With the board game industry seeing such an explosion in diversity, there are now options for every group size and type. But it can still be hard to find a great board game that’s perfect for two players, especially if you want to play something a little less frantic or manic than most games require. Thankfully, there are plenty of clever games out there that perfectly suit an intimate, relaxing and engaging game night with your partner.
From a serene exercise in fitting Tetris-like tiles together to a head-to-head hacking run across the mainframe of a megabank, there are some really great options to choose from. For those who prefer a bit more of a challenge, there are also options like Pandemic, which requires near-perfect cooperation in order to have any chance of saving the world (and a whole lot of fun). And of course, there are plenty of variations on old classics. For example, Ticket to Ride can be a great gateway game for new players while Jaipur is a more complex variation that still manages to stay accessible.
There’s also 7 Wonders Duel, a fast-playing reworking of the much bigger sibling. Here, instead of passing cards around the table, you pick from a stack that already contains uncovered cards from previous turns, so that every turn is an opportunity to uncover the next level of your civilization in your pursuit of victory in space, science, military might and more. Alternatively, there’s Air, Land and Sea, a brilliantly compact strategy game that packs in three different ways to win in a matter of half an hour.