Two Player Board Games

Lord of the Rings Duel

First one on the list is for the big Lord of the Rings fan, but you don’t need to be a Lord of the Rings fan to enjoy this game. Lord of the Rings Duel is a really fun back and forth game as players act as either the Fellowship or the forces of Sauron.

There are a few great things about this game. Firstly, it’s a two player drafting game and it works really well. It uses the 7 Wonders Duel drafting system. Plus there are a few spots in the game that you are competing over. There is area control on one board. You want to gain the favor of all the people’s of Middle Earth on another. And you can also win by getting the ring to Mount Doom, or if you are the forces of Sauron catching the ring before it gets there. Really good two player game.

Hanamikoji

Now maybe you want something that’s a bit faster but still has a really good back and forth tension. Hanamikoji is a great game for that. In this game you want to win the favor of Geisha. To do that you need to bring them gifts. Whomever has the most gifts next to a Geisha wins that Geisha’s favor. And you win the game by either winning the favor of four Geisha or 11 points worth of Geisha.

But the game has a great and simple twist to it. You only play four actions per round. And the actions you can use each of them only once. So it is a real puzzle to figure out how to use those actions to the best of your ability. And that’s what I love about the game and why it’s such a good two player game. It is easy to learn but there is a lot of thinking going on in it.

Star Wars Unlimited

I only put one TCG (Trading Card Game) on the list, and it’s my favorite right now, Star Wars Unlimited. This is such a fun game and one that I think non-Star Wars fans can enjoy. But you probably need a passing knowledge of Star Wars which makes this one a bit more focused. Star Wars Unlimited is a nice tight back and forth game without the baggage that comes with some of the older and more complex ones.

You take your turns back and forth and it moves really quickly which is great. Plus you have a leader and that leader determines some of the cards you use, but also gives you an ability and idea to build around. And I find that to be great with how it works. And you never are short on resources, well you might not be able to play everything you want, but you never go turns without being able to build up to play your more powerful cards. That is what makes the game work really well.

Star Wars not your theme, there are other solid options like Lorcana (simpler), Magic the Gathering (more complex) or One Piece (similar complexity) out there as well that might fit your interests more.

Dice Throne

Dice Throne is another consistent one on my two player board games lists. This is back and forth battle Yahtzee style of game. But each character has their own unique powers and abilities. And there are so many characters out there. You can dive in and grab 2 or go all in and get 16+ if you want. And there is even Santa vs Krampus to fit that holiday theme.

Like I said this is battle Yahtzee. But each character does their own thing. The Barbarian heals and does a lot of damage on basic attacks. The Shadow Thief can dodge damage while the Pyromancer hits you back for more damage. And you can upgrade that as well as you go, so you get stronger as you play the game and try and knock your opponent out. Or you can just shoot for your ultimate ability and do a ton of damage that way.

The game is also great because of the different themes and packs. You can mix and match anything. So if you find you like the game it is easy to add in more. And there is Marvel content for the game as well which is a theme that likely works better for most people than the general fantasy theme.

Fox in the Forest Duet

Finally we have two player trick taking which is a unique idea. But I really enjoy this version, or the competitive version, or the other competitive two player trick taking game Macha. But Fox in the Forest Duet is a cooperative game which makes it even more unique for a trick taking game.

You play out tricks like normal, but whomever wins the trick, the fox, who is trying to collect leaves, moves towards them. But you don’t want it to fall off the board or it makes the board smaller and easier to fall off. Do that too much and you won’t be able to collect all of the leaves. But there are cards that offer ways to manipulate that that you play out as well. But can you get in sync with the person you’re playing with and how well do you know how to manipulate and fish for information in trick taking?

Final Thoughts

I love two player games. I don’t play all of mine a ton because a lot of the times I play with more. But all of the games on the list come out and get played every no and again. And I gave a handful of extra options as well in there.

Do you find yourself consistently playing games at two, then these are probably great options for you? And do you have games you already like at two players that I missed? Let me know what those games are. And let me know which ones are making your holiday list, for giving or receiving.

