👈🏻 Back to Low-Medium Complexity
Looking for a 2-player game that is accessible and light on rules but still has meaningful strategy? Here are our recommendations.
⭐️ Top Picks
Our top recommendations in this category, and games that we personally own to fill this niche.
7 Wonders: Duel
Summary: A head-to-head spin on 7 Wonders that has you drafting cards from a common display in an effort to build the highest scoring civilization.
You Might Like If… you enjoy cutthroat, strategic two player games and like the idea of quick one that shares the abstracted civilization DNA of 7 Wonders.
Star Realms
Summary: Compete head-to-head to create the most powerful deck of spaceships and bases.
You Might Like If… you enjoy deck-building games and want one that plays quickly but still has nice variety based on the order the cards come out each game.
That’s Pretty Clever!
Summary: Draft dice to mark spaces on your scoresheet, comboing your way to a high score.
You Might Like If… you enjoy working on your own puzzle and want a game with tons of exciting combos and bonus actions and a dice-drafting mechanism that produces a lot of interesting decisions.
Santorini
🔴 Daniel’s #48 All-Time
Summary: Outsmart your opponent to be the first to climb to the top level of the towers you are constructing together.
You Might Like If… you enjoy abstract strategy games with no luck and want a really elegant modern design that spices up the gameplay with “God powers” with drastic player abilities that make every matchup feel unique.
Cascadia
🔴 Daniel’s #23 All-Time
Summary: Create the most harmonious ecosystem as you puzzle together habitats and wildlife.
You Might Like If… you enjoy spatial puzzles and want an easy-to-teach game that has a really accessible theme while having plenty of interesting decisions as you choose which combination of habitat tile and wildlife token to take each turn.
Marvel United
🟢 Ryan’s #19 All-Time
Summary: Cooperate as Marvel superheroes to stop the villains’ master plans!
You Might Like If… you enjoy working as a team and the Marvel theme, and want a quick and easy cooperative game that still has a nice amount of variety and depth, especially if you pick up the X-men set or other expansions for additional content.
Horrified
Summary: Work as a team to try to stop the classic movie monsters that are terrorizing the town.
You Might Like If… you enjoy cooperative games and want an accessible one with a fun theme that has nice replay value since you use a random combination of monsters in each game.
Cartographers
🟢 Ryan’s #33 All-Time
Summary: Fit shapes of various terrains into your map, doing your best to fill in space efficiently while also meeting the scoring conditions for that game.
You Might Like If… you enjoy spatial puzzles (think Tetris) and want a game that plays great across a broad range of players with a nice amount of variety from game to game with randomized objectives.
👍 Honorable Mentions
Games that missed being top picks, but that we still think are great choices for a lot of people.
Splendor
🔴 Daniel’s #47 All-Time
Summary: Race as Renaissance merchants to grab gems and use them to acquire property and please nobility.
You Might Like If… you enjoy games with a sense of progression and want a quick and easy-to-teach option that has players racing to a final point total.
Unmatched: Cobble & Fog
Summary: Pick a character from Victorian-era literature and face off on a map in a duel to the death.
You Might Like If… you enjoy tactical games of conflict and want one that lets you match up any two fighters (or four in team mode) and having an interesting battle on one of the variable maps. We recommend Cobble & Fog as the jumping in point for Unmatched, but it is a system that can be expanded with tons of different sets to have more characters and maps to choose from.
Onitama
Summary: Utilize the unique movement patterns of various animal spirits to outmaneuver and outsmart your opponent.
You Might Like If… you enjoy abstract strategy games with no luck such as Chess and want a simple and easy-to-teach option that has more variety due to the five animal spirits in each game being randomized.
Welcome to the Moon
🟢 Ryan’s #47 All-Time 🔴 Daniel’s #45 All-Time
Summary: Strategically place numbers and activate abilities across eight unique boards in this flip-and-write game that has you traveling from earth to the moon.
You Might Like If… you enjoy working on your own puzzle and trying to plan ahead and want a game that has a variety of maps with different twists to keep the game fresh. Also includes a campaign mode if you can consistently gather the same group.
Spots
Summary: Perform different tricks to place dice on adorable dog cards as you push your luck and race to complete six dogs first.
You Might Like If… you enjoy rolling dice and want an accessible game with a fun theme that has exciting moments and nice variety due to the randomized trick abilities used in each game.
Watergate
Summary: Hide or expose the Watergate scandal in this asymmetrical, historical tug-of-war of evidence.
You Might Like If… you enjoy head-to-head, tactical games and want one that has a historical theme while still being quick and easy to teach.
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