Top 10 Casual Games for 2 Players

[Music] hey everybody I'm Tom vessel I'm Garcia hello Sam Healy what's up folks welcome back one of the most requested things were asked all the time is two-player games usually a game I could play with my spouse right one person I play games with so this is a question we get asked a lot to the person well we've done a top 10 list on this very subject before we're actually splitting into two categories because there really is a big difference between let's sit down and play this long complex two-player game which are great fun that's the other list this list there i'm calling them casual games they're the kind of games that you can just sit down have a good time with one other person in a game right there's no real hard and fast rule on these we're going by our gut instinct whether it belongs and what category yeah yeah actually coming up with the list this one end the other one was pretty difficult because we should mention that we limited ourselves yeah that that would allow us to highlight new games and highlight games that are more likely to be available also right and so we've picked everything from 2013 and and you know this on this side of that fence so um it was pretty tough there was a there was definitely a golden age of two-player games this isn't it you have casual two-player games okay there's a casual the strategic one I could have went on and on and on he was like big epic the man of them they're right here no I got 10 too but I was scraping for some of them and some of them were just esoteric little games that I know when people don't know and who where the other ones we talked about was keeping it open and it didn't happen necessarily be just a two-player game what's true could be games that played well casually with two players and that was one of my hang-ups because there aren't a whole lot of multiplayer games that I play two player mm-hmm usually if I want to play a two-player game I go get a player game I forget a game that plays more than that and that's what made the list hard for me actually only two of my ten are also multiplayer games yeah you think I'm one why - that plays oh maybe - I also think we're going to have at least one crossover that everyone says mm-hmm and I'm gonna cross over with these guys at least so half a minor will be a crossover the one of these - Wow yeah but I think that same time this makes the original list that we did in 2014 valid now you can sort this one yeah I don't think you're gonna cross over with me hardly I'm gonna cross with Sam over twice I don't think you've played nine of your to ten and Andy's okay well that gives me all the more room to criticize Sam's an erroneous picks them as for example here is his first bad choice number gen Wow talk about setting the bar high or oh yeah this one is gonna be on all three of our list so if that's the case I'm just saying whatever take Santorini now my number 10 is Santorini it's gonna bet I've I it might not be on yours but I'm pretty sure it's on yours yeah Santorini Santorini is a great game where you can just now it can be played especially if you add in all the other stuff that they have for it all of the expandable elements that are there the gods and all that kind of stuff it can it can ratchet up to a almost a very strategic game it is abstract strategy but it's a very I don't know just a very loose abstract strategy game you can play it where you're like dialed in totally focused and you want to win but you can also just play it whatever man I'm just gonna do this I'm gonna do that and you can play it both ways and and playing it casually is the way I enjoy it the most well as with most abstract strategy games if the abstract strategy game is asking me to brain burn I'll pass but this one you can do either one and I usually I usually tend to play it in a more casual fashion but Santorini is my number ten I read by withdraw my number ten is from our nerd games this game doesn't look like much but it's very fun and that's pyramid poker this is a oh okay never I'm gonna reduce my crossover down to four very good one yeah all right so pyramid poker you have these blocks that show the suits and numbers on a card right and so and you have half and you're ponen has half and you slowly build this pyramid you can see half the stuff on the pyramid and then you pull them off and you're trying to make a good poker hand but you know that if you pull a brick or a wood block office you might be freeing your opponent up you're watching what he's collecting so yes he collects three aces you're like no he must know where that fourth phase is I don't see it on my side so it could be one of his blocks I'm not letting I'm getting office blocks freeing up two blocks that are not that you can't see is a bad idea yeah makes you nervous you know that's a good one yeah that really works it's easy if you know anything about cards it works well but it's not just the game that could be played with cards it actually needs to be built in a pyramid yes for the game to work fast and fun pyramid poker that's good stuff is a two-player only card game called Holmes Sherlock and Mycroft in which you are to give me what you collect sets of cards you're supposed to be investigating but I also it would be a great introduction to worker placement because you're gonna have a few characters out there you can appease and use you have just a couple little wooden dudes you put them on there and they do some sort of ability like draw draw two cards or give away a card and draw a three or whatever they have different little powers that allow you to mess with the game below that which is just a set collection kind of card game if you have more of this kind of card than your opponent you score those cards at the end of the game that's it very simple very straightforward but I like the theme and yeah Adam and you had some theme music there man I like the theme in it and I do like the the illustrations and the way that they were able to fold the whole like oh you're investigating it's a really a game that is an abstract card game works for me I enjoy very much Holmes Sherlock and Mycroft check it out letting him know that we're actually recording right now because he knows not to call me it's my son let me something about you for a second do you mind my number nine is not on these guys list cuz I don't think either one of them has played it yet and that is tiny epic quest a lot of tiny epic games you have points an epic quest don't want to play that definitely a riff on Zelda for sure if the or the Zelda series in this game you have some little dudes who are running around a map that you've built and you're just trying to get the different things you need to accomplish quests there's some luck with some dice Roy just kind of a push walk a spec to it and the game I think works best with two players with more than two players there's a lot of outside stuff from other players affecting you in a negative way okay because players push their luck it can affect you positively it can and there's a lot there's a lot less control where the two-player game it can become a much more strategic game it looks more complex than it is it's not that complicated again no I guess so and I think of all the tiny epic little games I think this one works best with two you never play with two I play with more than that but I was not particularly impressed but did you feel though