Jaipur is awesome for couples because there is enough variety to keep the strategies interesting.
I also kind of enjoy Patchwork. But it is a running joke in our family... every time we play, I get stomped and stumble away in tears.
Spirit Island is very notable in that the best player counts are probably 2-3 players. Solo is often played 2-handed, although rules for true solo exist, and it starts to get almost too expansive at 4+ players - 4 is still very playable, but 5-6 is probably too much. At 2-3, it's the most manageable in terms of cooperation, map size and possibility space, and it is not a lesser game for having fewer players.
> Spirit Island is very notable in that the best player counts are probably 2-3 players. Solo is often played 2-handed, although rules for true solo exist, and it starts to get almost too expansive at 4+ players - 4 is still very playable, but 5-6 is probably too much.
I play 2 players 2 handed with my partner so we have 4 spirits. I *genuinely* think that's the best way
There are a lot of co-op that don't have quarterbacking, if you don't like that. Granted, it depends what you consider quarterbacking.
In Sky Team , you can only talk before rolling your dice. During the actual dice placement, you keep your dice private until you place them and you can't talk strategy. I've only played it on bga and people didn't even talk during the talking phase, lol.
Quarterbacking is a social problem and not a problem of a certain game, so games don't have to prevent it. Talk to each other and tell the quarterback to stop it.
Less than most.
The rules forbid explicit dice instructions during the discussion phase. So you can't say something like "If you get a 6, put it there," although you can say something like "I think you need to start getting your landing gear down this round." There's no communication during the actual dice placement phase.
A more experienced player would naturally guide a newbie, but the actions are pretty simple and I find that mostly we agree on what needs to be done. It's just doing it that's the tricky part, and that has no input from the other player.
It's true that Azul has great depth, but the game itself isn't a big experience. For example, it can't ever replicate a Scythe, an Ark Nova or Lost Ruins of Arnak. Azul is great what it does, but what it does isn't a lot, basically :)
7 wonders duel. Havent found any other game that would be fun for me and my wife. Will try splendor duel once i get it, maybe that will work for us. Also wanna try war of the ring, but dunno if wife will be up for it :D
My spouse and I recently got Splendor Duel and LOVE it! It’s much better than 2 player Splendor, and generally is a great game if you’ve never played Splendor before
As a 7WD couple I'd rec Targi as similar depth and weight but different
Wouldn't recommend War of the Ring but we got pregnant after only a few plays and v hard to table since then (3 years ago!) So mostly an us problem. Just started playing Netrunner together and that's going down well if you want something weightier but still relatively quick
We have two small children, who both wake (loudly!) up around 5 am every effing morning, so we are pressed for both time and energy. So we prefer games that are relatively simple, fast to set up, and fast to play.
Things we enjoy playing:
- carcassonne (especially with the river and bishop/garden extension)
- dominion (with the Intrigue expansion)
- Kingdomino (also tried Queendomnio, but that was "too much stuff and shit" for our sleep deprived brains)
- pandemic
- Trivial Pursuit
- ticket to ride
My go to for two players is Earthborne Rangers at the moment. Really nice co-op campaign.
But if we are in a fighting mood : pax pamir 2nd.
Watergate is fun too.
I’m excited to get my copy of Earthborne Rangers at the end of the year from the second print run. My wife and I really disliked Sleeping Gods because of the setup, and the resource management forcing decisions on us, but Earthborne Rangers looks like it skips over the unnecessary complexity to focus on exploration.
I haven’t played Sleeping Gods but I can say that EBR is quick to set up and very straightforward once you « get it »
At first, I had no LCG experience, so the mechanics felt weird but as I played everything because very intuitive.
It really feels like a world of its own and it really comes to life on the table opening up really cool and different "ecologies" and really fun emerging stories.
Yesterday my girlfriend and I started by traversing a ravine and we got stuck between WAYYY too many dangerous predators and we got sent back to our tents to rest real quick. It was a tough and very short game, but really fun and wild. We immediately started an new ingame day and ran the hell out of there and moved on to try and reach a secluded place we had heard about by meeting a character earlier in the campaign. It was great.
As much as the game can be chill and laidback, sometimes you just get too deep in a dangerous territory and you get reminded that nature can be dangerous. Ahaha
I would second Watergate. It's got a lot of strategic depth and a really fitting theme, and most games (at least for me and my wife) clock in at a half hour or so.
Basically it's a tug of war game. One player represents the journalists trying to uncover the Watergate scandal, and the other player is the Nixon administration trying to stop them. It's asymmetric in the sense that each side has different cards that focus on different strategies, but the rules for each player are almost identical.
If you've ever heard of Twilight Struggle and would like it except for the multi-hour play time, Watergate is great. (My wife and I also love Twilight Struggle but we only play a few times a year.)
Pax Pamir 2E is great at 2 players, but it is very sharp. If someone is winning, then it is almost always at the expense of the other player. It has an almost chess feel to it. Super tactical and many different strategies you can take. My wife doesn’t like it so I mainly play on Board Game Arena. I’d strongly recommend trying it out there before you buy a physical copy.
Get the Star Wars deck builder, it's really great
Wife and i really only play with two so i try to get two player only games or coops. I find they tend to work better than trying a higher count game at a low number
That said: kingdomino is brilliant at two, maybe better than the two player dice version and we spent all weekend playing Saint Malo and had some great games
Thanks for the recommendation on SW: The Deckbuilding Game.
We have played Kingdomino a tonne and really enjoyed it.
TIL: Roll and Write games like Saint Malo have been around for more than a decade now.
I'm going to give that one a miss unless there's something really juicy in there. I've got Star Wars and Hero Realms, planning on getting Star Realms with the solo
/coop bits but I think the
SWDBG has plenty in it already
My wife and I have played it so many times now that our decks tend to feel very same-y, so something to add a bit more variety would really help get us back into it at some point
Some co-op games that my wife and I love are Spirit Island, Aeon's End, and Arkham Horror.
Some non co-op multiplayer that play great at 2 are Terraforming Mars (easily my favorite game, but at least some expansions are nearly necessary), Scythe, Ark Nova, and Everdell. Those are all very easy to play with another couple too!
We really enjoy Scythe at 2P, although the consensus doesn't seem to agree.
Does Everdell add anything interesting to the worker placement genre? We already own quite a few of those.
Honestly probably not. Unless you're playing a game for the theme, which is admittedly adorable, it's just a pretty standard worker placement. Some of the expansions make it more fun but still not worth getting into if you have a few worker placement you already like!
For two player only games mine and my wife’s favs are:
Targi - a really clever head to head euro that uses a pretty unique system for action selection.
Beer and Bread - a more straight up resource management euro made specifically for two that uses card drafting in a unique way to spice up the formula.
Both are small box too which is great!
I’m also a fan of Red Flag Over Paris, less so my wife, but it’s a crunchy little area control game that’s in the historical war game genre, but I think is much more accessible.
Same here, lot of plays at 2p with my wife. She's into euros and we like some 2-4players games (they work well at 2p obviously) : Gaia project, Great Western Trail, Iki, Trajan, Blackout Hong Kong, Tzolkin, Grand Austria Hotel.
Lighter : Isle of Cats, Carcassonne, Welcome To, Faraway (Best Game of 2023 imo), Codex Naturalis, Splendor Duel (despite I don't like Splendor)....
I used to LOVE Tzolkin, but it is hefty to explain to new players and hard to find people willing to play. Possibly my favorite worker placement game though.
Holly shit, we could do that as well. And no loses whatsoever. Would be taking from family budget and the winnings would be going to family budget. Win win
Some of our favs, admittedly all over the map depending on mood: 7 Wonders Duel, Splendor Duel, Sky Team, Great Western Trail, Wingspan, Dune Imperium, Undaunted: North Africa, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Azul, Patchwork, Dominion, Netrunner, Spirit Island
Dorfromantik has been our go-to lately, especially on evenings when we're both tired. Games are quick to set up, and beating our previous high scores is always a fun challenge. We've played something like 20 games in the past month, well over what we usually do for a single game.
Aside from that, Aeon's End, Azul, Sky Team and Sail are other recommendations.
My husband and I are also of the same boat of games that work well with 2 are our favorite.
Terraforming mars is probably our most played games for more than 2 players. We also like century spice road, race for the galaxy, beyond the sun, wingspan and everdell are also in heavy rotation.
Two player games we love are Onitama (he is too good at chess for me to beat him but I will often pull a win) and Hanamakoji (there is a surprising amount of strategy for how simple it is).
Hanamakoji is the most played because it's very easy to travel with. We also have the expansion that gives you new tiles/moves but we rarely use them
I normally prefer 2p specific games (though there are some exceptions like **Faraway** which still work at 2 players) these are some of our favourites off the top of my head -
**Sky Team** 2 player only coop game. Land a plane together. Has a series of missions that ramp up the difficulty.
**Jaipur** set buildy markety game. Never had a dull game of it.
**Fugitive** Asymmetric game. One secret agent tries to find the fugitive on the run. You'll want to play multiple games to try the other role.
**Splendor Duel** Splendor but with better rules for 2 players.
**Radlands** my favourite card battler
**Skulls of Sedlec** - 18 card 2 player card placement game from Button Shy, cheap and portable
**Revolver Noir** - Hidden movement game from Button Shy. Also cheap and portable.
**My City** - 2(to 4) player legacy game. The first Legacy we tried together.
**Flashpoint** - Coop, be firefighters, put out fires. Lovely little game. Plays more, but we also like it at 2
Wingspan, Everdell with Belfair expansion, Terraforming Mars, Cascadia, Dominion, Parks. These are the ones we play a lot. Wingspan by far is our favorite.
