Board Games

Noodlemod_sl said:

Looking for good recommendations for the wife and myself for a good 2-player game that could be expandable to 4-6 if we wanted. Something that is co-op or against eachother is fine. Nothing too long (Firefly is too long).

She's into fantasy in that she loves LOTR stuff, but not as much as most of us. She did DM our pathfinder group though!!!

I'm not sure about deckbuilders. She did try MTG with me but lost interest, but if it was cheap enough I'd be willing to give it a shot.

She wanted to play the other day and all we had that was really 2 player accessible was Upwords

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Basically that's my entire wheelhouse of gaming (and honestly, many people's, few want a game they can't play without a full fledged group) - the real question to answer that though is a few things because those do vary heavily:

1) Game styles that work (i.e. are wargames blacked out, thematic games prefered, etc)

2) Do certain eras/concepts primarily appeal? (i.e. fantasy)

3) Time commitment that you'd like per game session? (Note it tends to scale as well as your opinion may scale with more players - specify "X time with Y players" - don't necessarily need all, generally for games that lengthen with more players it's +30 min per player as a rule of thumb)

4) Co-op or Competitive only? (Or hybrid - coop with a traitor exists too - but with 2 player games usually it's suggested to remove the option OR Descent style "Overlord vs. Players" does as well - that does work with 2 players reasonably well)

5) What price range are you open to?

Answer those 5 questions as best you can and I can probably give you a doozy of a list. If you want a suggestion with a light fantasy feel that's not too pricy to get a good feel for a category of games you've likely not tried, Lords of Waterdeep is a D&D inspired worker placement game (if you see the video for Argent the Consortium a little back - same category of game - but FAR less complicated, Argent looks like an ultra epic LoW variant - which looks awesome to me, but definitely not a "starting point" for most people) - worker placement games are a very love it or hate it category for many people, and if she's never tried one like it, it could expand or focus the range of games you like. Basically anyone who like WP games appreciates LoW to some degree.

If you don't want to try something that's Worker Placement (and you don't want to wait for a more precise answer after questions) - being the Pathfinder background and some interest in fantasy, I'd probably point you towards Descent 2E (semi-competitive fantasy - 1-4 players vs. the "Overlord" player - a GM that doesn't need to plan much at all with cards powering surprises and such) or Shadows of Brimstone (cooperative - GM function is completely run by a deck of cards and some simple monster AI rules - theme is "Weird West" - Wild West meets some Fantasy for magic meets Cthulhu with rifts opening up deep underground spitting out planar monsters and planes to explore). Both have a "map building" bit of the game where you are very literally controlling your character all the time like a light RPG - and both have wonderful campaign rules where your characters will continue to level up and improve with time.

Hopefully that word soup either inspires you to either have interest in one of those, or to answer the questions so all of us can give you a more narrow answer set more tailored to the interests you and the wife have rather than just guesses of things that work for most people.

Oh, also another "pre-answer" concept since you mentioned she GM'ed Pathfinder and you were considering CCG options - there is a Pathfinder CCG that has a fixed card pool and you "draft" adventures out of as a completely cooperative thing. Runs like $60 retail for the core set of each set then they add a $15-20 box every month (at least this year they are - year 1 was every 2 months) adding another 6 missions including new cards and such for each as well.

Fun game, quite a bit of setup time though and some of it does get abstract - I actually should play it more with the wife, but haven't been motivated to resort them after the movers decided to flip the box in transit so I've got all the categories mixed (the box is wonderful for storing/organizing, but definitely a "This End Up" box...)

Rambilin_sl said:

Just curious, where do you guys buy your foam core at? I looked at those instructional links for Imperial Assault and Dead of Winter and it looks like it might be a fun project for the kids to do with the kids one weekend.

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Foamcore is sold at basically ANY arts and crafts store - and at least for around here, even at WalMart. (We do have some bigass WalMarts though)

Szeth_sl said:

How does one get bored of Catan? Maybe I will some day, but we play a few games a week and I love it. We also randomize the resources/numbers to keep it interesting rather than use the pre-sets.

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It's a gateway game many people 'move on' from. That I have found. It was one of the first games my group had, but there are mechanics that I don't personally like (random resource acquisition being chief among them). I've heard the most recent two expansions make the game better and I like the look of Catan Jr as well.

But my problems with Catan aside, there is almost always something I would rather play.

On my game front, I just got a bunch of games in from Coolstuff, hoping more than a couple hit the table this week. Got X-Com, Lifeboats, Tamany Hall and Cosmic encounter. And Epic spell wars for a filler game.

I'm curious to see your take on XCOM (also from CSI) - I can see it as a very polarizing game.

Noodlemod_sl said:

Looking for good recommendations for the wife and myself for a good 2-player game that could be expandable to 4-6 if we wanted. Something that is co-op or against eachother is fine. Nothing too long (Firefly is too long).

She's into fantasy in that she loves LOTR stuff, but not as much as most of us. She did DM our pathfinder group though!!!

I'm not sure about deckbuilders. She did try MTG with me but lost interest, but if it was cheap enough I'd be willing to give it a shot.

She wanted to play the other day and all we had that was really 2 player accessible was Upwords

Click to expand...