that a lot of stuff happened when it wasn't your turn like that's much lessened in a two-player game okay okay cool number nine is a very very popular sequel let say to a very popular game and this is codenames duet which would be a great pig for someone who enjoys wargames for someone who enjoys cooperation but also communication games in this one you really have to I think it takes the ideas that are in code names and it wraps a great 2 player concept around them where you are just bouncing back and forth between two people trying to actually help each other win the whole thing it's really neat interesting you're gonna have a little bit of deduction as you figure out that some words on your side are the ones you want them to find there's a few number a number of them that you both need to find and if you can start deducing which ones those are that might help you out too that's sort of like an extra level if you want to go there but it's an enjoyable game it's well done it's interesting and I prefer myself to mix it with code names pictures game that came out before it and play the same exact game but with pictures instead of or just because I like that better you can do that too so code names duets is my number nine a good one to to enjoy for those of you that enjoy scrabble or deduction games that sort of thing you could mix it with Dixit you could mix it with Dixit seriously thinking about that why he said no I just it popped in my head and I waited for him to finish like a like a gentleman with cards like if she could you could fix it with Dixit but doesn't need fixing it so it works that's fine yes all right number nine is probably now one of the things that we talked about was not to include games that were like redos no we didn't say not to I know bonus guys we kind of frowned upon it did we came everything was okay well I'm throwing I'm gonna say it was okay because this is pretty good but it is not exactly like the original and this is a this is called risk Star Wars edition now this is a casual game for me yeah that's a brand-new game dude and ya know it's just like Queens County it's very it's very silly that it cleans and it it's very very very Gungans I married no they're not fun that's that's the one upgrade other times in the original actually I don't know yeah yes there are I never played really well we just had a like marathon where we played it I know but I try to avoid bad games he is not a bad game better actually a very good game okay out-of-print games always do you really like this is a really good choice it is how choice I like it a great choice it's it's a very end and this one doesn't have a whole lot to it it's not brain Bernie you have a hand of cards and that is pretty much what restricts you on where you connect and some people don't like the game because of that you're very restricted to the cards you can play but at the same time that makes it a very casual game because you don't have to think about what's going on over here if you don't have the cards in your hand to think about it and so that's one of the things that I like about the game that makes it very casual for me you what you can do based on what you have in your hand the more options you have in your hand yeah the more thinking you're gonna have to do but it's a very straightforward casual to play a game and it's based around one of the best movies of all time in my opinion Return of the Jedi so I really enjoy the game top marks my number nine risk Star Wars Edition horrible name great game this one I suspect will show up on Sam's list my number eight is Raptor a two-player game from the Bruno's I believe Bruno for duty Bruno katana it is and it is a very thinkI game in many ways if you if you didn't strip away the the theme that it's that it's fun and then certainly there it does play kind of like an abstract game with the moves being very tactical a lot of responding to what your opponent is doing that sort of thing but then on top of that you have the great theme with the dinosaurs and the scientists and you do have that simultaneous cart plane which is not very abstract game like true but you do have to get into your opponent's head a little bit because if you make a particularly bad move like playing a very low card when they play a very high card they're gonna have a ton of actions that round for it is the difference that is the number of actions you get and they're going to really mess you over but it's a great game it's it's rich with theme and choices it's clever it's very well thought-out and switching sides even if you're a single player you can go ahead and switch sides and that can be very rewarding as well because it's it's fun to sort of get into what your side to side trying to accomplish right and you're always the you're the good guys no matter what side you're on you know that's very much I'm here to stop these evil Raptors I'm helping my number eight Raptor a very fun to player tactical game my number eight is a game that just came out at Essen this year I heard about it in the weeks months preceding Essen and came out from a group called Emperor s4 and it is one of those company games that I actually played multiple times at Essen because I went to their booth they taught me how to play shadows in Kyoto and then I taught other people how to play because it's just that quick of a game it's that fun of a game and it's that easy to teach now you didn't like it as much as I thought you would you guys I guess you thought it was a little bit too basic yeah it was a little too Stratego basic yeah I guess so yeah that that's definitely there and it definitely has that core of Stratego that's there but the thing that I think really kind of dismisses that notion is the fact that the cards that you're using can be recycled you can really have freedom in drawing what kind of cards you have two decks action card decks or movement decks rather movement cards and then you also have special move cards and whenever you play a card doesn't matter what kind of card you play you can draw from either deck and that's what I liked about it you have that option of of kind of waffling between those two things do I want to go move them and heavy and where do I want to use those special actions really heavy as well so I really enjoy the game has a lot of really great artwork in it and I it's it's compact which I also like as well so just a lot of good things going for that's my number eight shadows in Kyoto my number eight is also raptor nice not even put me in your thoughts there I died figured it was too obvious to mention I didn't even know you played this game actually you taught it to me I did yeah and then I killed forget about the Raptors I remember it I think about it when I'm feeling sad I'd like remember when I wrap this shredded Sam scientist connection I'd be like oh no baby would happen situation yeah you got soldiers back in your guns okay anyway no I agree cool I agree weld them it's a very simple game and I'm really I would not fight to the death but I would argue strongly against people said it's an abstract game because it really the theme comes through really strong it does it does and if you take that theme way the game would really hard to figure out but because the theme is there it makes sense I don't know about that but I think like your objectives huh wouldn't be hard to figure out yeah no I just I think you could change the court of