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Ask Us A Tabletop Question/Recommend A Two-Player Tabletop Game! (Patreon)

Published:
2022-09-16 17:31:10
Edited:
2022-09-16 17:31:23
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Hey Folks, Jeff M. here! The new episode of Tabletop Game Night is happening on Tuesday at 7:30pm Central on Twitch and we're going to be trying out a podcast format, and we'd like you to participate!

The show will be broken down into three segments. In the first segment, Hanson and I will be running through some of our favorite two-player games and talking about what makes them special and who we recommend them for.

In the second segment, we'll take calls so YOU can tell us your favorite two-player games (just for clarification, they don't have to be two-player only games, feel free to champion a game that you just like playing at two players). These calls will be like MinnMax Party Chat and available to everybody at the MinnMax Council tier via the Party Chat room in the Discord. They'll be very low-key, so feel free to hop in and chat with us (it will be audio only, so you don't have to worry about being on camera if that sounds nerve-wracking). This will be happening at roughly 8pm Central on Tuesday.

The third segment is where this post comes in: we'll be doing a reader mailbag type of segment, so if you have any recommendation requests (outside of two-player games), or any other board game questions/topics you want addressed, please leave them in the comments section below! (Fielding them as comments here will give me time to come up with hopefully decent recommendations, instead of just hurriedly looking over my shoulder at the wall of games behind me and trying to come up with something on the fly).

Thanks for all the encouragement and support, and we hope you can tune in live on Tuesday. Please give us a follow on Twitch if you haven't yet! https://www.twitch.tv/minnmaxshow

Files

Comments

Matt McKenna

I just wanted to throw out the suggestion of Marvel United. A cooperative Marvel super hero board game which is available for the criminally low price point of $16.00. It’s incredible and recently had an X-Men expansion release. You and your friends all get to choose a hero and fight a selected villain together. It’s also extremely simple with each player having a deck of about 14 cards with certain actions and abilities. Might be worth checking out!

Berken in MN

As someone who wants to get into tabletop and has more time for podcasts than YouTube or streaming, I love to hear this! Question: Are you guys fans of any fantasy card games like Magic or anything like that?

TRUEfoe

Our gaming group has fallen in love with the classic Catan lately. Surely there's been better versions of it created. Can you recommend something more modern that's similar? Thanks JeffM!

Zeth Hillman-Johnson

I'd love a recommendation for a super intense/high energy cooperative board game. The XCOM board game was incredibly stressful and heart pounding, but also the most fun I've had at a table thanks to it's time a communication constraints and generally punishing mechanics, and I'd love to find that kind of experience in another game.

Keaton Johnson

I believe Ben recommended the game "Raptor" on a podcast a while back as a good 2 player game. While I did enjoy the game, I feel that, maybe by design, the raptors won 90% of the time. Does an unfair balance in two player games work for you guys? “Raptor” makes winning as the researchers/scientists that much more rewarding and exciting. You really have to execute on a plan to succeed. Also Dustbiters is a hall of fame card game. Thank you Ben for championing this game.

Andreas Jensen

The Mind is a great game for 2 players - and 3 or 4 as well. It can be so intense, when you get up to the higher levels and try to complete it. And thank you by the way for introducing me to Codenames a while back and more recently Wavelength!

Ben Shively

Dedicated 2 player game recommendation: Watergate Question: what is your favorite social deception game? After playing a ton, I’d go with Secret Hitler or Sheriff of Nottingham

MyNameIsDan

I think I've been recommending Mysterium (2-7 players) ever since Minnmax started. There is a steam version of it that is very good, and it would be great to watch you guys play a cooperative game like this together. The chat could technically play along too.

Holden Hintz

Enough with these lightweight baby games. It’s time for the Eurogame. Y’all need to pickup and play one of the games published by Garphill Games. My personal choice is Raiders of the North Sea. It’s a great Viking worker placement game with a fair amount of depth. It may be a longer play, but it’s so much more rewarding of an experience. It’s not so long that you lose interest (8 hours), but long enough that you can see your gameplay develop into interesting payoff. With 4 players it should last around 2.5 hours.

Luke Strain

When is the MinnMax plays Twilight Imperium stream?

