I have a good number of two player games in my collection. And I find that I play them some. Now, I say some, but I do play them fairly often. I have a bi-weekly (every other week) gaming session with one friend. We play a lot of not two player games, but we also play a number of two player ones. So let’s talk about 5 of these games that you can try.

Hanamikoji

This is my go to when it comes to two player games. I love how simple this game is. You play over rounds until one player either gains the favor of four Geisha or 11 points worth of Geisha. But it’s the card play that makes it so good. Each player, per round, has four actions that they can do. And they can do each one once. So it’s a back and forth as you try and figure out how to play out the cards in your hand to win that favor while not setting up your opponent.

The actions are simple. You can reserve one card face down. I can discard two cards face down. I give my opponent a choice of one of three cards, I get the other two. Or you give the choice of two pairs of two cards. That’s it, and you want to have the most gifts on your side. If you do, you win the favor of that Geisha.

Fox in the Forest

The next one is actually one that I’m playing again for the first time in a while on Board Game Arena. I have owned it and I can’t remember if I still do or not. But Fox in the Forest is unique for trick-taking games because it’s one for two players only. In this game you are fighting over tricks as well as playing cards that have powers. And you want to win tricks, but you don’t want to win too many tricks. If you win all of them you aren’t getting points. So it’s this balancing game of winning tricks to get points, but not too many.

Overboss Duel

While all of these games on the list are head to head, some of them are more in your face than the others. Overboss Duel is definitely one of those. You are playing tiles onto a board and you score for the tiles on your half of the board, and your opponent on their half. Well, you can play ones onto their half that are going to screw over their scoring. And vice-a-versa. So this one is really in your face. But that’s a lot of fun because it so in your face.

And you got powers as well that you can use for your Overboss. And they score differently, each boss does, for some things, or you get hidden scoring, which also means you have a bit unique which I like as well.

Zenith

Zenith is one of those two player games that comes along that just surprises you have good it is. While I’m not 100% sure it’s my favorite two player only game, it is one that is up there. You are competing over the favor of different planets. And you do that by getting their disk to your side of the board. Now that might sound a bit like Hanamikoji to you. But this game has more going on.

You win either by getting favor disks from 4 different planets, three from one planet, or five total. You battle over these planets by pulling their token to you by playing down cards or going up on a research track. The cards cost you money, but the more cards you have there, the less money it costs you. It’s just this really good, really fun puzzle as sometimes you focus in on one way to win the whole time, other times you pivot in the middle.

Architects of Amytis

Finally we have for two player games the Architects of Amytis. This is not a list of all of them that I love. But Architects of Amytis is a lot of fun. It’s a pattern building game as you build out a grid and stack tiles. Every time you complete a pattern that is going to give you points. But you also get a benefit, theoretically, from the building that you put down. Because you are drafting them off of another 3×3 grid.

And to do draft them you are placing out a token blocking off a spot. So sometimes your turn is just taking back your tokens. But if you can get three of your tokens in a row, you then get to select a scoring bonus. It might be two points for every spot that you have stacked two high. But there is another challenge. When you complete one of your patterns you don’t draw a new one, instead that is the power of one of the buildings.

What are your Favorite Two-Player Games?

Let me know which ones you like. I did keep one of my favorite games of all time, Dice Throne, off the list. I know most people prefer that one at two, but I play King of the Hill variant with more and I have a ton of fun with it that way as well. Let me know also if you like Dice Throne at more than two?

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