Topic of the Week: Duel

Boardgames
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Some extra preamble this week:
This is the first in a series and I hope to bring it all together in the end. Which is to say, if you’re the type who is referencing your game database / spreadsheet before weighing in, maybe jot a note or two on what you highlighted for these categories - in case you later want to go back and reference what you highlighted from your collection or headcanon.

I’ve got some categories of games, less about genre and mechanics and more about opponents, setting, and headspace. The idea is, if you want your collection to “be ready for anything,” these are a good set of boxes to fill. So I’ll float one or two a week for a bit here.

The first category is Duel games, by which I mean two player. Obviously this includes anything strictly 2p. However, anything you assign preferential 2p treatment for, (e.g., Race for the Galaxy or Innovation are often tagged with "I prefer to / only play these at 2 even though they technically support more), is game.

Then two subcategories for this week: Duel: Light and Duel: Crunchy, which again is subjective. Light is anything that, for you, is easy and breezy, leaving room for conversation and a full brain at the end. Crunchy is a game that demands your attention and energy. Draw the line where it feels right for you.

And I’ll exclude Epic for now (Say, Star Wars Rebellion or War of the Ring). We’ll come back to that later.

Questions:

  1. What have you included in your collection (or highlights, if you veer into the @pillbox category like me) in these boxes?
  2. What would your pantheon be? The best/permanent entries for you?
  3. How important are these categories to your gaming life? General thoughts?
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I’ve been gathering a lot of 2-player titles, possibly too many really. While my wife is my primary gaming partner, thus having a variety of 2-player titles makes sense, she often does not have the rest and mental stamina needed to learn a new game, so we often fall back on an already good variety of titles.

For light 2-player games in my collection, I would consider the following:
Lost Cities
Star Wars: the Deckbuilding Game (original and Clone Wars)
Ticket to Ride: London (technically 4 player, but works well with just 2)
Kingdomino (see above)
Patchwork
Jaipur
Unmatched
BOOoop!
Codenames: Duet
Dracula vs. Van Helsing
The Fox in the Forest
Hanamikoji
Kiri-ai: the Duel
Mr. Jack Pocket
Royal Visit
Sobek: 2 Players

Crunchy:
A Gest of Robin Hood
Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth
7 Wonders: Duel
Mr. Jack
Santorini
Stronghold: Undead (haven’t played, but can tell it’s crunchy by the rules)
Targi
Undaunted: Normandy (haven’t played)
Undaunted 2200: Callisto

Then there’s the “to be determined”, other wise known as the “unplayed” category:
Floating Floors
Hokkaido
Holmes: Sherlock vs. Mycroft
Jekyll & Hyde vs. Scotland Yard
Lawyer Up (won in a contest)
Sky Team
Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion
Star Wars: Episode 1 - Clash of the Lightsabers (really cheap at a Goodwill or consignment sale, figured the minis in it would be worth the few bucks even if the game was crap)
Tokaido Duo

I have to throw Lost Cities and Star Wars tDBG as top tier, as the two (three if you count Clone Wars separately) are my most played games, both of which becoming so easily after just one year of owning them. LC shows 214 plays, while SW is 209, Clone Wars version has 25, but I know there are some plays recently I have not yet recorded.

I have loved Unmatched since I first played it, so it too goes in the top tier of 2-player games for me. But really, I’ve enjoyed all the games that I have played in this list and don’t regret owning any of them. I just wish I were able to get more the them to the table more frequently.

EDIT: Forgot to include Battle Line in the unplayed section.

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I don’t get to play many of 2p duels, as I have either boardgame pub meetups with few 2-player opportunities, or a partner who prefers co-op.

From my collection I will as always mention Lost Cities as a perfect and enjoyable 2-player.
Shobu and Santorini are fun.
I’m just getting into Unmatched.
Parks doesn’t really feel like a duel.

I have Caper and just couldn’t get into it (apparently Caper: Europe is better?)

Things I don’t own yet but want to:

Shorter duel: Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth

Long crunchy duel: I am very, very interested in War of the Ring 2nd ed
Also a lot of the Undaunted games.

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I have some “Duel” games, but I don’t have a good Dueling partner, at least, any more. My neighbor used to be my primary aggression-scenario opponent.

When it comes to playing games with my partner, we (both) prefer care-bear games; typically multiplayer solitaire, co-op, or otherwise competitive-without-direct-competition style games.

So, most of my Duel games in the last 5 years or so have been nearly exclusively aspirational purchases. Otherwise, there’s generally some lighter stuff, such a Piñata and Morels (Fungi), Jaipur, and The Fox in the Forest; these are all great, if you ask me.