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Top 5 Office Lunch Board Games

5. Heat: Pedal to the Metal

This one is iffy to have on the list. But I want some bigger board games on the list as well, because most lunch sized games are smaller. Heat: Pedal to the Metal is iffy mainly because the first game with teach might push that hour time frame. And the number of players, which this one can play more, is going to push that time frame as well.

Heat is a hand and deck management game as you try and get around the race course as fast as possible. However, if you push your car to hard you create undo stress and cause the engine to heat up, possibly overheating. So you need to balance that within the game so it’s not just go fast but knowing when to push around the corners.

This one works, because, as I said, when you know the game it goes fast. Actions are simultaneous for picking your cards and getting into gear. So some of the game just runs at the same time. And then moving cars, this is where the first game can take longer, it goes fast, once you know the system.

4. Dice Throne

Dice Throne is another one of those board games that maybe could take longer. If you play with more than two people. I think a three person game could get done in under an hour, but under that it’s less likely, even with the rules for King of the Hill rules for the game.

Dice Throne is mainly considered to be a head to head dice battling game. Where you take one character into battle against your opponents to see who can outlast the other. I think this one works well if you don’t have the battle chests. I do, so that makes it trickier, but you can get character boxes which aren’t big and are therefore easy to move around and transport.

But one of the benefits is that you can swap out characters as well. If you own a big box, you can change up who you play easily without learning massive amounts of new rules. So a box like the Marvel four character box which has been available at Target and other retailers might be the best fit. It gives you some options, gives you a familiar theme, and isn’t as big as the big chests to carry around.

3. Floriferous

Next up is a much smaller game. Floriferous is just going to be a small box with cards but it packs a lot of game. It’s a card drafting game with set collection and variable scoring to it. I like that it goes a lot in that little box without it becoming too bogged down or too slow.

This one I think you could probably get a 4 player game of done in an hour, but that’d be tight. As a three or two player game, you can for sure. And I think with work lunches that a lot of the time you are just playing with two, not with more.

In Floriferous, you draft cards from a center tableau. The twist is that you draft from a column at a time. And how high in that column, that determines when you’ll pick in the next column. So you might think, go high and get an early pick next time, but you also need to pick scoring cards which are at the bottom. It’s a fun puzzle of a game with a flower theme many will like.

2. My City Roll and Build

My City: Roll and Build is different from the rest of the board games here. This one is a campaign game. That means that you need a consistent group. But it is also a fast game. And it is a game where everyone does their actions at once.

In this roll and write style game, you try and build a town. Each chapter of the game is having your build the town in a sightly different way. And generally, some rules are being added to how you build it. Each player is building it on their own grid in an attempt to get the best score for that particular game and scenario.

This one I know works well as I’ve played it at lunch. And I know it works with more than two players. Again, as I mentioned with Heat, when you play at the same time, it helps it fit into a lunch hour better. And My City: Roll and Build leans into that. So it’s great for lunch that way.

1. Star Wars Unlimited

Finally, this could be a lot of TCG’s. I’d say that Magic the Gathering, Lorcana, or One Piece all work here. It’s more of a pick your flavor for what you want to do. I went with Star Wars Unlimited as my game as that is the one that I’ve been enjoying the most lately.

But any of these games really work well as you can play head to head or in bigger groups and battle it out. I think the nature of these games works well for a lot of people because it’s kind of familiar. And with all the ones coming out now, you can really tailor it to your audience.

I think that Star Wars Unlimited is the sweet spot for me because it is very fast. So is Lorcana and One Piece, but with Lorcana the decision making space is less interesting, to me. And with One Piece, it is a more obscure fandom. But Star Wars, people are going to know that which makes is a great lunch game.

Final Thoughts

There are so many games that I could pick. Faster escape room games, or about 30 different roll and write games. Small card games, simultaneous drafting games. You pick what you like best and play those at work. It’s all about what works best for you.