I think my favorite games with my girlfriend are the cooperative ones like Forbidden Island/Desert, Pandemic, and Legendary. They usually have different mechanisms for changing the difficulty either through scenarios or just getting lucky/unlucky with randomization. They all can move up to 4-5 people, as well.

Also, I just found this list the other day after asking for advice here:
Best With Two

I don't want to google about Risk Legacy because apparently there are spoilers for that game. I just found out what it actually was when I was reading up on Pandemic Legacy...I thought it was just an updated version of the old Risk game. I didn't know about the rules that adapt to your plays/decisions.

Is there an "end" or do you keep playing forever and the rules keep changing/adapting? If there's some sort of end to the story, how many playthroughs would it take to get there and is the game trash/useless after I do? Or do you just play forever with the ending rules...or can I restore the box to its original condition somehow (not tearing up cards) and restart the campaign?

If I start the game with 5 people, do I need those same 5 people every time? What happens if someone can't make it or gets completely eliminated in the previous session?

I love the concept, but it sounds like they've designed it so once you play through once, you're done. If anyone could give me more information without spoiling anything, I'd appreciate it.

Noodlemod_sl said:

Looking for good recommendations for the wife and myself for a good 2-player game that could be expandable to 4-6 if we wanted. Something that is co-op or against eachother is fine. Nothing too long (Firefly is too long).

She's into fantasy in that she loves LOTR stuff, but not as much as most of us. She did DM our pathfinder group though!!!

I'm not sure about deckbuilders. She did try MTG with me but lost interest, but if it was cheap enough I'd be willing to give it a shot.

She wanted to play the other day and all we had that was really 2 player accessible was Upwords

Click to expand...

Smallworld is ok with 2, I've only done it a few times, but the game is playable 2 or more and has different maps to support varying player numbers.

Ticket to Ride: Nordic is good as well, the map is designed for 2 to 3 players, so it has more tension than just playing on a map built for 4 or 5 with 2 players

If you are familiar with the game 'Trains' (if youre not, think Dominion with a board to play on as well), they just released a stand-alone expansion "Trains:Rising Sun" that has 2 different 2 player boards. You could play the original heads up, but it lost most of its teeth without forced interaction.

Only thing I hate in smallworld is the "give up terrain, teleport to the opposite of the map, re-invade" shit with the races that benefit from conquering more than holding.

Smallworld plays with 2 but it's really not strong with 2, I'd dissuade that recommendation if he's looking to PRIMARILY play 2 player.

I'd recommend getting the Smallworld app on your tablet if you have one. It's really faithful to the tabletop version. Then you can add a CPU player if you want, too...it also moves SOOOOOO much faster. It's a good game, but the set-up and keeping track of all the points/icons/rules can be a bit much at times.

Djay_sl said:

I don't want to google about Risk Legacy because apparently there are spoilers for that game. I just found out what it actually was when I was reading up on Pandemic Legacy...I thought it was just an updated version of the old Risk game. I didn't know about the rules that adapt to your plays/decisions.

Is there an "end" or do you keep playing forever and the rules keep changing/adapting? If there's some sort of end to the story, how many playthroughs would it take to get there and is the game trash/useless after I do? Or do you just play forever with the ending rules...or can I restore the box to its original condition somehow (not tearing up cards) and restart the campaign?

If I start the game with 5 people, do I need those same 5 people every time? What happens if someone can't make it or gets completely eliminated in the previous session?

I love the concept, but it sounds like they've designed it so once you play through once, you're done. If anyone could give me more information without spoiling anything, I'd appreciate it.

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I pretty much had the same reservations and from what I've gathered it's pretty much as you're thinking. You're better off playing with the same regular group of people. People can sub in and out if need be, but that's not really optimal.

There does appear to be an end around 15 games I think, with followed a progression into more modern era. After playing through it, you're stuck with the rules of the final version, or else you have to buy another copy. I'm not keen on that either, but getting 15 plays out of a game is pretty decent. Might effect how much you want to pay for it.

Also, it looks like they've made the games quicker, lasting around an hour each, with much more short term objectives rather than conquering the world.

I also love the concept but don't really know that many people interested in Risk that would want to give it a try. Hoping to have more luck with Pandemic.

There a reason you can't reset Risk Legacy?

Vaclav_sl said:

There a reason you can't reset Risk Legacy?

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From what I hear, it involves ripping cards up. Obviously you don't have to do that. But there are also stickers you place on the board, not sure how hard they are to remove while keeping them intact. And packets of cards that are broken open at various point.

I guess if you're careful and know what needs to be done, you could play it in such as way that it's resetable. Don't know for sure though since I've yet to try it.

PS, Looks like Dead of Winter is going to be on this week's Tabletop!

I am reading the recommendations but a bit too busy to give a full response to Vaclav yet. Thanks for the detailed post, I'll try to answer it later today.

About to watch it - and why do I get the sinking feeling it's going to get even more forced on me to run it every single time.... thankfully we've got enough space and people each event for multiple games but still have to help with rules questions and such... sigh... I like the game, but I'm a gaming slut - I like to spread my gaming time all over the place.