In general, I feel like primarily-two-player games really suffer, especially for the way I consider games. I (would) normally play games as a way to gather friends and family around my table and share a memorable experience with them; and, in this case, the more, the merrier.

I did, at one point, have my neighbor who also greatly enjoyed games; but just as often as we played a 2-player game, we might also play games designed for higher-counts.

In the last 5 years, I have found a number of 2-player games that actually play fine solo; either against a bot/automa, or simply by playing both sides (The CDG Solo System, for example, is interesting in that it is a mechanism by which you play both sides of conflict… not to win, but just to enjoy the game).

In the next foreseeable epoch of gaming in my house, I anticipate a lot of 3-, 4-, 5- or even, eventually, 6-player games as my kids grow up and want to join me (and, presumably, my partner) around the table.

The epoch following that may prove to involve 2-player games again, as my kids lose interest or move away; we’re talking a decade or more away, and it’s so hard to see the future (at least, for me it is… it’s clouded in uncertainty and massively complex permutations of events – honestly, very frustrating).

I’ll probably avoid 2-player games, in general, for a while. At the moment, I’m really only focusing on solo games anyway.

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At FLGS they know I don’t usually buy 2-player only games. I find them too tightly balanced and stressful. And I basically have 3 possible opponents, one of which mostly refuses anything that reeks of a duel and another one I can only play against on BGA due to the 4 hour drive between us. The third is very busy and we have got together for games at 2 once this year I think.

I have a tag on geek.group that’s called Only Duels. It contains a few games I will only play at 2 players (or solo if possible).

That said: I do not play a lot of duel games. At that player-count I prefer games like Revive that are meant for more players and are less tightly balanced.

I’ll sort a bit from “complex” to lighter games. None of these are really complex except maybe Tash Kalar which is quite the brainburner.

  • Tash Kalar–my all time favorite duel game but I can only play so much before my brain screams at me to stop.
  • Hardback–I have only played this at 2 and a bit solo. It plays more players but I am not sure I want that. It is excellent at 2.
  • Yinsh–old but very good. It’s been a while since I played. But if I had more occasions for 2 player duels this would be included for sure.
  • 7 Wonders Duel / Lord of the Rings Duel. Very similar yet distinct. I have only really played the first and got back to it last year and it is one of the best 2 player only experiences I’ve had. I still like the OG game but not at 2 and I think overall I like Duel better.
  • Race for the Galaxy (only played non-app a few times but 2 is my favorite player count)
  • Innovation–I have not played this enough. This is included because I just want it to be on this list. I really enjoyed my plays of this a lot. Sadly, my partner hates it and my other 2 player situations have seen one attempt of teaching my bga friend who didn’t want to continue after 2 games. I will try to get it played with my local Mitspieler now that I have the Ultimate edition.
  • Res Arcana–like many of the games on this list it plays more but I’d refuse to play other than at 2. Sadly, 2 out of 3 of my 2 player opponents didn’t enjoy this. I recently rebought it after selling it. Haven’t played since.
  • Splendor Duel–I only ever liked Splendor at 2. And Duel improves the game by a lot. I have only played the Duel version once so far but I can confidently say I will not play the original again when I have Duel available.
  • Star Realms–sure it plays more but really it doesn’t. The best quick and dirty random deckbuilder there is. Although I must say the Mistborn game is really really trying to replace it for me it does what Star Realms does but even better which all other iterations on this have failed to do for me.
  • Patchwork–the 2 player tetris game. By Uwe Rosenberg. Need I say more?
  • Fugitive–probably the only hidden movement game we’ve truly enjoyed. It also comes in a nice small package that makes it perfect for traveling. I am talking 2nd edition here that includes some of the tilt systems from Mind MGMT (afaik!)
  • Lacuna–this one is really a good one to close out my list because it is really just as good as the NPI review made it out to be. It’s quick, it’s fun and the gimmick with the shaker is cute. When it’s over you want to play again.

The next 3 games are representatives of 3 classes of typical duel style games and our “best in class” and yet none of these classes are making us want to play a lot

  • Battlecard Driven: Watergate–I just don’t have an opponent for this style of game. I would find them interesting every once in a while. The other one I have is Wir sind das Volk which I am keeping as part of my small “collection” of games on German history. I never got along with Twilight Struggle which would of course be the prime example of this style for 2 players. I think they require deeper knowledge of the game that can only be acquired through repeated play. Since that is not happening… Watergate is surely the most accessible of these that I know of.
  • Tug of War: Royal Visit–a pretty package for a Tug of War game. We haven’t played a lot but of all the Tug of War games, one is enough and this one it is.
  • Lane Battlers: Hanamikoji–I regret just a little selling this but my partner lost a couple of times and hated it and … in one of my purges it went. I also have Radlands which is an even prettier package. And Caper Europe. And we used to have Schotten Totten (1) and Air Land and Sea… they just don’t really grab us. I wish they did.
  • 2 player trick taking: Awimbawé–it’s fine I guess. This is the 3rd one I’ve tried. Fox in the Forest managed to fall flatter than this for us. Sail didn’t grab me there is just too much going on. So of the ones I have played this is the best. But it didn’t stick in my memory too well so there is that.

