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Author Topic: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?  (Read 5420 times)

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TheMathProf

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Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« on: December 09, 2012, 10:14:55 pm »
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I've lately been on a bit of a worker-placement game kick with some of the folks in my informal gaming group, and my wife sometimes will play some games with me as well.

The most recent game that our informal gaming group pulled out was Olympus, which I really enjoyed, but playing with the missus only will be difficult, as the game is designed for 3-5 players, and I can see how playing with just two players would be problematic.

So what I'm wondering is: are there worker placement games for 2 players that are worthwhile?  I've checked out the list on BGG, but was looking specifically for recommendations from a group of players with a similar interest.

If it helps, I've managed to get her to play and enjoy Kingsburg (the closest to a worker-placement that we own), Ascension, and Dominion.

The two candidates we were considering were Agricola and Stone Age.  Are these good?  Are there other candidates worth considering?
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Watno

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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2012, 08:34:06 am »
+1

Agricola is a great game and works really good with 2 as well. It's quite heavy though, so I don't know if your wive would play it.
There's also a lighter Agricola 2 player version (All creatures big and small).
Stone Age is not as heavy as Agricola, but it plays good with just 2 as well.
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Mecherath

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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2012, 09:22:04 am »
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If neither of you mind Dungeons and Dragons type things, Lords of Waterdeep is actually a worker placement game.  Instead of gathering cows and vegetables, you recruit warriors and wizards.  And instead of adding rooms to your house or plowing fields, you send your team on quests and build shops.

I've never played it with 2, but it should scale down fairly well, much like Stone Age and Agricola.
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BadAssMutha

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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2012, 09:57:37 am »
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I became a huge fan of Carcassone after playing it at my friends' last year. It's a relatively simple game where the board (made up of square tiles depicting a countryside) gets built turn-by-turn, each player adding one tile and putting a "worker" there if they choose. You get points when you finish landscape features that are controlled by your workers, like ending a road or finishing a city wall. It can be played by up to 5 people, but I think it's really great as a two-player game - it allows you to pursue certain strategies a lot more directly without as much luck-of-the-draw variance. It's simpler than other Eurogames like Agricola, but it's got good strategy depth, especially once you start throwing in some of the expansions. I've only played Agricola a couple of times. I enjoyed it, but it is indeed quite complex - there are a LOT of decisions to make each turn!
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DsnowMan

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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2012, 10:44:04 am »
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Start with Carcasonne. My wife is a big fan of that one, and she does not like worker placement games. Stone Age is pretty good with 2.
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Watno

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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2012, 11:56:53 am »
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While carcassonne is a nice game, i wouldn't call it worker placement.
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BadAssMutha

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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #6 on: December 14, 2012, 01:02:17 pm »
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I agree that Carcassonne isn't quite "worker placement" in the same way as something like Agricola. Your "workers" don't create an economy of resources to spend or anything like that. But, they do represent an investment of points that will pay off later. I've also played Troyes, which has a cool mechanic of being able to buy other people's dice if you roll poorly. I enjoyed it a lot, but it's somewhat complex as well. Never played it two player, though.
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Kuildeous

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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2012, 01:57:38 pm »
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I've not played or even seen it, but Tzolk'in really intrigues me. I read the previews earlier this year, and I promised myself I'd keep an eye on this game.

Well, I lied to myself and forgot about it until recently. But, looking at the BGG page, it still seems to have a lot of buzz. I suspect the gears are more of a gimmick. I read someone deny that it's a gimmick, but I'm sure one could do the same thing with different tracking grids. And if a gear should break, I'm sure that's exactly what you'd have to do.

But it looks like a decent game. Now that it's come back to my memory, I'll have to read up on it some more and see if I want to purchase it.
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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2012, 09:55:21 pm »
+1

I've not played or even seen it, but Tzolk'in really intrigues me. I read the previews earlier this year, and I promised myself I'd keep an eye on this game.

Well, I lied to myself and forgot about it until recently. But, looking at the BGG page, it still seems to have a lot of buzz. I suspect the gears are more of a gimmick. I read someone deny that it's a gimmick, but I'm sure one could do the same thing with different tracking grids. And if a gear should break, I'm sure that's exactly what you'd have to do.

But it looks like a decent game. Now that it's come back to my memory, I'll have to read up on it some more and see if I want to purchase it.


Tzolk'in is really good, but it's definitely best with 4, not with 2 (I've played both, but not 3 player). Strictly speaking, the gears aren't needed - you could do everything with tracks, but here's the issue:

With tracks you have to:
Advance every pawn exactly one space, on each of five tracks
Advance the turn track exactly one space
Be very careful not to make mistakes as you perform this bureaucratic step.

