The Best Board Games For Two Players...That Aren't Specifically Two Player! (Episode 4)

[@Top10-q4n7k]

pls do not stop making these list because me and my wife are fan of this 2 player series we love all of your recccomended games . Thanks again for making this videos. No other channel making these videos and the funny thing is that most of the people play board game with 2 players.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Don't worry we won't long as we're still enjoying games at two player! Thanks for the support and I'm really glad you enjoy the series.

[@stevewithington1787]

Good call on Coffee Traders. We love it at two.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Glad to hear it's not just us! Thanks :)

[@georgecaistor-parker6085]

Brilliant video! Always hard to find games that play well for 2 players but can be used when more friends are over!

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Exactly the goal we were aiming for so we’re super happy it’s helpful!

[@varianor]

It’s excellent that you guys are on your fourth video on this topic. I think there will be games in the future for you as a couple with this great series of takes. In particular laughing about how Intrepid “almost ended your relationship” was a funny, personal take that I laughed out loud at. You just have those moments. To your inquiry about multiplayer games that are really good at two player, I have one game to nominate for you: Pandemic Hot Zone: North America. The game is a nice, slimmed down version of the original at four player. However at two - you probably want the Dispatcher and Medic in play - it shines. You are working with your partner to beat the plague. And if you’re in sync and the cards don’t hose you, you have a fair shot at winning. It’s so satisfying to give disease a smack down as a team of two.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Absolutely 😂 Thanks for the suggestion!

[@TerreDiceGames]

Great video and great explanations!! Several of these are games we love at two! Always wanted to try El Dorado. Thanks for sharing!

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Great to hear! Thanks for watching ☺️

[@BillyIndiana]

Great video! My wife & I play 2-player most of the time, so this topic is great for us. I really want to try The Quest for El Dorado & Hadrian's Wall.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Thanks for watching! Hope it was helpful 🙌🏻

[@Coffeemaker1978]

Nice list, Splendor Duel I just recently bought for my wife. It’s great for two where one is casual gamer only.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

We've never played Splendor, but heard really good things about Duel! Thanks for the recommendation!

[@michaeldarling7169]

Wow! You included some really interesting games, and some I haven't seen before. I'll be checking out Mantis Falls for sure! In this category, we also like Lords of Waterdeep and Obsession. They are great at 2 players.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Seen a lot of hype about Obsession lately...we're fairly interested but I think it's a struggle to get now!

[@filiplazov5895]

Ark Nova falls in this category very much, thanks for the video, I never considered Coffee Traders because of player count, will check it out :)

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Soon as Ark Nova is in stock again I hope to give it a go!

[@spaztekwarrior]

Always a good idea to do this list :) Sometimes you want a great two player experience out of a game that supports many players. That reminds me I have to get Mind Mgmt:)

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Honestly that would probably be our across the board number 1 recommendation from this video ;)

[@BoardOfItReviews]

@BoardOfItReviews Hey everyone! We really appreciate you watching! If you found this helpful, please consider subscribing as it helps us grow our channel. More subscribers makes us more attractive to publishers, which allows us to collaborate with them and make more videos! It's costly and time consuming to make these videos, so we could really use the support! :)

[@boardgamesandwhiskyuk1646]

Great content as usual. Still need to get Mind MGMT to the table since purchasing it. A few games my wife and I enjoy at two which are designed for more are - Manhattan project : Energy empire, Trajan, At the gates of Loyang, Viticulture, Everdell. The list goes on 😀

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Thanks for the recommendations! Some of those are our favourites too! Also yea, defo get Mind MGMT to the table ;).

[@stoneghe3]

hi from Barcelona! My favourite game for two players is Grand Austria Hotel and signorie. Greats games, especially GHA :)

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Hello! Thanks for the recommendations! We're fairly interested in GAH for a few reasons so maybe we'll pick it up!

[@Hardcorestilllives]

cascadia is such a smooth game!

[@BoardOfItReviews]

It really is 👌🏻

[@lemilfy]

I’ll definitely give imperial steam a try, thanks for the recom! I was initially interested in coffee trader but its cost and ai to play at 2p are big turn offs for us to be played at exclusively at that player count as you mentioned. I dont know if you mentioned it in other 2p recom videos but all of lacerda games work so well with 2p

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Hope you like it! Yea I think that's fair with Coffee Traders. We've mentioned both Kanban EV and On Mars previously I think, and I could see us adding Vinhos to a future list. What's your favourite Lacerda?