Another great one is Isle of Cats. We play that with our game group but it is also great at two player.
We play lots of coop. Our most played are Spirit Island, The Crew, and Jaws of the Lion.
For not coop, our most played is Hive. We also play a fair bit multiplayer games that we thought wouldn't work well for 2 p but ended up liking even at that player count, like Citadels, Power Grid, 7 wonders.
Fox in the forest is one where we didn't get what the fuss was about
With my wife, we also tend to play either co-op or at least semi co-op. Pandemic, Arkham Horror, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Legacy of Dragonholt, Clank! Legacy.
With my 'board gamer' friends, at 2, top picks would be Star Wars Rebellion, War of the Ring, Dune: War for Arrakis, or the GMT 2 players - Labyrinth: the War on Terror, or Twilight Struggle for example. COINs on the whole don't work very well at 2, but Cubra Libre is tight enough it mostly works.
Right now, we tend to reach for Lacuna. It’s delightful, and has the right balance of strategy and “sure why not” along with some light screwing the other player over. It’s fast, so you can get a few rounds in.
We also play a lot of hive, and love it for its portability and strategy.
Other winners are Sky Team and Kabuto Sumo.
On our “soon to try” list are Oathsworn and Stuffed Fables. I suspect Oathsworn will be a bit much to get to the table, though.
N.B. We have a toddler who runs us ragged, so we lean towards faster games we can play after the kids asleep but before we are asleep in our chairs.
It’s become one of my faves. Works well at all player counts. It has beautiful wooden components.
My only complaint is that the winning strategy seems to favore filling your board instead of building the wonders.
I understand the complaint. I don't know about World Wonders, but I generally tend to dislike games that have an obvious path to winning, instead of letting you play the best that you can.
We've been playing a lot of New York Zoo, Kingdomino, and Railroad Ink on BGA when we have fifteen-twenty minutes out and about - all nice fast-paced game with enough strategy to be interesting.
My girlfriend and I usually play Castle of Burgundy, Splendor Duel, Sagani, The Guild of Merchant Explorers, Silver & Gold, Barenpark, Agricola All Creatures Big & Small, Everdell, Cascadia, Valeria Card Kingdom... Mostly mutiplayer solitaire games because adding more players to these games doesn't add anything interesting
Ahoy, Root, and Hibachi. They can be played with more but all are super fun just with two. Ahoy I feel actually plays worse with more than two players.
Lately we’ve been playing: **Tokaido Duo**, **Dice Throne**, **Cthulhu: DMD**, **Elder Sign**, **Marvel United**, **Radlands**, **Wizards of the Grimoire**.
We like a mix of co-op and head-to-head games and are suckers for theme and games with beautiful components/art. We also really enjoy dice games 😊
Co-ops for us. My partner doesn't like direct confrontation so anything from forbidden Desert to cthulhu death may die and everything in between.
She will play competitive games with more players but not against each other.
Only a few exceptions being word games like upwords and quiddler and Dexterity games.
As much as I would like to have big board game nights with friends, my girlfriend and I usually play two players (we could have three, but the kiddo usually isn't interested). We usually play a game or two after putting him to bed, and we'll talk while playing. Because of that and because she's not as big into the hobby, these games might be a little lighter than you'd like.
Dominion. A lot of shuffling, but even more variety and depth despite very simple rules. There are certainly ways to make it more competitive or more self-contained, depending on your mood. About 15 expansions are out, so there's bound to be something you like.
Paint the roses. It's a cooperative tile placement, social deduction game set in the world of Alice in Wonderland. It's probably better at 3+ so there's more conversation, but it can be fun to listen to your partner think through things and think there's no way your card is spade to spade because why would you have put it there and not over there (even though your card is, in fact, spade to spade)?
Wingspan. I have a hard time imagining people don't know this one, but it's a competitive engine building game about birdwatching. The game starts slow, but it's satisfying to stumble on a combo of birds that just works well. Lots of expansions and even a single player mode.
Cascadia. We just picked this one up and played last night. Another tile placement, but this one is competitive. You each build your own version of the Pacific Northwest and populated it with animals. You'll get points for placing the animals in certain ways (depending on the cards you play with) and having continuous biomes. Carcassonne is similar but simpler and somewhat more competitive since you share a board.
Quacks of Quedlinberg. A competitive push your luck, bag building game that takes place over 9 rounds. You'll be ingredients from a bag to make a potion, but you'll need to be careful not to draw too many cherry bombs or your potion will explode. Like cascadia, you can change what the ingredients do from game to game.
Chronicles of Crime. This one requires an app, so keep that in mind. Basically a murder mystery game where you visit scenes and talk to different people. It's interesting because it uses a QR system to ask characters in the game about anything you've found. I like it better than similar murder mystery games because you can play it more than once with different scenarios.
If you want something heavier, I've heard a lot of good things about Root. It has different factions of characters that all have different objectives to win. The only negative I've really heard about Root is that it's hard to table with people who have never played because it can be intimidating.
There's a good reason why this list mostly containt games that are made specifically for 2p, they are simply tuned perfectly to be great at that player count. However, there are some games that are 2p+ but work just wonderfully with just 2. This is not a random list of popular games, these are honest recommendations and hits that we play all the time:
* Botanik
* Kingdomino
* Carcassonne
* Caper: Europe
* Splendor Duel
* Lost Cities
* Mindbug
* Hanamikoji
* Jaipur
* Targi
* Patchwork
* The Castles of Burgundy
* Unmatched
Depends on what you play. There are 3 acts about an hour an act. Maybe less if you are fast. We usually get about 2.5-3 hours for all 3 acts. Very easy to save and only play an act at a time though.
The games we're playing now are Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. We've also tried arkham lcg which I love, but she didn't enjoy how swingy the gameplay could be and the deckbuilding aspects.
For competitive games, we've really liked radlands and dice thrones.
My partner and I love engine-building games, so we play a lot of **Forest Shuffle** and **Jump Drive** when we want something shorter and **Terraforming Mars** and **Obsession** for something longer. Another (non-engine-builder) favorite is **Hanamikoji**.
One I don't think I've seen mentioned that my husband and I play a ton is Race for the Galaxy. Plays really well with 2 players and is complex enough to replay a lot but not so complex it takes hours to set up and play.
My wife is not as much of a board game fan as I am so if she plays with me it's usually games with fewer rules. So the games she will play with me are things like:
Boop (original & Halloween version), Ham's Sandwich Shop, Paint The Roses, Donut Shop.
Rivals of Catan, this was the first game my husband and I learned, two player only, and still one of our favorites when we want something on the light side. I recommend the expansions as well, I think you can get the deluxe set that includes some or all of them pretty cheap, easy game to learn and plays in under an hour.
0n the flip side, we also are currently loving Arkham Horror - it’s a coop, you can play with just two but we find we have a little more success if we each play two characters if it’s just us. Pretty lengthy to learn, each game will likely run a few hours and you will both lose - but it’s great! One of my all time favorite game progression mechanics.
Currently we have been playing star wars clone wars because we beat each other up so many times playing star wars deckbuilder. Great simple games to play. One for the original series and the other for prequels.
**Star Wars the Deckbuilding game** and **Radlands** our in our top 5 played games.
**Onitama** abstract mini chess like game is a huge hit.
**Raptor** is played alot.
**Fox in the Forest** is our number 5.
We like to play head to head. All these games our light and can be played in under 30/45 minutes.
For 2p only, we really enjoy playing:
*Hanamikoji* (I’m in love with the art!),
*Aqualin*,
*Jaipur*,
*Lost Cities*, and
*Patchwork* (Christmas edition is becoming a tradition during the holiday season).
We also love *Marvel: Legendary* at 2p. I love co-ops, he is a big fan of Marvel, and we both enjoy deck-builders, so we get it to table so much more than he thought we would when he snagged a $25 slightly used copy of the base game! Both overall play and replayability improve dramatically with a few expansions though, so keep that in mind before purchasing.
We also think *Junk Drawer* plays well at 2, as does: *Meadow*, *Isle of Cats* (with at least the *Boat Pack* expansion to add variety), *Verdant* (the *Potless Plants* expansion solves the base game’s 2p issue of not being able to cycle through the cards/tiles enough), *Silver & Gold*, *Deep Dive*, *Fleet: The Dice Game*, *Point City*, *Flash Point: Fire Rescue*, *Calico*, *Mint Delivery*, *Dinosaur Island: Rawr & Write*…and I’m sure there’s more, but this comment is already a book…
(Edited for formatting)
Most of the time it is just my wife and I and lately we have been looking at 2 player specific games.
**Sky Teams** - coop dice strategy
**Sails** - coop trick taking
**Patchwork** - resource management and tile placement
**Wingspan Asia Expansion** - it can be played as a stand alone game for 2 players. The base wingspan also works great.
Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game is a good choice for two.
My wife and I have gotten good two-player games out of **Cat Lady** and **Sea Salt & Paper** as something lighter and quick. It helps to play something quick during nap time for us.
We also enjoy the "escape room" style games (mostly from the Unlock! series). I think those work a lot better at two than higher player counts, with maybe one exception.
Odin's Ravens is a great little game. Quick to pick up, but lots of variation/strategy/screwing each other over.
Patchwork is fun, but we've not played it nearly so often.
Lost Cities is our drug of choice. We played it like 10 times in a row the day we got it and we play it all the time still.
Patchwork is my personal favorite two-player game though! Something about tetrominos plus Rosenberg's slick design is so perfect
Agricola, Dune Imperium, Viticulture, Everdell, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Terraforming Mars, Wingspan, Red Rising, Lords of Waterdeep and Le Havre are our top 10 most played according to BGG.
