The Best Board Games for 2 People in 2024

The Best Board Games for 2 People in 2024

Every weekend, people invite family and friends over for a game night and delicious food. However, most people only play old-school games such as charades. Well, who doesn’t love charades?

But game night is a great opportunity to bond and laugh while bringing families and friends close together. In fact, it’s one of those times to make lasting memories. Looking for the best board games for 2 people that will create lasting memories?

Sit tight, we have got you covered. Here are 10 board games for 2 people that will ensure you’ve had fun on your game night.

The Best Board Games for 2 People

• 7 Wonders Duel
• Patchwork
• Ticket to Ride London Board Game
• Ticket to Ride Europe Board Game
• Marvel Villainous
• Pandemic
• 3D Labyrinth
• The Game of Life
• The LOGO Board Game
• Exploding Kittens

1. 7 Wonders Duel

Age: 10+

Players: 2

If you love challenging board games, then you’ll surely enjoy playing 7 Wonders Duel with family and friends. The two-player game takes you to the universe of 7 Wonders where you get to challenge your opponents.

The game offers you the chance to lead an ancient civilization and conquers another through military superiority. Besides military superiority, you can conquer your opponents by building a strong economy with ports and markets.

In the box, you’ll find one board game, 66 Age cards, 7 Guild cards, 12 Wonder cards, 4 Military tokens, and 10 Progress tokens. You’ll also find 31 coins, 1 Conflict token, 1 rule book, 1 scorepad, and a player aid.

How to Play 7 Wonder Duel:

Every player starts with four Wonder cards. Each construction of a wonder provides a player with a special ability. Players can build seven wonders however, one of the players will end up short.

Players can purchase resources from the bank or by gaining cards that provide resources during the game. The cost of these resources represents your dominance in an opponent’s area.

There are three ways to win 7 Wonder Duel. When you acquire a military card, you advance the military marker toward an opponent’s capital. If you reach the opponent’s capital, you win the game. You can also win the game by acquiring six of seven scientific symbols. If no player wins the game through the methods above, then the winner is the player with the most points at the end of the game.

2. Patchwork

Age: 8+

Players: 2

Designed by Uwe Rosenberg, Patchwork is a board game where two players compete to build a patchwork quilt. Released in 2014, the game comes with 1 Neutral token, 2 Time tokens, 2 Quilt boards, and 1 Two sides Central Time board. It also comes with 33 patches, 50 button tiles, and a rule book.

How To Play Patchwork:

The game starts when players lay out all the patches at random in a circle. They also have to place a marker of the 2-1 patch. Each player starts with five buttons that represent currency or points in the game. One player is chosen to start.

The starting player can either purchase one of the three patches or pass. To purchase a patch, the player pays the cost in buttons. The value is equivalent to the buttons on the patch. If the purchase is successful, the player moves the spool to the patch’s location. Then he adds the patch to his game board and advances his time token a number of spaces equal to the time on the patch.

Players have the choice of placing patches anywhere on their board, but one must fit things together as tightly as possible.

If a player’s token is on top or behind another player’s time token, take another turn. Otherwise, it’s your opponent’s turn. When a player assembles the quilt, he earns a certain number of buttons. The player with the greatest number of buttons wins the game.

3. Ticket to Ride London Board Game

Age:8+

Players: 2 to 4

Ticket to Ride London is a fast-paced game that takes you through a scenic tour of London. However, it’s not the London you know today. But the 70’s capital of music and fashion. In this fast-paced game, players get to race each other as they claim the most important bus lines.

Ideal for beginners and seasoned players, Ticket to Ride London allows you to complete destination tickets and connect districts in London. From Big Ben to the Tower London, from King Cross to Buckingham Palace, you can rumble through London’s historic streets as you build routes and complete trips.

Easy to learn, players can learn to play the game in less than 10 minutes. In the box, you’ll find 1 board map of the London Transportation Network, and 44 Transportation cards. You’ll also find 68 plastic buses, 4 scoring markers, 20 destination ticket cards, and 1 rule leaflet.

How to Play Ticket to Ride London:

To play the game, place the board map on a table then each player will take a set of plastic buses and place them at the scoring marker at the start. Now, shuffle the transportation cards and deal the start hand.

Each player will receive two cards and then place the remaining cards close to the board map. Flip the top five cards to face up. If three of the cards are bus cards, discard all five cards, then flip a new set of five cards.

Take the destination ticket cards and deal two to every player. Players need to look at the destination ticket cards and decide which to keep. If a player chooses a card, the other card goes back to the bottom of the deck.

