Recommended two-player board games under sixty minutes
Hi there!
From time to time, me and wife enjoy playing 7 Wonders Duel on our weekends and we like that it's not that long because we always have to do other things. Of course, always playing the same game starts to get old (even though 7 Wonders Duel is quite great).
My wife was not totally excited by Jaipur, Santorini and Patchwork, for example. So, which board games would you recommend for two players where the playing time doesn't exceed 60 minutes? The board games don't need to be 2-player specific (like 7 Wonders Duel), though.
Edit: For future reference to other players. Besides the great recomendations in this post, I also found other very interesting 2-player games under 60 minutes. They are, Hanamikoji, Kodama Duo, Yokohama Duel and 13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis. I actually bought Hanamikoji because it's so cheap and fast. Great game too!
With me an my non-gaming wife, Jambo continues to be the biggest hit despite us having played it for over a decade. It's a lovely hand management and trading game with fairly little confrontational interaction (good for marriage), but just enough to keep it interesting. Do get the expansions though, as they really add to the game (although we don't use all the extra rules).
Saint Petersburg is a little bit of a hidden gem that I don't see discussed all that often. We love it though and it works really with just two players as well. In it, you are building and settling the titular Russian city. I love the graphics!
San Juan is another city building, card-driven game. In fact, a card version of the ever popular Puerto Rico. Wife really loves this one, but I prefer to play with at least three players.
Taluva is one of my own personal favourites. I love the three-dimensional aspect of the board and how the volcanic island rises from the ocean. Brilliantly done. But wife doesn't like it at all when I blow up her settlements with new eruptions so refuses to play it. See if you can get your wife interested in it though, it's a game worth trying.
Schotten Totten and Lost Cities are a couple of fairly abstract card games by the master Reiner Knizia himself. I prefer the former, wife prefers the latter. Both play in under half an hour and are particularly good games to take on a trip.
Wife loves Ticket to Ride to pieces, so we got the 2-3 player Switzerland board. It was too confrontational for her though, so we tend to just play the Europe board even when there's just the two of us.
Pandemic can also be played in under an hour so we give it a go every now and then when we want to play co-operatively. We still haven't lost a single game, actually!
The similarly co-operative Codenames: Duet is a pretty good and quick game to play if you want to play in the same team, very much recommended.
Two-player Hanabi works as well, now that we are talking about co-operative card games. Can wreck your brain, though.
Speaking of hurting your brain, Set is great fun, especially with a drink or two.
Dominion works fairly well with two. Wife likes it more than I do but gets mad at me when I build optimal decks that loop through every turn. Apparently, it's against the spirit of the game.
Finally, I suppose Carcassonne must be mentioned as well, although in our case wife doesn't like it and I have played it way too much elsewhere. But it's a great game, of course.
Fantastic suggestions! :D
For San Juan, I think it's also worth mentioning Race for the Galaxy. They're both built on similar role-selection mechanisms, but RftG has a bit more complexity at the cost of a learning curve, but still plays super quick once you get the hang of it. Obviously personal preferences will come into play, but as someone who likes the complexity, I would pick RftG over San Juan every time. :p
And for Schotten Totten, it's almost identical to a game called Battle Line—same designer, too. I think Battle Line just has a bit of extra content, so you can play Schotten Totten with a copy of Battle Line but not vice versa. I did find the visual design of Battle Line a little lacking, though—it was hard to distinguish colors in certain lighting conditions, and I'm not even color blind.
And while I'm here, I'll toss in Mottainai. It's a lovely little card game about collecting resources, crafting things with them, and either selling them or putting them in a gallery. I also love the papercraft-inspired artwork on the cards.
Thanks for the recommendations!
Pandemic is great (some friends have that game) and Ticket to Ride Europe I already own it and it is also fun, I like the route building. :)
I already own Puerto Rico not sure if having San Juan would be the same game but with 2-player version.
I know Codenames but I was never impressed with the game. In a way it seems too easy and boring. I hope I get to play it for real one of these days. I'm also not sure why but Lost Cities and Schotten Totten seem unappealing, maybe too much luck based in my view.
I have to get Dominion from a friend and try. I know it is very popular but I'm not sure about the deck building. Deck building reminds me of playing Yugi-oh when I was a kid and I thought it was not that fun.
Jambo and St. Petersburg seem fun, I have to check them out!