pain but I think the court of pain helps River rumor has it that this was actually a Lord of the Rings theme game when it was originally probably that's a rumor I think that's like a we believe it was themed around us okay we were all chasing a board game that was hard to find in the woods and the babies represent the why okay I really did like their the pieces of the game were good the good thing and it has a nice asymmetrical feeling to it that all very much layout play the other person is there gonna be times you're gonna want to throw your card at the wall because they just played the right card and you played the very very wrong guard yeah but I like it it's a raptor okay but number seven is a fairly recent game as well this is King Domino and King Domino is a game that goes up to four players normally has had a sequel Queen Domino which I do like better but I think for the casual list its King Domino that that makes it onto the list and that's because it's simpler and it is more straightforward a little bit shorter you can teach it to just about anybody but also I do think it's a better two-player game than any other count especially when you play a 7x7 board as opposed to the five by five which you have to play when you play with more than two now with two you could play five by five but you're not seeing half the tiles you just remove those from the game if you play seven by seven you will see every tile and you have way more tactical options the much more interesting game and just you know a little bit longer but it's much more interesting so I do recommend that you try King Domino with to play the full game 7x7 grid and it's just such a simple drafting and building game and it's a pleasure to watch what you're doing grow and spread and start noticing cool little combos simple though they are but you'll still be like oh that's a great tile for right here I can put that there and get a nice combo going and continue growing both of these lines in a single tile plays and placement and I enjoy that very much like I said I think just about anybody can learn this one so I recommend it my number seven King Domino or King oh man oh that one too yes my number seven is also a King Domino that is not true okay I was like come on you copy his list a school this didn't make me think of something when you were talking where you were saying that you thought Queen Domino might not either one fit in the casual Z's definition of casuals probably lower than mine yeah that's what I know okay because I thought well note though that he just said that the longer version of the game is the better yeah shorter persons like first justly leave it be amazing thing my number seven is one of the multiplayer games of my letter and it is Nations the dice game this little chance to play this one really like nations today scam a lot I like the whole Yahtzee idea of it and and nation's today's game you're really not affecting what other people are doing he wants to do a sample whose bring them a simulcast you don't like nation no I don't dislike it Sam I think it's okay I don't I just don't think I would whatever I would probably not ever use this game as I need anywhere near like gateway and by that I mean like if someone's playing like three four games are kind of starting to get into games they want to play something casual I don't want them I do not say gateway no no no yeah there's a big difference I know is the kind of game you just get it when you play casually this you roll some dice you see what resources you get you take a tile you're also more nice like adds easy it is easy it is easy this is not pretty it's well I didn't say that's why again didn't say that as a list either it's like a given no mmm games need to be good-looking it's not awful looking I might defend my choice it's a good choice did kind of feel bad the dice game I think it's a good choice and I appreciate you and your wardrobe I said wardrobe this time baby I'm including that shirt Gondor calls for aid go all right we're on sevens write my number seven is even more cult of the new by the way I felt very colder than you making this list you should because that five year thing was just like wow that's a huge little you know that's a huge restriction we think so yeah just for 2-player only things I think is what it is because there's plenty there have been plenty of games so this one just came out well a it came out probably before pax unplugged but I was introduced to it at PAX unplugged and it's a game from Thunder Griff games called towel long the way of the Dragon and this is a really cool really an abstract strategy game but it has the theme on it of two dragons battling for control over a certain area sometimes you could play a scenario it is scenario base so you can play a scenario where one dragon is protecting a village the other dragon is attacking the village you can it has portals that you can travel through which actually kind of elongate your dragon because when it goes through the portal gate it actually becomes part of your your dragon so that they can attack where that portal is and actually hurt your dragon so yeah I don't know it's just a really cool it's a casual game but this is another one on the list where you can ramp up the level of difficulty by how many diff there's like three modes that come in the game there's like a grasshopper mode which is just like your basic run-of-the-mill just very simple on and then on top of there's like a master of electrician of master mode and then there's like a pre master mode or something like that where you actually don't I think this was a joke but you like you don't even make any moves on the board all of the moves are done in your head and all you do is move there's a high but it has at its core the core mechanism is this Mon column where you have to take everything from one yeah and then drop it off as you go and then wherever you end that's the that's the move that you can make on the board with your dragon and it's a really cool game and it's very casual it's very sleek it looks really good I love the ancient Asian look that it has this is a really great game and I like it a lot how long from funder grift games I want to play the thing we do it in your head will do it live you can do that by still have to use yes we're entering abstract strategy land here we go number six there's more than one on my list yeah number six is the Duke and I was actually surprised I thought this one was actually older than them and Alex and one watch again some people might say well the Duke seems more complex but there's a couple things first of all almost everyone knows how to play chess right so the Duke has somewhere to sit at uh-huh and secondly how the pieces move is written on the pieces themselves so it's not that complex it's kind of like chess but you draw your piece from a bag in each piece you have the same pieces your opponent does unless you by some weird expansions but for the most part if your same pieces your opponent does but you don't know when you're gonna come out and when they come out you move that piece a certain way like it shows on the piece and then you flip it it allows for a very deep game but at the same time because your point pieces and not every piece is out there so you can't no one's writing a book on the opening move in Duke because you don't actually know what the opening move is right and the people on the other side