Hey guys, and welcome to episode 110 Two by two, a complete
Valentine's game night. It is Valentine's Day, a
Valentine's special, hence the red backdrop behind me.
As always, I remain PJ, and with me today is Kristen Mott.
Kristen, how are you? Hello, I am excellent.
How are you? I'm excited.
I'm excited to talk about this. You're a real sport.
I appreciate you joining me for this conversation.
To contextualize a little bit, we're just going to talk about
some some of our favorite two player games to play on
Valentine's, as well as any games that just play well at two
players there. Yeah, I know you've got quite a
list of games that play more than two, but play really well
at two players and are great for Valentine's Day.
And it's Valentine's Day, so this is great.
Perfect. And then I want to talk about
hopefully, if we've got time, we'll get to it.
I want to talk about the the recent news of some of the new
two player games titles that we can look forward to this year,
which is. Yes, it's certainly a trend that
it seems like the duels and. Duels, the duels, duos and
duets. That's.
Right, so with that in mind, I want to talk about my first
title, my first game for Valentine's that we're going to
play. My wife and I are definitely
going to play this. We play it all the time anyway
but and won the Spiel the Yard this year and that's Sky Team.
Oh, yes, right. That's a good choice.
Oh yeah. Yeah, that is So what I love
about Sky Team is it forces you and your partner, spouse,
significant other to sit next to each other and play a game.
Silently. Silently.
Well, partially right. You can plan first, but once you
roll the dice. That's it, yeah.
I will say however, with my wife, sometimes she gets mad at
me. That's all right.
My husband gets mad at me too. So you go first.
Tell me. Why?
So I roll dice and I either make.
I will tell you when the when the game first came out, it blew
my mind, this concept, I really struggled, right?
I mean, I'm, I've been playing games since the 80s, right?
So I should understand. But I'm like, OK, so I roll the
dice, but I can't tell you. I can't talk to you.
I'm like, So what am I supposed to do?
And I'm trying to do landing gear.
You're trying to do flaps. What what?
I don't what is going on. And inevitably, I'd always play
the wrong die in the wrong order or I put it in the wrong
position at the wrong time. So early on, Katie wanted
nothing to do with this game. She's like what I plan.
But I learned how to play. I was like, I figured it out.
And now it hits our table. We have gone through, for those
of you who haven't played it, there are levels, right?
There's there's airport approaches that are green for
easy, yellow for medium and red for hard.
And I think there's even like black for like ultra hard.
Super difficult. Yeah, we played our first
difficult approach just the other night and we screwed up
once because, you know, the dice.
It happens. It does.
And then we managed. The second time we got it, we
were successful. So it's really interesting.
Katie either is very angry with me or she is in love with me.
There's no it is like hot or cold.
I don't know if you experience the same thing when you play Sky
Team, but. That's very interesting.
So my husband, he would get mad at me because he would play a
die first and then I would have a die that worked with that if
it was one of the communal slots where you had to have a point
from each side. And so I would finish that slot
like, oh, you put the five here, I'm going to put the three
there. And then it worked because in my
mind, I've just completed that objective.
Now we're ready for the next one.
And he's like, no, you have to put one of your die, one of your
dice in another slot. So I know where to put my next
eye. And I can sort of, you know,
puzzle it out. You know, my brain is like, no,
we have to get it done like in order.
And so we lost a few times that way.
And now, now I play his way and and you.
Figured you figured out, yeah. It does work better.
I've heard people complain or not complain.
There's been a lot of joking and jesting and memes about Sky Team
and to be fair they're justified because it's absurd.
It is absurd that a captain and a copilot are like.
Let's see if we can land this way, it'll be fine.
We're not going to talk to each other.
I'm just going to do things or the axis is leaning this way.
That's fine you. Know I'm sure it'll level out.
Yeah, yeah. So it is kind of a it's an
absurd concept, but it's the only way that the game works.
And it's still fun. I mean, as a, as a game concept,
it works and it's it's unique and it's fun.
It's also also an excellent game to play on BGA.
Really. I haven't played at BGA.
I've I've played it with some friends in Europe that I don't
get to play with my very often and it works well.
Not everything works well on BGA.
That's true. But this one's really good.
So Sky team, guys, Sky team. OK.
Landing planes with your spouse since 2022.
It can be fun. We probably.
Hey, it it won the game of the year, right?
That's I think it was the first, the first two player game to
ever win the Spiel, the Yars. I think so, yeah.
Which is huge. It's a.