I'm happy if these have helped! If you get Jambo and/or St Petersburg, let me know how you guys liked it!
I would say that San Juan is a fairly different game from Puerto Rico, although it uses some of the same core concepts. However, @Grawlix made a good point in another comment that in terms of the rule sets, Race for the Galaxy is actually a better game, so you might want to consider it instead, especially if you are worried about San Juan being too similar to Puerto Rico. I didn't recommend RftG myself because for some inexplicable reason I have never quite liked it as much as San Juan, and my wife didn't like the theme, so I have rarely played it with just two players.
While there is some luck involved in Schotten Totten and Lost Cities, I would say that skill, planning and risk analysis are much more important factors than luck. But personally I also tend to enjoy games with a luck factor, as it forces one to react and adjust playing strategy.
Sure thing :)
From a lot of recommendations here, I noticed that a lot of 2-player games are Deck Building. So for now I think I'm staying away of these types of games, like RftG. I'll get Dominion from a friend and see if I like these types of games so for the future these recommendations can help :)
I'm a bit the opposite, I like games that have not so much luck (I really hate Catan, for example). 7 Wonders Duel has a bit of luck, of course, but usually you have other cards that you can choose and help you with a different strategy. Catan, for example, is all of nothing. Didn't get the dice numbers that you need? "Tough luck, buddy". So yeah, I was a afraid that Lost Cities and Schotten Totten could be a little like that. Maybe the Youtube video I watched was not so great. I'm going to watch another one.
I wouldn't really compare Schotten Totten and Lost Cities to Catan in terms of luck. Catan, as important as it was historically, is still a bit of a Monopoly design and something that I really don't enjoy playing. ST and LC are rather more akin to a standard card game. The deck brings an element of luck into play, but you can (and should) manage that luck, as with bridge or Tichu or any other card game.
As for RftG, I don't think it features any sort of a deck building mechanism, unless we are talking about different things. Which we might, of course. You mentioned Yu-gi-oh earlier, and while I have never played it, I don't think it features a deck building mechanism in the sense of Dominion, either. While you do build Yu-Gi-Oh decks in the literal sense of the word (it being a collectible card game), that's a very different thing from what is meant by the deck building mechanism of Dominion and its kind, where the deck building is a core mechanism of the game play loop itself, not something that happens outside of the game. Anyway, try Dominion and you'll see if you like it.
Thanks for the great write-up :)
Yes, maybe I'm confused. I always had the impression that deck building would be something like "building" a strong hand to defeat your opponent. Be it by, taking cards from a deck, from the board or stealing from your opponent.
How well does 2 player Hanabi work in practice? I've only done it once, and it felt like we were going back and forth where I provided information, and my partner just acted on that information.
I would say the sweet spot is 3 or 4 players, but two has certainly worked fine for us on multiple occasions and we haven't really ended up with the kind of loop that you mentioned. Did you score well?
Just want to say, this is a fantastic write up and a huge shout out for mentioning St. Peterburg. I've only gotten a chance to play it once, but it was awesome.
My suggestion for you, though, if you've never lost a game of Pandemic, I highly invite you to try out Pandemic: Legacy, which turns normal pandemic into a campaign mode. Very cool experience!
Thanks!
I've actually been eyeing both seasons of Pandemic legacy for me and with my wife recently, but haven't bitten yet. Maybe after we finish with our current endeavour of trying to beat all the scenarios of Robinson Crusoe.
A funny (?) story, though. With a group of childhood friends, we have this long tradition of renting a cottage in the middle of nowhere each year for the last weekend of September. Depending on everyone's availability, between 15-20 of us get together to catch up, play board games, consume copious amounts of alcohol and get seriously sleep deprived. Good for the soul, bad for the body.
Some years ago, one of the guys brought the first season of Pandemic Legacy. I was quite curious about it, but when he said that he wanted to play it through that same weekend, I declined to participate.
Still, he managed to get a group of four players together and heroically they started the campaign on Friday evening. For three days, those guys, sitting around the kitchen table, played nothing but Pandemic Legacy, game after game after game. While there was much enthusiasm in the room on Friday, come Saturday afternoon we started to hear exchanges like "This game is total shit." "So, another round?" "Of course, we haven't finished yet." from the kitchen, every hour or so. On Sunday morning, they finally finished the campaign. Asked if it was worth it, we got a very resounding NO. I think they may actually have burnt the game later that morning.