And I know with people working hybrid or from home now, it’s maybe less of a thing. But when you go into the office, board games can be a great team building thing. It’s a way to bring people together and chat with it being clearly not about work. It’s a chance to build that comradery that maybe has decreased over the past years or needs to be built with the new people who were never in office all the time.

Do you have a go to work lunch game?

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One Piece Trading Card Game – Pricing

It’s a topic that everyone talks about but no one really wants to talk about with trading card games, and that’s the collectability of the game. Mainly that it’s probably better to buy cards separately than it is to buy them all at once. Why, because buying a pack probably won’t get you your value back, buy a box, much more likely not to get you your value back.

The One Piece Trading Card game is the same as all of those. Now, there is multiple reasons for this, and even with something like Lorcana it’s generally true, because you can’t find it at retail prices. But with all of these, the market prices are placed at a tipping point. That tipping point is based on the likelihood that you pull a card that is worth more than the box.

And that is where the trick of it comes in with pricing boxes. It is that you pull a card, not multiple cards to reach that point. Why, because most of the other cards that are worth anything are worth $1-6. So for a $60 box, you’d need 10 of them at least. But there is a card or three that are worth more than the box. But they are the rarest cards. So you’re looking for the big pulls to make your money back.

Now, there are more cards in One Piece and in most trading card games that can help get you there. I got a $30 alternate artwork card. But it requires pulling multiple cards to make it and it’s a risk. I think I was just off on making my money back on this box, and easily did on the other. So it’s that balancing point of pricing that makes buy boxes and packs a risk.

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me Wednesday for games 20 through 11, almost to the Top 10. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies or For Northwood, which was on the list today.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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And checkout the Stocking Stuffer games holiday list as well.

Two Player Games

Hanamikoji

The only two player only game on the list, but Hanamikoji is the first one that pops to mind when I think of two player games. This is a game of influence as you try and win the favor of Geisha by giving of gifts. The theme might not be up your alley there is also Jixia Academy which is the same game and a different theme.

Either game, Hanamikoji or Jixia Academy, is simple to play. You get four actions and you do one each turn. After both players have done all four of their actions you see if someone has the favor of four Geisha or eleven points worth of Geisha.

So what are the actions? You either keep one gift hidden that you’ll use to influence favor. Or you’ll put two gifts face down that won’t be used. You give your opponent the choice of three cards, they pick one and you get two to give as gifts immediately (and revealed). Or you create two groups of two cards, and your opponent picks one. That’s the game, it’s about trying to get that combination right or letting your opponent make tough decisions that influence or show you what to do. Or trick your opponent into taking that you want them to.

Dice Throne

Now we’re onto Dice Throne, a game that some people might say is only a two player game. I think it works at higher player counts with the newer king of the hill rules. But Dice Throne, as a two player game, is a head to head battle game. And how do you battle, you roll dice. You are looking for straights or different combinations of symbols to do damage.

That might sound simple, and I think the first couple of times you play, it is easy to think it’s just the luck of the dice. But you get combat points to use as well. Those combat points (CP) are used to play out cards which is wherein your strategy lies. The cards offer different things, clearing off negative status your opponent might have placed on you, changing up your attacks, or manipulating the dice. So it’s a push and pull of how you try and hold back your cards and actions as you play the the game.

It’s not the thinkiest game, even with that, but there is more going on than you’d think of just rolling the dice and hoping to get lucky. And it’s also very fun because you get a lot of different characters to play with. There are your fantasy characters like dwarves or paladins. But you can mix that with the gunslinger or an artificer. And now they even have Marvel sets that you can play with as well.

Marvel Champions

Speaking of Marvel, this transition was not intentional, we have Marvel Champions. Marvel Champions, again, can be played with more. But I like Marvel Champions best as a solo or two player game. Why, too much downtime others. Marvel Champions is a game for the person who wants to play as a super hero and feel like their hero. There are other superhero games out there, but Marvel Champions, for me, captures it best.

