The Best 2-Player Board Games for Date Night!
Whether you’re dating, married, or married with kids, Board Games for Date Night is a wonderful way to reunite that passion and playful spirit in your relationship! Let’s face it, sometimes it’s too expensive to go out, or sometimes impossible to find a sitter. Heck sometimes, you are both just too exhausted! This is why my husband and I carve out time every month to have a board game night with just the two of us. We’ve scoured the realms of tabletop gaming to bring you the crème de la crème of duet-friendly games that blend fun, strategy, and just a dash of geekiness. So grab your player two, grab some snacks, and let the gaming begin!
WAIT! Before you go any further, part of game night is setting the ambiance. That means along with some wine and candles, you will want some mood music. Tabletop Audio is a free website that allows you to create free playlists of background music to create the perfect setting! From the sounds of tropical shores to dark castle dungeons, they have it all!
OH! Speaking of candles, if you want to take your game night to the next level, Cantrip Candles offers fantasy-themed fragrances that are designed to add a sense of immersion and ambiance to your board game night! Here are some of the scents they offer. They also have sample kits which is what we ordered. I loved the scent, “The Library Scriptorium”!
Without further ado, here are:
The Best 2-Player Board Games for Date Night!
Santorini
Santorini will always be our first and favorite board game. This was the game we bought on our 3rd date. While the original version is no longer in print, in its sequel, Santorini: New York, you’ll race to build a metropolis and take your place atop the highest building and claim victory! With variable player powers and intricate moves, each game feels fresh and divinely challenging in a feel-good way.
Codenames Duet
This game is PERFECT for board game newbies and pros! In this cooperative word game, you and your partner become top-notch spies working together to identify hidden agents in a grid of codenames. Communicate with each other using one-word clues, but beware of the assassin! It’s a thrilling blend of deduction and teamwork that will test your secret-agent skills and keep you laughing.
Escape the Dark Castle
This is our go-to date night game. As a matter of fact, we play Escape the Dark Castle so much that I created a custom card to announce my pregnancy to my husband. It is easy to learn, fun to play, and lasts around 30 minutes. The creators are also unbelievably kind and good people. When I told them about our pregnancy announcement and to thank them for creating an amazing game, they sent us a huge congratulations box with their latest game: Escape the Dark Sector. While neither game (as of this post) is available on Amazon, you might be able to find it at your local board game store or you can order it right from their website. They also have expansion packs…we bought all of them!
Note: We pair this game with the Escape the Dark Castle Soundtrack on Spotify and the Dungeon Depths Candle from Cantrip. I’m not sponsored by them in any way. I’m just a sucker for total immersion!
Here is the card that I made to announce that after 3 years, our 8th, yes 8th, medicated cycle had finally worked. I slipped the card into the deck beforehand. It was so good that my husband didn’t even realize it was a fake card and thought the developers just had really good timing.
Exit: The Games
I am a sucker for escape rooms. I love being a detective and the thrill when a solution clicks!
EXIT: The Game is a series of escape room games for the home. Players must solve riddles and puzzles and crack codes to escape from an imaginary room or environment. Escape room in a box: Bring the excitement and intensity of an escape room to your living room! Unique themes: Each game has a different setting with clues and puzzles integrated into the storyline. One-time use: Each game can only be played once because you must mark up, fold, and tear the game materials to crack the codes. Word of advice: EVERYTHING in/on the box is fair game.
Note: Each Exit game has a level indicator at the bottom. The Abandoned Cabin is novice-level and a great one to start with!
7 Wonders Duel
My husband and I were both surprised at how much we loved this game! Duel is one of those games that is recommended by everyone in the board game community. Step back in time and construct your civilization in this epic card drafting game. Compete with your opponent to build wonders, recruit military forces, and advance in science, all while trying to outmaneuver each other on the path to victory!
Chronicles of Crime
We bought this game when it was a Kickstarter and it quickly became one of our favorites! They give you an attachment that you use to turn your phone it a VR device. It’s so freaking cool! Chronicles of Crime is an award-winning cooperative game of criminal investigation mixing a board game, an app, and a touch of Virtual Reality. With the same physical components (board, locations, characters, and items), players will be able to play plenty of different scenarios and solve many different crime stories. Unlike me, my husband is not a fan of detective games and he loved this one!
Patchwork
If you walk into a board game store and ask anyone to recommend a 2 player game, there is a 99% chance they will recommend Patchwork. Patchwork will Embrace your inner quilting artist as you compete to create the coziest and most aesthetically pleasing patchwork quilt. As you gather and place Tetris-like pieces, each decision will affect your future moves, leading to a delightful game of strategic choices.
Azul
If you loved Patchwork, you will adore Azul! Dive into the world of Portuguese tile artistry as you compete to create the most stunning mosaic. Strategically collect and place tiles, but beware of waste, as it will cost you valuable points!
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective – The Thames Murders & Other Cases Board Game
Sherlock Holmes is my favorite collaborative game that we have in our cabinet! You and your partner solve mysterious cases by interviewing suspects, searching newspapers and walking the streets for clues. Once you have completed your investigation, compare your detective skills to the master sleuth himself, Sherlock Holmes. The rush you get when all the clues click into place in your brain is exhilarating!
We pair Sherlock with the Victorian London background sounds on Tabletop Audio (Free!). There’s nothing like the sound of horse hooves on cobblestones…
Unstable Unicorns
Build a Unicorn Army. Betray Your Friends. Unicorns are Your Friends Now. Unstable Unicorns is a strategic card game that will destroy your relationship but in a good way. The game was one of Kickstarter’s top 100 most backed projects of all time and won the 2019 People’s Choice Award for Toy of the Year. We both love this one so much that we also bought the sequel: Llamas Unleashed. Even as I type this I can’t help but smile when I think about this game. It is just good fun!
Choose Your Own Adventure House of Danger Board Game
Remember those awesome Choose Your Own Adventure books?? They turned them into board games! This one is on our “play list” so we have yet to crack it open but the second we saw it in the board game store we knew we had to get it! (Did anyone else put their finger on the book page when making a choice so they could come back to it in case they made the wrong decision??)
Here’s the description: “Explore the mansion and unravel its secrets. Cross paths with ghostly figures, navigate a secret lab, and conquer challenges. Think carefully as you choose which paths to investigate. What will YOU choose?”
“Starting with a bottle of water and your trusty pocket knife, you’ll discover clues and new items to aid your investigation and help overcome obstacles that challenge your perception, strength, dexterity, and more as you explore. Clues and items found along the way can be used to boost your chances of winning the challenge.” How awesome does that sound????
Forged Dice Co. Castle Foldable Dice Tray and Dice Tower
You never realize how much you needed a Dice Tower until you finally roll the dice and buy one. It is a GAME CHANGER. No more dice rolling off the table and breaking immersion and ruining the momentum! This is the tower we have and we LOVE it. It is so satisfying to use, plus it folds right up so we can store it in our game cabinet. They also have multiple colors.
There you have it, brave adventurers! These exceptional two-player board games are sure to ignite your competitive spirits and foster unforgettable moments with your partner. So gather your favorite snacks, ready your game table, and let the memory-making begin! Happy gaming!
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