Board Games for Grown Ups?

[displace]

DH and I are thinking of having a game night for us, after kids are asleep.  Any good board games for adults that you like and only need 2 people?  I haven't played board games in a while, so I don't have much to guide suggestions on.  I liked Catan before but this was probably a decade ago and I don't know if you can play with only two people..  I've played Apples to Apples with friends and liked it ok but I believe it needs 4+ people. 

In general I don't like trivia games.  DH wants to play a game we have "Axis and Allies" but war games are not exactly my favorite, though strategy would be good for us both.  DH suggested Monopoly, but I've played that a lot in my youth. 

Thanks for any suggestions!  :lurk5:  

ETA -- Optimal game time would be about an hour, but if it takes longer, that's okay too.

Not a "board game", per se, but we've played many an hour of cribbage (well, before kids, that is), and it works great with two people.

[Eagle]

Carcassone

Jambo

Arena: Roma II

Shotten-Totten

Spaceship Catan (longer than one hour)

Samurai

Mamma mia

Hive

Hey, that's my Fish

Blokus

[BlsdMama]

Oddly Carcassone is one of my favorite games to play with DH too, but I have no idea why, lol.

[Dandelion]

DH and I enjoy playing chess.

[KatieJ]

 

 

Mancala

Cribbage

[melbotoast]

Ticket to Ride

[matrips]

We have fun with Ticket To Ride.

[LisaD]

We like scrabble, boggle, Yahtzee, phase 10 (cards or dice) farkle (a dice game not a board game), UNO, sequence...

[LostSurprise]

Love this topic! All of these links lead to the games boardgamegeek. Each of these entries will describe the game, contain instructions and forums, and have a section which link to video tutorials or reviews on the game. 

 

*Morels~One of our recent favorites. Hunting and collecting sets of mushrooms. 

Lost Cities~Supposedly a game of exploration, but really its a game collecting and playing goups of numbers in order. Scoring is a little mathy or the end of a day, but play is interesting and requires you to limit yourself, make decisions, and cut your loses. Women tend to be great at this game. 

Pick & Pack~underrated game. Players are moving across a grid of apples trying to get the largest groups to pack in their crates. Takes forward planning and flexibility. Does have some ability to harass opponent. 

Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small~This has taken a much more complex game, kept the parts people love, and made a shorter 2-player game. Players take on work to build up a farm. Has cute animeeples (tiny wooden sheep, cattle, horses). Takes a lot of thought because you always want to do more than you have time to do. 

Cartagena (2 or more)~More fun with 4 but a very stategic game with 2. Players are pirates escaping from the island prison of Cartagena. You have 4-5 pirates. The board is marked with pirate symbols (daggar, etc). You can play your cards to move you to the next symbol on your card (much like Candyland). If someone is covering it, you move on to the next. To get cards you have to move one of your pawns backwards. If the square has multiple players on it he gets multiple cards. A very forward and back kind of game. Strategically you want to use the other player to advance all of your men before he does. 

Cold War: CIA vs. KGB~Directly confrontational. Each of you take the role of a semi-secret govt organization during the cold war. You fight for dominance in various countries in a card draw similar to Black Jack, but each card has certain powers and each country has different dominant interests.

Modern Art (the card game) (2 or more)~Another underrated card game. Very relaxing card collection game, but it takes some strategy to play your cards to earn more for your sets. 

Fairy Tale (2 or more)~Another favorite for us. The directions are poor and you have to learn a bunch of symbols before playing but I love the pass-the-cards technique here. Players are collecting sets of fairy cards to earn points. You pass your hands back and forth, taking the cards which work best for you. Then play 3 in front of you trying to create the stronger group of tales (not a story telling game...for that you should get Once Upon a Time). Quick. 

Fjords (2-4)~A game with a around of placing small land pieces and homes, and then a second round of spreading your homes. You try to position yourself to spread your villages further and block off your opponent. Very simple but more strategic. 

Battle Line~I  believe this is the English version of Schotten-Totten which someone posted above. Basically, you're laying out a line of soldiers and you slowly build and enforce them against the other player, balancing and using your cards to just beat them but not waste any resources.

*Roll Through the Ages: the Bronze Age (2-4)~another house favorite. Using wooden dice you build up trade goods, citizenry, and monuments, trying to create a stronger civilization than your opponent without falling prey to starvation and disease. Things are measured with pegs so they can slip quickly up and down. Trade can get you goods but also bring you disease. Fun. Quick. 

