Just recently bought Twilight Inscription (single player games) and I love it. Favorite type of game is deck builder. Favorite game of all time is Cosmic Encounters.
I've played some Star Realms which is a tight 2P fun space deck builder. May need to agree a health handicap for 1 of the players before starting, to even out the skill levels.
Shards of Infinity is fun 2-4P deck builder with an apocalyptic fantasy theme. It does not have the 'kill a card from your opponent' mechanism, which can be an annoying time in other games that can see someone start a round 3 cards down.
I've only had one play of Cosmic Encounter and it was a great back and forward battle. For a similar feel and era, take a look at the 1979 asymmetric Dune game made by the same team as Cosmic. It has a 2019 art reskin too.
Hey thanks so much!!!
Star Realms has a handicap for first player, you draw less cards for starting hand
I mean similar to a whole game golf-handicap.
A house rule where the stronger player agrees to start with 10 less health(authority), to give the weaker player an even chance.
My all time favorite board game is Lord's of Waterdeep, a strategy game for 2 to 5 players.
Another favorite is Forbidden Island which is a coop and has a few sequels as well.
One we have similar to Forbidden Island is Burgle Bros which is a coop, heist, dodge the security guard through 3 floors, get to the chopper scenario.
Is good fun and needs strong cooperation to secure a win.
Ark Nova, a Feast for Odin, and Barrage. All are more complex games but each one has meaty choices, tons of decision space and variability, and are just pure fun the whole time.
Haven't heard of Barrage before and it looks fantastic(and high scoring on BGG, 8.2). From the same designer as Barrage(Simone Luciani) are Newton and Lorenzo il Magnifico which I admire. His Grand Austria Hotel I find to also have an excellent and challenging decision space, which is always enjoyable to work through, even though I am really bad at winning in GAH.
I've been looking out for a year to play Ark Nova or Feast for Odin at our local game club meetups, both have appealing themes and reportedly solid gameplay.
Barrage is really fun and really intense. Tons of interaction out in the mountains, trying to get your network out before others. I am terrible at it but still enjoy it every time. Ark Nova and Feat for Odin are my top 2 favorite games right now. Just pure joy to play them every time.
Three game recommendations from me:
Yamataï gets too little of love. It's a game with a beautiful table presence and with interesting mashup of mechanics that are really on the lighter spectrum.
Mechanics:
Architects of the West Kingdom is my favorite game for a long time and even without the Age of Artisans expansion.
Mechanics:
Radlands is currently my favorite two-player card game. It plays smoothly, has a vibrant color palette and although I would appreciate the game mat I enjoy the game on the clean table as well. I like the action queue mechanic in the form of ongoing events, back-and-forth dynamics and energy (water) management.
Mechanics:
I was looking at getting Radlands this morning too. It has been on my list for a year or so and keeps coming up as having something special. I really like the Radlands theme also (possible 2000ad inspired).
I've played Architects of the West Kingdom one time also and liked it a lot.
I've never heard of Yamataï either, which is surprising because we love Kanagawa and have played it many times. It looks equally elegant and calming.
Thanks for these recommendations :^)
I search out and try games that have received high praise, like Inis and Innovation.
I can not fault either of them, they are very well put together with so much interplay in a small format.
Which other games have this denseness of quality?
If you like Innovation and want another awesome sense card game from the same designer, check out Mottainai.
Inis is pretty much in a category of its own, but another great area control game with interesting card play is Brian Boru.
I've never heard of Brian Boru before and it looks like exactly one of the genres I like, Celtic with quality gameplay. Thanks for this recommendation. (c:
Yes, thank you! I was looking at buying Mottainai this morning.
I've only played 1 it time on yucata.de and was not sure of the mechanics at the start of play.. and then not sure of the mechanics at the end of play, but the theme is beautiful and it also gets high praise.
Yeah, it’s totally brain-bending for just being a deck of 54 cards!
You could try out Oath: Cronicles of Empire and Exile. It came to mind when I read the description of Inis.
I play a lot of 2 player games with my SO.
We love: Horrified Endeavor: Age of Sail Talisman (just bought the Harry Potter version but haven't played it yet) Cascadia Ticket to Ride Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle National Parks
I couldn't pick just 2-3 :/
Cascadia is part of a trio of tile-placement games from publisher Flatout Games. You may like the other ones also.
The other two are Calico(cats and quilts) and Verdant(make the nicest houseplant arrangements).
We play Calico at home at 2P and it is a great positional puzzler with a cute theme. Can be very satisfying when placing your last 2 tiles and completing 3 different scoring conditions. More often though the draw bag will give you an unwanted hex to mess up part of your perfect quilt symmetry. Fun either way, and still plays well at 4P.
Dice Throne, Spirit Island, and Root
Update: I got Radlands and Mottainai yesterday, based on the recommendations and information here. Thank you
Radlands is fucking brilliant. Just make sure you give the first player reduced water!
Game of life
If you enjoy roll and move, and playing to find out what happens, check out Talisman!
Everything boardgames
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