The Best 2 Player Board Games

Board games are a great way to pass some time while stuck at home. It’s inadvisable to have friends over for board game nights right now. Luckily there are lots of games that are made for 2 players that are tons of fun. My husband and I started our collection of 2 player board games several years ago to help cope with my chronic illness, so when COVID hit we already had a pretty solid collection. We have since acquired a few more and we still have a few more on our list to get. I’ve found that when I’m not feeling well it can be very boring and lonely. Sometimes looking at screens bothers me, particularly when I have a migraine. So board games for 2 is a really helpful tool in my toolkit for the days I’m not feeling great. I thought I’d share some reviews of our favorites in case other folks aren’t sure where to start.

Ticket to Ride is one of my personal favorite board games in general. It’s for 2-5 players but is not at all diminished by only having 2 players. Each player uses train cars and resources to construct rail lines connecting certain cities. There are tons of variations but if you aren’t sure where to start, the one of the continental US (linked to above) and the one of Europe are both great places to start. We’ve found it has also helped our geography knowledge. It’s rated for ages 8 and up.

Azul is both a fun game and a game with beautiful artwork. Players are laying tiles of various patterns down in strategic ways to earn points. Game play involves several rounds of resource gathering and placement strategies. It’s a 2-4 player game for ages 8 and up. I find it uses some of the same parts of my brain that sudoku uses, so if you’re a fan of sudoku give this one a try.

Love Letter is a card game in which each player is trying to deliver a love letter to the princess. The cards depict various members of the court ranked based on how close they are to the princess. If you win a round you receive a “token of the princess’s affection” which is to say a small cube used to keep track of points. Many of the cards have special effects on the game so be sure to read what each card does prior to play. This is a game for 2-4 players ages 10 and up. There is certainly some luck of the draw involved in this game but it’s a well balanced game where no one can really get a dishearteningly large lead.

Hanamikoji is a game for only 2 players ages 10 and up. It features some beautiful artwork. Players are performing one of 4 actions with each turn trying to win the favor of the geishas. This game really forces you to make some tough choices as moves often involve having to give cards to your opponent. To win you have to decide on a strategy and be willing to make some sacrifices to get there. In some ways it’s almost chesslike in that way.

Jaipur is for only 2 players ages 12 and up. If you like Settlers of Catan but wish you could play it with 2 players in a half hour check out Jaipur. It is almost like a scaled back version of Settlers in that players are acquiring resources in order to build a trade empire. It’s a fairly easy game to understand since it uses the basic economics we all learned in school. You buy goods and then try to sell them for a better price. It’s best two out of three rounds so if the cards you need just don’t come up one round you’ll have another go at it. This game is simple enough that I expected to get sick of it quickly but it’s been several years and I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. This is a good option for people just starting to play board games.

Piepmatz is a game for 2-4 players ages 12 and up. It is primarily a math game and would be good for honing your mental math skills (and solidifying your hatred of squirrels). It is a card game played at a bird feeder, each player is attempting to attract the most birds of a species to their collection with bonus points for collecting matching pairs. While avoiding squirrels and crows which are attempting to interfere. The artwork for this game is gorgeous featuring fairly accurate renderings of 6 different types of birds and of both genders of bird.

The Mind is for 2-4 players 8 and up. It’s not a good game for a rowdy group as there is no talking allowed during game play. There is a deck that contains cards numbered 1-100. Each player receives a hand of cards and then you have to lay the cards down in ascending order without communicating with each other. You have a certain number of lives depending on the number of players. This is a cooperative game. You are not playing against your opponent, rather you are all playing against the game. Either everyone wins or everyone loses.

Codenames Duet is a cooperative game for 2 players ages 11 and up. In it you are using one word clues to try to get the other player to guess who your secret agents are without guessing any assassins. I found this game to be very quick to learn and fun from the first time we played. If it sounds fun to rack your brain for the perfect single word that connects ‘piano,’ ‘spoon,’ and ‘Napoleon Bonaparte’ this game might be for you. The rules are straightforward but there is a wide enough variety to keep new games interesting indefinitely.

7 Wonders Duel With expansion is one of those rare games that is based on a game for more players but is actually more fun with just 2. It’s rated for players aged 10 and up. It is a resource gathering game in which the players are building civilizations. This game is a little more complex than some of the other games on this list and it gets even more complex if you add the expansion in, so I would recommend starting with the basic game before you try to learn any expansions. In this game there are many different ways to earn points and I find that I don’t usually know who is winning until we actually tally everything at the end, so it’s rare to have someone totally run away with this game.

The Fox in the Forest is a trick taking card game for 2 players ages 10 and up. It rewards taking tricks but not taking too many tricks. It’s a fine line to walk to get the right number of tricks and make sure your opponent also takes some. It’s fairly easy to learn. This scratches that itch if you're missing playing Spades, Hearts, Pitch, Euchre, etc. There are some cards that have special effects but those are explained pretty clearly on the cards themselves so there isn’t much to memorize. We have found that once we learned the rules this is a fairly quick game. We can sometimes play it in 10-15 minutes.

Hopefully some of these games inspire you to play more board games, even when we can’t gather in large groups. Games are an excellent way to pass a boring winter afternoon or evening stuck at home.