My favorite two-player games

February 28, 2016

Written by Seongseop Kim

It’s fun to hang out with many fellow gamers and play multiplayer strategy/party games. That’s what we have been doing on many weekend evenings. Because there are many gamers in our gatherings, we don’t have much chance to play two-player (2P) games. But, that’s too bad, because 2P games can be a lot of fun and are some of the easiest to play. After all, you only need ONE other player! Here I would like to share some of my favorite 2P games.


Jaipur (2009; 30 min)

Difficulty:

Jaipur is a very simple trading card game for two people. You need to sell your goods to earn more money than your opponent by the end. Each turn, you can take one kind of goods from the market, take all camels from the market, or sell your goods for the money tokens. When you sell several goods at one time, you also get a bonus token that gives you extra money. That’s all you need to know to get to play this game. The game ends when three stacks of money tokens are gone, and then whoever has more money wins. The game is simple. There are some strategies, but you don’t need to worry about getting a headache. Also, there is not much tension in this game, and that’s why I like playing this game in between heavier games.


Hive (2001; 20 min)

Difficulty:

Protect the Queen! Hive is a simple abstract game using thick plastic hexagon tiles. Each white or black tile represents an insect, e.g. queen bee, beetle, ant, grasshopper, spider, etc., which has a unique movement for its own. On your turn, you either place a tile or move a tile to surround your opponent’s queen bee. When you completely surround your opponent’s queen bee, you win! Same rules apply for your opponent. The game is simple and quick. It has a decent number of strategies and also requires tactical thinking to quickly respond your opponent’s moves. Most importantly, you can play Hive almost everywhere, including in your bathtub if you want. Just a few tiles are all you need. You can easily carry them around and it has a very small footprint. It is an excellent game to play at a restaurant or a bar while you are waiting for your food.


Battle Line (2000; 30 min)

Difficulty:

Capture the flags! Battle Line is a simple card game designed by Reiner Knizia, who is one of the most famous and prolific game designers. There are 9 flags and if you capture any 5 flags or 3 consecutive flags, you win. On your turn, you play one of your troop cards, numbering 1-10 with six different colors, to create a “formation” to capture the flag. A set of three cards makes a formation, e.g. same colors (Flush), same numbers (Three of a kind), consecutive numbers (Straight), etc. If you are familiar with poker, then you already know how to play this game. If your formation is stronger than your opponent’s, then you can capture the flag. Because you don’t know what cards your opponent has, each card play is very intense and agonizing. If that is not enough, you can play the “advanced game” including tactics cards that you can play to destroy your opponent’s plans. The game is short and portable although it needs a decent table space to spread out the 9 flags.


Carcassonne (2000; 30-45 min)

Difficulty:

Carcassonne is a tile-placement game that is very easy to learn and play. You win the game by having the most points at the end. On your turn, you draw a tile and play it. You can put one of your workers on it to claim one of the structures, e.g. a road, a city, a monastery or a field. They will give you points when your worker finishes his/her job by completing the structure. Beware! Putting farmers on a field will lock them until the end of the game, but they can give you a lot of points. The game ends when the tiles run out, and everyone counts their final score to determine the winner. Depending on your opponent or your mood, you can play peacefully by focusing on maximizing your points or you can play aggressively by spoiling your opponent’s plans. Regardless, this game is relaxing as there are not many things to consider. I frequently play this in between heavier games. Carcassonne is actually a multiplayer game (2-5 players), but I find the two-player mode to be the most satisfying experience, eliminating the possibility of someone playing a “kingmaker”.


Zertz (1999; 30-60 min)

Difficulty:

Zertz is one of the GIPF Project featuring several 2P abstract strategy games, including Gipf, Dvonn, Yinsh, etc. Zertz is my favorite game from the series. It is basically a puzzle-like game. The game consists of several colored marbles (white, grey, or black) and the board pieces that you can put the marble on. You win the game if you capture three white marbles, four grey marbles, five black marbles, or two marbles of each color. On your turn, you place one of the marbles on one of the board pieces and remove another board piece. Thus, the game board gets smaller and smaller when the game progresses. You can capture marbles by jumping over or by isolating them from the main board. Most importantly, this jumping-over capture rule is mandatory. You can use this rule to your advantage by sacrificing less valuable marbles to earn more valuable marbles in your future turn. However, I know that this elegant way of forcing your opponent’s move turns off many gamers. One of my friends said that he felt “violated” after losing the game. Well, that’s exactly what I felt when I first learned the game and lost numerous times. At the same time, I also remember my first victory/revenge to the opponent who introduced me this game! If you like solving puzzles, you would definitely like this game. You might lose the first few games, but don’t give up. The reward is so sweet.


Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation (2002; 30 min)

Difficulty:

This game is another one of Reiner Knizia’s simple but elegant creations. This game is basically an advanced Stratego. One player takes the good side, the Middle Earth heroes, trying to toss the Ring into the Crack of Doom, and the other player takes the dark side, including Sauron forces, trying to conquer the Shire or to capture Frodo before he destroys the Ring. Each player has nine characters on their side and several cards for combat purposes. The game mechanic is very simple. On your turn, you just move one of your characters to an adjacent region. If there is an enemy piece, you fight until only one side remains. All your character pieces are facing towards your side, so your opponent cannot know which character is on which region until they meet and fight. Same thing applies to you as well. You don’t know which character your opponent just moved. The essence of this game is that each character has a different special ability. For example, Frodo can retreat when he is attacked before the combat happens. (Such a sneaky hobbit.) A Warg can disable all character abilities, so when a Warg meets Frodo, our poor hobbit cannot retreat. They must fight by using a combat card. In this case, if the Warg wins, Frodo gets captured and the game is over.

I played this game a lot. I mean A LOT. When I was in college, I played this game with my friend quite often, easily a few hundred times. The game is short (less than 30 min) and has a high replayability. There are many difficult decisions you have to make depending on whether you’re playing the good side or the dark side. The good side must make a careful journey to Mordor as the dark side has far more powerful characters and combat cards. For example, you don’t want to end up with Pippin facing the Balrog. (Gandalf would be a different story.) The dark side must play carefully as well as aggressively to capture Frodo or to conquer the Shire. Personally I like to play the good side because I can feel their desperation and I like the challenge. You will feel great when Frodo finally reaches Mordor and tosses the Ring into the pit. Of course only if you are on the good side.


Letters from Whitechapel (2011; 2 hr)

Difficulty:

Catch me if you can! Letters from Whitechapel is one of my favorite hidden-movement games. One player takes the role of Jack the Ripper, the infamous serial killer, while the other player controls a group of detectives trying to capture him. To win the game, Jack needs to kill five women during four nights and then return to his hideout safely. The detectives try to capture Jack before the end of the fourth night. The game mechanic is very simple and straightforward. On each night, potential victims walk around the streets of London, while Jack and the detectives plan their future moves. After Jack kills the victim(s), the hunt starts! During the hunt, Jack and the detectives move in alternating turns. Jack moves secretly to go back to his hideout, and the detectives move to find any clues Jack has left behind. The detectives must deduce his hideout and arrest him before he gets away. I think both sides are very fun to play and the game is well balanced.

There are several other hidden-movement games, e.g. Fury of Dracula, Spector Ops, Nuns on the Run, Scotland Yard, etc. Each game has unique themes and mechanics, but my personal favorite is Letters from Whitechapel. It is a pure deduction game for the detectives, and a fun deception game for Jack. The game box says it is for 2-6 players, but‒trust me‒it’s the best with two.


Twilight Struggle (2005; 2-3 hrs)

Difficulty:

Twilight Struggle is one of the best card-driven games (CDG). It perfectly captures the tension between the US and USSR during the Cold War era. In this game, the US and USSR indirectly fight for expanding their influence in the world. The goal is getting more victory points (VP) than your opponent by having more influence in several continents. If you have 20 or more VPs, you instantly win the game. You can also win the game at the final scoring after 10th Turn. During your action round, you play one of your cards in hand to place your influence on the game board and/or to remove your opponent’s influence. Each card has a card value and a historical event related to the US, USSR, or both. Basically you use either the card value or the event to control your influence and/or your opponent’s influence on the game board. Most importantly, if you play your opponent’s event card, the event automatically resolves, which could hurt you badly. Another winning/losing condition is by triggering a nuclear war. When the card you play triggers a nuclear war in any ways, you instantly lose. You can make a good winning strategy by forcing your opponent to cause a nuclear war even if you fall behind in VPs. As a result, each card play provides you with difficult choices, and you will constantly feel that you are on a verge of losing. The good thing is that your opponent will feel the exactly same way.

Twilight Struggle is a zero-sum game. If I gain some, you lose some, and vice versa. Each card play matters. The replayability value is excellent as you would never have the same game twice because of the numerous possibilities coming from different card combinations and board conditions. This is a relatively long game (about 2-3 hrs), but it is totally worth it. Strongly recommended!

(As a side note, this game was the #1 in BoardGameGeek for the last five years until Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 became the new #1 this year. However, Twilight Struggle is still the #1 game in my heart.) 