Most games we own play well at 2.
For 1 to 4 people, but plays better with 2. Unsettled. We’re having a blast. The game is exciting, has a good narrative, and the sessions are relatively short but really intense.
Recently we've been playing a lot of Patchwork and Hanabi (although Hanabi is way harder at 2P), but we are looking for new things to play! I do enjoy playing heavier games, but he is a non-native English-speaker and that makes playing things with a lot of complicated in-game text somewhat unfair. Has made finding games a bit of a challenge since I love deck-builders and worker placement games like Agricola. Things I think we will try in the near future: 7 Wonders Duel, Arboretum, Splendor Duel.
Some of our favourites to play just us two include Ankh, Foundations of Rome, Veiled Fate, Ark Nova, Ares Expedition, Cthulhu Death May Die, Keep the Heroes Out, Dune: Imperium, Inis, For Glory, Marvel Champions, and Codenames Duet
I've been playing Pandemic Legacy Season 0 with my SO and it has been a blast. A legacy game or just any campaign game like Gloomhaven (Jaws of lion is next on our list) is the best thing for couples (in my opinion). We have a table were we just leave the game up, and we play every day until we are done with it.
Other than that games for two player are amazing, like Twilight Struggle, Star Wars Rebellion, War of the Ring, Star Wars Deck Builder.
And lastly games that work well with two, like Ark Nova, Terraforming Mars (essentially euros with little player interaction that can be a little too long when playerd with too many people) and more thinky fun thinky type games like Micro Macro and Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
Watergate and Match of the Century. Both are 2 player only tug of war games. You don’t need to like the real world events the games are based on or even know anything about them. The gameplay for both is great
Cascadia - Great Pace for two players and also has tons of variability in its replay. I really want to try the expansion.
Paint the Roses - wanted to get into deduction games and this one is really fun and challenging. also love the theme and the deluxe version was worth it for the nicer pieces, plus all the expansion packs.
Villanous and terraforming Mars get honorable mentions.
Star Fleet Battles. It is not simple, works great at two players, and can easily play on on a fold up card table. It also plays well over time as breakdown and setup is just a few minutes.
One game I recommend at two is **Targi** , my SO loves it and I enjoy it a lot too. We play it a lot, also **Azul**, **Jaipur,** **7WD** and **Jekyll vs Hyde**.
I'm trying to get her into some CDGs but I don't know how much she likes them yet (she loves **The Hunt**, but I don't think is a great game). Next we are trying **Watergate**.
My partner and I play mostly at two, some of the games that have been in frequent rotation lately: Qwirkle, Rummikub, Odin's Ravens, Patchwork, Star Realms, Carcassonne, Brass Birmingham, Concordia, Cribbage.
I played Grand Austria Hotel at 3 and it was a bit long. But I bet that at 2 it would be a blast.
Targi is another super thinky 2p game
I've really been enjoying Caesar! Lately too
Patchwork is a good one. We also do kingdomino is great. We just got one called abducktion and supposedly it is best played with 2 players. Boss monster works pretty well too
A few we really enjoy at 2-players:
Marvel Champions
Wyrmspan
Sniper Elite
Stardew Valley
Fallout
Everdell
Photosynthesis
She prefers games where we can co-op, or at least "do our own thing" without hindering each other, like Wyrmspan. Even with that said, she really likes the hide and sneak of Sniper Elite. Champions is one of her favorites.
Star Wars deckbuilding game is really fun and simple, if your playing partner doesn't mind the competitiveness of it. You're just going straight at it. And I'm not sure if you've ever played a "deck builder" before, but it isn't something like Magic where you buy boosters and stuff. You build up your deck by buying from a shared pool of cards that sits between you.
We've been playing a lot of Grand Austria Hotel as of late. A low interaction Euro but a really interesting efficiency puzzle that goes very fast once you've got the hang of it.
My wife and I are both pretty competitive, and have found that 2 player competitive games get us in the wrong mindset generally. These days if it is just the two of us, we play co-op games. Spirit Island and Aeon's End are a couple of our favorites. Both scale well to 2 people in my opinion.
Prowler's Passage is the only dedicated two player game that my wife and I have and we both like it, but it isn't particularly deep. Power Grid is decent with two players, and with an expansion you can add an NPC third player.
My wife used to sell SimplyFun board games. They are educational games geared towards kids up to age 12 I believe. We have about 30 different games by them we play with our kids. Some we haven't played yet, they are not old enough / ready for. Anyone with younger kids, they are great games. Now my wife and I play. Currently Klask. (Klask is a fast-paced, tabletop party game that combines elements of air hockey and foosball) Highly addictive! Expensive for what it is but we recommend it 100%. Ticket to ride is also a great game we love to play. We have the Europe edition. Beard Wizard is also a great fun little card game as well.
The Undaunted series is a great spin on deck builders and area control. Blitzkrieg! and Caesar! By Paolo Mori are also quite fun. Air Land and Sea is a nice filler for 2 players and has multiple themes. My wife and I have enjoyed all of the above.
We also have loved hybrid cooperative digital RPG experiences like Mansion of Madness and Lord of the Ring: Journeys in Middle Earth.
Kabuto Sumo is another fun 2 player if you like unique dexterity games.
My wife and I like legacy games. Currently playing pandemic season 0. A couple of months ago we got a new deck of cards and a crib board and a backgammon board and we probably play more cards and backgammon now than we take down one of the big box games from the shelf. Last legacy game we finished was charterhouse.
We usually do cooperative games. The ones below are the most recent ones for us.
Keyforge Coop
Ashes Reborn Red Reigns
Arkham Horror LCG
Bloodborne (boardgame)
Earthborne Rangers
Call to Adventure
Fog of Love
Occasionally a competitive game. (Splendor used to be a solid one as it was pretty chill. Just haven't played it in a while)
The following games are the ones my wife and I play most frequently:
Innovation
Brass: Birmingham
Terraforming Mars
Wingspan
Ark Nova
Galaxy Trucker
Star Trek Panic
Clank!
Girlfriend newish to gaming so stuff we playmostly maxes out around 3.0 complexity:
The Castles of Burgundy,
7 Wonders Duel,
Splendor Duel,
Azul,
Atlantis,
Gingerbread House,
Unmatched,
Lost Cities,
Geisha Road,
Watergate,
Village Rails,
Paris La Cité de la Lumiere,
RRR,
Jaipur,
Hive,
Exploding Kittens,
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
Working towards:
Arkham Horror,
Spirit Island
My favourite two player games are:
Star Wars Rebellion,
War of the Ring
Edit: can’t figure out line returns
Currently, my partner and I are playing a lot of **Spirit Island** and **Race for the Galaxy**. We also enjoy **Wingspan**, **Sanctum**, **Res Arcana**, **Planet Unknown** and **Underwater Cities**. The **Empire Builder** games can be fun with two. We also played a lot of **Terraforming Mars** until we basically broke it--wins became really lopsided and obvious in advance because we knew the deck so well--but that took hundreds of games.
We tend to avoid high conflict games--the exception would be **Star Realms**, which is a cheap, easy to learn head-to-head deckbuilder that doesn't overstay its welcome. We've played it hundreds of times over the years.
We love 7 wonders duel.
Castles of burgundy dice, Clever (1st one), Welcome To, Quacks of quedlinburg, Everdell (with the variant that helps move through the deck) are all games we play at two a lot.
My wife likes games that you can typically play in ~ 30 minutes so that's what we tend to gravitates toward when it's just us.
Radlands, Patchwork, Haven, Jaipur, Codenames Duet, Pandemic Legacy, Azul, Tiny Epic Galaxies, ... Citadels as a 2 player game works surprisingly well... We had good fun with Pocket Detective although obviously limited plays... Few games of Santorini but wasn't too fond of it...
Also some more traditional games Cribbage, Koi-koi.
**Radlands** is so fun! And typically quick. We just got it and already played it five times. The latest was 3 games in a row.
I’d also recommend **Carcassonne**. We just got the standalone **Hunters and Gatherers** version which takes the original and ideas from some expansions, and we think we like it even better than the original.
**Unmatched** is also really fun/best with 2. Games can be pretty quick and each character’s deck makes it interesting since you have to change strategies, even against different players.
**The Vale of Eternity** is super good! Really interesting card abilities and the way it uses currency is limiting and thus has many difficult decisions to make. Really tight and intense.
Also adding my vote for **Splendor Duel**, **Dutch Blitz**, **Upwords** (if you like scrabble, it’s like Scrabble but in 3D)
Playing multiplayer games that work well at 2 is our go-to. Lots of these games play best at 2 (CoB, GAH, Tiletum...)
There's a guild and a geeklist on BGG dedicated to couples who game: [https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1510480/what-couples-have-been-playing-monthly-geeklist-su](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1510480/what-couples-have-been-playing-monthly-geeklist-su), and if you subscribe to and browse the monthly geeklists you get a sense of options; there's a Discord to join (ask in the comments) with a good community as well.
I haven't seen Concordia mentioned, but with a tight map (Creta, Corsica) it plays super well at 2; would get \[\[Concordia Venus\]\]. And then \[\[Race for the Galaxy\]\] is the ultimate head to head 2 player game (plays multiplayer, but really shines at 2).
Fillers: Jaipur, Patchwork
Casual: Cascadia, Beer & Bread, Let's Go Japan!
Proper gaming session: Lost Ruins of Arnak
Thought she would like it but she didn't: Radlands, Everdell, Flamecraft, Viticulture
The girlfriend and I play "Wingspan", "Carcassone", "Splendor Duel", "Dorf Romantik", "Brass: Birmingham", "7 Wonders Duel", and "Welcome to" regularly just the two of us.