Now, their mistake of course was that Pandemic Legacy isn't meant to be played in one sitting. As I understand it, the rules don't change enough to keep it fresh and carry some 20 hours of almost continuous play. Or at least it didn't for them. Still, for anyone not participating in this campaign towards insanity, but checking out the progress every couple of hours and seeing how each time the guys were more tired, more annoyed, more bored, and more drunk, it is a memory that I will cherish for years to come.
Man, what a great story!
I definitely have to try Pandemic Legacy, I really like the original Pandemic. Luckily, my company has a board game group and one of these days, I'll try it also. I just hope it's not in German. :)
Probably, you already know it, but Spirit Island also seems a very awesome co-op game! In case you don't know, check it out!
I actually don't really know anything about Spirit Island. Looks quite interesting though, thanks for the recommendation!
No problem :)
OH MAN that sounds insane. I fucking love it.
Next time I play I'll say to my group we need to have a toast for your past public health experts that failed in their duties.
Mancala. It is a super-old game where you strategically move rocks around a board and try to acquire as many of them as you can. I'd estimate you could play a game in about ten minutes, although it's been a while since I have played. I could be way off on the estimate. Still, you'd definitely be able to fit a game into an hour's time.
Where does that name come from?
It's always been called Kalaha here.
Strictly speaking, mancala is the broader name of the old game family, while Kalah or Kalaha is the name of a specific American commercial variant from the 1940s.
Unless I'm mistaken, Kalah also happens to be a bit broken in that the rules describe a game that is always automatically winnable by the first player, if they know what they are doing.
Huh, I'm not even in America, but Denmark. I guess we've always bought their blue jeans though :)
ArsTechnica posted a pretty good list a couple of weeks ago that has playing time listed for all the games. You already mentioned several of the games that are in it, but it might be worth a look through the other ones: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/02/our-favorite-two-player-board-games-2019-edition/
Personally, I think 2-player Dominion is quite good. The strategy can be different when you're playing with 2 vs. more players, and there's a lot of variance between games with the different cards being chosen (especially if you have some of the expansions).
Yes, I found this list the other day, thank you! It was from there where I found about Patchwork and Jaipur, for example.
I have to ask Dominion to a friend. I'm not sure about deck building games, it reminds me of playing Yugi-oh (maybe I'm wrong though) and I didn't like it so much when I was a kid.
Any way, thank you for sending me an invitation to this awesome community :)
Valley of the Kings is a simpler deck building game (and pretty cheap compared to Dominion). It plays a bit quicker.
BoardGameGeek claims 30 minutes playing time for Dominion and 45 minutes for Valley of the Kings, but has Dominion at a 2.36 "complexity rating" and Valley of the Kings at a slightly lower 2.19.
(I'm not sure how trustworthy the playing time estimates are though, as I assume they are copied straight from what it says on the box, which in my experience is often wildly inaccurate. My board game group has never played Valley of the Kings, but we've played a lot of Dominion, and we rarely finish a game in less than 30 minutes.)
Valley is definitely way simpler and significantly shorter in my experience. The first time through is a bit longer, mostly because you have to read all the cards, but honestly the combos are less creative than in Dominion. Valley also has no real set up, compared to the constant organizing and hunting for cards to set up of Dominion.
My friends and I played a lot of Magic, so most of these deck building games are pretty intuitive for us. And we played pretty all the expansions of Dominion too, so I don't really remember the base set on its own. We've also never finished a Dominion game is half an hour...Not sure if we even really managed to set one up in that time once we introduced the expansions.
To add to the ones commented by others, I would recommend Fungi/Morels:
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122298/morels
It consists on gathering different mushrooms and then cooking them in pans. I have not played it enough but I think it is a good game.
Azul also works fine with two players.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230802/azul
This is the list I used some time ago to buy some two-player games (Jaipur, morels, patchwork, hannabi, 7 wonder duels, and some other I cannot remember right now):
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/164769/best-two-player-husbandwife-games
Happy playing!
I think Jaipur and Morels occupy virtually the same decision spaces and that of the two Jaipur is preferable for its simpler turn-to-turn action. From this list I would also strongly recommend Patchwork, which is a really lovely little nailbiter.