Biblios (2+)~A bit more fun with 3-4 players, but works well for 2. In this game you pick up enough cards for each player +1. You chose what you get, what your opponent gets, and 1 card for the auction pile. Players collect different varieties of books and after going through the deck you bid on the cards in the auction pile to complete your collection. 

For Sale (2-8)~Super easy game for small or large group. Players buy fun or silly houses and then try to sell them for a bigger take than other players. 

Jaipur~

Ubongo~If you like timed shape puzzles this is a great game. We tend to use this more less as a competitive game and more sitting around with the kids trying to make the puzzles work.

*Crokinole~Love this game. Its expensive, but if you ever get a chance to play or have someone who does woodworking in your life very worthwhile. People take to it very easily. Its kind of a tabletop flicking version of darts where you have to whack your opponent off the table a lot. 

 

Low to medium intensity, I also like

Finca~Collecting fruits on the island of Minorca. Bidding on lands. 

Metro~Tile laying. Trying to lay out your train track so your trains go the furthest. 

Alien Frontiers~Dice homage to science fiction authors. Players build ships and colonies on a new planet. 

Escape: Curse of the Temple~nerve-wracking dice game where you discover passages until you find the exit. Lots of things can happen to you and its easy to get stuck and need your partner to help you out. Semi-cooperative. 

Taluva~beautiful 3-dimensional land, village, and temple building game. Very strategic with some ability to mess with each other.  

Alhambra~Building that beautiful city. Walling it up. Diversifying. 

Pandemic (cooperative, not competitive)~saving the world from 4 diseases before they reach pandemic level. Players have roles and collect sets to create cures.

Castles of Burgundy (a little bit more complicated but fun)~Players chose and develop land. Lots of ways to win. 

[Cinder]

I like Blokus. Four players is ideal but it can easily be played with 2--each player just plays 2 colors at opposite corners of the board. There is some strategy involved but not so much that you couldn't chat a little while playing.

 

For something fast-paced and light you might try 99. It's a card game where you have to keep the deck points from going past 99. If you go over you lose a token. It takes several rounds to get through a game but it goes rather quickly. No time for chatting during play.

 

What about card games like Rummy?

 

ETA: just thought of another favorite game: Rummikub.

[El...]

Another vote for Carcassonne.  :)

[Miss Marple]

We just started playing a new game here:  Munchkin Quest.  The original can be played with up to 4 people and there is an expansion available.  It's a bit tricky the first time through because there are so many aspects to it, but after one round, it goes much faster.  Lots of fun, lots of laughter - depending on your tolerance for silliness it may not be appropriate.  We have Catan, Puerto Rico (you might enjoy this as well), Agricola, Axis and Allies, so I felt we needed to move away from the "kingdom building" type games.  We have a small game store where people go to play games and they sell games.  The gamers highly recommended this as an alternative - highly re-playable.

 

http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/munchkinquest/index2.html

[MrsMommy]

Ticket to Ride...there are even a few boards specifically meant for just two to three people.

[Dynamite5]

These games don't take an hour, but you could play several times during an hour and have fun:  Bananagrams and Snatch It.  Both great games, fun for kids (who can spell/read) and adults.  Fast paced and keeps you on your toes.

[LostSurprise]

I forgot San Juan and Archaeology. 

 

San Juan tutorial: 

   San Juan is a card game simulating building up the capital of Puerto Rico after colonization. Its a fun, quick game with no direct competition. 

 

Archaeology: 

  Archaeology is a light and portable set collecting game. We keep a copy in our glove compartment because it is a great 'waiting for your meal' game. Very light. Easy to teach. Quick. 

 

 

 

 

 

[AMJ]

Backgammon!

[AMJ]

I forgot San Juan and Archaeology. 

 

These are games?  Got any links, please?  "San Juan" and "Archaeology" call up too many non-game items in a web search, even when paired with "game".  I'd love to look into these!

[Mnemosyne]

We really enjoy Bezzerweiser.

[LostSurprise]

I'll update my posts with links over the course of the morning. 

[LucyMcGillicuddy]

The site I always go to in order to research or look up a game is BoardGameGeek. There you can get information about a game, sometimes see the rules for it, see videos people may have made for reviews or playthroughs, and a lot of other things.

 

The games my dh and I play together are:

 

DC Comics Deck-building Game

Dominion (but only with the base set + Prosperity. We don't have all of the expansions.)

Eminent Domain

Alien Frontiers

Race for the Galaxy

What's My Word?

Lords of Waterdeep

Summoner Wars

Roll Through the Ages

 

[BlsdMama]

Backgammon!