In this game you try and stop a villains scheme. To do that, you need to be your super hero self, but when that happens they stop scheming. Instead their now trying to just knock you out. That means that you need to spend time going between being your super hero version, let’s say Spider-Man, and your alter ego, Peter Parker, so you can heal up. But when you are Peter Parker, you don’t want to blow your cover, so you can’t stop their scheming.

It’s a cool balance that brings in the super heroes moves as well as allies for them. I really like that balance of pushing to be the best hero and getting in their and just punching the villain down. But then also letting them work on their scheme so you can heal back up. It’s a good thematic element to the game.

Magic the Gathering (or other TCG)

This one is a bit of a catch all and the example I give is one that I don’t mind at all playing at higher player counts. Magic the Gathering is a great trading card game. A lot of trading card games, I’ll put Lorcana and One Piece on this list as well, are two player games or best that way.

Most of them give you pretty simple objectives that might be similar in a few ways. It’s either reach a certain number before your opponent or take out your opponents health fastest. But there’s too much to go over for all of them, so I’m going to drop some links in for you to checkout.

Magic the Gathering

Lorcana

One Piece

Spire’s End: Hildegard

This is another game that can be a two player game or a solo game. It’s meant to be a solo game, but I think that it’d be very good two player as well. It’s kind of a choose your own adventure story experience. But done through a deck of cards that plays through chapters. Spire’s End is also another solid option for this.

The big reason that I think this would work is that I like my story games as a two player experience. Not all the time, but it’s very fun to share a good story with other people. Spire’s End Hildegard gives you a lot of story with some dice rolling and that’s basically the game.

This is going to be a good game if you and the person you’d play it with, or the people who would play it together really like story driven games. And the aesthetic, while unique, really makes the game pop. It’s what drew me to the game, and for a light, mechanism wise, but fun story wise game, Spire’s End Hildegard really works.

Ascension: Deck Building Game

Finally, another game that you can definitely play with more. But I’ll say this about Ascension, I really like it at two. Deck building games generally move pretty quickly if you know what you’re doing. So you can play with more people who know what they are doing. But when you have multiple people who are needing to learn every card, it can drag on.

That is much less of a problem at two players. The game goes fast with two players in a good way. You get your turn, you play out your cards and you go. Even if you need to double check everything, the downtime isn’t that bad.

I think you could substitute other deck building games in here as well. Dominion would be another one that I think works well, or Aeon’s End. Basically anything that keeps the game moving in terms of deck building. I think that Ascension is more interesting than Dominion and simpler than Aeon’s End which is why it’s the one that makes my list. But if you want to go cooperative, Aeon’s End is a great choice.

Final Thoughts

There are a number of two player games that I need to play. I own 7 Wonders Duel, the most popular two player only game and I just need to get it played. So I don’t think that you can go wrong with that.

I also think that there are a lot of games that work well at multiple player counts. You can see that on my list I have a number that can play at higher counts. But they might be best at two or, often times, they just work really well at two. So if you don’t want to lock yourself into a two player games that only play two, there are still a ton of good options out there.

Do you have one of those that sounds the most interesting to you? Is your favorite game to play with two on the list?

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How to Play the One Piece TCG

If you know trading card games, you are going to know a lot of the basics of this game. Playing out creatures, them not being able to attack the round they come out, spending a resource for them. All of that is present in the One Piece TCG. But it is not just a clone of Magic the Gathering in all that it does. But the basics, plus getting your opponents life down, those do match what TCG’s are known for.

The basics of your turn go, refresh cards. So characters that attack and Don, your purchase power that you used all refresh. Then you draw a card and you draw and play two Don. Then you get to play out cards, attack with cards, and do what you want to do until you say that you’re done.

When attacking you pick your target. This is something we see in TCG’s more now like Lorcana and Star Wars Unlimited. You either attack a spent enemy card, one that attacked last turn, or their leader. The math on it is simple, if you hit with more or equal attack power you win and knock out your opponents character or knock down the leaders health by one. After the leaders health has been hit one more time than they had health cards, you win the game or lose.