have different moves right they go back and forth between two sets of moves which is tactically very interesting and yeah so it's not a difficult game to play no and I don't feel the same amount of stress playing the Duke that I do let's say when I play chess cool my turn but it's basically the same games another version of the Duke it's just the theming it's Viking it but it does they do plate differently makes it the Duke has a lot more sliding pieces across the board the yarl has more sort of moving pieces slow and defending against them I like to take a little bit better because of its speed mm-hmm they're both fine alright my number six is another brand-new game that I was introduced to at Essen the ability on this side of the Atlantic might be a little troublesome but I think you can still go to their website again it's by boards and dice and it's called in between in between is a two-player card game basically where it has a very strong stranger things vibe going on to it it is not stranger things themed but it has that same idea where there's this evil person or thing that is in an underneath world that's trying to pull town members down into their world and the town player the good guys are trying to keep those people up in the real realm okay and it's it's a basic tug of war game but it's just really interesting because of all of the things that you can do it's it's hard to explain without teaching you how to play the game but all of the the town people are set out in a circle ten of them are used not all the town people are used and it cycles by going around in a circle so the person who goes next you take turns that the card can help you activate special abilities if you have them in your realm and so it's it's just a lot of cool things you can do to hurt your other people there's a little bit of a take that thing in there but that one's kind of light it's really more about achieving your goals before the other person achieves theirs I really enjoy the game it has a really cool theme to it artwork is really good it's probably just not very available over here yet okay but it is available it is out there you just might have to do a little bit more digging than normal but that is my number six in between from boards and Dyson my number six is also a card game this one is much easier to find this is the Fox in the forest from running at game studios and it's a two-player trick-taking game which is a very rare thing anyway right a trick thing in the works for two well this is only for two it's war huh super tricky game is almost war but yes well war simultaneous flipping right so it doesn't do it it doesn't mean anything but um this one they've managed to make that concept work and work really well now some of the cards have special powers not all of them right and say for example all of the threes of the the different suits in the deck do have the same power and not every card has a power so only a handful it's very easy to figure out and teach and then play and you are scoring points you are massing points you play multiple heads until you hit you know 21 points or something but it's quick it's it's it's simple to teach it's fun to play it's great to set your opponent up for a great you know grab of cards you can start to get into some pretty fun tactical and then strategic play it's it's a very engaging game and on top of that the artwork and the the sort of fairytale setting and that they put it in is is very appealing as well really enjoy and I've played this quite a bit and it always goes over very well for me so the Fox in the forest is my number six who leaves facts and bones what is he saying in the top five and I'm saving the best for last that's the way you're supposed to do it I'm sorry I did that oh you did that backwards well this one has already been mentioned by both of the other gentlemen at the table door arathor a trapdoor is that right it's like an Italian spent a lien or Lyman baby oh you like Raptor right yes Raptor Raptor is a great game and I concur completely with everything that was already said the thing about this always also on top of what I said about risk Star Wars edition you're really constricted with what you have in your hand the difficulty comes in what you touched on is trying to get inside your opponent's head you really yummy and you only have like here's what three cards if you only have three cards to choose from but of those three cards which one is gonna get me the better turn and that's where it becomes a little bit more difficult but I mean your first few games is gonna be very very very casual because you're you don't really know exactly how everything is gonna work anyway so it's gonna feel very casual on the offset and then once you get savvy on how everything works out it's gonna go back to feeling very very casual again because you're familiar with everything that's going to go on and it's a very enjoyable experience that's interesting a game that starts casually when you first play but the maid reveals its depth to you over different plays that's that's interesting yeah I like that and I think it's a game that it's designed that way it's very appealing because it'll grow with you yeah exactly no exactly and you touched on another aspect that I was talking about that I was thinking about when I put it on the list and that is the asymmetrical nature of it because you really do play very differently each side plays very differently than the other but they're both balanced I don't think that one side is too is much stronger than the other right they just played differently they seem stronger but they aren't and that's another thing I really like about the game but Raptor is a great game my number 5 I remember 5 harkens back to games like backgammon it's very much inspired by backgammon and this is a game called Tatsu the theme here being much liked how long it's the ideas dragons you are contending back and forth over their unique thing mafia / dragons you know then it's it's an abstract that check and make a two-player casual drink about dragons yeah it's a the way the game works is largely like backgammon you're rolling two dice you are moving one of your pieces or introducing a new piece onto the board there's a few twists on that you have three different kinds of pieces each one with a different kind of power and you'll be moving your pieces in one direction while your opponent's moving in them in the other direction which means they'll run into each other they'll continue to sort of run into each other which is interesting and you have to sort of see it happen - to understand why it matters but I like the the idea of putting your you have the fire dragons are like they're really powerful ones you only have two of them you can throw them out there and start just chewing up the other player's pieces but if you lose both the Fire Dragons you're done whereas your weaker dragons don't do as much but your opponent has to capture all of them there's like five for them to eliminate you it's a it's a lot of rolling dice and seeing what happens there is that but the more you play the more you see good moves and for a casual game this is just fantastic especially for someone who enjoys classic games you know like big-box store kind of games man someone who enjoys backgammon out there if you have someone like that in your family or you are that person yourself definitely take a look at this game because