Your first board game for two

Buy one game, not a starter set

Three light games arriving together feels efficient and is not. A game needs roughly eight to ten plays before you know whether you actually like it -- before that you are still learning it, and everything is interesting because everything is new.

With three boxes, none of them gets ten plays. You end up with three shallow impressions, no game you know cold, and no real information about what the two of you enjoy. With one box, you get all of that, and the second purchase is dramatically better aimed.

The money argument points the same way. One game you play forty times is better value than three you play twelve times between them.

What to actually look for

• A rules explanation under five minutes. This is the highest-weighted criterion and it is not close. The first explanation is when the other person decides whether this is fun or homework.
• A stated player count of exactly 2. A game built for your situation spent all its design budget on your situation. Jaipur, Patchwork, Lost Cities and Onitama all qualify; plenty of recommended two-player games do not.
• Thirty minutes or less. Long games do not get played on weeknights, and a first game that only comes out at weekends takes months to reach ten plays.
• One core decision that stays hard. Not lots of rules -- one decision you keep getting wrong. Jaipur's sell-now-or-hold is the model example.

The shortlist, in order

Jaipur is the recommendation if you want one answer. Two players exactly, 30 minutes, teaches in five, no direct attacking so it works in any household, and deep enough that people with hundreds of games still keep it.

Lost Cities if you want the smallest footprint and do not mind more luck -- it plays anywhere and gives the weaker player real wins. Patchwork if one of you is unsure about competitive games at all, since nothing bad happens to you because of someone else's choice. Onitama if you both already know you like pure strategy and want something with no luck.

Codenames: Duet is the pick if you would rather cooperate than compete, though note the publisher lists it as 2+ rather than exactly two.

What not to buy first

Not 7 Wonders Duel. It is the best game on this site and the wrong first purchase, because its card symbols are a small visual language and the first game involves a rulebook on the table. Buy it second, after the two of you have decided board games are a thing you do.

Not a campaign game. Those require a run of evenings in sequence and a place to store the game, and the abandonment rate is high even among people who already play a lot.

Not something because it looks impressive on a shelf. Santorini is genuinely beautiful and it is a fine purchase, but table presence should be a tiebreaker rather than a reason.

After ten plays

You will know three things you cannot know now: whether you prefer competing or cooperating, whether luck in a game is a relief or an irritation, and how long a game your evenings actually support.

Those three answers point straight at the second purchase, and they are worth far more than any list. Come back to our hub pages then -- the co-op, head-to-head, date night, beginner and travel sections each answer a different one of those questions.