Top Strategic Board Games
For 2 Players
1) Five Tribes
Specifications
|
Players |
Duration |
Age |
Difficulty |
Type |
Price |
1-10 rating |
|
2-4 |
60-80 minutes |
13+ |
Medium |
tile |
$40 |
10 |
Game Explanation
Five Tribes is an awesome strategic game, designed for two to four players. In this game, players build a board by placing the game tiles side by side. The majority of the game plays with meeples that are placed on top of the board. The meeples come in five different colors (representing the Five Tribes), and three random-colored meeples are placed on each tile. Players take turns picking up meeples from various tiles and moving them around the board. Each meeple color has an associated ability that a player can use to score points—or earn the potential to score points. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
2) Dominion
Specifications
|
Players |
Duration |
Age |
Difficulty |
Type |
Price |
1-10 rating |
|
2-4 |
30 minutes |
13+ |
Medium |
Hand management |
$30-$40 |
9 |
Game Explanation
Dominion is another card-based game; however, Dominion is exclusively a card game; and it’s all about collecting cards to eventually buy victory points. Players are each dealt a stack of cards—some of which are valuable metal coins. They use those coins to begin purchasing better cards that are worth more. Eventually, they reach the point where they can begin buying pretty much anything they want—which includes the most valuable of all, victory points. The game ends when the last Province card (worth 6 victory points) is taken. Points are totaled and the player with the most points wins.
3) Kingdomino
Specifications
|
Players |
Duration |
Age |
Difficulty |
Type |
Price |
|
2-4 |
20 minutes |
10+ |
Easy |
Tile, Set |
$20 |
Game Explanation
Kingdomino is an agriculturally themed game of building kingdoms. In this game, players collect tiles of various terrain types. They place these terrain tiles on their personal game boards throughout the game—which ends in a 5×5 grid for each player. Points are earned through connecting terrain tiles of the same type connected together. Terrain tiles with small crowns in the corners multiplied by the number of terrain tiles of the same terrain type total the score. The player with the most points wins.
4) Carcassonne
Specifications
|
Players |
Duration |
Age |
Difficulty |
Type |
Price |
|
2-5 or more |
30-45 minutes |
10+ |
Easy/Medium |
Tile, Strategy |
$30 |
Game Explanation
Carcassonne is another agriculturally themed game, but has a different feel than Kindomino. In Carcassonne, players take turns drawing and playing tiles that fit on the starting tile. The game board builds as the game progresses. Players score points by putting a meeple on a tile that creates a road, castle, monastery, or field. The player to have the most points at the end of the game wins. But be careful, crafty players can work their way into other players’ fields, roads and castles—also collecting the points those players collect.