I think you're gonna enjoy it I think it's an upgrade to backgammon so that is my number 5 Tatsu check it out all right I'm still in the abstract strategy phase of my list this one was Sam said would be on my list and he was correct at number 5 Sandrine oh so really easy game and what what I like about this one did you go to start target has it now this is a very widely available game I don't put no mass-market game so Santorini like Sam says the base game is pretty simple you can add in the god cards and make it as complex or not if you want yeah because they're actually I think if I'm remembering correctly they're like the first number or easier powers and they get a little bit more common you can do that yes there are simple ones and I mean and you literally could say let's play with number 1 and 2 and you can play with those for a long time no you could just add them in one at a time or you could just grab one out of deck a lot of variety in this game but it's a solid game and it looks pretty it's easy to get people to play it because it you get the build houses who doesn't like doing that right just they should have it Lego out they'd sell a lot more that doesn't make a lot of sense actually why am i alright nevermind all right my number four is this is probably the heaviest game on the list and it's really not even that heavy it is still just a player game let us judge you saturation is kind of heavy Wow company no they're not alive right now yeah this is not a live Q&A stop yeah all right so this one's put out by stronghold games it is actually a reprint from a politically themed game and this one isn't too far off being politically themed age solafeet a solafeet eh I don't like the internet so Luffy day takes place in the during the Reformation era which was a very politically charged was it era Oh violence there was a lot of violence in the Reformation era so I got into the theme a little bit I get it but the thing that I like about this game is that you can use just pre-selected decks no worries the deck building game or you can use the deck building game which is strange because you don't deck pill each player has their own decks so you don't deck build with your opponent you have your own deck you choose I think it's three cards and you have to choose one of them and the other to go into your discard pile well so do you like a draft after all three yes you draft your deck from your deck I love cards and I really enjoy that mechanism like that it's really cool because you can kind of craft your strategy as you're drafting your deck and it could be completely opposite from what your opponent is doing and you'll get throttled or it can be this very tight back-and-forth game it's an area control game which I also enjoy as well so there's just a lot of things that are going on it for me it is a very casual game it can be played with a little bit more depth and a little bit more convolute and I guess you could say but I - for me it's it's definitely a casual game and I think the theme of it's very well the what was it called earlier it was the campaign manager I think is what it was called before so it works it is you can't paint magic I have played it yet but if it its campaign manager that is a simple game may God have mercy on your soul in the comment section all right actually you probably got too much feedback because most people have not played this game actually if you're not getting big it did not splash art for some reason I don't know why fact number four is a made-up game no wasn't giving up what is the deal is well there just let me guess let me guess only Tama yes only Tama good car there Oh anytime I get his birthday started socials line but I still remember the very first time we played it shameless promotion signal come on then when I played I remember him I remember I was like this is okay now we play we're like let's try it again and played it again we played several times over one finally it was like eight times why goodness smack-talk hair I know I'm DJ Singh the first time here we go never flap again I was like yeah never for real good guy never play them all in time again no I'd be Jason rarely so I remember every single time that I remember that we play it and just play it and play like three times in a row because it was that captivating yes well they're like man this game is amazing and it plays that fast too yeah we play a lot of abstract strategy games and we like some we dislike others but only time I just was there yes it just was one of those games you're like wow this is phenomenally simple and easy you have two moves on your turn but you're thinking about the other two moves your opponent has there's not a lot of pieces it's just but each game feels different just really and the production I like the production of the yes arcane wonders so Pony Tama my number four I feel I could he looked on his list and then said Oh too many times [Laughter] the other game on the list that plays more than two people normally and that is a zoo the very recent game yeah it's great it's it's good with any number of players but it really does feel different - and with - it will be meaner just FYI it's casual but yes it's a little meaner because it's much easier to make your opponent take tiles they don't want to take and that means negative points but I always think this feels it's it's an abstract sorta I mean it has a theme but if plays kind of like an abstract game that's more apparent in a two-player game it's like very like I'll take these you get those I get these you get that you know what I mean you can sort of see which leads to I can force you to take something you don't want also but the puzzly nature really comes to the top whatever right yeah I really enjoy it no to weep I don't remember if we played just to I think it was it might have been three I think Justin was here when we played it okay okay yeah I've played with all numbers I like them all I'll be wrong but it's such a fantastic game a - I definitely recommend if you're looking for something that is casual has that sort of grows with you quality we were talking about and yes it's a little bit mean yeah I think you're gonna really enjoy it plus it's a gorgeous looking game anyway on the table so a Zul great game my number four don't we often give Kassam grief for putting the same games and as list over and over again okay now what happens I knew I would never do such a thing but there are a few games that I find myself put down list more often and my number three is one of those and at his Adventureland there's one of those games that I wish more people would play you still haven't played it yet you sell the play you don't know I can't do it if I haven't played it soon I must be true to the throw I something that you'd put man okay veteran is just a fantastic game I think that's so great he never asks no we can't go by that because there's a lot of great games that I don't want to spoil I wanted to know I've heard you you don't want to spoil them by playing with us cuz we'll make him worse for you because you're such an ultimate gaming machine right his name is Jason Levine these meet when he's sick yeah sickish I'm like really like pushing to be energetic because I'm very sick want you to be energetic to means I'm like nice what no watch okay so Eddie who this game scales pretty well but I really would - it's not so bad you I mean I really not good - you're