Starting with the youngest player, you can race each other to claim the most important bus lines. You can also complete the destination tickets, connect districts, and much more. The player with the most points wins the game. In case players tie, one of the tied players who completed the most destination ticket cards wins. Alternatively, the tied players can share the victory.

4. Ticket to Ride Europe Board Game

Age: 8+ years

Players: 2 to 5

After playing Ticket to Ride London, hop on a ferry and get ready to explore Europe. Ticket to Ride Europe is another exciting board game from Days of Wonder. This strategy game takes you on a multicounty train adventure through cities in Europe.

The fast-paced game allows you to explore and connect iconic European cities from the early 20th century. During the game, players build train routes and earn points. They also collect and play matching train cards to claim train routes.

The longer the routes, the more points a player earns. Like Ticket to Ride London, you can learn Ticket to Ride Europe in less than 10 minutes.

In the box, you’ll find 15 train stations, 1 board map, 110 train car cards, 240 train cars, and 46 destination tickets. In addition, the box will include a 1 rules booklet and 5 wooden scoring markers.

How To Play Ticket to Ride Europe:

The first thing players need to do is set up the game. Place the board map on a table, and then each player receives 45 train cars, three train stations, and scoring markers. Players will place their scoring markers on the track that runs along the map’s border, and each time a player scores points, he will advance his marker.

Players need to shuffle the card, deal four cards to each player then place the remaining deck close to the board map. Next, a player will shuffle the Destination Tickets card and deal the long route cards, one for each player. Finally, shuffle the regular destination tickets and deal three cards to each player.

After setting up the game, players can now travel across Europe and score points by claiming routes between cities. They can also earn points by completing destination tickets, claiming the longest route, and more. The winner is the player who scored the most points.

5. Marvel Villainous

Age: 10+ years

Players: 2 to 5

If you love Marvel Comics and movies, then you’ll enjoy playing Marvel Villainous. However, instead of playing your favourite hero, you’ll be playing one of the five Marvel Villains. They include Ultron, Hela, Taskmaster, Thanos, or Killmonger. Each villain has their own goals and powers.

Perfect for Marvel fans, the game provides an opportunity for you to face off against your favourite heroes. They include the Hulk, Black Widow, Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and more.

Perfect for any game night, each game comes with 5 Villain guides, 5 sculpted Villain movers, 5 Villain domains, and 5 unique Fate decks. You’ll also find a shared fate deck, power tokens, a soul mark, and a power vault.

How to Play Marvel Villainous:

To play the game, players start by choosing a villain then taking a villain domain plus a mover, guide villain deck, fate deck, and reference card. Then place your domain in front of you and your villain mover in the villain portrait.

Take the common fate deck and fate decks and shuffle them, then place them face down. Next, shuffle the villain deck and place them face down next to your domain. Take the Power/Strength tokens and place them within reach of every player. Now draw a starting hand of four hands from the villain deck. You can look at your cards but keep them secret.

Each player will have a chance to move their villain to a new location in the domain while carrying out actions. The first player to fulfil all their villain’s objectives wins the game.

6. Pandemic

Age:

Players: 2 to 4

Work together with other players and save humanity in Pandemic, a strategy game where players win or lose together. Released in 2018, you and other players are the last defence in the way of a deadly disease threatening the world.

As a player, you join an elite disease control team that works together and travels the globe to treat infections. While doing so, players collect cards needed to discover a cure for every disease. Only by working together can players keep disease outbreaks in check.

In the box, you’ll find 1 board, 7 role cards, role pawns, 96 disease cubes, 6 research stations, 59 player cards, 6 markers, a reference book, and a rule book.

How to Play Pandemic:

Place the board in the middle of the table, separate the disease cubes into four colours then lay them beside the board. Place a research station in Atlanta and the rest aside. Take your cure and outbreak markers and place them on the board. Finally, place the infection rate marker on the infection rate track.

Next, choose a character. Available choices include operations expert, dispatcher, scientist, medic, and researcher. During their turn, players can take up to four actions. After selecting four actions, players will draw two cards.

If the deck runs out, the players lose the game, and the eighth outbreak happens. However, if players manage to cure all four diseases, they win the game.

7. 3D Labyrinth

Age: 7+ years

Players: 2 to 4

Labyrinth is one of Ravensburger’s popular family board games. Today, you can play the 3D version – 3D Labyrinth. Best for ages 7 years and up, the family board game gives players a chance of exploring the labyrinth to find coveted treasures.

In fact, the player who finds the shortest route to the treasure and out of the labyrinth wins the game.