Agree. I have Jaipur and had Fungi (Morels). I sold Fungi. They are the same game, but Fungi is more fiddly. Jaipur is more elegant and to the point.
What a great list, thank you! I actually saw many interesting games there. What have you done, you made me lose hours of my Saturday ;D
Hive is a blast. It’s kinda like new chess, with deep strategy and multiple expansions.
It looks cool with the right people! But I think my wife doesn't like abstract games so much. She is not into chess for example.
Have you heard of Onitama? They say it's great. Since you like Hive. ;)
Cascarsonne is a really fun game that is essentially "pick up and play" after you learn the rules. You basically just put down tiles and meeples and keep track of points.
Cascarsonne is a classic, I really have to play it one of these days.
My gal and I started collecting games a couple years ago and we also love Seven Wonders Duel.
Santorini is amazing.
The rules are deceptively simple, but despite the small board and simple rules, it ends up being a fun strategy game about midway through and by the end, you're so engaged. The slow build is so natural and inviting that you don't even realize how it drew you in.
Sagrada is a lower-level strategy game that is super-easy to talk over and never lose track of whose turn it is or what's going on in the game. Perfect for 2 - 4 players that are in a talkative mood. Has rules for solitaire game, which my gal says is fun, but I haven't tried.
Have you tried Azul? A lot of people compare Azul and Sagrada and they both seem similar at first glance. But I guess it's a no-deal for us, I think my wife doesn't like abstract games. She told Azul and Santorini (more fancy tic-tac-toe?) seem boring. The same happened with Patchwork.
You should try out Summoner Wars. It is a fun strategy game where you duel your opponent by leading an army and summoning more units to the board. Every Unit has unique abilities which allows for strategy and fun matches. I would recommend getting this starter set, It gives you a lot of different decks: https://www.amazon.com/Summoner-Wars-Alliances-Master-Set/dp/B00TJFZC5A/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=summoner+wars&qid=1550871866&s=gateway&sr=8-2
I can vouch for Summoner Wars, rules are simple so even people that are not usually into board games can pick it up and play. The multiple decks allow for different strategies and add a lot variety to the gameplay.
I liked this game :) Some people wrote that it's like 7 Wonders but with route building in the mix. I would say it would be a sucess with me and my wife. I do like a route building game.
But unfortunately, some people also wrote that it doesn't work too well with 2 players only. What's your opinion, have you tried it with 2p?
Sometimes, I think that's the "problem" with games for multiple people, the 2-player variant it's not very streamlined or adequate for 2p. I think that's why the "duel" version games that are coming up a lot in these recent months / years are popular.
Still, it really looks an interesting game, I'll see if I can try it somewhere in the future. Thanks for the recomendation :)
I can lose a game of chess in much less than 30 minutes.
Getting slightly more difficult to acquire now, but netrunner is specifically designed for 2 players.
Basic premise is one person is a hacker, the other a corporation. The hacker has to steal stuff, the Corp has to protect stuff.
It is a deck building game so each player can customise their deck to suit their preferred style of play.
Board game geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124742/Android-netrunner
Intro video https://youtu.be/vvRwynAp5tI
Bought this game to a friend! I still have to try deck building, I'm still not sure if I like this type of game.
My partner and I play Akrotiri from time to time. Lovely game and fun to build the playing field as you go along.
Akrotiri is interesting. I liked the traveling of the boats and building temples. I like the theme and the exploration part also :)
Unfortunately, the game is not available on Amazon of my country :/ I would have to find it in another way.
What country are you in?
Germany
Would you buy from here? https://www.milan-spiele.de/akrotiri-revised-edition-engl-p-23831.html - Sorry for the late reply.
Cool! Thank you for the link!
No probs
Some of my favorite games particularly for 2 players from over the years are:
This is a card game, but Haggis is a great 2 (or 3) player game. It's a simplified version of Tichu, which itself is based on a Chinese game, Dou Dizhu ("fight the landlord").
You can play the two player version with a standard playing card deck. For three players, you need a fifth suit.
My friend and I have a weekly lunch, after which we've been playing Haggis. You play to a certain number of points, so when we've needed to keep the time short, we just play to a lower win threshold.
Tokaido - a beautiful and calmly paced game. Haven't tried it in a 2 player config though.
This really seems an interesting (and somewhat strange) game. What is really the objective of the game? Simply reach the end and do some actions before the end? Are there winners?