just moving pieces up and down gaming and I'm sorry adventure glam thank you I really forgot there are four scenarios in the basic bottle three scenarios of the basic box for more get added an expansion but each scenarios like a separate game there's even a cooperative one in the expansion which I thought working well I just like this game your your drawing cards moving your things magically appear in the board you then for some of your pieces and at a certain point the game ends and it plays really well with - would you recommend people by the expansion right away or can you like fold it in later yeah I get folded in later you don't it's just basically for more scenarios so you guys are probably the first three scenarios to see if you like them before you get four more okay okay so Adventureland my number three is it me it is my number three has been mentioned already this is Santorini it's boy it's - on all three of our lists yeah it's very pretty it's purty purty it's it has a pedestal for no reason not and no they all do no not nanoo why not in the new one the target they took that big pedestal a chip in the price oh man oh my oh damn Aziz number seven it was really a word it was a pointless piece it really was it's a pretty man anyway it's just a really great apps try games like like these guys said it's um it's just well made and it's got a theme for a themelis I mean for a map's drug game the theme they chose to go with I think really helps and fits well so I liked it a lot Santorini my number three my tongue yes all right my number three is a two-player card game that has so much depth that is not apparent when you are first learning how to play the game this one blew your mind when I taught it to you up in kinetic oh sure yeah that's called hanami koji also by emperor s4 same people that made shadows in Kyoto um yeah this one again it plays casually I struggled putting it this high on my list because it is very excruciating in some of the choices that you have to make because some of the choices you have to make are take four cards out of your hand play them on the board in two pairs give your opponent the choice to take one stack and then you take the other stack or play three cards your opponent takes one and you take the other two and that can feel so heavy when you're actually going through those motions but it is a very casual game games take my 15 minutes 10 15 minutes plays very quickly so it is definitely a casual game but it doesn't feel like one as you're playing through the game because those choices that you're having to make are very they weigh upon you have I think the reason part of the reason for that is because you make so few of them really and make I mean for trillions right and then it's like each one is so important because there's such few of them yeah there's so few of them that you feel like you said weighted down that you are handing your opponent the ability to beat you you have a lot of good relation you have a lot of information because you know that you you know how many cards of each set are in the deck but one of those cards are thrown out every turn so it's not perfect information you know there's a lot of good information in the game and that's what makes those decisions so difficult so good luck it's a great game my number three Hahnemann coogee I just think they would have lost cities have been published by Empress for you would like it no I feel like it nope [Music] number two this one has also been mentioned already by who by whom do you mean let me captain grant no I'm kidding by Tom pony Tama yes because I looked on little ears though you look a little list and you saw yes I did I can't think don't have a tub and you're supposed to like look at the list like I said only Tom anyway yes only time was my number two for everything Tom said I remember those events very differently though I remember he sat down and I said break the game out he was like yes he set it up and he was moving the pieces for me and and I beat him I mean soundly and then again and again and I stole his hat at the end but there we played it in our body but he did but then I just had there and way oh just looking at each other nodding knowingly hmm and then he won anyway pony Tama great game my number two you two all right I don't think this is gonna be on your guys's list oh you don't know my number one but the reason I included this one is because it has different layouts that can be used for the different player counts and when you have layers oh sorry not Lia layouts not layers and this one is called dragon castle dragon cuz this is the one the mahjongg it works very well too because it has all of those different layouts for for two players I really enjoy the game a lot it has great components that's another thing that I really look for especially in these more casual two-player abstract strategy kind of games not necessarily that this one's abstract strategy although I think it kind of is I guess you could make that make the argument that it isn't but you'd be wrong but Oh Dragon Castle is a great looking game has very few choices that you have to make on your turn so that in and of itself it's a very casual game and of course like most of these games that we're saying you can choose to play them on a very non-casual level but I think the beauty of these games is is just that you can play them casually you could play them not casually and competitively I guess would be the word that we would use there but really enjoy dragon Castle a lot this is another one that we got introduced to it Essen so again it's very very new and I think it's still very very available so that's my number two Dragon Castle one did not even occur to me it might have made my list that's a good one here my number two is a deck building game deck building games work well with two people anyway many of them like Dominion really works well with two players this one is also a word game and that is paperback paperback is a really good two-player game I picked this one because I like playing on my wife I like playing you know I like the deck building part she likes the word building part and they're pretty much 50/50 in this game which i think is good because you know you might know a lot about words but I can maybe play a little bit strategically with the cards or I might you know be know some strategy but if I can't think of a word and it's not that hard to make words in this game you're not making you don't need this exhaustive vocabulary you just need to know how to speak decently well pick some good words and I like the theming of it I like everything but the box so the money's too small yeah but I do like paper bet my number 2 [Music] [Music] man I don't know what anyone's number one is that you're number one I don't think it's the same as my number one I don't think so I know it's not right you don't like my number one my number one you probably have on your other listen you're gonna say it's too complex maybe fighting for what I know you don't like that much and I I thought for sure your number one was kind of like a honey mine that game why can't I let say that word Hachi Hachi Hachi Konami koji hanami Koji and I'm a Koji there see you can do it you did it yeah but ask me in ten minutes you did good all right I really don't know either one of you what's the genre genre - player you have sex strategy Oh any time restrictions restrictions I'm saying 5 or 5 