Board game suggestions please

[frostymornings]

To occupy my intelligent, but very fed up with lockdown, 16 year old DS! We've been playing a lot of Scrabble (at around 10pm when he is fully alert!). Looking for suggestions for something to challenge him but not too tricky for his ancient mum
Thanks

Above and Below
Yamatai
Terraforming Mars
Championship of Midgard
Santorini
Clank!
Robinson Crueso
El Dorado
Small World
Near and Far

@CorpusCallosum

If you enjoy co-op games then absolutely play Robinson Crusoe; it's so good! Really; you'll love it.

7 Wonders Duel is a good one for two people

@CorpusCallosum

Oooh, Pandemic (no, really) it's simply one of the best board games ever made. It's cooperative so either everyone wins or the game beats you - so really good for family bonding.

Plus once you've got familiar with base pandemic there are a million extensions / different versions (Iberia / Rising Tide) and Pandemic Legacy has got DH and I through Covid - it's amazing!!

Can you play with 2 people?

You an play Pandemic (and Robinson Crusoe!!) As 2 players games, but there are also single.player variants if you want to play a game alone.

If a game isnt really working out for 2 players then you can almost always find someone on board game sites who has made rules up for a 2 player variant.

Another fan of Pandemic (well, so to speak!), and if card games count. Exploding Kittens and our favourite, Fluxx. We have Monty Python Fluxx and Pirate Fluxx and they’re both tons of fun. Basically a card game with constantly changing goals and rules, but not too hard to pick up, and good for 2 players.

Ticket to ride
Blockus

We love Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne.

Cards Against Humanity is a fun game if you're not prudish but no way would I play it with my teenage kids. Plus you need quite a lot of people.

Cribbage is a great card game for two people. You can buy a cribbage board but it's not essential - you could just keep a count of the score.

@LifesLittleDeciders

Cards against humanity.

If more than just the two of you playing.

I second mastermind.

Catan and Carcassonne as pp have mentioned. Takenonko is my favourite at the moment. Perudo is a good dice game for a group of you (and will work well for socially distanced games in the summer with friends in the garden). An easy card game is Skyjo. I also like cribbage and Blokus which have been suggested.

Takenoko*

Ticket To Ride
Catan
Patchwork
7 Wonders Duel
Pandemic
Dominion
Hogwarts Battle (if you're into Harry Potter)
Quacks of Quedlinberg
Survive
Castle Panic

We enjoy all of these; all work with 2 players. Board Game Geek is a good website for info on board games, reviews etc.

Pandemic and Dixit - really fun

Seconding/thirding suggestions above for
Azul
Splendor
Terraforming Mars
Ticket to Ride (I think the Europe version plays better than the USA version)
Seven Wonders Duel

Also try Qorridor, Pylos, Hive.

A lot of suggestions here are good but won’t work with two. Code names is possible with 4 but needs 6 really, and I wouldn’t play Catan with less than 3.

Look at Jaipur and Kingdomino- both 2 player games and a lot of fun.

@frostymornings because it's co-op you can play with one person or up to 4.

So typically you would choose one character each and play the same number of characters as players. Each character has different 'abilities' - like curing a disease might take 4 cards rather than 5, or the medic gets to treat disease more easily.

Just because of how the game works it's slightly harder with more players, DH and I like to choose 2 characters each and play them as if there were 4 players because it's slightly more fun using the different abilities.

There is actually an app of it on iOS so you could try it that way without a big outlay.

Catan
Forbidden island (a strategic team affair)
Ticket to ride

@AWhisperWillDoIfThatsAllYouCan thanks for the recommendation! I just googled it and it looks right up our street 🙌

PP have recommended Fluxx too which I forgot about. We enjoyed it but after a flurry of super fun games while on holiday it didn't have the longevity of some others - we have Star Fluxx and whoever has The Captain wins 💁🏻‍♀️

DH got us Charterstone Legacy for my birthday 🥳 We've only played one game so far and we enjoyed it but maybe a little simple. Are there any other legacy games people here would recommend?

Rummikub and hive

Wingspan is wonderful and good with 2.
We also play endless games of rummikub.
Agree that lots of these games aren't the best with 2.