[@Coffeemaker1978]

If you haven’t tried Rome & Roll I’ll highly recommend that!

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Hahah awkward moment...we did try it and hated it. Like maybe the most out of any game we've played. Think we actually have a mini-review of it somewhere on a roll and write round up.

[@Coffeemaker1978]

@@BoardOfItReviews haha 😆

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Thank you for the recommendation though!

[@Coffeemaker1978]

@@BoardOfItReviews no worries. I liked it and as Hadrians Wall it is more of a board game than flip n write.

[@littlebluecubes]

Interesting. Based on your review of Coffee Traders which went “great heavy game which has quite a few issues that make it questionable if the big price tag is worth it”, I thought you didn’t quite recommend the game. So a bit surprised to see thy feature in your list, that too in a 2-player list. Have your impressions on the game changed slightly in favour of the game by any chance?

[@BoardOfItReviews]

The thing is that I believe most of the serious negativity from the review was non-gameplay related (terrible rulebook, unnecessary metal coins, broken components) which we still stand by, but perhaps in retrospect we would have liked to be a bit less harsh overall. If you like big heavy euros, it's got really terrific gameplay that feels fairly unique and there isn't much we don't like on that side of things. I think if this existed with a good rulebook, no errors, and maybe a scaled down price by taking out the metal coins, we'd 100% recommend it. Also, while we like this to differing degrees, Tallie loves it (and loves it at two), so that made it worthy to us of adding it to the list!

[@littlebluecubes]

@@BoardOfItReviews Thanks for taking the time to respond. Your review of Coffee Traders was the one that talked me out of getting the game :) Like you said, outside of the specific things where you had an issue, I felt the overall tone of the review didn’t seem in favour of the game. The issues you noted were certainly problems but I’m sure there’s a weightage system somewhere under the hood in the reviews such as 40% gameplay, 10% replayability, 10% player count, 20% components, 10% rulebooks/player aids and 10% accessibility. That way we can know where it excels and where it fails and people might have their own weights for these parameters and judge them accordingly. Also, I don’t think price point should be a parameter. That probably should be left to the buyer as it’s something in their awareness and control. These are just my views. You’re doing a fine job as it is. Anyway, your thoughts on Coffee Traders is more clear to me now. Would give it another look. Thanks again. Cheers!

[@BoardOfItReviews]

We personally don’t like to weight our reviews in such a way because it’s of course so subjective and the importance of those things could change from game to game. For us, some of the issues, eg the messy rule book here, are exacerbated by the high price because we don’t think it’s good enough to have to spend so much and something as simple as the rules isn’t optimised. Player count might be super important again when combined with price because if a game is on the lower end of the price scale maybe it won’t matter so much to some people that they might not get the game out so often because it doesn’t scale well at 2 players for instance. Of course price is super subjective and will depend on an individual’s circumstances so should be decided as such, but thats exactly what we’re doing here, bringing our personal opinion in and giving our stance on it based on what we think, as in our reviews, are are stating our personal experiences with a game and not just stating the facts, if that makes sense, as that’s how we choose to present them! ☺️

[@XxfieryfirexX]

Fantastic. Interested to try some of these games with the wifey

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Excellent! Do let us know if you have any specific questions about any of the games!

[@XxfieryfirexX]

@@BoardOfItReviews We bought Scythe since you both loved it so much. from your first review. At first my wife didnt like it. But as soon as she learnt it she is well hooked to it now.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Aaaah that’s great to hear - excellent that she came around to it! 🙌🏻

[@JohnPywtorak]

Thanks, will be picking some up, really helped. As far as Mantis Falls, it depends on either or both players being imaginative, creative twisters of words, or outright liars. This does not come easy to some and playing silently is not a solution. For us, we couldn’t do it, it was painful to try and exaggerate or lie. It was obvious and didn’t get easier. I wanted to like it, but without mechanics to help the person distort the truth it put a strain on the other player to be wittier. This strain was no fun, painful. If both parties are story tellers or creative with words, then go for it. The games rules insist on resolving the event truthfully, but prior to that you have to navigate how to portray it. There should have been a mechanical way to do a bad thing without relying on players to twist the truth verbally with so significant an emphasis.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Hope you enjoy them! That's completely fair about Mantis Falls, if you aren't comfortable with social deception games then you'll likely struggle. I will say that when we play we don't get really creative or story tell, we just say the basics and keep it simple. Like, hey this is an opposition, and you'll have to take the damage if we don't defeat it (if it said the player chooses who takes damage). It keeps it simple and harder to distinguish a lie.