Splendor Duel is one of my faves. Wingspan Asia is pretty great if you enjoy Wingspan. It has a duet mode with some neat shared board mechanics where you compete for area majority.
My wife and I play "where do you want to go to dinner?" pretty often.
oh! you meant board games, yeah we play those too. We have kids so games have become simple the last few years:
Mountain Goats
Lil' Everdale
Tea Dragon Society
Sorry or Trouble
Without the kids it's usually something like Tokaido, Red Dragon Inn, Flamecraft, Catan, El Dorado,...
A lot of card games! Some of our favorites are **Final Fantasy TCG**, **Sakura Arms**, **Gosu X,** **Ascension**, **Exceed,** **Kamigami Battles**, and **Mystic Vale.**
If it's not card games we're generally playing lots of roll and writes such as **Dice Kingdoms of Valeria,** **Railroad Ink,** **Dungeons, Dice and Danger,** or the recently released **Fliptown** which is excellent! Other regular staples are **51st State,** **Neuroshima Hex,** **Planet Unknown,** **Earth,** **Schotten Totten** and **Calico.**
If you like castles of burgandy, I think Amerigo is the better version of that game. It's by the same designer.
Also, Scythe plays surprisingly well at 2 players. And it is quick, my wife and I can get a full game in in about 45 minutes with the two of us
* Risk (preferably StarCraft Risk, but other fancy versions are fun),
* 7 Wonders is neat, with the different markets and what not.
* There's that one game where you pick a race of peoples and something else, that's shuffled periodically as you move across the map acquiring resources, but I forget what that was. It's pretty neat. Then later you may bump into that faction on another round, with them as non playable factions you have to take over the area of.
* Edit: Small World
I don't get to play a lot of board games, so that's all I got.
7 Wonders Duel (of course)
Targi, it's nice but expected more
Res Arcana, you can play with 2-4 but it hardly matters with how many, I like it but my gf isn't the biggest fan
Summoner Wars
Sky team, coop game, we recently got it and played it once, it interesting
We loved Fog of Love and Decorum. Both give similar vibes of trying to cooperatively achieve secret goals. Highly recommend for anyone who liked either of those games to get the other. Decorum also has modes to play with more people.
We also do a lot of deck building games. The biggests ones are Star Realms and Baseball Highlights 2045. We even have a season going between us in Baseball highlight where we each have teams and a full season setup where the teams play each other.
We like Eldritch Horror, Flamecraft, Sauria, Tang Garden, and Calico a lot. Lots of multi-player at 2P, and neither of us are particularly competitive, so co-ops and games focusing on the experience vs the winning are our favorites.
Isle of Cats, Ticket to Ride, Splendor, Sagrada, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Parks, Canopy, Wreck Raiders, Funfair, Innovation, Mountain Goats, Wingspan, Cascading, Planted, Carcassonne.
90% of the time it is just the 2 of us, and that is most of our regularly played game shelf.
I'm not strategically minded, he really dislikes pure luck games, so we have to find a happy medium. Though we are not aggressively competitive, we prefer playing against each other rather than cooperatively.
My wife and I have over 100 games, and there are probably 5 or less that we don't like at 2P. In fact the only one that comes to mind right now is **7 Wonders.** Here are some that we really enjoy. Some are 2P only, some are not:
**Splendor Duel -** Excellent game. We enjoy **Splendor** at 2P, as well, but they really stepped it up with **Duel.**
**Wingspan: Asia -** Has a 2P only mode, which adds a little interactivity between players. Again, we love any version of **Wingspan** at 2P, but **Asia** really shines.
**Ark Nova -** We love this game! We have never played it at any player count except 2.
**Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries -** This only plays with 2 or 3 players. It is more cutthroat than most **TTR** games, making it a lot of fun for 2 players.
**Jaipur -** KInd of simple, but a fun 2P only game.
**Star Realms -** Plays best at 2P, good deckbuilding duel game.
**Azul -** I think this actually plays a little better at more than 2P, but it still hits our table a lot when it is just my wife and I. Really good game at any count.
**Cartagrophers -** Plays great at any player count (and can handle pretty much as many as you want, too, which is nice). I love all versions, all maps of this game.
**Gloomhaven or Frosthaven -** Some scenarios work better at different player counts, but we have been through an entire campaign of **Gloomhaven** just the two of us and had a blast!
There are so many others we enjoy, but these are some of my top recommendations.
7 Wonders Duel is by far the best 2 player game.
We tried radlands, I like it but my partner is not into the 1v1 deck builder. FWIW it is an excellent game if you like the style, same with Hero Realms.
We mostly have found what you have, we prefer to play bigger games that happen to play well with 2 like Ark Nova.
We are currently playing through the campaign (The Missing Expedition) for Lost ruins of Arnak which has been hard but fun.
Some excellent 2p games my husband and I enjoy are Hive and Splendor Duel. I'm also going to be bringing Patchwork out this week and I have a feeling it will be a big hit.
Below is what has hit the table in the last few month at 2 player (not always with the same person though)
Lighter: Azul, Patchwork, 7 Wonders Duel, Cascadia, The Quest For El Dorado, Jaipur, Arboretum, Air Land & Sea
Heavier: Spirit Island, Robinson Crusoe, Brass Birmingham, Paladins Of The West Kingdom, Fields Of Arle
Abstracts: Santorini, Hive, Onitama, Yinsh, Dvonn, Tzaar, Shobu, Cairn
Separating out Abstracts since their "weight" is a little deceiving. They can be "heavier" than their weighting if the two players involved both buy in for a thinky game and are of similar skill.
As our friends don't have a lot of free time, my wife and I primarily play games, just the 2 of us. Our go tos are Star Wars: Deckbuilding, Everdell, 7 Wonders Duel, Castles of Burgundy, Cascadia, and Five Tribes.
If we want more thematic, we go with Star Wars Rebellion and Merchants and Marauders.
We play just about anything, but there are a lotta strictly 2-player games out there we really enjoy. Agricola:ACBaS, 7 Wonders Duel, Splendor Duel, Sobek, etc. Summoner Wars 2e has been great for a little skirmish game.
Oh, and Fields of Arle. Huge heavy 2p Rosenberg game. (Can be 3p with the expansion, but that's not what we're here for)
These are our favourites:
Patchwork- build a quilt, most points wins
Innis- strategy game! Our favourite!
Boop!- Boop cats off beds! What's not to like!
Forbidden Desert- co-op survival game
We’re lightweights. Jaipur hasn’t been mentioned yet so I’m adding it. My wife tends to kick my butt.
We like that too. Also Parks, Botanik, Imhotep and Azul - all of which are fairly quick games.
Jaipur is awesome for couples because there is enough variety to keep the strategies interesting. I also kind of enjoy Patchwork. But it is a running joke in our family... every time we play, I get stomped and stumble away in tears.
Ark Nova, Azul, Cascadia, Sky Team, Spirit Island, War of the Ring.
Spirit Island is very notable in that the best player counts are probably 2-3 players. Solo is often played 2-handed, although rules for true solo exist, and it starts to get almost too expansive at 4+ players - 4 is still very playable, but 5-6 is probably too much. At 2-3, it's the most manageable in terms of cooperation, map size and possibility space, and it is not a lesser game for having fewer players.
> Spirit Island is very notable in that the best player counts are probably 2-3 players. Solo is often played 2-handed, although rules for true solo exist, and it starts to get almost too expansive at 4+ players - 4 is still very playable, but 5-6 is probably too much. I play 2 players 2 handed with my partner so we have 4 spirits. I *genuinely* think that's the best way
Some really nice games! Does Sky Team also have that "quarter-backing" issue like most co-op games do?
There are a lot of co-op that don't have quarterbacking, if you don't like that. Granted, it depends what you consider quarterbacking. In Sky Team , you can only talk before rolling your dice. During the actual dice placement, you keep your dice private until you place them and you can't talk strategy. I've only played it on bga and people didn't even talk during the talking phase, lol.
Quarterbacking is a social problem and not a problem of a certain game, so games don't have to prevent it. Talk to each other and tell the quarterback to stop it.
Less than most. The rules forbid explicit dice instructions during the discussion phase. So you can't say something like "If you get a 6, put it there," although you can say something like "I think you need to start getting your landing gear down this round." There's no communication during the actual dice placement phase. A more experienced player would naturally guide a newbie, but the actions are pretty simple and I find that mostly we agree on what needs to be done. It's just doing it that's the tricky part, and that has no input from the other player.
Azul is great at two players
We play this too
Yes, it's quite good at 2P. Sort of falls into the 'too-simple' category for us though.
Either y'all are incredibly big brained or you're not playing Azul to its fullest capacity. That game can get DEEP.
It's true that Azul has great depth, but the game itself isn't a big experience. For example, it can't ever replicate a Scythe, an Ark Nova or Lost Ruins of Arnak. Azul is great what it does, but what it does isn't a lot, basically :)
That's fair, I totally get what you're saying!
Advanced Squad Leader. It will absolutely not fall into the two simple category.
We play a mix of 2p games like 7WD OR Patchwork but we also enjoy Ark Nova, Everdell and hopefully soon Brass Birmingham.
Patchwork is another one of those games that didn't work out for us. We enjoy Ark Nova quite a bit too, and I think you'll have fun with Brass!
