Board games for two. What to play a small company?

Six months ago, I already told which tables you can play online without any problems. True, last time I considered only those games that are available in the workshop Tabletop Simulator , And he mentioned in passing about projects for two players. In the end, some prefer physical games, and not everyone has a fairly large company.

It's time to fix this annoying omission. In this text, I chose a small collection of board games for two: the very thing is not to collect a crowd at home again. All the dimensions in the list (except one) either have localization, or it will soon appear, so that the language barrier will not be a problem. Prices are also quite democratic.

"7 Miracles: duel"

Photo: RANDOMNERDERY

Since 2015, not a single discussion about board games for two has been dispensed with without "7 Miracles: duel". And given that the competition in the oversaturated desktop market is almost tougher than in the video game industry, this in itself says a lot. “7 Miracles: Duel”-an interesting alloy of 4x strategies and solitaires, where players for three eras develop their own civilizations. In each of the eras on the field, a small pattern decomposed cards that you take in turn to yourself. It can be some farms or quarries, theaters and architectural monuments, army, protective structures, scientific academies … In general, everything that needs any self-respecting nation.

There is only one small problem: the road to prosperity is paved with compromises. Cards, as in one casino, are laid out “in another order” – you can take only those on which others do not lie. So, each of your moves reveals new opportunities to your opponent – and vice versa. What card to take in order to stay in the plus yourself, and do not play the opponent much?

The question, at first glance, is not particularly tricky, but the answer to it changes from party to party. With its small size and simple gameplay “7 miracles: duel” offers almost the same depth as large 4x strategies, but without unnecessary details. You can hit the culture to go to the leaders at the expense of winning glasses. You can go to the military industry and force the opponent to spend resources on defense, or even completely seize its civilization. Science gives technology with unique bonuses, and the developed economy is the ability to remove the maps beneficial to the opponent from the field, and even receive money for this. In terms of tactics there is where to play out, and with each party it opens deeper than. And as soon as you understand that you like the game, feel free to take the only addition to it – "Pantheon". The struggle for the attention of the ancient gods is ideally built into the gameplay, not particularly complicating the rules.

"Code names: duet"

Photo: Boardgameslv

You had moments when it seems that you can read the thoughts of a loved one? Когда между вами царит такое взаимопонимание, что в беседе вы на автомате заканчиваете друг за друга предложения? I am sure, at least once, but it was a matter. I also had such a person. And then I played with him in "Code names: duet" And in a recordly quick time, I realized that a stranger soul is a sweatshirt. More precisely, someone else's imagination.

"Code names" – One of the most popular parties for parties, but in the duel format it works no worse. Perhaps even better, because the "duet" is not competitive, but a cooperative game. After mixing a huge deck, you lay out twenty -five cards on the field with random words. Both players have a key card, which indicates exactly what words their partner should guess. The case is small: you just need to hint at them correctly. Let's say “engine”, “wheel”, “asphalt” and “steering wheel” can be combined with one hint – “car four”.

But in practice, everything never goes so well. The location of words on the field cannot be predicted in advance, so the key often indicates cards that are absolutely not related to each other. You can, of course, use simple associations, but they will quickly end-then the real fun begins. How to knit "skating rink" and "dumplings"? “Fork” is about the “elephant” or about “spaghetti”? Where you see a clear logical chain, your partner can see a fierce nonsense. And the closer the final of the party, the more delusional the tips become, and each correct answer invariably causes an explosion of laughter. I still remember the culmination of one game, where I had to hint at the words “mirror”, “lemonade” and “pink” through “glass”. Everything converges. They are cleaned with mirrors, it smells like lemonade and painted acidic. The logic is such that you will not dig.

Azul

Photo: The Daily Worker PlaCement

Azul – One of those rare games that I want to admire as works of art. I want to get it from the shelf, show guests and protect it like a pearl collection. Without jokes, this is the only dimension in which I regularly play with my mother – and she, frankly, is not at all interested in this hobby. Just once I decided to boast of a purchase, took out a full bag of multi-colored tiles from the box, patterned tablets-and she immediately asked how to play it. And an hour later we have already finished two parties: the time for the arrangement of our own mosaics flies completely unnoticed.

First of all, Azul attracts attention precisely with its aesthetics. Bright flowers, patterns, ringing knuckles of bakelite, which you still want to touch. But the real charm of the game is in its simplicity. This is a meditative puzzle that is remotely similar to "Tetris" , where you need to get tiles from factories in the center of the table and gradually lay them out on your mosaic. If you do it carefully, continuing the ranks and without leaving gaps, then there will be more points. If you feel like it and take so many tiles that there will be nowhere to stick them, then less. The process is simple, and mathematics is elementary, but there is still space for tactics and rivalry. Therefore, Azul goes equally well in both casual and sophisticated company. Technically, you can play at least a four of it, but for two players it opens much better – in a duel to calculate the opponent’s moves at a time.

Thanks to her success, Azul marked the beginning of a series, which now has two more games: "Sinentra stained glass" And "Summer Palace". I recommend taking a closer look at the original. They are all good in their own way, but the first azul, for my taste, turned out to be the most elegant: its gameplay seems to be never outdated.

"Watergate"

Photo: Capstone Games

It is believed that games on a historical or, even worse, political theme is the destiny of galactic supercasions with an outrage IQ. That is a bore. Developers and publishers love to use the real story as a setting, but rarely pay it as much attention and respect as she deserves. Why? Because it is quite difficult. And boring. However "Watergate" It breaks these templates. She not only tells the story of the most loud political scandal of our time, but also builds an extremely dynamic gameplay on its basis.

