The BEST 2 Player Games for Date Night!

By Paula Rollo on Sunday, January 5, 2014

Since my husband and I have young children, the majority of our date nights are spent at home.

We do try to go out on a date once a month, but we still make an effort to spend time together at least once a week, interacting with one another, without distractions (such as TV or internet).

While we try to spend quality time together more than once a week, we are sticklers about getting at least 1 night in a week, regardless of our busy schedules. 

Game night is one of our absolute favorites for weekly fun. It’s been a challenge to find games that translate well to 2-player versions.

Several games that I enjoyed growing up, just don’t work with only 2 people. We’ve finally gotten a good collection of really awesome board games that work with 2 players. 

Here are a few of our favorites, so you can start working on your own collection of games for date night!

Best 2 Player Games for Date Night

Dominion – This will always be one of my favorite games! It can be played with up to four players, but works really well with just two! It’s a card game, we’ve played it for several years now and still love it! There are many expansions for the game (intrigue, seaside, hinterlands etc.) and they all add so much to the game! We’ve purchased each expansion as it came out and I have trouble choosing a favorite! 

Fluxx - This is a game that must be played with a good sense of humor. The rules are constantly changing, along with the goal of the game! It’s another card game that certainly will keep you laughing and keep you on your toes! We recently bought the “martian fluxx” variant and definitely prefer that version to the original. 

Glory to Rome - This is one of the more complicated card games, I’m still trying to wrap my head around playing it well, but it’s definitely fun! You each build your own buildings and try to come out on top! There are multiple ways to score points in this game, so it’s a challenge to choose which strategy to go with. It also makes the game fun though, because you never have to play it the same way twice!

Race for the Galaxy - This has always been one of my husband’s favorite games, but I’ll be honest, it took me awhile to get on board. I love the game now, but there’s definitely a steep learning curve to it, and it may take awhile before you really feel like you can play it well. 

Carcassone - This was one of the first games we purchased together (about 4 years ago) and we’re still getting lots of enjoyment out of it! Carcassone is a tile-laying game, and it allows you to build cities, roads, farms and cloisters and connect them to one another to gain points. Very fun game, and it’s always neat to see all the scenery that you’ve built together at the end of the game!

Famiglia - Another card game, this time the cards represent different “mobster” families. Each color card allows you to do a different action, and thereby gain better cards into your “family”. It’s simple to learn, but there’s a surprising amount of strategy involved!

Pandemic - This game is unique because, instead of playing against one another, you are on a team against the game! It’s shockingly difficult and a lot of fun to get to work together in a game instead of having to compete. There’s also nothing quite like trying to save the world from multiple viruses! You really feel like you’ve accomplished something awesome together when you win this game!

Tigris & Euphrates - This game is truly one of our favorites. It has a longer play-time than most, but it’s definitely worth the time! You play on one board and build your own little kingdoms by laying tiles of various colors. You are then able to join kingdoms or invade one another, and gain points. It’s a very interesting game, especially since you don’t know how many points the other player has earned until the end of the game! 

Suburbia - This is one of our newer games. It’s also a tile laying game, but instead of building farms or roads you create buildings for your city. The strategy is in which tiles you put where, as well as which tiles you choose to build. We only purchased this one a few weeks ago but it’s already a favorite! 

Agricola - Remember that popular Farming game on Facebook awhile back? This is a game that is very similar, but with lots more strategy! You are a farmer, and you must build your hut, farm your land, raise cattle and feed your family! It’s a very interesting game and quite the challenge!

Zertz, Yinsh & Dvonn - These games are more abstract than the others I’ve listed. Instead of having a theme or story to them, they are pure strategy (like chess or checkers, but more fun). These games can be bought separately and played as a single game, or can be combined with a couple other games in the series to form a huge tournament. We currently own two in the series and are working our way up to have the whole collection. They are quicker games and deceptively difficult! 

I’ve created a list on amazon with all of the games, so you can find them easily, instead of needing to do multiple searches. This is an affiliate link to my 2 player games list on Amazon. 

These are our absolute favorite 2 player games! Have you ever heard of any of them?

We’d love to hear about your favorites!!!  

 

Paula Rollo: Paula & her hubby have been happily married for 4 years. They decided to tie the knot after knowing each other for just 35 days! They now have 2 rambunctious kiddos known as Little Man (2) and The Princess (7 mos). The family resides in Texas in a small but lively apartment. Paula and her hubby love to play board games, take long walks with the kids and they both LOVE the Texas heat! Paula also has a passion for writing. Her compositions have been featured many places around the web, including her own blog Beauty Through Imperfection where she writes about motherhood and strives to be an encourager through her writing.

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  • Tara

    This is a great list! Thank you for sharing. I would like to add Stratego. My husband loves that game, and it gives us a great time to bond. :)

    • Fawn @ Happy Wives Club

      What’s Stratego about?

      • Ceaves

        It’s a board game version of capture the flag.

  • J (Anonymous)

    Happy to see Pandemic on the list, since we got it for Christmas! :) Thanks for the others as well.

    • Fawn @ Happy Wives Club

      Couples absolutely love Pandemic. Paula introduced us to that game earlier this year in another blog post. Very cool!

  • Anete

    Our favorites:
    Abalone
    Monopoly Deal
    Coloretto (although not the most interesting for two)

    • Fawn @ Happy Wives Club

      Monopoly Deal sounds like something my hubby and I could play for hours.

  • Shelly

    You clearly love Euro games and we do too. Our very favorite is Le Havre (by Uwe Rosenberg, the creator of Agricola). We recently got Ginkgopolis and have really enjoyed it as well. Other winners include 7 Wonders, Power Grid (though I can rarely beat my husband at it), Caylus (good, but not as good as the others) and, of course, Ticket to Ride (Europe with the 1912 expansion is great, but we also love Switzerland and the specifically-for-2-3-player Norwegian Countries).

    Also, I really enjoy Race for the Galaxy and didn’t feel that the learning curve was all that great to it, at least compared to any other Euro game. We recently got some of the expansions to it and while I somewhat enjoy Rebels and Imperium, I’m not yet on board with Brink of War.

    • Fawn @ Happy Wives Club

      Those sound like tons of fun!

  • guest

    I can’t believe no one has mentioned Ticket to Ride!!

    • Fawn @ Happy Wives Club

      What’s that one?

  • Coralee

    Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert, and Seasons are awesome games too. :)

  • Cynthia

    Settlers of Catan Is such a fun game 2-4 players
    And our other fav is Ticket to Ride 2-5 players :-)

  • P1CKS1X

    Some other really fun games to add to your list…
    Kings of Tokyo: it’s a variant of yatzee but way more fun. No reason to go back to plain yatzee ever once playing KoT.
    Takenoko: it’s a tile laying game where you move a farmer and a panda to achieve goals for points.
    Love letter: one of the simplest card games I have ever played. Fast easy and lots of fun.

    These games are all 2-4 and can be played with kids (have friends with small children and they love Kings of Tokyo)

  • Danielle Smith Vitale

    This is too much thinking for date nite! Lol. Whatever happened to good old fashioned strip poker?!?

  • V

    Settlers of Catan and Scrabble are great for two as well!

  • http://www.modernmarried.com/ Maggie Reyes

    oh my gosh! I just saw this! Carcassone was one of the first games we played together too! We used to play it ALL THE TIME. Will definitely check out the others. Love this list!

  • myyysha

    While GIPF project is a great choice, the best strictly two player game I met is Drako.
    In other news “games for more but great in two”: Takenoko, Seasons, Taluva, Ta Yu, Ingenious.