So my wife has gotten into gaming a bit of late (board, anyway) and she's almost always up for a game when we have the time when our daughter is either in bed or over at a friend's house.

I could use a bit of advice, though. Her tastes seem to vary greatly and I need some help deciding on a new game for us to play. (I'm easy; I'll play damn near anything.) Here's a bit of her tastes of recent stuff:

Railroad Tycoon - *loves* This is the one that got her hooked.

Marvel Heroes - Decent and she'll play this if everyone else decides that's the night's game but she isn't chomping at the bit to play it.

Fury of Dracula - *loves* She is the most meticulous hunter around. Dracula is doomed.

Runebound 2nd ed. - Likes this a lot, too, but it's a bit long. Actually, this is the game that got her playing games with us, although RRT is the game that took her enjoyment to the next level.

Arkham Horror - So so. She's only played this once but I heard several times throughout the night, "There's not much strategy to this is there?" She knows as much about the Mythos as I know about basket weaving (read: zero) so maybe that has something to do with it. She also didn't like that it took like 5 hours.

Ticket to Ride - Certainly likes this, but if a train game is about to break out, it's always going to be RRT over TTR. We use TTR as a game to teach new gamers (the neighbors, family members, etc.) but we rarely play this on our own anymore.

Guillotine - She'll play this whenever I ask her. This is a big hit in our house when we want a fast card game.

Anyway, I know that's not a lot to go on, but if anyone has any suggestions I'd really appreciate it.

I'd suggest Blue Moon City. It plays quite well with only two players and just as good with more.

This game got my wife over the "I don't like games with cubes" hump.

Since her tastes vary widely, as you say, maybe you should try something highly ranked that's unlike any of the games you mention. My fiancee is not the kind of gamer your wife seems to be, but if she was I'd introduce her to BattleLore.

1)Mr. Jack The best 2-player game available

2) Attika Plays best with 2, but well with up to 4. resource management, set collection, tile placement.

3) Shadows over Camelot, co-operative play better with more than 3.

Best of luck
JP

Firstly I would like to say that you need to look after that wife of yours as she is a rare gem. My wife is pretty good and will play most anything if it is Euro-esque. I could only drool if she would play the likes of Fury or similar length and depth games.

I would try BattleLore, Vinci or Mission: Red Planet. The 2-Player Kosmos series is also excellent for those shorter games. Babel, Lost Cities and Odin's Ravens are the best IMHO.

I really like Lost Cities and I'm a wife. (not that all wives are the same but you know) :-)

Yeah, she's a keeper! The only thing I can get my wife to play with me is card games, which entail Lie Detector, Simpsons Group Photo, Uno, and Rummy. Board games wise, its only family/party games...
I would kill for my wife to play Descent, or Doom, or Arkham Horror, or Runebound!!!!

All I can pick out as common factors are heavy theme and a map--of course, you can ask her if that's what she likes. Given those, I'd suggest El Grande (of course, the current printing has some flawed cards so you have to go to the manual), Tigris and Euphrates, and Power Grid. None are really theme-heavy, but they are in the top ten. (AoS is kind of pointless since you already like RRT.) Further down, maybe Samurai or Tikal? I think of all these, I'd guess Tikal: It's the theme-heaviest, I think, though it's a random map rather than a real map even though Tikal is a real place.

(I like Blue Moon City, but it might not be heavy enough.)

Another option might be to get a bunch of cheaper, lighter games with different mechanics. These will be good for sucking in non-gamers and maybe help you narrow down what she'd like or not like. If she likes Great Wall except that it doesn't have a map, Samurai would be a likely choice. If she likes For Sale, Power Grid and El Grande have auctions (as does mapless Goa). If the theme of Incan Gold (Diamant) appeals, Tikal would be a likely choice.

Yeah, I'd give Power Grid a try. I recently got RRT, and it seems to me that the have similar complexity levels and similar amounts of number crunching, and they both have about the same amount of theme too...so hopefully liking RRT, she'll like Power Grid!

The only warning: PG isn't so good with 2 players.

I picked up on the "into theme" thing too...

Perhaps she would like:

Duel of Ages
Tikal
Nautilus

check em out...see what you think.

Josh

How about Carcassonne? I just checked your game list and you already have it. duh...

Modern Art is the classic auction game in my opinion, you'll need at least 3 to play.

Through the Desert is a wonderful abstract that plays fast and has great pastel camels.

For a straight card game, Mystery Rummy : Jack the Ripper is fantastic as a two-player game.

If she likes RRT, why not graduate her to Age of Steam? Just reminder her at the beginning of the game that money is really tight in AoS!

My wife didn't like Lost Cities much. It was to simple and she was a bit miffed about paying for a game that you can play with a standard deck of cards. She didn't hate it, but got bored with it real quick.

My wife loves BLOKUS Trigon, She wants to play this alot!

I see you've got Lord of the Rings but as you don't mention it, I don't know if your wife likes the theme. But if she does, how about Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition...? It's a two player game that's got the theme pretty strongly tied with the game mechanics and I think it looks good as well. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ofcourse, but it's not wooden cubes, that's for sure. Not sure if you absolutely need to be a fan of Tolkien's books to enjoy the game, but it certainly helps if you like Lord of the Rings.

Even though it's not a very heavy game, it's much more tactical game than it first seems. The variant and draft modes add replay value to the game and you can always switch sides to mix it up a bit. Fellowship and Sauron are different to play no matter what set of characters you use, so you need to use different tactics depending on which side you play. The optional special cards can help balance the game if the other player seems to be winning all the time.