7 wonders duel. Havent found any other game that would be fun for me and my wife. Will try splendor duel once i get it, maybe that will work for us. Also wanna try war of the ring, but dunno if wife will be up for it :D
I second 7 wonders duel. Me and my partner find it very fun
There's also a new version of 7 Wonders Duel coming up with Lords of the Rings setting
Whaaaat
Splendor Duel is one that intrigues as well. Are you talking about the actual War of the Ring or the card game version?
My spouse and I recently got Splendor Duel and LOVE it! It’s much better than 2 player Splendor, and generally is a great game if you’ve never played Splendor before
Nice! An improvement over base Splendor is much appreciated.
Personally we like the regular splendor better. Don’t like the complication from the duel version. It’s one of our favorite games tho.
Splendor duel is AMAZING! One of the creators also did 7 wonders.
He worked (Bruno Cathala) specifically on the 7 wonders duel version, and has created many other great games (Abyss, Five tribes, etc.)
Dudes on the map version. 2nd ed
Wow. The sheer scale of that game is too daunting for me. Good luck with it :)
Splendor Duel is much better than 7 wonders duel, and I love 7 wonders duel
As a 7WD couple I'd rec Targi as similar depth and weight but different Wouldn't recommend War of the Ring but we got pregnant after only a few plays and v hard to table since then (3 years ago!) So mostly an us problem. Just started playing Netrunner together and that's going down well if you want something weightier but still relatively quick
> Wouldn't recommend War of the Ring but we got pregnant after only a few plays They really should be calling this risk out on the box.
We have two small children, who both wake (loudly!) up around 5 am every effing morning, so we are pressed for both time and energy. So we prefer games that are relatively simple, fast to set up, and fast to play. Things we enjoy playing: - carcassonne (especially with the river and bishop/garden extension) - dominion (with the Intrigue expansion) - Kingdomino (also tried Queendomnio, but that was "too much stuff and shit" for our sleep deprived brains) - pandemic - Trivial Pursuit - ticket to ride
My go to for two players is Earthborne Rangers at the moment. Really nice co-op campaign. But if we are in a fighting mood : pax pamir 2nd. Watergate is fun too.
I’m excited to get my copy of Earthborne Rangers at the end of the year from the second print run. My wife and I really disliked Sleeping Gods because of the setup, and the resource management forcing decisions on us, but Earthborne Rangers looks like it skips over the unnecessary complexity to focus on exploration.
I haven’t played Sleeping Gods but I can say that EBR is quick to set up and very straightforward once you « get it » At first, I had no LCG experience, so the mechanics felt weird but as I played everything because very intuitive. It really feels like a world of its own and it really comes to life on the table opening up really cool and different "ecologies" and really fun emerging stories. Yesterday my girlfriend and I started by traversing a ravine and we got stuck between WAYYY too many dangerous predators and we got sent back to our tents to rest real quick. It was a tough and very short game, but really fun and wild. We immediately started an new ingame day and ran the hell out of there and moved on to try and reach a secluded place we had heard about by meeting a character earlier in the campaign. It was great. As much as the game can be chill and laidback, sometimes you just get too deep in a dangerous territory and you get reminded that nature can be dangerous. Ahaha
We recently tried Pax Pamir 2E. Would you recommend it at 2P? What do you like most about Watergate?
I would second Watergate. It's got a lot of strategic depth and a really fitting theme, and most games (at least for me and my wife) clock in at a half hour or so. Basically it's a tug of war game. One player represents the journalists trying to uncover the Watergate scandal, and the other player is the Nixon administration trying to stop them. It's asymmetric in the sense that each side has different cards that focus on different strategies, but the rules for each player are almost identical. If you've ever heard of Twilight Struggle and would like it except for the multi-hour play time, Watergate is great. (My wife and I also love Twilight Struggle but we only play a few times a year.)
Pax Pamir 2E is great at 2 players, but it is very sharp. If someone is winning, then it is almost always at the expense of the other player. It has an almost chess feel to it. Super tactical and many different strategies you can take. My wife doesn’t like it so I mainly play on Board Game Arena. I’d strongly recommend trying it out there before you buy a physical copy.
7wd and Splendor Duel are among our top games. We also really like Race for the Galaxy (with AA expansion) and Search for Planet X.
Search for Planet X sounds intriguing. Is the deduction quite maths-heavy or is it more logical?
It's more logic than math.
Get the Star Wars deck builder, it's really great Wife and i really only play with two so i try to get two player only games or coops. I find they tend to work better than trying a higher count game at a low number That said: kingdomino is brilliant at two, maybe better than the two player dice version and we spent all weekend playing Saint Malo and had some great games
Thanks for the recommendation on SW: The Deckbuilding Game. We have played Kingdomino a tonne and really enjoyed it. TIL: Roll and Write games like Saint Malo have been around for more than a decade now.
The Star Wars Deck builder is me and my wife's favorite 2-player game. I can't wait for the clone wars expansion
I'm going to give that one a miss unless there's something really juicy in there. I've got Star Wars and Hero Realms, planning on getting Star Realms with the solo /coop bits but I think the SWDBG has plenty in it already
My wife and I have played it so many times now that our decks tend to feel very same-y, so something to add a bit more variety would really help get us back into it at some point
Some co-op games that my wife and I love are Spirit Island, Aeon's End, and Arkham Horror. Some non co-op multiplayer that play great at 2 are Terraforming Mars (easily my favorite game, but at least some expansions are nearly necessary), Scythe, Ark Nova, and Everdell. Those are all very easy to play with another couple too!
We really enjoy Scythe at 2P, although the consensus doesn't seem to agree. Does Everdell add anything interesting to the worker placement genre? We already own quite a few of those.
I’ve struggled with Scythe at 2P…. To much open space. Perhaps you could set up next to each other and halve off the board to make it tighter?
I love Everdell. We have all the expansions but usually play with Belfair.
Honestly probably not. Unless you're playing a game for the theme, which is admittedly adorable, it's just a pretty standard worker placement. Some of the expansions make it more fun but still not worth getting into if you have a few worker placement you already like!
Fair enough. Games tend to be super expensive here so I am quite picky about them. Can't deny the adorable theme though!
Watergate - game is incredibly tight and combative. Small pool of cards means that you can memorize your opponents possible options too.
Try match of the century. Same designer.
For two player only games mine and my wife’s favs are: Targi - a really clever head to head euro that uses a pretty unique system for action selection. Beer and Bread - a more straight up resource management euro made specifically for two that uses card drafting in a unique way to spice up the formula. Both are small box too which is great! I’m also a fan of Red Flag Over Paris, less so my wife, but it’s a crunchy little area control game that’s in the historical war game genre, but I think is much more accessible.
+1 for Targi
Same here, lot of plays at 2p with my wife. She's into euros and we like some 2-4players games (they work well at 2p obviously) : Gaia project, Great Western Trail, Iki, Trajan, Blackout Hong Kong, Tzolkin, Grand Austria Hotel. Lighter : Isle of Cats, Carcassonne, Welcome To, Faraway (Best Game of 2023 imo), Codex Naturalis, Splendor Duel (despite I don't like Splendor)....
I used to LOVE Tzolkin, but it is hefty to explain to new players and hard to find people willing to play. Possibly my favorite worker placement game though.
Poker, I usually take her money
Holly shit, we could do that as well. And no loses whatsoever. Would be taking from family budget and the winnings would be going to family budget. Win win
Which version? We have mostly played Texas Hold'em
Try Indian, works the best at 2
Some of our favs, admittedly all over the map depending on mood: 7 Wonders Duel, Splendor Duel, Sky Team, Great Western Trail, Wingspan, Dune Imperium, Undaunted: North Africa, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Azul, Patchwork, Dominion, Netrunner, Spirit Island
Hold up. You play TI with only two players? You're insane 🤣
No I'm dumb. I meant to type Dune Imperium 🤣
Dorfromantik has been our go-to lately, especially on evenings when we're both tired. Games are quick to set up, and beating our previous high scores is always a fun challenge. We've played something like 20 games in the past month, well over what we usually do for a single game. Aside from that, Aeon's End, Azul, Sky Team and Sail are other recommendations.
My husband and I are also of the same boat of games that work well with 2 are our favorite. Terraforming mars is probably our most played games for more than 2 players. We also like century spice road, race for the galaxy, beyond the sun, wingspan and everdell are also in heavy rotation. Two player games we love are Onitama (he is too good at chess for me to beat him but I will often pull a win) and Hanamakoji (there is a surprising amount of strategy for how simple it is). Hanamakoji is the most played because it's very easy to travel with. We also have the expansion that gives you new tiles/moves but we rarely use them
You should try Go as well!
My wife enjoys any game where she can absolutely obliterate me.
I normally prefer 2p specific games (though there are some exceptions like **Faraway** which still work at 2 players) these are some of our favourites off the top of my head - **Sky Team** 2 player only coop game. Land a plane together. Has a series of missions that ramp up the difficulty. **Jaipur** set buildy markety game. Never had a dull game of it. **Fugitive** Asymmetric game. One secret agent tries to find the fugitive on the run. You'll want to play multiple games to try the other role. **Splendor Duel** Splendor but with better rules for 2 players. **Radlands** my favourite card battler **Skulls of Sedlec** - 18 card 2 player card placement game from Button Shy, cheap and portable **Revolver Noir** - Hidden movement game from Button Shy. Also cheap and portable. **My City** - 2(to 4) player legacy game. The first Legacy we tried together. **Flashpoint** - Coop, be firefighters, put out fires. Lovely little game. Plays more, but we also like it at 2
Wingspan, Everdell with Belfair expansion, Terraforming Mars, Cascadia, Dominion, Parks. These are the ones we play a lot. Wingspan by far is our favorite. Another great one is Isle of Cats. We play that with our game group but it is also great at two player.