 

YES!  My hands down favorite two player game. :)  (And I have a son that is seriously INTO board games.)

 

We tried the Catan two player card game - Meh.  Not fun and we enjoy Catan (with Traders.)

 

Another we enjoy is Ticket to Ride, but not as a two player game and that's simply because if the kids saw us getting it out they'd be upset if we didn't play a four person game.

 

Seven Wonders is a favorite, but I'm not sure it can be played with two players and I wonder the same about Stone Age.

[LostSurprise]

Stone Age works as a 2 player game. 

[Punchie]

Escape - if you play w/the timer, it's only 15 minutes long. However, it is highly addicting. And I recommend playing it w/o the timer until you get the hang of it.

[displace]

Thank you so much for the great amount and variety of games listed!  I think I'm going to order one or two tonight so we can start playing soon.  I'm so excited!

[freeindeed]

Battle of the Sexes. We usually play it with friends, but I think it could work with two people.

[DragonFaerie]

Pop-Up Video 80s trivia game

 

Mastermind

 

 

[KatherineNaomi]

Lots of great suggestions! Another game I didn't see mentioned is Quoridor. It's a nicely made wooden game that can be 2, 3 or 4 players. Lots of strategy involved and it doesn't take too long to play.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Gigamic-5203-Quoridor-Classic-Game/dp/B00001NTXN

 

Quoridor is a delightful strategy game for 2, 3 or 4 players that takes less than 10 minutes to play. On each turn you need to decide whether to move your pawn ahead one space or foil your opponent's progress by a carefully placed fence.

Your goal is to be first to move your pawn across the board. Other players will seek to place obstacles in your path. This forces additional moves to navigate around the fences. You also can place blocking fences to foil your opponent's forward progress.

[Lizzie in Ma]

We love Wise or Otherwise, it can be hilarious.

We like RPG's too but they take more than an hour.

[Kareni]

Games that we like for two players:

 

Quarto

 

Iota

 

SET

 

Bananagrams

 

My husband and daughter also have enjoyed Stratego.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

 

*Morels~One of our recent favorites. Hunting and collecting sets of mushrooms. 

 

This game looks intriguing; thanks for the link.  I sent information on the game to an adult nephew who is a mushroom picker.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

We love Wise or Otherwise, it can be hilarious.

 

WIse and Otherwise is one of favorites for playing with adults and other teens.  It's a game best suited, in my opinion, for four or more players.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Garga]

Games from this company--http://en.gigamic.com/

[Maus]

Card games, both from here:

Set

Quiddler

 

Board games:

Mastermind

Ticket to Ride

Blokus

 

[kbutton]

http://www.odysseylearning.com/index.php

 

Great site! If you have a local game store, you may be able to try out new games or even take them home to play them before buying.

[AngieW in Texas]

Dh bought Axis and Allies for us to play together (he's really into war games), but we couldn't figure out the rules. Then he bought Battle of the Bulge, which has a much smaller set of rules, but he wanted me to figure out the rules and teach him to play.  I told him that war games are his territory and he would have to figure out the rules and then teach them to me.

 

We have enjoyed:

Pandemic - cooperative, about 45-60 minutes

Castle Panic - cooperative, 30-45 minutes

Backgammon

 

[momto10blessings]

My husband and I enjoy a soothing game of Mancala every once in a while

[Anne]

We play a lot of cards.  Some of our favorite 2 player games are cribbage, phase 10, Pinochle, Skip-bo, and Word Thief. 

 

For board games we like Scrabble, Blokus, UpWords, and Rummikub (not a board game, but a tile game). 

 

We also like dice games such as Yahtzee and Farkle. 

 

Pinochle can be played with two players???   We love pinochle, but I've never played with just two people....

 

Anne

[LostSurprise]

So which 2 did you order?

[displace]

Carcassonne -- it looked strategic and logic (and not too expensive).  I almost got ticket to ride...

And one game for DS before I reached my spending allowance.  All these other games are on my "wish list" on Amazon, so I can have an easy reference when people ask what I want for holidays and when it's time to spend on us again.  :)   Very helpful!  I do appreciate it and can't wait for it to come. 

[Sammish]

Loved this thread! I just ordered Archaeology, and am bookmarking this for future reference.

 

I didn't see this mentioned, so I just wanted to point out that Catan can be played with two players. DH and I play using these rules, and which work nicely. Games are shorter (20-30 minutes?) but still fun.

[Violet Crown]

Any board game is an adult board game if you add a betting round. Married couples may prefer a non-monetary forfeit.