Unique or Interesting Elements

There are a few areas in the game that stand out that feel different from other TCG’s. I say different, I mean that loosely. It isn’t Magic the Gathering, but it’s close or offers an interesting decision space even if it isn’t always completely unique.

Don Cards

Let’s start with the Don cards. There are a few things that stand out to me about them. Firstly, you always get two into your resource area every turn. Well, I say every turn, there are ten that form your Don deck, so for your first five turns, six if you’re the starting player, you are adding to your Don. As compared to something like Magic the Gathering, One Piece really keeps you from drawing dead in terms of card play and mana by always adding Don cards.

The other thing with Don cards is that they offers boosts as well. Each one gives you +1000 to attack. So, like I said in game play, you need to meet or exceed your opponents health total. The Don are one way to take a weaker character who might never be targeted or attacked with and launch an attack. But it is +1000 for the turn, then it goes back to your pool of resources. And they are only value if you are the attacker.

Charging

Now, the Don cards with their +1000 are balanced by this idea of Charging. Charging is how the defending player is able to boost, or one of the ways, their characters power. Some of the cards, I believe only characters, in your hand will on the side of the card have a charging amount. To use that, you simply discard the card and you get a boost to the character who is being attacked.

I like this decision space in the game. While the Don are a resource that you can use over and over again to boost, charging is not. You use that card once and it goes to your discard. So two things are happening there, firstly, when do you just take an attack. Sometimes you might, even to your leader to save a card with Charge on it for later or to play into your line of characters. The other thing is, when you charge with it, it’s discarded and gone. So the new question is, do I want to play it or not. Two very solid decisions in the game.

Life and Triggers

Finally, I want to talk about life and how that works. I wrote down life and triggers because they tie together so closely, but we’re going to start with life. The leader you play with has a life amount. Generally from what I know thus far, it’s going to be in that five to six range, maybe down to four, but that’d be a powerful leader. So it is a small life pool that you are defending. If you hit your opponents leader six times successfully with an attack, in most cases that is enough to win.

But your life is cards from your deck. So when you build up your life pool, you take cards from your deck, not knowing what they are, and lay them out in the life area. So you might just have taken out some of your best cards from your deck, you don’t know. The cards that become your life are random.

Then, when you take damage, those cards are taken off the life total one card at a time. And this is another area I really like, you add them to your hand. When they go to your hand, they might have a trigger keyword on them. That gives you a special bonus, that you can sometimes use, when it is taken from the life pool. It might be dry an extra card, that’s nice. Or it might be, put this card into play and that is for free versus paying the cost. So it can be useful, at times, to take a damage and go fishing for card with a trigger on it.

Who Is This For?

It’s interesting, I think that Star Wars Unlimited and Lorcana are built more towards casual gamers. One Piece isn’t quite there with them. Mainly because there are triggers on cards that just add to the complexity. And because when it is my opponents turn, I need to pay attention. There are things like charging or events that I need to pay attention to.

On the other hand, it is also much easier than Magic the Gathering. There is no stack of actions that needs to be resolved. So it’s do an action, see if opponent responds and repeat that process through your turn. It’s a singular action and response system. So that makes it much easier.

Overall, though, this game is for fans of One Piece. The game play doesn’t stand out in the starter decks as being the most unique, but for a fan of One Piece, the trading card game is going to work better.

First Impressions of One Piece TCG

Generally, I feel like I want to play it more. The game and system are fun and they work smoothly enough. It’s not as smooth as Lorcana or Star Wars Unlimited, but it is more complex. That to me is the value that you get from playing a game like the One Piece TCG. There is more game there, at least in the starter decks.

And I do want to say, this is only in the starter decks that I’ve played for Lorcana, Star Wars Unlimited, and the One Piece TCG. But for a starter deck, it gave me enough of a feeling of the game to know that I enjoyed it. Deck building is simple, just cards that match your leaders color, so that is not going to be a major part of what you do. But it is just a solid setup where I do want to see a deck that has more cards with triggers or maybe fewer charges, different options or ways to play.