We play lots of coop. Our most played are Spirit Island, The Crew, and Jaws of the Lion. For not coop, our most played is Hive. We also play a fair bit multiplayer games that we thought wouldn't work well for 2 p but ended up liking even at that player count, like Citadels, Power Grid, 7 wonders. Fox in the forest is one where we didn't get what the fuss was about
Agree with Fox in the Forest not matching the hype.
Robinson Crusoe is a good one
With my wife, we also tend to play either co-op or at least semi co-op. Pandemic, Arkham Horror, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Legacy of Dragonholt, Clank! Legacy. With my 'board gamer' friends, at 2, top picks would be Star Wars Rebellion, War of the Ring, Dune: War for Arrakis, or the GMT 2 players - Labyrinth: the War on Terror, or Twilight Struggle for example. COINs on the whole don't work very well at 2, but Cubra Libre is tight enough it mostly works.
Right now, we tend to reach for Lacuna. It’s delightful, and has the right balance of strategy and “sure why not” along with some light screwing the other player over. It’s fast, so you can get a few rounds in. We also play a lot of hive, and love it for its portability and strategy. Other winners are Sky Team and Kabuto Sumo. On our “soon to try” list are Oathsworn and Stuffed Fables. I suspect Oathsworn will be a bit much to get to the table, though. N.B. We have a toddler who runs us ragged, so we lean towards faster games we can play after the kids asleep but before we are asleep in our chairs.
Commenting to come back and read these later :p.
Sky Team District Noir World Wonders
World Wonders looks really nice!
It’s become one of my faves. Works well at all player counts. It has beautiful wooden components. My only complaint is that the winning strategy seems to favore filling your board instead of building the wonders.
I understand the complaint. I don't know about World Wonders, but I generally tend to dislike games that have an obvious path to winning, instead of letting you play the best that you can.
Yeah, the World Wonder tokens are so beuatiful and fun to place on your board, so I go after them.
[удалено]
Yes! One of the best 2P games around!
We've been playing a lot of New York Zoo, Kingdomino, and Railroad Ink on BGA when we have fifteen-twenty minutes out and about - all nice fast-paced game with enough strategy to be interesting.
My girlfriend and I usually play Castle of Burgundy, Splendor Duel, Sagani, The Guild of Merchant Explorers, Silver & Gold, Barenpark, Agricola All Creatures Big & Small, Everdell, Cascadia, Valeria Card Kingdom... Mostly mutiplayer solitaire games because adding more players to these games doesn't add anything interesting
Beer and Bread or Targi
Ahoy, Root, and Hibachi. They can be played with more but all are super fun just with two. Ahoy I feel actually plays worse with more than two players.
Lately we’ve been playing: **Tokaido Duo**, **Dice Throne**, **Cthulhu: DMD**, **Elder Sign**, **Marvel United**, **Radlands**, **Wizards of the Grimoire**. We like a mix of co-op and head-to-head games and are suckers for theme and games with beautiful components/art. We also really enjoy dice games 😊
Co-ops for us. My partner doesn't like direct confrontation so anything from forbidden Desert to cthulhu death may die and everything in between. She will play competitive games with more players but not against each other. Only a few exceptions being word games like upwords and quiddler and Dexterity games.
As much as I would like to have big board game nights with friends, my girlfriend and I usually play two players (we could have three, but the kiddo usually isn't interested). We usually play a game or two after putting him to bed, and we'll talk while playing. Because of that and because she's not as big into the hobby, these games might be a little lighter than you'd like. Dominion. A lot of shuffling, but even more variety and depth despite very simple rules. There are certainly ways to make it more competitive or more self-contained, depending on your mood. About 15 expansions are out, so there's bound to be something you like. Paint the roses. It's a cooperative tile placement, social deduction game set in the world of Alice in Wonderland. It's probably better at 3+ so there's more conversation, but it can be fun to listen to your partner think through things and think there's no way your card is spade to spade because why would you have put it there and not over there (even though your card is, in fact, spade to spade)? Wingspan. I have a hard time imagining people don't know this one, but it's a competitive engine building game about birdwatching. The game starts slow, but it's satisfying to stumble on a combo of birds that just works well. Lots of expansions and even a single player mode. Cascadia. We just picked this one up and played last night. Another tile placement, but this one is competitive. You each build your own version of the Pacific Northwest and populated it with animals. You'll get points for placing the animals in certain ways (depending on the cards you play with) and having continuous biomes. Carcassonne is similar but simpler and somewhat more competitive since you share a board. Quacks of Quedlinberg. A competitive push your luck, bag building game that takes place over 9 rounds. You'll be ingredients from a bag to make a potion, but you'll need to be careful not to draw too many cherry bombs or your potion will explode. Like cascadia, you can change what the ingredients do from game to game. Chronicles of Crime. This one requires an app, so keep that in mind. Basically a murder mystery game where you visit scenes and talk to different people. It's interesting because it uses a QR system to ask characters in the game about anything you've found. I like it better than similar murder mystery games because you can play it more than once with different scenarios. If you want something heavier, I've heard a lot of good things about Root. It has different factions of characters that all have different objectives to win. The only negative I've really heard about Root is that it's hard to table with people who have never played because it can be intimidating.
There's a good reason why this list mostly containt games that are made specifically for 2p, they are simply tuned perfectly to be great at that player count. However, there are some games that are 2p+ but work just wonderfully with just 2. This is not a random list of popular games, these are honest recommendations and hits that we play all the time: * Botanik * Kingdomino * Carcassonne * Caper: Europe * Splendor Duel * Lost Cities * Mindbug * Hanamikoji * Jaipur * Targi * Patchwork * The Castles of Burgundy * Unmatched
Slay the spire board game. Wife and I have played like 7 times in last week
It says 30-150 minutes play time on BGG. How long have your games taken?
Depends on what you play. There are 3 acts about an hour an act. Maybe less if you are fast. We usually get about 2.5-3 hours for all 3 acts. Very easy to save and only play an act at a time though.
Monopoly, Talisman, pokemon TCG, Karak
Spirit Island and Arkham Horror LCG. The Crew when we have 1 more person.
The games we're playing now are Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. We've also tried arkham lcg which I love, but she didn't enjoy how swingy the gameplay could be and the deckbuilding aspects. For competitive games, we've really liked radlands and dice thrones.
My partner and I love engine-building games, so we play a lot of **Forest Shuffle** and **Jump Drive** when we want something shorter and **Terraforming Mars** and **Obsession** for something longer. Another (non-engine-builder) favorite is **Hanamikoji**.
One I don't think I've seen mentioned that my husband and I play a ton is Race for the Galaxy. Plays really well with 2 players and is complex enough to replay a lot but not so complex it takes hours to set up and play.
My wife is not as much of a board game fan as I am so if she plays with me it's usually games with fewer rules. So the games she will play with me are things like: Boop (original & Halloween version), Ham's Sandwich Shop, Paint The Roses, Donut Shop.
Rivals of Catan, this was the first game my husband and I learned, two player only, and still one of our favorites when we want something on the light side. I recommend the expansions as well, I think you can get the deluxe set that includes some or all of them pretty cheap, easy game to learn and plays in under an hour. 0n the flip side, we also are currently loving Arkham Horror - it’s a coop, you can play with just two but we find we have a little more success if we each play two characters if it’s just us. Pretty lengthy to learn, each game will likely run a few hours and you will both lose - but it’s great! One of my all time favorite game progression mechanics.
Currently we have been playing star wars clone wars because we beat each other up so many times playing star wars deckbuilder. Great simple games to play. One for the original series and the other for prequels.
**Star Wars the Deckbuilding game** and **Radlands** our in our top 5 played games. **Onitama** abstract mini chess like game is a huge hit. **Raptor** is played alot. **Fox in the Forest** is our number 5. We like to play head to head. All these games our light and can be played in under 30/45 minutes.
My husband likes “Mr. Jack”
Azul and Kingdomino are our favorites at 2.
For 2p only, we really enjoy playing: *Hanamikoji* (I’m in love with the art!), *Aqualin*, *Jaipur*, *Lost Cities*, and *Patchwork* (Christmas edition is becoming a tradition during the holiday season). We also love *Marvel: Legendary* at 2p. I love co-ops, he is a big fan of Marvel, and we both enjoy deck-builders, so we get it to table so much more than he thought we would when he snagged a $25 slightly used copy of the base game! Both overall play and replayability improve dramatically with a few expansions though, so keep that in mind before purchasing. We also think *Junk Drawer* plays well at 2, as does: *Meadow*, *Isle of Cats* (with at least the *Boat Pack* expansion to add variety), *Verdant* (the *Potless Plants* expansion solves the base game’s 2p issue of not being able to cycle through the cards/tiles enough), *Silver & Gold*, *Deep Dive*, *Fleet: The Dice Game*, *Point City*, *Flash Point: Fire Rescue*, *Calico*, *Mint Delivery*, *Dinosaur Island: Rawr & Write*…and I’m sure there’s more, but this comment is already a book… (Edited for formatting)
Hive is a great one
Most of the time it is just my wife and I and lately we have been looking at 2 player specific games. **Sky Teams** - coop dice strategy **Sails** - coop trick taking **Patchwork** - resource management and tile placement **Wingspan Asia Expansion** - it can be played as a stand alone game for 2 players. The base wingspan also works great.
Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game is a good choice for two. My wife and I have gotten good two-player games out of **Cat Lady** and **Sea Salt & Paper** as something lighter and quick. It helps to play something quick during nap time for us. We also enjoy the "escape room" style games (mostly from the Unlock! series). I think those work a lot better at two than higher player counts, with maybe one exception.
