2-player Games - A Female's Perspective
Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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Alright, I am doing this. This is my very first Geeklist. I guess this means that I am officially a BGG member now.
I love to game one-on-one with my spouse Kr1s, and in gaming groups. I am not keen on warfare games, however I am most favourable towards most Eurogames.
I do have a little bit of a gripe for gaming, especially CCG games...if you want women to be more open to playing them, then the game designers need to have illustrations that are going to be more appealing to the female mindset. Personally, I favour mystical, magical, light in appearance graphics design, such as faeries, pixies, sun spirits, butterflies, etc. Angels are okay, but not so fun looking. This is one reason why I am excited for the the Munchkin Fairy to be released.
The following is a list of the 2-player games that my husband and I own in the order of my playing preference (mostly in order). Hopefully this may help some of you in deciding the types of games to introduce your female counterparts to.
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1.
Board Game: Small World
[Average Rating:7.30 Overall Rank:208]
[Average Rating:7.30 Unranked]
Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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Fun, interesting dynamic for a game; fun to start an army and then shortly thereafter put it into decline. Easy to learn.
My only issue is the 2-player map is slightly too small (in my opinion); there needs to be at least 1 more region in between the countries borders and the centre of the map to allow for slightly more strategic play in cutting off your opponent.
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2.
Board Game: Caylus
[Average Rating:7.81 Overall Rank:49]
Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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I love Caylus. Again this is a relatively easier strategic game to learn. It is one that I really enjoy when I am victorious in too.
For some reason I always get too excited & tend to forget that I should not risk trying to get one of the benefits on the time-line/action track if the Bailiff & Provost are within close vicinity. The other silly thing that I keep doing is selecting the build option on the same track prior to having collected one of the necessary resources (timeline issue) - for some reason I do this more than I should. But overall, this game rocks!
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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Firstly, I know that this is a 3 to 4-player game, but my husband & I have played it as a 2-player variant, which plays out just fine.
This is a good game, however it can get a bit dry in the game play at some points. I have won it a few times, but have lost a glaring defeat in many more to you. The secret to this game is you have to stay on the sly offense, rather than switching from offense to defense, cause as soon as you do tends to result in one's being conquered from an angle unsuspecting.
This is one of our most well-used games, as it is fairly easy to learn while there is a little complexity to it.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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This is a worker placement game with more flavour than Caylus & you get to see the Cathedral being built over the course of the game. This game has been well-designed & quite enjoyable to play.
My only wish is that we have more opportunities to play this game than we do.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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This is a prestige acquisition game utilizing role selection with a unique & interesting card drafting mechanic where each player has his/her own district map linked to all the other players maps (The first time we played it, the map set-up was a bit confusing.) Each player is racing to beautify their district, heal the plague, or build Notre Dame, all the while collecting prestige points to win the game. The game dynamics are great in this game.
Once again, I wish that we have more opportunities to play this game than we do, as it involves some strategy while not being too complex.
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6.
Board Game: Dominion
[Average Rating:7.65 Overall Rank:76]
[Average Rating:7.65 Unranked]
Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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We also have Dominion Intrigue.
Very simple, fun, short game. I never turn down a round of Dominion. This game involves very little rule explanation, as the cards state clearly what their special ability is, and each player can read the cards as they can afford to buy them. I am not a fan of games that involve a lot of reading (i.e. Magic the Gathering, Race for the Galaxy), however I really enjoy this game since the reading is limited to the few cards available to choose from for the current game and their card costs. I do not find the reading involved in this game to be intimidating, rather it is welcoming to me.
It rarely ever takes more than 20-minutes so it is perfect for a weeknight, after the kids are in bed, for the 2 of you to wind down with a game of Dominion and then settle into bed for the night. I highly recommend this game for families with little kids & little sleep. lol
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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Very fun, simple to play game. Works well as a 2-player version. It is fun to try to psych out the character selection of your opponent.
Last night, I so enjoyed psyching KJ out by passing him the Thief, Architect, Magician and Bishop. He needed all four cards, as he had no money, no cards, and the Warlord selection was on a vengeance & had a mission to destroy districts. I psyched him out so much towards picking the Thief, and suspected that he'd think that he was safe to pick the Architect. I had picked the Assassin & chose to assassinate the Architect. WOW!! Did I enjoy that play! LMAO.
Even with a large group of people playing this game, it seems to fluke out that the couples always end up getting one another somehow in this game. All around this is a fun game.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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We also just bought Galaxy Trucker - The Big Expansion which I am excited to learn to play.
Galaxy Trucker is a fun, chaotic game.
Since there are lots of little pieces it is tough to play with kids around. We only seem to get a chance to play this on the occassional weekend when the kids are in bed. We had a real hard time getting to play this game to the end the first several times that we tried playing it, due to kids destroying our constructed ships. If you don't have little kids, then this game is perfect.
I love the chaotic sensation that this game fills me with.
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9.
Board Game: Hive
[Average Rating:7.32 Overall Rank:214]
Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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We also have the Mosquito Expansion.
Super short, super easy to learn, high quality game pieces. I really enjoy this game. It is definitely aimed towards the light-hearted gamers. We have played this game with grandparents and younger kids, all of which have enjoyed the simplicity of the game. Our 5-year old nephew loved the Bugs.
Our 3 1/2 year old son, loves playing with the pieces and the bugs. Since they are high-quality & durable, this is one game that I don't mind letting him play with.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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If you enjoy Puerto Rico then this game is a good one to add to your collection. It plays off of the same rules as Puerto Rico for the most part. It is fairly small so a good travel game too.
