Alright, I said I was going start another top 5 list, these are games that can either only be played with two players or are best with two players. There are some games that might have 2-4 players, but are really two player games, because either 4 players makes the game too random or slow down to much, or because the higher player count just takes it and splits it into teams.

5. Dice Throne Season 1
It’s a bit low on the list because I haven’t played it with four players or with six players. And it probably is solid with those counts as well, but the game is a ton of fun when it is just two players. You face off in a dice battle against the other player being able to pick what sort of character you want to play. If you want to go for a longer more controlled game, the Monk might be a great choice, if you want to just do damage, the Pyromancer is who you want. The game is simple to explain and the actions you do make a lot of sense. It’s probably going to be a two player game that you could play with anyone, regular board gamer or not.

4. Akham Horror LCG
This one is low on the list, because I really like it as a solo game. It means I have zero downtime and the game moves around really quickly. But it is fun two player as well, and can go up to four players, but not out of the base box. It’s a good action management game where you always feel like you have more that you want to do. You might end up having to fight a monster when you wanted to be searching for clues. You might end have needing to deal with a situation that arises that causes you to lose a weapon or something else like that. Arkham Horror tells a nice and tight story and you feel like you get an investigation in each time you sit down and play the game.

3. Onitama
There are a lot of potential abstract strategy games that could go on here. Chess could have even made the list, but I think that Onitama might replace chess for a lot of people. It’s a great strategy game where each player has two actions and there is one action in the middle. When you use one of your movement action cards on your turn, you put that one into the middle and take the one that was there. So not only do you have to think about how you’re setting up your pieces to capture someone else’s pieces, but you have to think about what you are giving them for an action. The game has an interesting addition to the normal chess style, capture the king, you can also win by making it to a certain space. Another game that is quite fast and it has a very nice app.

2. Hanamikoji
This works very well with two players because it’s a fast game with some interesting decisions. There’s no way to play it with more players, but that’s fine. You are trying to win the favor of some geishas, but when you are playing cards fairly often your opponent can pick some of the cards you play prior to you playing them. There’s also enough hidden information in the game that if you are a good card counter, it’s not going to work. It’s also easy to teach because there are so few options. It is a game that I generally want to reset and play once I’m done with it.

1. Star Wars Rebellion
Rebellion is one of the games that I mentioned at the top of the post where technically you can play with four players, the two players per side with them splitting up heroes. However, it’s really a two player game, because you can’t fully strategize when you have it split between two people. And depending on the actions that one person takes, it might be the case that the other player is much more involved on the rebel or empire side, while one person just does missions for their turn. Star Wars Rebellion is a really fun game, with two players, as it’s cat and mouse with the empire trying to find the rebels and the missions and building up of forces that you do. It’s the whole epic saga in a box.

There are a ton of games that are good with two players. Some of them require a bit more thinking and some of them are fast and easy. I should have actually started with my top 5 solo games, but more people are going to play two player games than they are solo games.

What are some of your favorite two player games? Do you like them to have more theme or do you really like abstract two player games?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.Facebook