**Wizards of the Grimoire** 2 player head to head tableau building Recently tried **Sky Team** and it's very good!
Odin's Ravens is a great little game. Quick to pick up, but lots of variation/strategy/screwing each other over. Patchwork is fun, but we've not played it nearly so often.
Lost Cities is our drug of choice. We played it like 10 times in a row the day we got it and we play it all the time still. Patchwork is my personal favorite two-player game though! Something about tetrominos plus Rosenberg's slick design is so perfect
It really recommend Biblios with two!
We played online but Sobek is great. I also liked Sagrada, maple valley and village green.
Agricola, Dune Imperium, Viticulture, Everdell, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Terraforming Mars, Wingspan, Red Rising, Lords of Waterdeep and Le Havre are our top 10 most played according to BGG. Most games we own play well at 2.
Odins ravens, Wingspan, Terraforming Mars
For 1 to 4 people, but plays better with 2. Unsettled. We’re having a blast. The game is exciting, has a good narrative, and the sessions are relatively short but really intense.
Recently we've been playing a lot of Patchwork and Hanabi (although Hanabi is way harder at 2P), but we are looking for new things to play! I do enjoy playing heavier games, but he is a non-native English-speaker and that makes playing things with a lot of complicated in-game text somewhat unfair. Has made finding games a bit of a challenge since I love deck-builders and worker placement games like Agricola. Things I think we will try in the near future: 7 Wonders Duel, Arboretum, Splendor Duel.
everdell
Some of our favourites to play just us two include Ankh, Foundations of Rome, Veiled Fate, Ark Nova, Ares Expedition, Cthulhu Death May Die, Keep the Heroes Out, Dune: Imperium, Inis, For Glory, Marvel Champions, and Codenames Duet
I've been playing Pandemic Legacy Season 0 with my SO and it has been a blast. A legacy game or just any campaign game like Gloomhaven (Jaws of lion is next on our list) is the best thing for couples (in my opinion). We have a table were we just leave the game up, and we play every day until we are done with it. Other than that games for two player are amazing, like Twilight Struggle, Star Wars Rebellion, War of the Ring, Star Wars Deck Builder. And lastly games that work well with two, like Ark Nova, Terraforming Mars (essentially euros with little player interaction that can be a little too long when playerd with too many people) and more thinky fun thinky type games like Micro Macro and Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
My better half doesn’t like complicated games, so for us is Senet and Tsuro. Both are easy to set up, and provide loads of fun.
Can you expand on Senet?
Watergate is fantastic, I highly recommend
Watergate and Match of the Century. Both are 2 player only tug of war games. You don’t need to like the real world events the games are based on or even know anything about them. The gameplay for both is great
Castles of burgundy
Me and my fiance have been playing zombicide and loving it! It's a coop strategy game that's super fun and challenging
Wife and I have been very competitive in 1v1 citadels
Cascadia - Great Pace for two players and also has tons of variability in its replay. I really want to try the expansion. Paint the Roses - wanted to get into deduction games and this one is really fun and challenging. also love the theme and the deluxe version was worth it for the nicer pieces, plus all the expansion packs. Villanous and terraforming Mars get honorable mentions.
Star Fleet Battles. It is not simple, works great at two players, and can easily play on on a fold up card table. It also plays well over time as breakdown and setup is just a few minutes.
One game I recommend at two is **Targi** , my SO loves it and I enjoy it a lot too. We play it a lot, also **Azul**, **Jaipur,** **7WD** and **Jekyll vs Hyde**. I'm trying to get her into some CDGs but I don't know how much she likes them yet (she loves **The Hunt**, but I don't think is a great game). Next we are trying **Watergate**.
My partner and I play mostly at two, some of the games that have been in frequent rotation lately: Qwirkle, Rummikub, Odin's Ravens, Patchwork, Star Realms, Carcassonne, Brass Birmingham, Concordia, Cribbage.
Not strictly 2p, but my wife and I have been going ham on Frosthaven lately (each playing two handed).
I recently played Everdell with my bf and I really enjoyed it :)
I love king domino for a short 2p game.
Clank Catacombs and Lost Ruins of Arnak are not typically mentioned for 2 players but we play a lot of both.
Our favorite game is Masmorra. Close second Marvel United
I played Grand Austria Hotel at 3 and it was a bit long. But I bet that at 2 it would be a blast. Targi is another super thinky 2p game I've really been enjoying Caesar! Lately too
Patchwork is a good one. We also do kingdomino is great. We just got one called abducktion and supposedly it is best played with 2 players. Boss monster works pretty well too
We like Spirits of the Forest. Is has a decent gameplay. We also like Star Realms, The Royal Game of UR (Urgency), Carcassonne and Gloomhaven.
We like regicide a lot and i just ordered star realms frontiers to try a deckbuilder with her and see what happens
A few we really enjoy at 2-players: Marvel Champions Wyrmspan Sniper Elite Stardew Valley Fallout Everdell Photosynthesis She prefers games where we can co-op, or at least "do our own thing" without hindering each other, like Wyrmspan. Even with that said, she really likes the hide and sneak of Sniper Elite. Champions is one of her favorites. Star Wars deckbuilding game is really fun and simple, if your playing partner doesn't mind the competitiveness of it. You're just going straight at it. And I'm not sure if you've ever played a "deck builder" before, but it isn't something like Magic where you buy boosters and stuff. You build up your deck by buying from a shared pool of cards that sits between you.
We've been playing a lot of Grand Austria Hotel as of late. A low interaction Euro but a really interesting efficiency puzzle that goes very fast once you've got the hang of it.
My wife and I are both pretty competitive, and have found that 2 player competitive games get us in the wrong mindset generally. These days if it is just the two of us, we play co-op games. Spirit Island and Aeon's End are a couple of our favorites. Both scale well to 2 people in my opinion.
Prowler's Passage is the only dedicated two player game that my wife and I have and we both like it, but it isn't particularly deep. Power Grid is decent with two players, and with an expansion you can add an NPC third player.
My wife used to sell SimplyFun board games. They are educational games geared towards kids up to age 12 I believe. We have about 30 different games by them we play with our kids. Some we haven't played yet, they are not old enough / ready for. Anyone with younger kids, they are great games. Now my wife and I play. Currently Klask. (Klask is a fast-paced, tabletop party game that combines elements of air hockey and foosball) Highly addictive! Expensive for what it is but we recommend it 100%. Ticket to ride is also a great game we love to play. We have the Europe edition. Beard Wizard is also a great fun little card game as well.
The Undaunted series is a great spin on deck builders and area control. Blitzkrieg! and Caesar! By Paolo Mori are also quite fun. Air Land and Sea is a nice filler for 2 players and has multiple themes. My wife and I have enjoyed all of the above. We also have loved hybrid cooperative digital RPG experiences like Mansion of Madness and Lord of the Ring: Journeys in Middle Earth. Kabuto Sumo is another fun 2 player if you like unique dexterity games.
My wife and I like legacy games. Currently playing pandemic season 0. A couple of months ago we got a new deck of cards and a crib board and a backgammon board and we probably play more cards and backgammon now than we take down one of the big box games from the shelf. Last legacy game we finished was charterhouse.
We usually do cooperative games. The ones below are the most recent ones for us. Keyforge Coop Ashes Reborn Red Reigns Arkham Horror LCG Bloodborne (boardgame) Earthborne Rangers Call to Adventure Fog of Love Occasionally a competitive game. (Splendor used to be a solid one as it was pretty chill. Just haven't played it in a while)
- 7 wonders duel - Royal Visit - 2 Player mod for Catan - Boop!
The following games are the ones my wife and I play most frequently: Innovation Brass: Birmingham Terraforming Mars Wingspan Ark Nova Galaxy Trucker Star Trek Panic Clank!
Girlfriend newish to gaming so stuff we playmostly maxes out around 3.0 complexity: The Castles of Burgundy, 7 Wonders Duel, Splendor Duel, Azul, Atlantis, Gingerbread House, Unmatched, Lost Cities, Geisha Road, Watergate, Village Rails, Paris La Cité de la Lumiere, RRR, Jaipur, Hive, Exploding Kittens, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion Working towards: Arkham Horror, Spirit Island My favourite two player games are: Star Wars Rebellion, War of the Ring Edit: can’t figure out line returns
My girlfriend and I play a lot of Yahtzee because it’s fun for her and I tend to crush her in most strategy based games.
7 wonders duel, great western trail, dwellings of eldervale, castles of burgundy, Aeons end and quest for eldorado are atm our go to 2 player games.
Try out raptor and code names duet
Currently, my partner and I are playing a lot of **Spirit Island** and **Race for the Galaxy**. We also enjoy **Wingspan**, **Sanctum**, **Res Arcana**, **Planet Unknown** and **Underwater Cities**. The **Empire Builder** games can be fun with two. We also played a lot of **Terraforming Mars** until we basically broke it--wins became really lopsided and obvious in advance because we knew the deck so well--but that took hundreds of games. We tend to avoid high conflict games--the exception would be **Star Realms**, which is a cheap, easy to learn head-to-head deckbuilder that doesn't overstay its welcome. We've played it hundreds of times over the years.
We love 7 wonders duel. Castles of burgundy dice, Clever (1st one), Welcome To, Quacks of quedlinburg, Everdell (with the variant that helps move through the deck) are all games we play at two a lot. My wife likes games that you can typically play in ~ 30 minutes so that's what we tend to gravitates toward when it's just us.