It's Hugo's Nook

I think Wavelenght is a nice quick pick up and play that could generate some nice banter and fun video content as you two try to guess each other mental working processes of “why they’d place said thing there in the spectrum”

MakeItUnclear

What do you think about games that ask you to destroy pieces (i.e., tear a card after use) to limit or eliminate the possibility of replay? Does it add to the experience by making the game higher-stakes, or is it more often a ripoff? A bunch of video games delete your save file if you die or complete the campaign, but the game is never rendered completely unplayable - why, then, is this acceptable with tabletop games than can cost as much as or more than a video game?

Chrispy

7 Wonders Duel is probably already well known. But it's still one of my favorite 2 player only games. Another 2-player only game I've tried and really enjoyed recently is Paolo Mori's Blitzkrieg! It's a great area control game using units that you pull from a bag, and plays really quickly. Edit: Now that some more recommendations have been made I'll throw in a few more I haven't seen. A few of my favorites that are not 2 player specific but that I still like playing at 2 are Terraforming Mars, Wingspan, Viticulture and The Isle of Cats. They may be more well known, but I think they are still worth mentioning just in case. Another interesting 2-player only game is Curious Cargo. It's incredibly brain burning though. Trying to setup certain color pipes to go to certain spots on the dock so that trucks will be able to deliver and retrieve goods.

Taylor Whitt

Oh man, so excited about this. Dune: Imperium! Man that game has quickly become one of my favorites. Fantastic worker placement and deck building mechanics. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this game. The friend I played this with also got the deluxe upgrade pack, which is purely cosmetic with mini figs, but man, that makes the game so much more immersive. Have you ever purchased any of these upgrade kits for some of your favorite board games?

Chrispy

A question I would have is if you have a certain time limit you like games to go on for. I usually feel that anything that is designed to go past the 2 hour mark is usually too much for me. I've played some great games that do play longer than that, but they are usually just so exhausting that it's hard to have the desire to ever play them again.

Geoff Enright

Well here are a few suggestions about some 2 player games. -Raptor is a 2 player only game. Hanson, you'd like it because of the Jurassic Park theme. I suggest playing it while listening to the soundtrack. And a lot of these others are deck builder games. -Boss Monster 2, it scales up, but you build your hero death trap dungeon to get the points to win. It's also 8 or 16 bit video game themed. -Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, is a living card game, all cards you need to build the decks are in the box unlike pokemon, magic or Yu-Gi-Oh. Standard fantasy theme. But this deck builder is very tame, with a lot less complexity than Magic the Gathering. Can scale up to 4. -Twilight of the Gods, another living card game, and it is a mythological theme. This game is as complex as Magic the Gathering. Very fun and can scale up to 4 I believe.

Garrett Wainstock

Hello. I haven't had companions in a few years, which renders a significant portion of video and board games unplayable. There are enough other video games to keep me busy, but I've always wanted to play a board game. What's the best board game that isn't just adapted for one person, but specifically designed for it? Thanks Jeffm and Benh.

gybones

Outside of two player game request: Medium. 2019 word association game with a psychic theme that is more casual, but loads of fun. Each group I bring it to ends up needing to buy their own game

Jeorin

My favorite board game series is the D&D Adventure System games, starting with Castle Ravenloft (which is Dark Souls hard) up to the most recent Ghosts of Saltmarsh. They can be played with anywhere from 1 to 5 players and they're super fun dungeon crawl style games. I'd recommend starting with Wrath of Ashardalon, unless you enjoy being soundly destroyed by a board game.

Muffyn Crumbs

Have yall heard of Small World? That's a great game that ranges from 2-5 players. You control races with randomly selected special powers and try to take over as much of the board as possible. It gets very chaotic with more people. Check it out, I think it's on Steam too!

Denham Harry

Favourite specifically 2-player games are 7 Wonders Duel, the Unmatched series by Mondo and Restoration Ganes and Fantasy Flight's LCGs like Arkham Horror TCG or Marvel Champions. Now I have been HANKERING for some dedicated tabletop time at MinnMax just to ask these two questions: 1) What is your experience with Gloomhaven specifically, but also Legacy games as well. I find them to be so energising to just fly through in a few game nights, but I know many people don't agree! 2) Would you be down for a stream or video of Railroad Ink or Cartographers (just any roll and write honestly) where the community can play along? You just roll the dice and play it like normal but then other people watching the vod later can also comment their scores by just playing along using the same dice results everyone else had! me smart also please tell me you're excited for frosthaven Thanks JeffM and Ben!

