Looking for a 2-player, heavy strategy game that rewards players who are willing to learn the complex ruleset and decision space? Here are our recommendations.
⭐️ Top Picks
Our top recommendations in this category, and games that we personally own to fill this niche.
Twilight Struggle
🟢 Ryan’s #10 All-Time 🔴 Daniel’s #11 All-Time
Summary: Relive the Cold War and rewrite history in an epic clash between the USA and USSR.
You Might Like If… you want an epic game that is filled with agonizing tradeoffs and meaningful decisions, enjoy direct competition over control of regions, and want a deep game that will reward repeated play.
War of the Ring
🟢 Ryan’s #18 All-Time
Summary: Relive the epic story of The Lord of the Rings in a head-to-head matchup between the free peoples and Sauron’s armies.
You Might Like If… you love The Lord of the Rings theme and don’t mind learning a complex ruleset, and want an epic head-to-head game that combines great strategic mechanisms with an immersive thematic story.
Mage Knight: Ultimate Edition
🟢 Ryan’s #4 All-Time 🔴 Daniel’s #8 All-Time
Summary: Build your hero’s spells, abilities, and artifacts as you explore and conquer through strategic deck-building and card play.
You Might Like If… you enjoy deck-building games and a strong sense of “leveling up” over time, and are looking for an epic experience with a lot of variability from session that plays best solo, or cooperatively with 2-3 players.
A Feast for Odin
🟢 Ryan’s #9 All-Time 🔴 Daniel’s #19 All-Time
Summary: Acquire and upgrade tiles to fill the puzzle of your board as you hunt, farm, craft, and explore as a Viking clan.
You Might Like If… you enjoy worker-placement games with a wide breadth of options as well as puzzling pieces into a grid, and want a deep strategy game with a strong sense of progression.
Gaia Project
Summary: Expand, research, upgrade, and settle the galaxy as you strategically allocate the resources and abilities of your unique alien race.
You Might Like If… you enjoy deep strategic games with no random elements after setup, and are looking for a game with satisfying engine-building with variable setup that makes each game unique.
Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
🔴 Daniel’s #12 All-Time
Summary: Draft cards and build up your civilization while managing your resources, electing leaders, discovering technologies, and constructing wonders.
You Might Like If… you enjoy strategic games with a slow but satisfying progression, and are looking for a civilization-themed game that focus more on building up card effects than fighting on a map.
👍 Honorable Mentions
Games that missed being top picks, but that we still think are great choices for a lot of people.
Anachrony
Summary: Strategically time travel and borrower resources from yourself to ensure your vision for the future after the cataclysm.
You Might Like If… you enjoy games worker-placement games with more going on, and want a game with a really cool time-traveling theme that creates a really interesting decision space.
Spirit Island
Summary: Take on the role of Island Spirits joining forces to use their elemental powers to defend their home from invaders.
You Might Like If… you enjoy cooperative games with low amounts of luck, and like the idea of a complex puzzle where the interest comes less from surprises from the opposition and more from how you can combo your cards and abilities together to best clear invaders and manage the board state.
👀 Worth a Look
Games we haven’t tried yet ourselves, but we believe could be a good choice in this category.
Too Many Bones
🟢 Ryan’s #13 All-Time
Summary: Work as a team and manage your the dice of your unique character as you adventure towards an epic boss showdown.
You Might Like If… you enjoy cooperative games with a lot of strategic customization, and want an epic experience with a lot of progression that plays best with 1-3 players.
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