In the box, you’ll find 1 game board, 26 towers, 4 playing pieces, 12 treasure cards, 4 rune stones, and 24 spell cards.

How to Play 3D Labyrinth:

3D Labyrinth gameplay is familiar to the original Labyrinth board game. Players set the game board on a table that has a set of fixed tiles. The remaining tiles usually make up the labyrinth where the rows are created by the tiles locked in place.

One tile usually remains outside the labyrinth, and players take turns turning this tile. They also slide it into a labyrinth’s row moving all tiles and pushing them to the other side of the game board. As the game continues, players move around the shifting patterns of the labyrinth in a race to collect treasures.

The player who collects all the treasure first and returns to the start or home space wins the game.

8. The Game of Life

Age: 8+ years

Players: 2 to 4

Take a spin on Game of Life and travel the board and make life big decisions. Game of Life mirrors life events that many people go through. Such events include working, going to college, getting married, buying your first home, and even retiring. In the game, players earn assets by working and earning tokens.

These tokens have dollar amounts on them and the more you have, the higher your chances of winning the game. The game has a spinning wheel which every player spins and moves along the board before landing on spaces that tell you what action to take. There are plenty of intersections where players can choose which direction to go similar to life.

In the box, you’ll find a gameboard with a spinning wheel and 90 cards. These cards include 55 Action cards, 20 Career cards, 11 House cards, and 4 Invest cards. You also have 4 cars, 36 pegs, a game guide, and a money pack.

How To Play The Game of Life:

To play the Game of Life, start by attaching the game parts to the game board following the instructions in the assembly sheet. Then separate the cards into 4 decks – Career cards, Salary cards, House Deeds, and Stocks. Place the cards face down and then choose one player to be the banker.

Players choose a car and then fit a peg into the driver’s seat. Thereafter, players take turns spinning the wheels. The highest spinner takes the first turn. When the spinner’s arm falls on a number, move your car the number of spaces.

If a player lands on an occupied space, the player must move ahead to the next open space. After all the players have retired, the richest player wins the game.

9. The LOGO Board Game

Age: 12+ years

Players: 2 to 6

Released in 2009, the Logo Board Game is a trivia game where players get to answer questions and travel around the board. The game board has red, green, yellow, and purple spaces where players can move based on how they correctly answer the questions.

The questions are usually based on packaging, logos, and products of well-known brands. You can find questions on brands such as Walkers, Pampers, Heinz, National Express, Smash, BirdsEye, Alfa Romeo, Shell, and others.

Designed to offer endless hours of entertainment, the game includes a fold-out playing board. It also comes with 6 cone-shaped playing pieces, and 400 cards with 1600 questions.

How to Play The Logo Board Game:

To play the Logo Board Game, the oldest player in the group becomes the Question Master for the first turn. Thereafter, other players take turns. The Question Master takes the first card and asks the first question. If the question card is a theme or picture card, he shows the back of the card to the playing team and hides the answer from his team.

If the playing team answers correctly, they move their playing piece on the board. The Question Master will then ask another question, and each time the team answers correctly, they move their playing piece. To win the game, the first team to move into the winning zone must answer two consecutive questions correctly or answer a red question.

10. Exploding Kittens

Age: 7+ years

Players: 2 to 5

Exploding Kittens is a game for people who love kittens and also love laser beams and explosions. Perfect for all occasions, you can play the game on your road trip, beach trip, family game night, or when drinking with friends.

The game is like Uno, but there are exploding kittens that can kill you. In the box, you’ll find 56 cards and instructions on how to play the game. It takes 2 minutes to learn the game. Basically, don’t draw an Exploding Kitten card.

How to Play Exploding Kittens:

To play Exploding Kittens, remove all the kitten cards from the deck and then set them aside. Also, remove all the defuse cards from the deck and deal 1 to each player. Now, insert the extra defuse card into the deck, shuffle it, and deal 7 cards facing down to each player.

Players can look at the cards but in secret. Insert Exploding Kittens cards into the deck and shuffle the deck. Pick a player to go first. The player will read the text on the card to learn what it does. Thereafter, the player will follow the instructions on the card.

Each player will have their turn, and the winner will be the player not killed by Exploding Kitten cards.

Final Thoughts

We hope you enjoyed our list of the best board games for 2 people. If you want to enjoy your game night, make sure there is comfortable seating space for the guests. You’re going to spend 15 to 60 minutes or more playing the board games, and you’ll most likely sit in the same spot.

So, you want to make sure that your guests have plenty of room to settle in.

Also, make sure to feed your guests and have snacks available so that your guests can grab them in between turns. We hope this guide will help you decide which game to buy for your next game night.