SnakeswithLasers said:
Hey Astro, I know this is the wrong thread to ask--but it's semi related.
My partner and I are trying to get into board games. I bought Pandemic and Imperial, which we've played and enjoy (me more than her though admittedly)--but we've found that those are both much more suited to 3+. Do you have any suggestions for 2p games that aren't luck based? I think I've read that you and your wife play a lot, so figured I'd ask you.
You should join us in the BG thread! Which I'm pretty sure you know about but just in case:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226969
Those two games are definitely more suited to >2. 2 and 2 w/ wife is like a special subcategory.
By not luck based do you mean
zero luck? If so, blech! Although if that is what you mean I'd recommend checking out Hive, a chesslike super abstract. Ingenious would be the backup recommendation there; also YINSH although I've only played that once (not exactly an expert on abstracts if you're looking solely at pures, though those are definitely three of the best-regarded and I can vouch for them). Mr. Jack is also a pretty chesslike abstract though it does have a little luck in terms of how the roles pop up.
We own Hive and Mr. Jack but Hive's a bit 'core for us and Mr. Jack is a real brainburner (perfect if that's what you're into). We like our games to have a nice mix of lucky and strategy, which if that's what you're looking for I'd recommend Battle Line and to a lesser extent Lost Cities (Lost Cities is more push-your-luck and luck-dependent). Finally for something that plays very well with 2, but just as well with 3-4, San Juan (also has some luck as it's a card-draw, but tons of deep strategy too).
Nice thing about all those is that they have accessible themes, are cheap, and take no longer than 15m to teach.