Frequently asked questions

7 Wonders Duel. Repos Production publishes it for exactly 2 players at 30 minutes, and its three simultaneous win conditions -- civilian, military and scientific -- mean a losing position on points is never actually lost.

Jaipur. It teaches in about five minutes, is published for exactly 2 players at 30 minutes, and has no direct attacking, so it works in households where confrontational games do not.

Sky Team. It is the only cooperative game we cover whose publisher states a player count of exactly two, it runs 15 minutes, and its no-talking rule structurally stops one player running both turns.

That the game's publisher states a player count of exactly 2, with no rules for a third player. Plays at two means the publisher lists a range beginning at 2, so the game supports more people and scales down.

10 of the 16 games we cover. The full labeled list is on our built-for-two page, with each publisher's stated count linked.

No. Czech Games Edition lists it as 2+ on its own product page. It is designed around two players and is best at two, but the publisher's stated count is a range, so we label it Plays at two rather than rounding it down.

No. It is listed at 4-8+ players with 6 recommended, and its team structure does not reduce to two. Codenames: Duet is the version that works for a pair.

No, and we say so on every page. We read the publishers' own product pages, record their stated specifications, and link the source for every figure so you can check any number yourself.

Our usual source for community ratings was unreachable from our build environment, so rather than print a remembered or estimated score we print none at all, on any game.

Prices render only from a live data feed, and that feed is not yet connected for this site. We would rather show no price than a remembered or stale one, because you would plan around it.

Daily, once the feed is connected, and anything older than 48 hours is removed automatically rather than shown stale. Where a price appears it is stamped with the date it was checked.

Amazon Associates commission on qualifying purchases made through links here, at no extra cost to you. There are no sponsored placements, no paid reviews and no free review copies.

No. Board games sit in a low-commission category and the differences between titles are small, so steering you toward a worse game would be both dishonest and pointless. Every recommendation also carries a stated reason to skip it.

Only if competing with each other is not enjoyable for one of you. If you both like competing, a cooperative game removes the best part. The useful question is which failure mode your household actually has.

A card game with meaningful luck, such as Lost Cities or Jaipur, rather than a handicap. Avoid luck-free abstracts like Hive and Onitama, where the stronger player wins essentially every time.

Hive Pocket is the smallest full board game we cover, at a published 140mm x 140mm x 50mm against 210mm for standard Hive. Love Letter is smaller still as a card game.

Hive Pocket for anywhere unreliable or outdoors, since the tiles need no table and cannot blow away. The Fox in the Forest for a plane tray table, where the shared area is only two cards at a time.

Most of what we recommend runs 15 to 45 minutes per the publishers -- Sky Team and Onitama at 15, Jaipur and Lost Cities at 30, Watergate at 30 to 60. First plays always run longer.

Email us or use the contact form. Specification corrections are answered first, and when we fix a factual error we update the page and change its visible updated date rather than editing silently.

No. This site covers games for exactly two people and nothing else. Solo games, family and children's games and party games are all deliberately out of scope.