Here are 6 Two-Player Board Games to keep you entertained!

Grab a friend or family member and try out these awesome 2-player Games! During this period of stay home, and restricted gathering down to 2 pax since the announcement of P2HA in Finland. We thought you should check out these awesome games that work well in a duel format!

Jaipur

First up, Jaipur is a classic game for purely 2 players that I recommend to people of all gaming backgrounds with a simple ruleset and gameplay that provides tension, tactics and fun for the whole family. 

Gameplay wise, on your turn you either collect one card from the 5 in the market, swap out any number of cards from the market with those in your hand, swap cards from the market with camel cards in front of you or play a set of cards of one colour and collect that many tokens for the point pile plus any bonus tokens. The earlier ones being of a higher value. When 3 of the goods in the point pile is finished. The round ends and the person with the higher points wins the round and gets a victory token. The game continues until one person has won 2 victory tokens. 

Hero Realms

Take Magic the Gathering, remove the collectible element and make it a deck builder. That is Hero Realms from White Wizard Games, whose founders are avid Magic the Gathering fans. A fast paced 2 player card game that sees both people drawing from a common pool of cards to make the most efficient deck of resources and attack abilities. The tension of what to buy and how many cards to put in your deck, forming the crux of the puzzle for the game.

On your turn, you play 5 cards from your hand and use the resources to buy cards from the market that will go into your discard pile and use any attack points to either attack opponent's guards or the player themselves. Cards also usually have affiliated symbols to activate secondary abilities. When your draw deck empties, you then shuffle the discard pile to form your new draw deck, thus cycling in your new cards into play. The first player to reduce the opponent to 0 hit points wins.

Lost Cities Rivals

Now Lost Cities Rivals is a 4 player game but with the removal of a few cards and the easily downloadable rules online you can also play the fantastic 2 player game Lost Cities. In a way you are getting 2 games in 1. Both of which are solid games.

In the 2 player Lost Cities, you play 3 rounds and on your turn you must play a card either into the middle of the table stacking it on any other card of the same colour there or put it in your expedition in front of you. Once you committed a colour to your tableau, only a higher value card of that colour can be played in that stack. The range of cards for each colour being wager cards, then 2 to 10. Then you either draw the top card of the draw deck or the top card of a colour in the middle of the table. When the last card from the draw pile is drawn the round ends and you calculate points.

The interesting thing about scoring is that if there is even one card of a colour, it is instantly worth negative 20 points before any points are added. So planning and choosing what to play and give your opponent is key. 

Related: Beat the Covid-19 blues with these 7 awesome family board games

Wingspan 

For heavier Euro gamers, there is Wingspan that plays up to 4 but works just as well at 2 players too. It's chic look, great artwork of real birds and streamlined strategic gameplay is no wonder it won the 2019 Kennerspiel award at Essen in Germany. Arguably one of the most prestigious award in board gaming. 

In Wingspan, you are filling your aviary with birds. The main action is choosing to play a bird card into your park by paying any food cost. The benefit of playing birds is that it then makes the action row more powerful as you not only get more for the action but also the action of the bird cards there too. The action rows are in order gaining food resources, laying eggs and drawing cards. After 4 rounds, the player with the most points wins.

Calico

Keeping with cute animal artwork and a game that plays well at 2 to 4 players is Calico. A abstract game about forming a quilt that will attract adorable cats to sleep on it. Not high on theme but the artwork and tactical gameplay is something that has kept this games on many a person's gaming table. 

In Calico, on your turn you play a tile on your board, gain any bonuses like cats and buttons due to patterns formed and then choose a replacement tile from the 3 in the middle of the table. Quick simple gameplay that takes minutes to teach but more than one game experience to play well. 

Splendor

Another abstract game but with the pedigree of Game of the Year 2014 Spiel des Jahres in Essen Germany. Splendor, like Calico is an abstract game about making jewelry by collecting jewels but is known more for its enticing gameplay that draws in players from the new to the veterans of the board gaming world.

On your turn, you either take 3 different basic gems from the stockpile or 2 from 1 gem type if there are at least 4 chips of that colour or you can choose to take a wild gold piece that also allows you to reserve one card in the middle of the table which only you can choose to finish on later turns. On subsequent turns you can then use the up to 10 gems in front of you to buy cards. Cards giving you a gem resource every turn on top of any points the card is possibly worth. When a player reaches 15 points, the game is over after equal turns.  The player with the most points win. 

Klask

The last game of the day is a dexterity game that brings the fun of air hockey into your home. Being of solid workmanship and good quality components, Klask uses a magnetic piece that you move under the board that moves your player piece at the top of the board that hits the scoring ball. Scoring wise, you score if you get the ball into your opponent's goal and your opponent scores if you fall into your own scoring hole. Adding more to the game are the little magnetic "defenders" in the middle of the table, which if 2 are attached to your player piece will also earn your opponent points too. 

Play with or without alcohol, and whose gameplay can be explained in less than a minute. A fun romp of laughter and hand eye coordination. 

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Zhou Huibin is a smith of words who majored in Philosophy & History from the University of Western Australia and whose life has followed the flow of his hobbies. He seeks continual contentment in his ponders, reading, writing, painting and board games which fills almost all of his time.