.
• Ark Nova — One of the absolute hottest releases of the past decade is undoubtedly Ark Nova. It features its own style of comfort food entertainment by letting you manage and customize your own zoo across a few hours of heavy gaming. The massive deck of cards features a truly wild variety of animals that you will only scratch the surface of with each play.
• Crokinole — There’s only one game so good that it deserves to be mentioned twice on the same list. Crokinole, baby! I had to include it here as well just because the 2v2 mode is such a riot.
• Azul — The modern classic, Azul, is probably at its spiciest at 2-players where the hate drafting is most direct. But that’s why I love playing it at 2. Azul brings the goods with a clever, family-weight experience ripe with clackety colorful tiles.

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