With gears you have to:
Turn the gear one tooth.

So yeah the gears themselves aren't strictly *needed* but they're definitely the best way of implementing the games system (at least, that I can think of!)

As for the game itself, it's really good. I've played three very different strategies over three games, and had a lot of fun each time, and not felt anything was too overpowered. It's a game that blends strategy and tactics really nicely - you play with maybe a goal you're working towards e.g. get this wonder which gives me 4VPs per green building and build more green buildings, but each turn you have non-trivial decisions, as every turn your workers automatically advance to (typically) stronger spaces, but you can't do nothing, so do you take these two good actions now, or split them over two turns (bearing in mind you can only place OR remove workers on a turn, not both)? And of course there's lots of ways to do things - do you build more green buildings by using the building/tech gear and pay in resources, or do you go for the high value trading space that lets you pay in (comparatively less) corn? Maybe you should try and get to the building gear's double build space, but ah, then you need to do something else with your other pawns, and food day is coming up.

Well, man, I don't know exactly what writing style I was going for in this post, but if someone you know ever gets Tzolk'in, definitely try and get a game of it in. I'm pretty indifferent to worker placement, but Tzolk'in is awesome.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

Drab Emordnilap

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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2012, 12:04:18 pm »
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Tzolk'in is really good, but it's definitely best with 4, not with 2 (I've played both, but not 3 player). Strictly speaking, the gears aren't needed - you could do everything with tracks, but here's the issue:

With tracks you have to:
Advance every pawn exactly one space, on each of five tracks
Advance the turn track exactly one space
Be very careful not to make mistakes as you perform this bureaucratic step.

With gears you have to:
Turn the gear one tooth.

So yeah the gears themselves aren't strictly *needed* but they're definitely the best way of implementing the games system (at least, that I can think of!)

As for the game itself, it's really good. I've played three very different strategies over three games, and had a lot of fun each time, and not felt anything was too overpowered. It's a game that blends strategy and tactics really nicely - you play with maybe a goal you're working towards e.g. get this wonder which gives me 4VPs per green building and build more green buildings, but each turn you have non-trivial decisions, as every turn your workers automatically advance to (typically) stronger spaces, but you can't do nothing, so do you take these two good actions now, or split them over two turns (bearing in mind you can only place OR remove workers on a turn, not both)? And of course there's lots of ways to do things - do you build more green buildings by using the building/tech gear and pay in resources, or do you go for the high value trading space that lets you pay in (comparatively less) corn? Maybe you should try and get to the building gear's double build space, but ah, then you need to do something else with your other pawns, and food day is coming up.

Well, man, I don't know exactly what writing style I was going for in this post, but if someone you know ever gets Tzolk'in, definitely try and get a game of it in. I'm pretty indifferent to worker placement, but Tzolk'in is awesome.

Can I come to your house and play this game please?
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Re: Two-Player Worker Placement Games?
« Reply #10 on: December 22, 2012, 12:47:59 pm »
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Tzolk'in is really good, but it's definitely best with 4, not with 2 (I've played both, but not 3 player). Strictly speaking, the gears aren't needed - you could do everything with tracks, but here's the issue:

With tracks you have to:
Advance every pawn exactly one space, on each of five tracks
Advance the turn track exactly one space
Be very careful not to make mistakes as you perform this bureaucratic step.

With gears you have to:
Turn the gear one tooth.

So yeah the gears themselves aren't strictly *needed* but they're definitely the best way of implementing the games system (at least, that I can think of!)

As for the game itself, it's really good. I've played three very different strategies over three games, and had a lot of fun each time, and not felt anything was too overpowered. It's a game that blends strategy and tactics really nicely - you play with maybe a goal you're working towards e.g. get this wonder which gives me 4VPs per green building and build more green buildings, but each turn you have non-trivial decisions, as every turn your workers automatically advance to (typically) stronger spaces, but you can't do nothing, so do you take these two good actions now, or split them over two turns (bearing in mind you can only place OR remove workers on a turn, not both)? And of course there's lots of ways to do things - do you build more green buildings by using the building/tech gear and pay in resources, or do you go for the high value trading space that lets you pay in (comparatively less) corn? Maybe you should try and get to the building gear's double build space, but ah, then you need to do something else with your other pawns, and food day is coming up.

Well, man, I don't know exactly what writing style I was going for in this post, but if someone you know ever gets Tzolk'in, definitely try and get a game of it in. I'm pretty indifferent to worker placement, but Tzolk'in is awesome.

Can I come to your house and play this game please?

If you bring a copy, sure.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.
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