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[Kuildeous]

Catan isn't good for two players.

Settlers of Catan is not good for two players. There is a two-player Catan game. I forget the exact name; I got it in a math trade.

It's a tile game. You have two rows of resource tiles with enough space to put tiles between them. Since it's Catan, the resources are based on a die roll. You build roads and settlements as usual, with specific placement so that a settlement is adjacent (diagonally) to the resources. You build improvements above and below settlements/cities, which can make a difference based on the adjacent resources.

The board may look something like this.

Code: [Select]

Grain Granary Ore Sheep
Sett Road Sett Road
Clay Wood Gold

Starship Catan is also a two-player game. It's also dice-based. I find it a little more fun just because of the theme.

In both games, there are piles of cards so whoever memorizes card placement better will have an edge.

[theory]

I recommend Mr Jack mainly because it's asymmetric, which theoretically offers double the replay value.  It also suffers less from the "well-I-played-it-4000-times so I will crush you every time" syndrome, which TS / RFTG are very guilty of (even though I love that aspect of those games).

[Ozle]

There is an obvious solution to this....

Just make her play 4000 games of Dominion.

Problem solved.

[AHoppy]

Have you considered Neuroshima Hex?  I have only played it on my phone, but it is a very good 2 player game.  The game is short (or, at least I assume so, it's not terribly long on my phone) and once you get the symbols and flow of the game down, fairly straight forward.  It's pretty replayable because you have to master different armies and learn the weaknesses of the other armies.  Plus you can buy more armies... I think it's pretty fun, but having never played the physical game, I can't tell you how that plays...

[DG]

I looked through a friends game collection and can probably add Tayu, Rainer Knizia Kingdoms, KopferKessel, Babel, and the Hanging Gardens as decent 2 player games. Any of those could be out of print. A Few Acres of Snow is also excellent if you don't know the well publicized winning strategy.

[popsofctown]

Just to clarify, Seasons is not deckbuilding. There are cards, but you just draft 9 at that start, and try to make that work. You can draw additional cards in several ways, but you're gonna play with ~20 cards max overall.

Hmmm, I might have to look at it a bit more carefully then.  Thanks for the clarification!

It depends how deckbuilding is defined, kind of.  I would emphasize that besides the 9 you draft at the start you draw randomly.  So if you choose to draft a card with an effect similar to Smithy (crude analogy) you will draw 3 cards from a "Black Market" deck.

I'm surprised no one has suggested Smallworld?  It's up to four players, but it's playable with 2, and I prefer it with 2.  (I prefer anything with very much political potential at all with 2 though).  You play Risk, except the battles are manageable numbers like 3 armies against 2, and you don't use dice to decide who wins, and you choose different quirky powers throughout the game to try to get an edge. 

Worst aspect is that the scorekeeping process is a tad tedious, similar to the way tracking things in Puerto Rico is tedious, but it's only a fourth as bad as that.

[popsofctown]

Wow I am a terrible necromancer, sorry.

[Tables]

Less than a month old is hardly necrobumping, and you were contributing to the discussion.

[popsofctown]

Is netrunner too hard for my parents?  Carcassone was not, Dominion was not, Innovation was.

[Dsell]

Is netrunner too hard for my parents?  Carcassone was not, Dominion was not, Innovation was.

Probably so.

[Ozle]

Has anyone suggested Agricoa: all creatures great and small
Its a nifty 2 player

[Tables]

Has anyone suggested Agricoa: all creatures great and small
Its a nifty 2 player

I've only played it 3 player.

...

It actually worked pretty well. Although the guy making it still needs to make further tweaks I think.

[Ozle]

Has anyone suggested Agricoa: all creatures great and small
Its a nifty 2 player

I've only played it 3 player.

...

It actually worked pretty well. Although the guy making it still needs to make further tweaks I think.

Eh?

Isn't it only a two player game?

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/119890/agricola-all-creatures-big-and-small

[Tables]

The hinting was that it was a variant someone made .

[popsofctown]

I think I am going to subject my family to netrunner anyway.  They will like the scifi setting since they are in the Harry Potter is Satan's firstborn club.

[Dsell]

I think I am going to subject my family to netrunner anyway.  They will like the scifi setting since they are in the Harry Potter is Satan's firstborn club.

It's always worth a try! I haven't played Innovation IRL, and it's a very different type of game, but Netrunner is a great game. If they can get into the theme you might have a chance. There is a really excellent tutorial video from Fantasy Flight here.

[popsofctown]

I think I am going to subject my family to netrunner anyway.  They will like the scifi setting since they are in the Harry Potter is Satan's firstborn club.

It's always worth a try! I haven't played Innovation IRL, and it's a very different type of game, but Netrunner is a great game. If they can get into the theme you might have a chance. There is a really excellent tutorial video from Fantasy Flight here.