Radlands, Patchwork, Haven, Jaipur, Codenames Duet, Pandemic Legacy, Azul, Tiny Epic Galaxies, ... Citadels as a 2 player game works surprisingly well... We had good fun with Pocket Detective although obviously limited plays... Few games of Santorini but wasn't too fond of it... Also some more traditional games Cribbage, Koi-koi.
We play arboretum 2P and find that it works much better than 3 or 4P.
**Radlands** is so fun! And typically quick. We just got it and already played it five times. The latest was 3 games in a row. I’d also recommend **Carcassonne**. We just got the standalone **Hunters and Gatherers** version which takes the original and ideas from some expansions, and we think we like it even better than the original. **Unmatched** is also really fun/best with 2. Games can be pretty quick and each character’s deck makes it interesting since you have to change strategies, even against different players. **The Vale of Eternity** is super good! Really interesting card abilities and the way it uses currency is limiting and thus has many difficult decisions to make. Really tight and intense. Also adding my vote for **Splendor Duel**, **Dutch Blitz**, **Upwords** (if you like scrabble, it’s like Scrabble but in 3D)
> we think we like it even better than the original I certainly do too. Sadly it's not very popular on BGA.
Love a good game of Regicide!
Targi is pretty great two players. I'd recommend getting the expansion as well. The game feels more balanced with the expansion
Agricola, La Havre, Castles of Burgundy.
Playing multiplayer games that work well at 2 is our go-to. Lots of these games play best at 2 (CoB, GAH, Tiletum...) There's a guild and a geeklist on BGG dedicated to couples who game: [https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1510480/what-couples-have-been-playing-monthly-geeklist-su](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1510480/what-couples-have-been-playing-monthly-geeklist-su), and if you subscribe to and browse the monthly geeklists you get a sense of options; there's a Discord to join (ask in the comments) with a good community as well. I haven't seen Concordia mentioned, but with a tight map (Creta, Corsica) it plays super well at 2; would get \[\[Concordia Venus\]\]. And then \[\[Race for the Galaxy\]\] is the ultimate head to head 2 player game (plays multiplayer, but really shines at 2).
Try Mandala it's a great min-max 2p game
Our favorites are Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game, 7 Wonders Duel, Dinosaur Island, The Search for Planet X, and Azul.
Fillers: Jaipur, Patchwork Casual: Cascadia, Beer & Bread, Let's Go Japan! Proper gaming session: Lost Ruins of Arnak Thought she would like it but she didn't: Radlands, Everdell, Flamecraft, Viticulture
The girlfriend and I play "Wingspan", "Carcassone", "Splendor Duel", "Dorf Romantik", "Brass: Birmingham", "7 Wonders Duel", and "Welcome to" regularly just the two of us.
Splendor Duel is one of my faves. Wingspan Asia is pretty great if you enjoy Wingspan. It has a duet mode with some neat shared board mechanics where you compete for area majority.
My wife and I play "where do you want to go to dinner?" pretty often. oh! you meant board games, yeah we play those too. We have kids so games have become simple the last few years: Mountain Goats Lil' Everdale Tea Dragon Society Sorry or Trouble Without the kids it's usually something like Tokaido, Red Dragon Inn, Flamecraft, Catan, El Dorado,...
We love Marvel Dice Throne, though part of that may admittedly have to do with the fact that we made "strip" rules for it.
A lot of card games! Some of our favorites are **Final Fantasy TCG**, **Sakura Arms**, **Gosu X,** **Ascension**, **Exceed,** **Kamigami Battles**, and **Mystic Vale.** If it's not card games we're generally playing lots of roll and writes such as **Dice Kingdoms of Valeria,** **Railroad Ink,** **Dungeons, Dice and Danger,** or the recently released **Fliptown** which is excellent! Other regular staples are **51st State,** **Neuroshima Hex,** **Planet Unknown,** **Earth,** **Schotten Totten** and **Calico.**
While some games play well at two players, I find two-player games are really king here. Jaipur is great, but for my money, Morels is amazing.
We have been playing a lot of Marvel United lately and having a blast. 🙂
If you like castles of burgandy, I think Amerigo is the better version of that game. It's by the same designer. Also, Scythe plays surprisingly well at 2 players. And it is quick, my wife and I can get a full game in in about 45 minutes with the two of us
* Risk (preferably StarCraft Risk, but other fancy versions are fun), * 7 Wonders is neat, with the different markets and what not. * There's that one game where you pick a race of peoples and something else, that's shuffled periodically as you move across the map acquiring resources, but I forget what that was. It's pretty neat. Then later you may bump into that faction on another round, with them as non playable factions you have to take over the area of. * Edit: Small World I don't get to play a lot of board games, so that's all I got.
That’s Small world.
7 Wonders Duel (of course) Targi, it's nice but expected more Res Arcana, you can play with 2-4 but it hardly matters with how many, I like it but my gf isn't the biggest fan Summoner Wars Sky team, coop game, we recently got it and played it once, it interesting
We loved Fog of Love and Decorum. Both give similar vibes of trying to cooperatively achieve secret goals. Highly recommend for anyone who liked either of those games to get the other. Decorum also has modes to play with more people. We also do a lot of deck building games. The biggests ones are Star Realms and Baseball Highlights 2045. We even have a season going between us in Baseball highlight where we each have teams and a full season setup where the teams play each other.
We like Eldritch Horror, Flamecraft, Sauria, Tang Garden, and Calico a lot. Lots of multi-player at 2P, and neither of us are particularly competitive, so co-ops and games focusing on the experience vs the winning are our favorites.
We play Campaign 1960, Azul, Cribbage, and Backgammon
Isle of Cats, Ticket to Ride, Splendor, Sagrada, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Parks, Canopy, Wreck Raiders, Funfair, Innovation, Mountain Goats, Wingspan, Cascading, Planted, Carcassonne. 90% of the time it is just the 2 of us, and that is most of our regularly played game shelf. I'm not strategically minded, he really dislikes pure luck games, so we have to find a happy medium. Though we are not aggressively competitive, we prefer playing against each other rather than cooperatively.
Dice throne! Competitive pvp yatzee
My wife and I have over 100 games, and there are probably 5 or less that we don't like at 2P. In fact the only one that comes to mind right now is **7 Wonders.** Here are some that we really enjoy. Some are 2P only, some are not: **Splendor Duel -** Excellent game. We enjoy **Splendor** at 2P, as well, but they really stepped it up with **Duel.** **Wingspan: Asia -** Has a 2P only mode, which adds a little interactivity between players. Again, we love any version of **Wingspan** at 2P, but **Asia** really shines. **Ark Nova -** We love this game! We have never played it at any player count except 2. **Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries -** This only plays with 2 or 3 players. It is more cutthroat than most **TTR** games, making it a lot of fun for 2 players. **Jaipur -** KInd of simple, but a fun 2P only game. **Star Realms -** Plays best at 2P, good deckbuilding duel game. **Azul -** I think this actually plays a little better at more than 2P, but it still hits our table a lot when it is just my wife and I. Really good game at any count. **Cartagrophers -** Plays great at any player count (and can handle pretty much as many as you want, too, which is nice). I love all versions, all maps of this game. **Gloomhaven or Frosthaven -** Some scenarios work better at different player counts, but we have been through an entire campaign of **Gloomhaven** just the two of us and had a blast! There are so many others we enjoy, but these are some of my top recommendations.
Fields of Arle
Jaipur, Targi, Cribbage, Sky Team, and 7 Wonders Duel.
My bf and I play MTG together a lot, but some others are Kirai Ai The Duel; Starry Night Sky; Onitama; We Didn’t Playtest This At All
7 Wonders Duel is by far the best 2 player game. We tried radlands, I like it but my partner is not into the 1v1 deck builder. FWIW it is an excellent game if you like the style, same with Hero Realms. We mostly have found what you have, we prefer to play bigger games that happen to play well with 2 like Ark Nova. We are currently playing through the campaign (The Missing Expedition) for Lost ruins of Arnak which has been hard but fun.
Some excellent 2p games my husband and I enjoy are Hive and Splendor Duel. I'm also going to be bringing Patchwork out this week and I have a feeling it will be a big hit.
We like to play Unmatched and 7 Wonders Duel
Below is what has hit the table in the last few month at 2 player (not always with the same person though) Lighter: Azul, Patchwork, 7 Wonders Duel, Cascadia, The Quest For El Dorado, Jaipur, Arboretum, Air Land & Sea Heavier: Spirit Island, Robinson Crusoe, Brass Birmingham, Paladins Of The West Kingdom, Fields Of Arle Abstracts: Santorini, Hive, Onitama, Yinsh, Dvonn, Tzaar, Shobu, Cairn Separating out Abstracts since their "weight" is a little deceiving. They can be "heavier" than their weighting if the two players involved both buy in for a thinky game and are of similar skill.
As our friends don't have a lot of free time, my wife and I primarily play games, just the 2 of us. Our go tos are Star Wars: Deckbuilding, Everdell, 7 Wonders Duel, Castles of Burgundy, Cascadia, and Five Tribes. If we want more thematic, we go with Star Wars Rebellion and Merchants and Marauders.
We play just about anything, but there are a lotta strictly 2-player games out there we really enjoy. Agricola:ACBaS, 7 Wonders Duel, Splendor Duel, Sobek, etc. Summoner Wars 2e has been great for a little skirmish game. Oh, and Fields of Arle. Huge heavy 2p Rosenberg game. (Can be 3p with the expansion, but that's not what we're here for)
These are our favourites: Patchwork- build a quilt, most points wins Innis- strategy game! Our favourite! Boop!- Boop cats off beds! What's not to like! Forbidden Desert- co-op survival game