Washington’s War (2010; 90 min)

Difficulty:

Washington’s War is an excellent card-driven game (CDG) designed by Mark Herman, the pioneer of the CDG system. As you can guess from the game title, this game is set during the American Revolutionary War. The British armies and the American armies fight to control regions across several colonies on the East Coast from Georgia to Massachusetts in addition to a few regions of Canada. You need an army and/or political control in neighboring regions to expand your influence. On your turn, you play a card to move your armies, attack with your armies, expand your political control, or remove your opponent’s political control. You win the game if you control 7 or more colonies as the American side or 6 or more colonies as the British side at the end of the game. If both side meet the winning condition, then the British wins the tie.

An asymmetric nature of the warfare forces different strategies between two nations. The British side has strong armies and navies, but lacks efficient logistics. The American armies can move easily, making them suitable for guerilla tactics, but they have little chance of winning in direct combat against the British armies.

Many historical events are described in the event cards, including the Declaration of Independence and the Benjamin Franklin’s visit to France. It’s fun to try to change the course of war and write a different history in the game. What if the French never intervened? What if George Washington got captured? You will find out in this game.


War of the Ring (2nd edition) (2012; 2-4 hrs)

Difficulty:

This is another game in the Lord of the Rings world. I dare to say that this is the best game depicting Middle Earth so far. It wonderfully describes the tension between the Free People (FP) and the Shadow on an epic scale. The FP player will feel the desperation by the overwhelming Shadow forces, while his/her only hope resides in Frodo tossing the Ring into the Crack of Doom. The FP player needs to defend the strongholds long enough to earn time for the Fellowship to get to Mordor and destroy the Ring. On the other hand, the Shadow player needs to corrupt Frodo, the Ring bearer, or conquer the FP strongholds/cities before the Ring is destroyed. Both sides have two victory conditions: a Ring victory (destroying the Ring for the FP player win, the corruption of Frodo for the Shadow player win) and a military victory (capturing opponent’s strongholds/cities although this victory condition is hard to achieve for the FP player.) I will not explain the rules here because it’s a bit long and you really need to experience this game by yourself to fully appreciate it. In this game, how you play your dice rolls, your cards, and your armies would determine the fate of the Middle Earth. This game is truly EPIC!

The game offers plenty of possibilities and a high replayability. The game might be a bit long (about 2-4 hours) for some, but the whole journey is amazing. The game is well balanced for both sides, and often decided by the last tile draw or the last die roll if both players are equally experienced. If you like Tolkien’s imagination combined with planning strategies, you will love this game!


Empire of the Sun (2005; 3+ hrs)

Difficulty:

This game is a beast. I’m excited about it, but I should admit that I haven’t played this one yet even though I purchased it a few months ago. I want this game to be one of my favorite 2P games.

Empire of the Sun is an another card-driven game designed by Mark Herman and considered by many his magnum opus. Empire of the Sun depicts the Pacific theater during World War II, and provides tough choices to the players as commanders in chief. One player is on the Japanese side and the other is on the Allies side. I am not going to explain the rules in detail because they are quite complicated. Briefly, on your turn you play one of your cards in hand to make an order. By doing this, you can choose to move your ground/air/naval units on the board, attack with your units, reinforce your armies, or resolve the historical event of the card that would help you (or hurt your opponent). The allied player wins if the Japanese player surrenders or Japan has been successfully strategically bombed on four consecutive turns during the 12 game turns. The Japanese player wins if he/she drops the US Political Will to the Negotiation Box or prevents winning of the allied player during the 12 game turns.

There are some games you don’t understand just by reading a rulebook. This is definitely one of them. It has so many things going on. First of all, you need to manage your combat units. You need to choose a fight you have a chance to win and capture land bases to make sure your units are in supply. Without a supply line, your units will lose most of their power and will be easily destroyed. You also need to pay attention both to your own card play and to your opponent’s card play. Additionally, you need to work on a political side at the same time. There are so many things to do, but your resources, i.e. cards and units, are limited. The best way to win the game is planning a good strategy, adjusting it based on the war’s progress, and exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses. If you miss any of these aspects, you will have a hard time.

As I have previously mentioned, I haven’t had a chance to actually play this game. The set up is daunting and the playing time is quite long (~3 hrs for a short scenario). I know I need a good chunk of time set aside to learn it. It would be great if any of you knows how to play it. I would love to learn this one from an experienced player. I hope the day will come sooner than later. Hopefully before I retire…


There are so many good 2P games out there. I want to emphasize that these are some of my personal favorites based on my limited gaming experience. I look forward to discussing some of the games listed here in further detail. Stay tuned!