TBH innovation is a mediocre quality game overall, so that is somewhat of a factor.  I say that while I'm in isotropic queue though

Thanks for the link

I'm glad it's not by Steve Jackson games because I would have to voilate my boycott

[popsofctown]

Mom watched part of the video tutorial and said it looked too hard

[Tables]

Innovation and Netrunner are kind of hard for the same reason: (Pretty much) every card does something different. There's a lot of keywords and a lot of effects which pretty much have to be read out every time they're used. In Dominion (and similar) it takes only a few plays of a card before you can just name and everyone knows what it does.

[popsofctown]

I wanted a new game because my mom balks whenever I change the kingdom to different cards.  It's just time to give up.

[popsofctown]

Well, my mom bought me Netrunner for playing with my roommates anyways.  I read through the rules, they left me with two major questions:

1.  After a successful run, which cards does the runner get to access? All vertically oriented cards for a remote server, and all upgrades plus top of RD, 1 random from HQ, and all of archives for root server?  I kept rereading that section and it talked about the appropriate way to pillage R&D, but not when I do and when I don't get to pillage R&D.  Maybe it never happens without help from card text, maybe it happens only on root, maybe it always happens (it didn't seem to happen with the remote server in the example though.)

2. Can the corporation install upgrade cards into a remote server that has no agenda or <decoyagenda>, can't remember the word for the decoy agendas.  If you can, is it still considered empty? 
Namely, I'm confused as to whether you can install an upgrade on a remote server, and try to fool the runner into thinking that the facedown, vertically oriented upgrade is an agenda. 

[Dsell]

1.  After a successful run, which cards does the runner get to access? All vertically oriented cards for a remote server, and all upgrades plus top of RD, 1 random from HQ, and all of archives for root server?  I kept rereading that section and it talked about the appropriate way to pillage R&D, but not when I do and when I don't get to pillage R&D.  Maybe it never happens without help from card text, maybe it happens only on root, maybe it always happens (it didn't seem to happen with the remote server in the example though.)

All cards in Archives plus any upgrades installed in the root. Technically, the runner flips all cards in archives face-up and then chooses which cards to access, one at a time. But this only matters in edge cases.

The top card in R&D plus any upgrades in the root. There are a lot of cards that let you access more cards from R&D, and in that case you take from the top and keep them in order.

A random card (or cards, in case you're accessing more than one) from HQ plus any upgrades in the root.

All installed cards in a remote server.

For all of the above except R&D, you can access cards in any order you like. (In R&D I think you must access cards from top to bottom, but you could for example access the top card, then access any upgrades, then access the second card in R&D if you really wanted to.)

However, before you can access cards you must 1) pass all ice protecting the server and 2) give the corp a final chance to rez cards. There are some cards (upgrades, assets) that the corp may rez and resolve after you've passed all the ice that will make your life more difficult.

2. Can the corporation install upgrade cards into a remote server that has no agenda or <decoyagenda>, can't remember the word for the decoy agendas.  If you can, is it still considered empty? 
Namely, I'm confused as to whether you can install an upgrade on a remote server, and try to fool the runner into thinking that the facedown, vertically oriented upgrade is an agenda. 

You can install upgrades, assets, and agendas in remote servers. A server may only have 1 asset or agenda at any given time, but there are no limits on the number of upgrades (exception: you may only have 1 region upgrade in a server at a time). If there is one face-down card in a remote server, it could be any of the above. If a second card is installed in a remote, at least one of them must be an upgrade. You can install an upgrade even if there is no asset or agenda in the server.

A server is not considered empty if there is anything installed in it. I cannot remember whether a server is considered empty when there is nothing installed in the server but there is ice protecting it. Not sure if there are any cards that has bearing on.

But yes, upgrades can masquerade as agendas. However, most upgrades (I believe all currently printed ones) cannot be advanced.

[Tables]

A server is not considered empty if there is anything installed in it. I cannot remember whether a server is considered empty when there is nothing installed in the server but there is ice protecting it. Not sure if there are any cards that has bearing on.

But yes, upgrades can masquerade as agendas. However, most upgrades (I believe all currently printed ones) cannot be advanced.

Thomas Haas is an upgrade who can be advanced.

I'm not sure if a server being 'empty' is actually a thing, but as long as there is ANYTHING installed in a server - ice, upgrade, asset, agenda, anything else - then that server exists and the runner is allowed to perform a run against it. If it only contains ice, then naturally they can't access cards, but they may still want to run against that server - for example to trigger Bank Job or Desperado.

Finally just as an extra note which is easy to forget: Archives ALWAYS exist, even if there are no cards in it and no cards defending it. So you can always Sneakdoor Beta into HQ via Archives, if it's unprotected even if it's also empty.

[Dsell]

Thomas Haas is an asset.

But otherwise, great examples to illustrate the points you made.

[Tables]

...Asset, Upgrade, same thing . But yeah okay, advanceable upgrades... yeah don't think there are any, off the top of my head.