Shawninator

I know it said outside of 2 player games, but I'll throw some of those in as well. 2 Player games: Radlands - Apocalyptical battler similar from the maker of Magic, but with a limited deck. Play it with Dust Biters and have a whole themed game night. Caper: Europe - A fun one about trying to control various locations to perform heists. Different cities and their own wrinkles. Dice Throne -A fun "battle Yahtzee" game with tons of different characters, including new marvel heroes! Can scale up to more players or play cooperatively with Dice Throne Adventures. Other Recommendations: Moonrakers - A fun space mercenary deck-builder with negotiations. Parks - Sweet art of the National Parks with a mix of resource management and worker placement. Rival Restaurants - Chaotic fast gameplay with lots of trading, negotiation, and resource collecting. Super Motherload - A bit of a deck-builder based off of the old flash game. Play cards to mine resources to buy new cards, all the while going for certain achievements. Other questions: 1) Do you have a favorite color to play as? I always play as orange, just because. 2) Plastic or wood components? I probably prefer wood as it just feels better. But metal coins are hard to beat. 3) What's your ideal board gaming setup? Do you have a gaming table? I currently use a regular dining table with a nice mat on top and it works for most things, but I may be getting an official game table soon.

PhillyYeetSteak

Hey JeffM and Ben! I work with kids, and i need some new games that i can play with them while talking. We do a lot of uno, sorry, and trouble, but I'm looking for something more interesting. Thanks!

CANAS1AN

What is your favorite Dudes on a Map game? e.g. risk, blood rage, ankh etc? Also, Targi is an excellent 2-player game!

Kyle Silva

Hey Ben & JeffM We’re living in an era of all sorts of video games getting movie and TV adaptations, but if you were given the chance to make a table-top game’s world be the setting for a blockbuster movie or series, what game would you pick?

Sandshrewd

It's a pretty well known one but me and my partner like playing Patchwork. Just a laid back game about collecting buttons and assembling a better patchwork quilt than your opponent.

Nate Sickler

What are your favorite gamer ass games to play? The more complicated strategic games you wouldn’t play with grandma?

Clint Farley

Recommendation: The Sniper Elite board game. It’s actually really fun to play (and you can even play it solo) but it’s also fun to watch since the person playing the sniper keeps their moves hidden.

Mathias Jülich

I second the Raptor, Caper, Parks, and Blitzkrieg mentions and would like to add Jaipur and Lost Cities, both of which are exclusively two player games that have you make hard decisions all of the time, never being too frustrating. The deceptively simple roll and write hav game Quinto can also be described that way and it’s my favorite travel game. Works perfectly with two players.

Castor Troy

Recommendation: Mage Wars. It's like Summoner Wars, but much deeper. This is definitely for people who prefer a longer game. It takes a few hours but in Mage Wars you really feel like you are a mage casting spells and summoning creatures. For something less insane, Hive is always a good go-to two player game. It plays fast, but it playing with the different bug abilities is a lot of fun. Another two player recommendation would be Quarto. Quarto is a game where you have to get four similar pieces in a row. The catch is that you choose which piece your opponent plays each turn. It's a simple but fun game.

Justin Nichols

A lot of board game YouTube channels do top 10 videos. I know that can be seen as low hanging content fruit, but has been helpful for learning about new games. Top Ten Video Games that Should Have a Board Game Adaptation. Curious to see your answers and how you would envision these hypothetical board games.

Erin T.

What are your worst board game experiences/stories?

Starkiller

I won't be able to make the stream tonight, because Tuesdays is our weekly Magic: The Gathering night! Do you guys have any experience with Magic or any similar trading card games?

Justin Dale

Right around the same time as Dustbiters KS another Mad Max esque one was going, Radlands. I have played it many times now and everyone I have played with has bought their own copy. Such a great 2 player card game.

Dan

So sad I won't be able to tune in live, but figured I'd weigh in here, if it's not too late: 2 player recommendations (to add to the plethora of fantastic games already mentioned): --Shobu (an abstact game that will stetch your brain) --Caesar! (followup to Blitzkrieg that was mentioned earlier) --Space Base (accommodates more players, but plays great at 2) Questions for the hosts: --Have you been to any board game conventions? If so, which one? Did you enjoy it? Would you do it again? --Do you have a favorite board game designer or publisher? Someone you look forward to new releases from? So excited for this; keep that tabletop content comin'! --Kudis