This is a game that I have been able to teach other people to play, which is surprising because that is my husband's forte not mine. It is also one of the games that I will initiate game play with other people when he is not around.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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This is a nice, light-hearted game with a short game play. Once it was understood that the hands only count towards the scoring round after the base 20 points have been tallied then I was good to go. I am yet to win a round of this, but that is all good, because I enjoy the lightness of this game. For some reason, I find it calming before a night's sleep.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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It is one of our newer games so I have only played this game once.
It was a fairly easy concept for me to learn as it is a spin-off of Agricola. Having grown up on the West Coast and fishing with my family every summer, I felt a little connection to the flavour of this game & enjoyed playing it.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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This is resource management game that works on the intensity involved around feeding your family during each harvest phase.
This game has so many options & a ton of reading involved prior to figuring out your initial strategy that it tends to be overwhelming at first. You also need a lot of table space to set up all the boards and resources on.
In my opinion this game is aimed more towards avid gamers. Myself, I enjoy it, but it can be a lot at times. I particularly enjoy my personal victories when winning this game....perhaps because it is such an involved game with so many possible strategies.
Every game that we have played has played out completely differently due to the varied card selections.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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I love the graphics in this game. The dragons are cool.
I have not quite mastered this game yet, but I will keep trying. My husband really likes this game & I would like to be competitive with him at some point.
Again, the graphics are really good. A++ to the game illustrators on the graphics designs.
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15.
Board Game: Carcassonne
[Average Rating:7.43 Overall Rank:152]
[Average Rating:7.43 Unranked]
Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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I think we own all of the expansions and the stand alone version of Carcassonne the Castle.
This is one of the first Euro Games that we tried next to Settlers of Catan. By means of these introductory Euro Games, we found our passion for gaming.
Carcassonne is a nice, simple game to learn to play. You can mix it up by using the different expansions adding a little more flavour to the game. In this regards, I do not recommend adding in too many expansions at once....we played with 7 expansions for one game & it was way too much to handle, however we did get a ton of laughs & screams over the several hours of game play. lol
I do not care for Carcassonne the Castle. I feel that there are too many possible tile placement options. I feel that it should be more challenging to fit your tiles within the Castle walls.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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Basically you are trying to build an Ahlambra (aka palace & fortress) by utilizing the most tiles for each colour & maintaining the most connections of continuous exterior walls.
This is a lighter game to play while requiring a slight strategy. This is a game that tends to appeal more to myself than my husband & it is a game that I ordered myself.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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We also own Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm.
My husband really likes this game & wishes that I shared the same passion for this game. Unfortunately, this is one of those games that requires a ton of reading & understanding the special abilities, resulting in frustration on my part because I tend to misinterpret the abilities.
I will play this game, but it is not on my top 10. Sorry Kr1s.
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18.
Board Game: Blokus
[Average Rating:6.91 Overall Rank:571]
Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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We also own Blokus Duo, which is perfect for traveling. We actually bought it to play at the hospital while I was recovering from my last C-section. The nurses & doctors thought it was great, us playing games at the hospital.
This game is fun, super easy to learn, and can take anywhere from a few minutes plus, depending on how strategic you want your tile placements to be & how badly you hope to screw your opponent over. This is one of my favourite games to play with any age, as young as 5-years and including grandparents. It is nice playing this game with kids too since you don't have to be worried too much about blocking off the kids because our 5-year old nephew kept to the outer edge of the board during most of one game & ended up winning.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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An easy to grasp game concept, especially for anyone who has played any of the Settlers of Catan games & YAHTZEE!
You roll dice & set aside aside selection (just like you would in a game of YAHTZEE!) & hope to collect one of the building options needed to complete the route & building connections on your small personal map. The person with the most points collected by the end wins.
This is a perfect travel game & to play with any age.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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We have played this twice & neither my husband nor I care for this game. I don't remember much about this game, but I remember it not striking much of a cord in my mind.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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This is a fairly new game in our collection. One of which I ordered myself. We have not yet tried playing a 2-player version of it.
I love the intensity of the chaos in this game & am so excited to finally own it. It is full of chaos & pretty intense in the collaborative game play in trying to maintain your space ship during a variety of missions.
I am not sure how a 2-player version would play out, but I am intrigued as to the idea & am anxious to try it out. I have no doubt in my mind that this is going to be one of my top 10 2-player games.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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We enjoy Ticket to Ride Marklin, however we have not yet had an opportunity to play Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries. So at this time, I cannot give my opinon. If it is anything like Marklin, then it is a good game for the beginning to mid-Gamer.
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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This is a game that I ordered. It is only a matter of time until my husband will break down & play it with me. When he does, I think it will be one of his favourite games. There is a lot more going on in this game than one would expect, and since I particularly enjoy games with a fair amount of things to do in them this one is perfect (there is a lot going on while not being overwhelming).
I have played the 2-player version of this & am very keen on getting my husband to try it out with me too. Personally, I rate this game quite highly & feel that it is as good or better than Caylus (I screwed up in where this is listed, sorry. I grouped it with the games that we have but haven't played yet.).
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Lana Johnson
Canada
Quesnel
British Columbia
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This is our newest game & it is the very 1st game that I ordered online. We have not yet played this game, but I am so excited & anxious to play it.
Everyone are mad scientists racing to build a super machine to attain global domination.
Even if the game play sucks, what better game to have in your game collection than one called "MWAHAHAHA!
My husband has been studying the 50 page manual & told me that he thinks that I will really like it & that he may even enjoy playing it too. So perhaps after all my crazy reasoning for ordering a game, may have resulted in a wise selection. MWAHAHAHA! LMAO!
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Murray C
Canada
Vancouver
British Colombia
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Give this game a shot, my fiancé and all her friends love it. It's fairly easy to learn and, generally, promotes working well with other players and being friendly as the more trades you can get, the better off you tend to be.
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