Yes, I would like to know how you find the 2p version if you play it. :)
The objective is to accomplish a few different things depending on your starting class and the actions you do along the way, then to get to the end at just the right time.
I've only played it twice with 4 players, but my friends that own it and that have played it as a 2 player variant say it's a bit less fun, IIRC.
Ah, that's the shame. Any way, I'll keep a look on it for the future if I want to play something different with more players.
Boss Monster is a fun one. It's a game for 2 to 4 players, where you play as the end bosses of 8-bit side scroller dungeons, and compete to build the best dungeon that attracts and kills the most adventurers. Pretty easy to get into and cheap as well.
There are so many! Which ones would you recommend?
I've only played the original and 2, both are fantastic.
Other than the amazing suggestions listed here, I would recommend Raptor.
It's a 2 player only game where you play either a team of scientists trying to recapture Raptors that have escaped your park or you play the Raptors themselves, trying to escape.
There is an awesome (and unique in my experience) mechanic where both players lay down a numbered card (1-9). At the same time, both players reveal their cards and the person with the highest card gets to play an number of action equalled to the difference between the two cards (i.e: if I played a 9 and my opponent a 5, I get 4 actions). The other player gets to play the action listed at the bottom of the card.
Super fun, quick and with great components.
Also, my wife and I had a blast playing through Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game a few months ago. I highly recommend it if you enjoy solving crimes. The game includes an online database, 5 unique, linked cases (that will sometime require you to dig through Wikipedia and Google Maps to solve the mysteries!).
Wow, Raptor seems fun! I enjoyed seeing this game. But I only have two "if's" that maybe you can clarify.
The scientists seem very strong, isn't the game a bit one-sided?
My other concern is really the luck-factor. You choose a random card from 1 to 9, but you don't know what will you opponent choose. Basically I do a blind guess. So, I don't know how to a decent strategy with that. Obviously at the end, when most of the cards are played it's easy to see which numbers are missing and it's easier to make a guess.
Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game is definitely interesting and cool! But my concern about the game is about the future. A traditional game is timeless but with this game it depends on the maintenance of the links on the internet, database and that the app for the game will stay active for decades. (I think there is an app?)
I haven't played in a while, but I don't remember any balance issues.
As for the blind guess aspect, I prefer looking at it as a bluffing game. You need to figure out what your opponent wants to do with the cards you think they have in hand. The game definitely has a decent amount of strategy in it, especially if you always play with the same person.
The concept of Detective is completely new, so I can't speak for it's longevity. Since the base game is only playable 5 times, it wasn't an issue for me! Plus, the first expansion is coming out later this year: L.A. Crimes! As long as they keep coming up with expansion, I wouldn't worry about the database and the app.
Kingdomino is a great two player game. It’s extremely easy to learn and you can play a game in twenty minutes. It’s also one of those games where you can play multiple games in a row and not get bored.
I heard of it before. But it didn't sound interesting when I read about the game. Maybe I really have to watch a "how to play video". Thank you ;)
Check out Targi.
It can be played in 60 minutes.
I've always really enjoyed playing Stratego. It can be quite fun with a good opponent, and I've never played a game that exceeded ~30 minutes of playing time.
Very good game indeed, but Stratego is best played on a computer. In physical form the board is too damn tiny and it's just not very comfortamble to play. The setup alone can get very frustrating.
Dominoes. Racehorse
Try Backgammon!, two players and the game doesn't take more than 20 minutes.
Backgammon or Pente. Both are great - Pente takes about 10 minutes max, while Backgammon will take 15-20.
If you like cooperative games, I haven't seen Sentinels of the Multiverse mentioned here yet and it's a fantastic game for 2-5 players. Depending on how familiar you are with the superheroes and which boss you are fighting it can take >60mins, however.
On the other end of the spectrum, 5-minute dungeon and 5-minute marvel both require very little time to understand and play (quite literally, it's 5 minutes or less). I'd recommend the latter over the former as it was created after and has some quality of life improvements that I think make the game much more enjoyable.
Sounds interesting. I'm going to check it out with the wife. Thank you.
I play Love Letter with my wife pretty regularly. We have the "Batman" version.
It's a very quick card-game for 2-4 players. Each round is 2-10 min. Super easy to crank out a dozen rounds.
Interesting game! Thank you for the recomendation :)