My friends and I back in Sarasota used to play the 2nd edition of Arkham Horror so often. I know, itās not a well-designed strategy gameā¦ But it is a great hangout game. Itās easy for new players to learn and itās immediately engaging ā hereās your silly, fun character, now go buy a gun, or go the woods and see if you can join the Sheldon gang, or travel to another world, or kill a monster. And despite the gameās infamous difficulty, itās co-op, so thereās not a lot of pressure on each individual person.
We used to have all the expansions, and weād put them all together into this ridiculously long board full of places you could go and things you could do. The game became so bloated that it ruined the game design ā a player could go take the train to Kingsport and spend the whole game doing almost nothing of consequence, just wandering around this coastal town like theyāre on vacation in Provincetown while the rest of us are jumping in portals and killing cultists. But that was great! It was this whole big world of stupid and unnecessary possibilities, full of so many random encounters with such fun, thematic purple pose.
On New Years Eve and events like that, weād get a game of Arkham going and itād just be a way to get everybody together and relax over this surprisingly open-ended and low-stress game.
I recently bought the 2018 third edition of the game and gave it a go. Iād played it before a few years ago (with SB people!) but Iād forgotten how it plays. They really streamlined it! Thereās no longer a need for one expert player to manage all the weird little stuff happening to the board state. Thereās a much smaller board, and a restricted range of actions you can take. The systems have borrowed a lot from Pandemic now, and thereās a more coherent strategy to it. You can better intuit whatās going to happen on the board and whatās the most useful action you can take. Itās a much better strategy game, but I have to admit, itās missing some of that bloated ameritrash hangout game charm. I guess I have to get the expansions!
My roommate has this game and the expansions, but weāve never gotten it to the table. Twilight Imperium (and later, Gloomhaven) kept getting in the way. Might have to make a special occasion to try it out!
curious-- any hot reccs for games specifically for two players?
I like Jaipur a lot because itās fast, easy to learn, and the strategies are fairly subtle while still relying quite a bit on luck. Also itās portable.
If youāve never played Trambahn, Iād recommend that one. It feels a little like Lost Cities in some ways (which is also a favorite) but the mechanics are ultimately quite different.
I picked up a simple, attractive game recently called Aqualin. Not sure it will become a lasting favorite, but one reason I bought it is that you can also play a Reiner Knizia game called Bunte Runde with the pieces. And you can play either game with a Qwirkle set.
Iām sure youāre already familiar with Patchwork.
Another one I like that might be hard to find these days is Starship Catan. (Itās nothing like Settlers of Catan, which is a game I hope never to play again.) It actually feels somewhat similar to FTL (the video game).
Honestly I really like Qwirkle as a two-player game, and it scales up nicely if youāve got more players.
Same with Race for the Galaxy and Dominion. They seem like games that would work best with more players, but I think they are both just as good with two.
Ascension is also best with two players IMO. Underrated game. Not an incredible depth of strategy to it, but enough to be satisfying while you chill out.
7 Wonders: Duel is the best 2-player game I have that is fun, Battleline is the best that plays in less than 30 minutes
Played Res Arcana a lot two player and it is a good time.
I think Azul is supposed to work well with two people? I think Iāve only played with four though.
Learning to play Burgle Bros today, it has a strongly indie video game sense that quickly makes us feel un-fresh, but we DIY some new roles and rules after we played a few times (like ninja replacing the hacker which depends on item cards to avoid alerts and allows players to betray each other in the end), and make the game interesting again.
Iāve played this a couple times. I really like a lot of the mechanics, but it has the usual problem if it not really needing to be co-op, and I would rather just play a solo PC version. I have the same issue with Pandemic and Flashpoint
We are 4 players, and this time we level up the difficulty of opening the safe (4 points for 1 roll, no one could open it on their own). We changed the rules about looting the treasure (like around the safe box could get the treasures, also changed some effects on treasure cards). Co-op is very important at the beginning, but weāll quickly betray each other when we get enough treasures.
While playing, weāre more like simulate the robbery squad in the opening of The Dark Knight.
Played boardgame Britannia today
and learned Belgium is come from Belgae
blue player has a hero card called Boudicca
But the game is not much fun for a new player, full of diplomatic scam 
got a copy of miskatonic school for girls this week, because it was very cheap, and i liked the theming.
despite the massive hate it seems to get on board game geek, i played it with my dnd group, and we had a fun time. itās a little clunky, and thereās some elements that feel very strange when youāre used to other deckbuilding games, but itās good and definitely worth what i paid for it.
Iād really recommend Pagan: Fate of Roanoke. Itās an asymettrical two player board/card game.