Overall, I like the game. And it is one that I shouldn’t collect more of. But I that ship has sailed. A box of cards is on it’s way. Though, my plan is that is it. I want to know more of what is the game and maybe do a little deck building and play like that. But if you are looking for a new TCG, and Lorana is too simple (and expensive) for you, One Piece is a nice step up.

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1. I resolve to play the games that I got in 2018 that I haven’t played yet. Board games and video games. But really mainly board games is what this is for. Now, I’m not going to be too crazy and say something like I won’t buy more until I’ve played these games, but I want to get these games to the table. On the Dice Tower FB group, they call those unplayed games as your shelf of shame, and I have a number on there right now. The streaming of the games is going to make getting them off the shelf of shame easier.
2. That takes me nicely into Nerd Year Resolution #2. I resolve to do 20 streams this year. Now, what that looks like is still up in the air, but I want to stream a board game play 20 times. It might mean that I take a week of vacation in the summer and do a stream each day to get a bunch of them done, it might mean that I stream every other week (or at least try to). Or it might mean that I end up streaming 100 times (that would be a lot), but I want to try and stream board game content 20 times.
3. Complete the Pop Sugar reading challenge. I tend to think Pop Sugar is a pretty dumb site, but three of my co-workers and myself are doing their 40 book reading challenge, and people who don’t finish it by the end of the year have to buy the others lunch. I fully expect to fail at this simply because of having a small child, or baby as they are known as by most people, but I’m going to give it a go and see how many Dresden Files books I can get onto the list.
4. Watch and/or finish five new animes this year. That isn’t a big number, but look at what else I’m resolving to do. With my previous work schedule I was able to watch a lot of animes, but now it’s a bit trickier, and Funimation leaving VRV slowed it down for a moment as well. But now we have Funimation’s streaming service, so we’re watching Dagashi Kashi which has been hilarious.

Now, four things isn’t a ton of resolutions, but a few of them are pretty big, actually all of them could be big, but I’m probably not going to say I need to watch all of One Piece as the anime, it’ll probably be shows with 20-50 episodes for the whole show. But I was trying to do a few specific things with these resolutions.

First, I was trying to make them at least semi-attainable. It is going to be tricky to get through all 40 books for me, unless I find some pretty short books to read. Maybe some of the baby books will fit a category. But one thing you’ll notice, to make them semi-attainable, was that I set bigger numbers, but not a specific pace.

I could have said that I want to stream every other week, but I don’t have my streaming computer yet, and I don’t know how long it will take to get the set-up for streaming right. So instead of going with something that I might fail at easily, because it might not show up and get set-up until two weeks into January. So I went with the bigger numbers, 40 books is daunting, but saying that I want to read a book a week sounds nearly impossible.

Secondly, I’m fine with failing at all of these resolutions. I could have said that I wanted to get back to the gym three times a week and lose 30 pounds so that I’m healthy again or something very important like that, like graduate college or get a job if I were job hunting. But those aren’t great resolutions, those are things that you should be wanting to do without actually making a resolution about them. While I hope all of these comes true and I can get them done, because they would be fun to get done, they aren’t key to my survival still.

That actually quite nicely flows into the final point. All of these are fun resolutions. Kind of like being fine failing at any of them, I’m also going to be more tempted to keep them as compared to losing 30 pounds or finding a job, because I like them. Again, doesn’t mean that those two things aren’t highly important, but you get the point. It’s more that resolutions should be stuff you want to do for yourself to better yourself because you want to do them, not because you have to do them.

Anyways, those aren’t really resolutions, but I wanted to add that in to help people think about their nerdy or non-nerdy resolutions. It might help to put down something you need to do as a resolution, but make sure you pepper in some fun stuff as well

What are your nerdy resolutions for 2019? Do you want to try a new nerdy hobby, read a book that’s been on your reading list for years, or watch a certain TV show or movie? Leave them in the comments below so that people know, and you can help hold me accountable to what I put above as well.

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