I have a few unplayed 2 player games: Chu vs Han (another Tom Lehmann that has good potential, I tried a couple of learning games) and Jekyll vs Hyde which was taken on a vacation and hasn’t managed to overcome my laziness to read the rules.

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I forgot those 3 on my list probably because we haven’t played them enough! Also I need to tag them appropriately on geek.group :smiley:

All 3 are quite good.

PS: How has nobody mentioned Hive yet? It is quite good even if it doesn’t see a lot of play for me.

Edit: as for the “Pantheon” I’ll put it like this: If I could have a “2 player only gaming retreat” and only play what I would like to explore the most… it includes a game I haven’t even got my copy of:

  • 7 Wonders Duel
  • Mistborn–possibly the cooperative variant
  • Innovation
  • Hardback
  • Tash Kalar
  • Compile: Main 1–still waiting but I am hoping this will be the line battler that will make it into my rotation to finally add this genre to my top games
  • Res Arcana–I really want to like this one best of all my Tom Lehmann games because it’s so pretty but I’ll replace it with RftG in an instant if my Mitspieler asks for that :wink:
  • Codenames Duet and Splendor Duel for some lighter fare amidst the thinky combotastic stuff :smiley:

I really wish I had managed to catch on to Netrunner back in the day. But now I feel it has turned into a game that I would need to devote a lot of time to and that I don’t have.

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My number one playing partner is my husband. You would think we would really go for two-player games, but no. We’ve tried several two-player only games and the only one we really go back to is Star Wars Rebellion. Everything else, there’s a multiplayer game we’d rather play. We have 7 Wonders Duel with a couple expansions. I think we played with the last expansion once soon after getting it and haven’t opened the game box in years. We play original 7 Wonders as two players with the dummy third city all the time.

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We’ve always enjoyed this hugely as well. Glad we’re not the only ones!

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Of brilliant two player only games:

Jaipur for the easy-going one;

Targi for the more involved one;

Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation for the tense and stressful one.

This final comment doesn’t at all belong here, as it’s a coop and not a duel at all, but while I have two player games in mind I’m going to say it anyway, so apologies…
We only (and I think only ever will) play Dorfromantik as two player. And it’s an endlessly delightful two player experience.

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This is growing increasingly difficult for me.

  • Jekyll vs Hyde
  • Dracula vs Van Helsing
  • Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard
  • Dracula goes to Scotland
  • Van Jekyll vs Dracula & Scotland Yard
  • Just Hyde Now. Just Hyde.

I can’t keep it all straight.

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And he went into music!

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And of course Scotland Yard | Board Game | BoardGameGeek.

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I have a some 2 player duel games I really like. I however stopped buying them. They feel really difficult to play with a revolving cast of opponents. The experience disparity quickly escalates. These days I mainly like coop for 2 players, possibly due to the personality of my most regular 2 player partner. It takes the edge of the zero sum nature of many of these games. I’ll stop now in case I’m impinging on future topics.

Hanamikoji I really enjoy and I don’t think it takes too long for new players to get up to speed. Kept.

Raptor is great. The card play is very cool as is the assessing the situation to predict what your opponent will play and what would be most beneficial for you. Also weirdly thematically integrated for a game that was designed with a different theme to the released one. Sold due to skill disparity issues.

Innovation I haven’t played much but I’m sure it’s good. As I like chaos I think I’m happy playing above 2 so maybe I shouldn’t count this in the list.

Fox in the Forest I really like. The only 2 played trick taker I’ve played but it does a good enough job that I’ve not looked else where. It’s nice for being a less intense duel but a duel none the less.

BattleCon is so deep and so elegant. Absolutely love it. Only recently rebought as I may end up mainly doing 2 player for a bit and it was always an itch. Didn’t fit previously. I think ‘yomi’ might be the description for this level of duel where you need to get in to the mind of your opponent. It’s also really smart how just doing the most damage isn’t necessarily the best option as it might leave you in a worse position for actually winning the fight. So this prediction dance can spiral in the mind to a multi turn web of positioning, countering and violence. So good, probably needs dedication to really enjoy it.