years or less you've met it that's good I mean some serious this is the highlight of what's good what's good games for - Diane it's very casual that's the thing that I love about it it is so simple it only uses what is five five cards yeah it only uses five cards you have two ones on the side your opponent has two that's it you know all of the moves just by looking at the board at the very beginning of the game that you're going to use throughout the entirety of the game that completely wipes out any difficulty in thinking or strategy or anything like that now don't get me wrong even though there's only five moves out of the board the better person will win it that's right you tell Jason it's right [Laughter] no but I one of the things that Derek and I have done is uh to make it feel less abstract so we've taken like Arcadia Quest miniatures and use them in place of heroes against zombies that's that will be awesome I mean that's and that's the cool thing that you can do with this game doesn't matter you're still using I think Mike should do wreath aiming of boney comma just not not Simpsons dude it has to be this you guys have already talked enough about our in time I didn't talk about it at all it's a it's a great game and it's the most casual out of all of these lists out of all of these games because it's just very simple you use one of your cards put it over here take the one that's over there put it over here your opponent does the same thing that's a and it's just very very simple and I love it so that's my number one Oh anytime I know you love my number one so I'm the only reason I'm assuming is because again you think it's too complex I finished my other list I'll tell you if I'm considering it for my other list anyway no yeah this the game that this is based on the original game is one of the most popular gateway games out there it sold a million copies plus the two-player version oh I like better than the base game had a seven Wonders duel I think seven wonders duel is a fantastic two-player game I am considering it for my other list considering it before maybe no you know it might be on there honey I don't think your list I don't think so water's duel is that complex of a game it looks complex when you first put it out but in reality you're like okay I have three cards to pick from which card I'm gonna do what am I gonna do is sell that card for money or put it in my display and that's you have three things you're watching you're watching your science you're watching in fact science is way easier to understand in this game oh yeah is in the in the first when you're playing safe wonders you're like he only has four only just one there's a lot of trickier in the original game for sure so this one it's just a lot easier to add up the only there's a little complex I fell in this game is the actual wonders themselves you know cosmic what does that wonder do again especially when you add in different wonders in this well just because it's the wonders have things that aren't on the other car that's true right but I still think the game plays very well easily between two players it's the closest thing we have to a cosmos two-player game at this point in time it's not cosmos but I'm saying it has that feel from that line I guess so yeah yeah which is what I meant at the beginning when we started talking about this not being the Golden Age of two-player games that those kinds of lollies just aren't around really I mean they you have the the caverna ones right the what's that line called the convertor Kate Kate versus cave and you've got the Agricola creature yeah whatever is like and they were okay they weren't good but yeah I think we're in a better a better Golden Age just what he it you know for two players specifically though maybe I don't know you think so you exclude Emperor s4 okay here's a clue to people oh well that okay it's a card game right duh it's a drafting game on the iron Oh a drafting game he said I didn't like it that much you don't like it that much it had a sequel do I like it at all oh yeah man I had a sequel yeah I have no idea the sequel was C'thun theme you've done messed up baby well I thought about that I was gonna ask you a question I had it all prepared my question is home I feel like that game is the game I don't know usually I'm not the one accident you just want to say that yes I do well it's tides of time as the game yes sighs mm it's so cuz it's slightly simpler or not oh oh it's tides of time yeah oh they're both olive oil I mean they're very very similar well I actually like tides man it's better that extra thing where you can go mad gives it that extra oh yeah sure I mean pick whatever one you like okay it's there so close I pick tides of times it was first the theme is I think more appealing across the board yes and it's slightly simpler so if you're looking for real cause um you like to pull it out of the restaurant and play a hand yep yeah you can do that I was I feel some similarities between tides of time and Raptor sometimes just the way you're picking cards and things back and forth fix it yeah I don't know I mean if you like one you might like the other that hold try to pick it out put your opponent in the card I don't I don't see it because I don't know what my I don't know how my slow knees holding Raptor at all ever as opposed to in times of time I'm giving you four cards or whatever I know what you're picking out that's true that's I just and then the first round you don't know quite what's going on but once you see that what they're going for and they lock a card in place for the second round I definitely know how to hate draft against you if I want to and if I'm able to without hurting myself too much that's the one thing about this game you can hate draft but it's really hard to hate draft and not hurt yourself yeah in it yeah you have to know when to do it and is it worthwhile doing I think it's it's amazing how they the designer was able to take the idea of drafting that I really enjoy those Sam really likes it as well yep and distill it into like 16 cards and a game for two people and it seems to retain all of that tension that I like from drafting which is I want them all but I gotta take just one and give you the rest give me that one card back though you know what I mean I like that a lot this game does that and the scoring is neat I enjoy it I don't think I enjoyed it nearly as much as you do yeah let's go over really well for me everyone I've taught it to again that sort of a casual like oh you're getting into game let me show you this right goes over well it's very pretty as well so that never hurts time to time it's my number one casual game for just two people well tell us what you think what are the casual games we missed I remember we restricted ourselves the games that came out in the last five years so you have to also yeah and and if you want to you can go and look at our 2014 list that we did and see other two-player games we figured this would be a good way to get some different games next week we'll be back with the strategic games which means II will move up to casual this one has more than two rules so Elementary list yeah but we're gonna talk about games that newly you don't even work okay never mind I don't know what I'm gonna say there all right well get Luigi Garcia thank you healy seal the flipside folks [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Dice Tower