It's a short game as it'll usually be over in about 20 minutes. The downside is that it's only for two players.

Thanks for all of the feedback -- and yes, I know she's a keeper. She has a deep competitive streak that I think was forged back in her high school and early college basketball days before she blew her knee out. I think this has provided her with another outlet -- and I think her enjoyment of games has surprised her. She's a tenacious player; she doesn't just go through the motions just to be "doing something with the husband." The woman likes to win and I wasn't kidding about Fury Dracula. She's Van Helsing's long lost daughter.

As for BattleLore, I've been itching to buy this and I like the fact that each battle, based on what I've read, doesn't take hours to complete. That's a plus, but since it seems to be a 2-player only game, it could pose a problem if it doesn't go over well. It sounds like my kind of game, but the problem is that our bi- (some times tri) weekly gaming group consists of me, my wife, my best friend from college and his wife -- as well as two other mutual buddies so we usually have at least 4 and sometimes as many as 6.

If my wife hates BLore...it's hard to play with just one other person. She surprises me , though. Games that are high on theme but also high on strategic decisions all tend to go over very well.

She likes games that force her to make important choices and gets mad when a game doesn't allow her to plan things out a bit. This is why she loves RRT so much as it's usually her choices that make or break the game. Example: Arkham Horror -- she got frustrated when we had an encounter that asked her to make a sneak check, but she had no clue that it was going to be a requirement. (A fair criticism of the mechanics, IMO).

The more I think about it the more she may like some lighter Euro games that are less luck based and more planning oriented. This is another reason why she loves Fury of Dracula, in that while there is certainly luck involved with combat rolls and the whim of the cards, she really likes trying to figure out where Dracula (usually poor me) is.

Anyway, we'll both do some reading up on all the games mentioned, and I really do appreciate everyone taking the time to offer an opinion.

Another vote for Attika and Blue Moon City. My wife enjoys both of these. She also liked Lost Cities and Balloon Cup as exclusively two player games. Through the Desert didn't go over as well, since there was so much direct blocking involved.

With more than two players, we had a blast with Condottiere, which I know is hard to find. You might try Iliade instead which has the same author - I own this one two but haven't played it yet.

It's always fun seeing what will work and what won't work with my wife. A least she's willing to try the games out.

MONOPOLY! BATMAN EDITION BABY!

MONOPOLY! BATMAN EDITION BABY!

MONOPOLY! BATMAN EDITION BABY!

So, perhaps what I guessed was liking maps was really the planning effect of maps: a geographic path, which might be some other kind of planned path.

If she's anti-luck, because it disrupts her planning, I'd put a black mark against Power Grid. But if she doesn't need a map, that puts Puerto Rico and Caylus back in the race. PR has a two player variant now; I haven't played it myself yet. Caylus played very well with two, and is totally luckless after setup.

I suggest adding Clans to your light game list. It allows quite a lot of planning. You place the five colors of clan huts evenly across the board, one in each territory, to begin. Then each turn you merge the huts from one territory into an adjacent territory; if it's now isolated (so it can't merge again) it's a city, and the player gets a bonus. The trick is, you don't know what color your opponent(s) are! It's a fun little game, the lighest game I've seen that can have any claim to being a civilization game, and calls for a lot of planning.

You might also like TransAmerica (or TransEuropa). These are very light rail games. You pick five random cards as your target cities, but after that, you just lay track every turn until you (or an opponent) link all your cities. Track is unowned, so you can spur off track your opponent(s) laid, which is a major part of the challenge: getting your opponent(s) to work for you. While these are extremely rules-light, I stopped treating them as light games after I noticed I was losing 90% of my games. And they reward planning a lot, which brings them to mind.

Say what? PG is by no stretch of the imagination a "luck-based" game. In fact, if your planning is off a touch, you will *not* win this game. Some people don't think it works for two, but we have lots of fun with it. Also scales well if you want to get the others in your group playing. Only downside is that the "theme" is a bit thin, but it does have nice bits.

Tikal might be another one you want to look at. Luck plays more of a role here, unless you play with bidding, but it does also have nice elements of exploring and great components. Also scales well to 3 or 4.

You're right: without perfect planning you will not win. OTOH, with perfect planning, the necessary power plant may not be available, and you'll be toast anyway. That's not a good match for a planning player, IMHO.

I agree about Tikal, but I see less luck in it, even without auctions. The luck is managable, and good planning--especially placing tents and getting men on the board--will overwhelm the luck of the draw.

My wife likes games where she can either build or figure out solutions.

Mystery at the Abbey

Age of Mythology

Hmmm. I have never found this to be an issue. A key element in Power Grid is about deciding to go first or last. Pick the wrong position, or be maneuvered into it by a clever opponent, and you may find yourself unable to buy the "right" plant. But its interesting that both Tikal and PG have the concept of a 'stack of tiles' that have a strong effect on the course of play.


We will have to "agree to disagree" on this one. It is possible to have lots of good draws on your turn and end up with, say, the bulk of the treasure. This scores every time and has a cumulative effect. I have a feeling we are going to have to switch to auctions next time we play, in order to resolve this imbalance.

Regardless of perceptions of luck, both Power Grid and Tikal are recommended as great games with interesting maps, lots of planning and high replayability.