My greatest of all though is Mottainai. It’s a tough one to learn I think but once you’re there, either with perseverance or having played other Chudyk games it’s a beauty. The ride on this sea of chaos is fun and each game really has it’s own character. Skill will most often win but not guaranteed. So many good decisions and so much interplay with your opponent in a tight 20 minutes. Also the theme is agreeably bonkers. Makes no sense but somehow fits the game and leads to quite fun art and card names. Top draw.

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This interested me as I really liked it above 2. I like that the attacks are all opponents and it seemed to open things up a bit. Also doesn’t add much extra time in my experience. What about it makes you not want to go above 2?

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Oh, another game that really works as a duel game, but can technically play more than 2 is Arboretum. Really cutthroat at 2, yet all you’re doing is laying down pretty trees.

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Top list:

Summoner Wars - 2e is great! Nice improvements all around. It’s that kind of 2 player card game for casuals like me that have retired from Ashes and Netrunner

Ashes/Netrunner - retired and fondly look back on these games

Battle Line/Schotten Totten - Knizia card game with numbers and suits. Very easy to learn by anyone. Remains a staple.

Compile - upcoming 2 player lane battler. This is the more complex Schotten Totten that I’m looking for. Indeed, ppl have described it as “Air, Land, and Sea but heavier”

Agricola All Creatures - one of my fave Uwes. No cap!

Homeworlds - one of the best modern abstracts I have ever played. It is more complicated rules wise, but oh so deep. I don’t like a lot of these 2 player abstracts as they are often meh. But Homeworlds? Homeworlds is the REAL DEAL

Hive - way more approachable than Homeworlds but just as tough. Instant classic for me.

Meltwater - approachable 2 player war game with a great theme

Power and Weakness - best Andreas Steding game ever

Tash Kalar - underrated Vlaada game

They are not that important, unfortunately. I always play with clubs and that means 2 players are often not played, but it seems that 2 players are now becoming more accepted now. There’s often the impulse on our clubs to always stick together as a group - so 5 players must play as 5, rather than splitting off into 3 and 2. Still, this doesn’t justify me owning more 2 players.

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I did some structuring to keep this from sprawling:

Light
Pantheon

  1. Race for the Galaxy (it becomes Light when you play it enough)
  2. Air, Land, & Sea

Rotation

  1. Patchwork
  2. Star Realms
  3. Jaipur
  4. Dominion
  5. Great Plains
  6. Fox in the forest
And Reservoir, unranked
  • Blitzkrieg
  • Exceed Fighting SYstem
  • Haggis
  • Mandala
  • Rivals for Catan
  • Scout (It’s a different game at 2)
  • Sea Salt & Paper
  • Star Wars TDB

Crunchy
Pantheon

  1. Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
  2. Castles of Burgundy (our go-to couples game, never played the physical edition at more than 2)

Rotation

  1. Memoir '44
  2. Grand Austria Hotel
  3. Splendor Duel
  4. Innovation
  5. Schotten Totten
  6. Samurai
And Reservoir, unranked
  • Spirit Island
  • War Chest
  • Neuroshima Hex (used to be top 5 for me… they ruined the app)
  • Hive (Pocket)
  • Mottainai (this could bear with a lot more plays!)

I was surprised how sparse the duel: crunchy list was for my collection. Makes sense on reflection - usually my 2p games are with my wife or father, and neither has much tolerance for a teach (they hate to lose, so a game that takes time to grok is just frustrating for them). But also I find the often zero-sum nature of duel games can be a bit… interpersonal. Ratcheting up the intensity of the game can feel a lot more stressful here compared to when it’s a larger table. The “Light” list there sees a lot of play, the “Crunchy” one not so much.

Then I do have a lot of unplayed, or need-a-second-look, games that are kind of waiting in the wings to see where they belong: X-Wing Miniatures (oh please kids grow up to be star wars fans!), Worldbreakers, Starfarers Duel, Unmatched, Radlands, Netrunner, BattleCon, C&C Ancients, Caesar, Sail, Callisto, Watergate.

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I think with many multiplayer games I have trouble concentrating on all the opponents. Res Arcana seems to me to be one of those games where I would need to handle more than I can chew.

I admit I have not tried more than 2 players.

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I considered putting this on my list. It is very good at two but not my primary player count. And I am not opposed to playing with 3 or 4.

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Carcassonne. Excellent two-player game.

And remarkably versatile!
When I play with my other half it’s a gentle exploration of landscape building; hardly a contest at all, not that dissimilar to when we play Dorfromantik, to be honest.

When I play with my son it’s a brutal, cut-throat, kill-or-be-killed, give no quarter and expect no quarter backstabbing sneakfest.

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