Watergate game process is often compared with "Twilight struggle" – cult Vargam about the confrontation of the USSR and the USA in the Cold War era. They really have a lot in common – the card engine is almost the same – but there are two important differences. Firstly, Watergate is much more compact, and secondly, Richard Nixon’s conflict and The Washington Post is asymmetric. The “cunning Dick” will win if it lasts until the end of its presidential term, and the newspaper editor must prove Nixon's connection with two informants. The first collects the tokens of political influence, shifting them to his half of the field, and the second in the same way receives evidence and “pin” them to the board with informants.

In the text about the “twilight struggle”, I compared it with the tug of the rope – “Watergate” feels about the same. Only more aggressively, tense and with a much smaller volume of the rules. There are only twenty cards in the decks of Nixon and the editor, but the gameplay for both sides is felt completely differently. In the skin of the editor, you need to think through logistics, wondering how to pave the path to bypassing presidential defense. And Nixon intimidates witnesses with might and main and sacrifices his own allies in order to take suspicions from himself and quickly gain influence. Watergate skillfully talks about historical events in the most understandable language of all – through gameplay.

“Immemarted. Normandy"

Photo: Space-Biff!

It is possible to complain about this, but the theme of the Second World War in mass culture has been studied (if not “beaten”) along and across, including in board games. And although in this regard “Immemarted. Normandy" It does not surprise, something she still does very correctly: she gives Vargage as a genre with a human face.

A rather cunning card mechanics is responsible for the tactics. You can give orders only to those units whose fighters are in your hand – this greatly limits the possibilities and prevents the plan for several strokes ahead. Of course, with the help of a sergeant, you can always replenish the deck with the soldiers you need, but … the larger the deck, the higher the chance at the most crucial moment to gain an inappropriate hand. And intelligence is even more clogged with a fog of war. So here it is necessary to worry not only about the forces of the enemy, but also about the organization of their troops – the mechanics are simple, but extremely effective. And with each next game, she will gradually grow in the nuances: all scenarios are combined into a small plot campaign, which slowly introduces new elements of gameplay. Snipers, machine gunners, artillery.

The outcome of the battle in the “Unserfounded” is decided by the throw of a pair of cubes, and each death hurts the resources painfully. The maps of the dead fighters cannot be returned, the detachments lose reinforcements, the forces of both sides melt before our eyes. Some seasoned desktops scold the game for the fact that too much depends on good luck – it seems to me that in this case this is a plus. “Unserfounded” masterfully heating the atmosphere of the whole by a couple of a mechanic, but it is impossible to get angry and failures to get angry for a long time. Parties rarely last longer than an hour, so you can always go to the next scenario and take revenge, changing the sides.

"Detective. Game of modern investigation "

Photo: "Pronastols"

If you like police procedures in the spirit "Wiretaps" And CSI , That "Detective" did it right for you. This is not a test in the usual sense of the word, but rather an interactive puzzle, where the history of the Antares detective agency, created under the patronage of the FBI, is in the first place. Five cases, at first glance in no way connected with each other, are weaving to the final in the story of the old conspiracy, revenge and human cruelty.

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The trend for plot games was fixed in the board industry relatively recently – many developers take only the first steps in this direction. Board games are basically not famous for well -written plots, and the “detective” here, alas, is not an exception. However, the game does not take the quality of literary texts, but by the presentation and sense of the genre. Players need to interrogate witnesses, extract evidence, enter information into a special database – for this the authors even created a separate site. While one player reads the testimony of the suspect, the second, sitting “in the laboratory” at the computer (or in a smartphone), pierces his dossier in the database, or, for example, checks fingerprints. In some matters you need to use "Wikipedia" and cards Google , consider videos from surveillance cameras, study documents – the authors constantly throw surprises and change gameplay.

Since the main thing in the Detective is the plot and riddles, it has no reigree. The final of history is predetermined, the suspects do not change, the answers remain the same. It can only be passed once, but, in my opinion, it is worth it: the “detective” experiments with the medium of board games, and does it extremely successfully. Computer games have not yet learned how yet.

Fog of Love

Photo: Mashable

Author Fog of Love He calls his game a “romantic comedy in the format of a board game”, although I would call it “tragicomedy”. Or, since it went to that, a generator of gossip about non -existent people whose lives can be shamelessly discussed in all colors. Something like The Sims , Only here you can not drown the former in the pool.

In Fog of Love, players take on the roles of a couple in love, who barely began their relationship. You choose the features of appearance, set up character, ambitions, and then go hand in hand through all the key stages of the relationship, playing out maps of situations. It can be dates at the moon, sudden gifts and other pleasant cliches from romantic films, or … more gloomy things. Betrayals, quarrels, illegitimate children, an unexpected visit of the mother -in -law and, of course, the question “whether this dress is filled with me” (or a jacket – the game does not appropriate gender roles). And in almost every of these situations, both players need to make a choice. Did you like a surprise? Is it worth making love in a public park? Where will we fly on vacation?

The beauty of the game is that these questions cannot be answered correctly or wrong. Your characters, for nothing that they are in a relationship, have your own life goals, so you often have to choose between your own happiness and well -being of your partner. Maybe you want to work on your career? Or vice versa, quit everything to build a family? Or suddenly realized that they made a big mistake, and now you are trying with all your might to push the partner? Thanks to such details, Fog of Love remarkably conveys confusion and difficult contradictions of real relations: each party creates many situations that friends have to tell about for a long time for a long time.

The catch is only that Fog of Love does not have and, most likely, will never be localization. However, if it sounds interesting according to the description, then, believe me, playing personally is doubly more interesting. If desired, it is not at all difficult to bring a copy from abroad.

And on this, for now, let's dwell on. Better tell us what tables you like? You have your own collections, or so, play from case to case? What other board games do you want to read?

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