Board Game News Our favorite 2-player board games for around $25Our favorite 2-player board games for around $25
Posted Sunday, 24-May-2015
Contributed by Andrew Knighton
Perhaps you don’t have many other gamers locally. Perhaps you want something to play with your other half. Perhaps you just like 2-player games.
Whatever the case, here are some our favorite board games for around $25…
Carcassonne
A long standing favorite of Euro-gamers, in Carcassonne you take turns laying tiles while you map out a region of medieval France. Connect roads, cities and monasteries to get the most points.
Playing time: 45 minutes
# of Players: 2-5 players
Gaming Mechanics: Tile Placement, Area Control
Carcassonne: The Castle
While the original Carcassonne works fine as a 2-player board game, there’s also a version designed specifically for two players – Carcassonne: The Castle. Build up houses, roads, citadels and markets within the safe walls of the castle, in a variation on the classic tile-laying game.
Playing time: 30 minutes
# of Players: 2 players
Gaming Mechanics: Tile Placement, Area Control
Doomtown: Reloaded
The most recent in a whole raft of deck-building games, Doomtown: Reloaded sees you battle for control of a wild west town full of magic and mad science. The starter deck is a great game all by itself, full of careful manoeuvrings & action-packed shootouts, and a good way of trying out deck-building games.
With all the different card combinations, no two games will ever be the same.
Playing time: 30 minutes
# of Players: 2-3 players
Gaming Mechanics: Betting/Wagering, Hand Management, Area Control
Hive
Maneuver your insects around the interior of the hive in an attempt to capture each others’ queen bees. Each insect moves differently, and it’s through carefully combining their abilities that you can build a winning strategy. A clever, thought provoking alternative for fans of games like chess.
Playing time: 20 minutes
# of Players: 2 players
Gaming Mechanics: Tile Placement, Grid Movement
Forbidden Desert
Your airship has crashed in the shifting sands of the desert. Now you must try to find and dig out all the pieces before you and your companions die of thirst or are buried by a sandstorm. A challenging and exciting cooperative game.
Playing time: 45 minutes
# of Players: 2-5 players
Gaming Mechanics: Cooperative, Grid Movement
Rivals for Catan
Classic board game Settlers of Catan tends to end up unbalanced with two players, so designer Klaus Teuber developed this two-player card game alternative. Gather resources, build roads and construct settlements in an alternative take on one of the all time great board games.
Playing time: 45 minutes
# of Players: 2 players
Gaming Mechanics: Memory, Hand-Management, Train Game
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small
Another case of a two-player variation on a larger game, this time taking the hugely popular farming-themed game Agricola and cutting away many of its complexities. Raise animals and expand your farm in competition with one other player, while also avoiding the starvation mechanic that sometimes made the original stressful.
Playing time: 30 minutes
# of Players: 2 players
Gaming Mechanics: Worker Placement, Tile Placement
Dominion
The card game that introduced deck building as a mechanic within the game, Dominion’s many different cards allow huge variety of play even without the expansions.
Fast and fun to play, it forces players to make a delicate balance between building up their kingdom’s abilities and piling on victory point cards that get in the way. Works as well with two players as three or four.
Playing time: 30 minutes
# of Players: 2-6 players
Gaming Mechanics: Deck-building, Hand-Management, Card Game
Looking for something a little cheaper? Check out Top 10 board games for under $15.
Published by BoardGamePrices.com
