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My Favorite 2-Player Board Games to Play with My Son (He's 11 :)
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items Many of these games we started playing together when he was about 8 years old. Most of these are lighter ‘gateway’ games that have brought us closer, given endless moments of joy, and taught him about critical thinking. Instead of playing video games and watching T.V. we will reach for a board game so we can immerse ourselves in another world together and truly enjoy each other's company. This is one of our favorite hobbies to do together!
This game is similar to chess, but much more simple. And nothing to remember haha. It is beautiful and strategic. It takes about 20 - 30 minutes to play and doesn't take up too much room on the table. My son was kicking my butt at this game starting age 8!! Easy to learn, hard to master. #affiliate
Onitama
This game really stands out for us. It's a secret favorite of mine… it's so silly… and it holds so many special memories and moments for my son and I. It's a goofy push your luck dice rolling game about pandas rummaging around in the trash and collecting garbage. Hilarious and oddly strategic. I find it teaches kids to be a little more patient and not too greedy haha. And we have a laugh at the names and pictures of the garbage on the cards. #affiliate
Trash Pandas
We love this game! There are many versions of Ticket to Ride, but I like ‘London’ for us because it's smaller that the other versions, so we can play a game in 20 minutes. This is good for my son's sometimes short attention span! And the names of some landmarks in London are funny. (Picadilly Circus!! my favorite) If you child can focus, they could easily learn this aged 7 and up. Basically, you get a ticket for a particular bus route on the map of London, and you have to ‘claim’ the different parts of the route before your opponent can mess you up. It's really fun! There are a few ways to score points, so even if your plans get ruined, you can still have a chance to win. #affiliate
Ticket to Ride (London)
If you are familiar with set-collection card games like Rummy, this will be easier to learn. My son and I were playing this when he was about 9-10, but younger kids could probably pick this up quite easily I think. We can play a game of SSP in about 30 mins, and it is comfortably strategic and beautiful! All the cards have origami sea creatures on them. So fun! We take this on vacation and out to restaurants all the time! So many people have stopped to ask about this game, and it is on our top 10 list! #affiliate
Sea Salt and Paper
This was one of the first games we started playing together (my son would have been 7-8 years old). It is fully cooperative; you play as a team to gather treasures hidden on an island. The island is sinking away as you play, and you have to complete your task and get to the helicopter TOGETHER before it disappears! We win this game about 50% of the time, so it gives him practice being a gracious loser. It helps that we lose together though :) #affiliate
Forbidden Island
This is a rather simple but strangely engaging game that we still play very often in our house. The cards are all bent up now, and I sometimes know what is in his hand because of the patterns of damage on them hahaha. This is a set collection and push your luck (sort of) game loosely themed around exploration of various terrains. The cards are really beautiful, it is very easy to learn and play, but takes up a bit of space on the table. I find myself wanting to play this over and over again thinking, ‘I can do better next time!’ There is a bit of math in this game, and I like that for my son. It tricks him into thinking about the numbers in a fun way. #affiliate
Lost Cities
What a beautiful game! And a great introduction to trick-taking card games with a twist for people who have maybe tried Euchre and loved it. Basically, trick-taking is like war. One card is played, another card is played, higher card wins. There are just more rules around what makes one card stronger than another. And the twist in this game is that you don't want to do to well because you get docked points if you win all the battles (tricks), or not enough of them. Lots of subtle strategy here! My son and I have moved on to more complex trick-taking games now, but I have a special place in my heart for Fox in the Forest. Lots of great memories of time spent with this game! #affiliate
The Fox in the Forest
I can't even imagine counting how many times my son and I have played this one. This is a fantastic game. You collect this stuff, so you can get some other stuff, so you can get points. Look at what your opponent is collecting to try to mess them up a bit (if you want). Great fun! And there are different ways to score points, so it's really hard sometimes to guess what they are up to. My son always figures me out and ends up winning this. #affiliate
Splendor Duel
I love the theme! Dracula is loose in the city and turning the townspeople to vampires. Van Helsing is trying to catch Dracula. Each player takes a role, and battles it out in the ‘sort-of’ trick taking game. It has a very different mechanism than we are used to and the play was so fun and unique. I love this game, and my son is 50/50 on it, but he loves the theme, so wants to play a lot. He is always Dracula. fitting #affiliate
Dracula vs Van Helsing
This is a great game of cat and mouse! One is the fugitive and one is the detective trying to catch up to the fugitive to toss them in jail. I'm always the detective, and my son loves to outsmart me. He gets such a kick out of it. We just started playing this one, and I don't have a fully fleshed-out understanding of this game yet. I have a feeling it will become a favorite for us!
Fugitive
One of the more complex games we play together, my son and I started playing this last year, and it is awesome! We are two warring factions of a post-apocalyptic land trying to destroy each other's base. Water is the currency, and you collect different characters with different abilities to protect your base and launch attacks. Totally awesome for an 11 year old boy who always wants to play shooting games, this gets him off the screen and into a world he really wants to play in!! This game is about strategy, planning and timing. #affiliate
Radlands
I'm sort of cheating to include this game in this list. This may be one of MY favorite 2 player games… and my son simply tolerates it. He will play this with me when I give him sad eyes haha. It is like playing a complex game of checkers + connect 4. kind of. It is a beautiful abstract strategy game, and the game play is smooth and elegant. A bonus if your kid plays it with you! #affiliate
Yinsh
This is such a beautiful game with happy trees on all the cards! Looks can be deceiving! haha You are simply collecting and laying down tree cards in your arboretum (tree farm? I'm not sure). Try to collect certain kinds of trees to score points, but you will only score points for the trees of a certain kind if you have the highest value card... If your partner has a higher card left, you don't get the points. ouch. I love the 'take-that' feel in this game, and I hold off playing this with my son until he is in the right kind of mood. Because we both play to win, and I don't want any hurt feelings. But when we get this to the table, it is a real thinker! And great fun! #affiliate
Arboretum
We bought this game after trying (and loving!) Forbidden Island. Much the same feel, it is a cooperative game that my son and I absolutely love. We win (or lose) together! You have to quickly run around trying to uncover pieces of your crashed airship before the desert winds cover the pieces in sand. Each ‘character’ you play has different abilities, and you really have to work together to complete the mission, rebuild the ship and get out of there. It sounds more complicated than it is, I promise. My lad and I were playing this when he was 8-9 years old. Get you kid to watch a ‘how to play’ video and teach you! #affiliate
Forbidden Desert
Nothing to read here (for the game)… just some cool colorful tiles and some tile placement rules, and off you go! I taught this game to a 5 year old last year. Easy to learn, hard to get really good at. My son and I own the mini travel version of Quirkle, and I throw it in my purse for trips. The travel version is simply a bag of tiles. Thats it. #affiliate
Qwirkle