Views: 223,508

Rating: 4.8322177 out of 5

Keywords: board game, board, game, dice, card game, cards, catan, monopoly, tower, dice tower, vasel, review, tom vasel, vassel, settlers, gaming, GeekUsername: TomVasel

Id: cSuZ3YAagV0

Length: 59min 53sec (3593 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 19 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/nathanielray]

For the lazy (like me) who aren't going to watch an hour-long listicle. Each of the 3 guys had their own list, here's the order they went in and the ranks they gave.

• 10) Santorini
• 10) Pyramid Poker
• 10) Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft
• 9) Tiny Epic Quest
• 9) Codenames Duet
• 9) Risk: Star Wars Edition
• 8) Raptor
• 8) Shadows in Kyoto
• 8) Raptor
• 7) Kingdomino
• 7) Nations: The Dice Game
• 7) Tao Long: The Way of the Dragon
• 6) The Duke
• 6) InBetween
• 6) The Fox in the Forest
• 5) Raptor
• 5) Tatsu
• 5) Santorini
• 4) Sola Fide
• 4) Onitama
• 4) Azul
• 3) Adventure Land
• 3) Santorini
• 3) Hanamikoji
• 2) Onitama
• 2) Dragon Castle
• 2) Paperback
• 1) Onitama
• 1) 7 Wonders Duel
• 1) Tides of Time

[u/ikeya]

I see this question coming up a lot in this subreddit (and I read them all trying to find good 2P games for my wife and I!) I've been excited for this video since I heard they were going to do it.

[u/mezzine]

Ctrl + F

Patchwork (0/0)

Whhhaaaa...

[u/dieplstks]

I’ve really really liked Tao Long recently. Glad to see it made it here

[u/Wrights66]

This is great! Just got back into board games and I'm looking for something to play with my wife.

[u/Pupselchen]

The lack of Targi and Jaipur surprises me.

[u/Thrymor]

I'm sad there's no love for One Deck Dungeon. It's really fun at 2 players and has enough options to keep it from getting stale and keep you coming back for more with the campaign style of play.

[u/Giraffinated]

Pro: not alot of our quick, 2p staples are on here, so there is alot to research...

check out also:

Race for the Galaxy (really not complex once you play a few times)

Patchwork

Jaipur

Star Realms

Mottainai (probably too complex to be considered casual)

Monopoly Deal

Klask

Hive

[u/Invisiblechimp]

Patchwork is the obvious omission. I'm surprised Tom didn't have Baseball Highlights 2045 or Glux. The original BattleCON and Pixel Tactics were pre-2013, but not the case for EXCEED or Sellswords. I was expecting Fugitive or Blood of an Englishman somewhere. I always see Haleakala on Zee's shelf when he does reviews, so surprised that didn't make the cut, maybe he doesn't consider it casual enough. Other games I wonder about if they weren't casual enough: LYNGK, Akrotiri, Fog of Love, Heir to the Pharaoh, High Heavens, 13 Days. Too obscure for the Dice Tower crew: Neolithic, Final Act, Puppet Wars Unstitched.