Board Game mission

[TheNightingalesStarling]

My 14yo had asked for a new board game for Christmas. The criteria...

It has to be hard. The ones we've got are apparently too easy. So aimedxat adults not family games.

Ideally not longer than 90mins to play, by two people.

Not requiring prior knowledge (so not based on tv shows or general knowledge).

The ones we have that she likes but are too easy...

• Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo etc
• Ticket to Ride
• Scotland Yard, Baker Street and similar
• Geography games like Discovering Europe, the London game etc
• Genius Square, Star etc (she can do these with her eyes closed

Any ideas please?

Our favourites are Everdell, Azul, 7 wonders duel, Viticulture

Cosmoctopus - very fun, easy to set up but challenging to win!

Pandemic would be good.

Pandemic is the first to come to mind off that requirement list.

Board game geek is a great resource for seeing game reviews but you might want to have a look at:

-azul
-splendour
-lost cities (card or board game)
-Jaipor
-Cubitos
-seven wonders duel
-quacks of quindelenberg (there’s a duel version too)
-carcasonne

all those work well for 2 players, are quite easy to learn but require quite a lot of strategy to master. So will hopefully scratch the itch.

Fungi is one of go tos for a 2 player game

good for 2 or more
Citadels
Carcassonne
Dominion
Flamecraft

If scrabble is too easy, she's not playing the right people.
That is true for a lot of boardgames, they can be easy or incredibly challenging depending how it is played.
Risk is good for building strategy.
Labyrinth is incredibly easy in concept, but can be infuriatingly hard to win when playing with equals.
Uno is our go to for fun.