Pretty big deal. And I think maybe that's part of
the what has sort of paved the way for all of the two player
games that we're seeing coming out now that have been announced
recently because it's like we said before, it's definitely a
trend. I think that all of these games
seem to be getting a two player variant, our standalone game,
not a variant. Oh yeah, definitely.
So what's what is top of your Valentine's Day list for you and
your husband? OK, so one of our all time
favorites is this little card game.
I actually it's the only one I have here with me Stellar from
Renegade. This is, we actually haven't
played it for a while, but it's an awesome two player card game.
It's pretty simple, but very puzzly.
It's, you're putting these cards out into like a telescope board
and then some are going into your notebook.
And there's different ways that you're multiplying those
planets, asteroids, like black holes, all those things, you
know, but the way that the multipliers work is very
interesting. And we've played that one for
several years now. It's, it's really good.
I like it. That's that's cool.
Is it a cooperative like Sky Team or is it?
No. OK and one thing to know about
me, I really don't care for cooperative games much at all.
I will play Sky team, but I, I don't like people telling me
what to do. I like making my own decisions
and so I we, we don't play a lot of cooperative games unless it's
with our kids. I just can't handle it.
I want. To make my own decisions.
You want to make your own decisions and it's OK.
You're the one telling everyone else what to do, right?
But I don't like, I am not. I'm not an alpha gamer.
I don't want to tell anybody else what to do, and I don't
want anybody else to tell me what to do.
I'm going to sit quietly and I'm going to do my puzzle.
I totally get that. And you're going to leave me
alone? I get that.
I think that's why Sky Team is so good is it's it's
cooperative, but with the communication restrictions, you
really, you know, you've got to work it out.
Like not to take away from Stellar.
I'm not playing it. So I have questions with with
Sky Team, you're planning ahead of time.
It's like, oh, we got to go slow.
Be sure to assign your slow numbers to the engines so that
we don't go too fast, right? So you can you can kind of prep
ahead of time which is not table captaining like you just
described. Yeah, and I don't mind the pre
planning phase of that, but in the moment if I'm gonna make a
decision and someone else tells me Oh no, we should we should do
this instead. I just can't.
I can't. I don't like doing that.
We're. Going to have to play some
cooperative games because yeah, we've got.
I will be fair, I will be honest.
I will be fair. I'll be honest.
I was a kind of a terrible table captain.
I was. I was in the day.
Yeah. Katie really kind of tempered
me. And I'm like, you know, I got to
stop. And The thing is, is I got a lot
of friends here in the Springfield area who were new to
gaming, not anymore, but at the time.
And I was like, I want to let them make their own decisions.
Right. Yeah, I'll give you options
about look, you could do ABCD, you could take this action, do
whatever you want. And I'll, I will.
I'm not afraid to let my teammates make a less than
optimal decision, you know, you know, yeah, like it may not be
the best one, but because you want to have that freedom.
And I would do that with you because I want to play more
games with you and I love cooperative games.
So. OK, so tell me more about
Stellar. It's not cooperative, obviously
it's. Not.
Is it 2 player exclusive? Or yes, it's only A2 player
game. OK, And now that I'm trying to
think about it like so you get 2 cards or you're playing 2 cards
on your, it has this really cool system where you each card has a
number and there's actually a display that's numbered and you
play one card into one side of your board.
Either it's the notebook or it's the telescope.
And then based on the number on that card or where you play it,
I can't remember which one, you take from the display and put
that in the opposite space, either the notebook or the
telescope that you just played. And so there's this like
incredible sort of duality going on throughout the whole game.
And it's super crunchy, but the idea is fairly simple.
It's just it's tough to execute well and.
I'm looking it up on Board Game Geek right now.
I'm like, OK, this is cool, OK. Yeah, and it's just cards.
There's nothing else. Nice.
So yeah, so it's got just enough of a table presence that the two
of you could play it for Valentine's Day after the kids
have gone to bed or something. Yeah, and it's not super long, I
mean half hour, which is. Yeah.
Honestly where most of our games have to be at this point.
We have 3 kids so we don't generally get to play till after
bedtime and it's got to be short.
If I can't learn, teach and play the game in like 90 minutes for
all of that, sure it doesn't happen so.
I get that, get that. I wonder if that's why, aside
from Sky Team success, if that's why there's this trend of new
two player games or two player versions of games coming out
this year is. Because they're shorter.
Because I'm thinking the game designers are recognizing the
reality that there's a a whole generation of gamers who have
children and have the time constraints that you just
described. Yeah.
And so that's a reality. Never mind the designers
themselves are gamers who have children and sure, experience
the same thing. So.
Yeah. I think that's it's a trend more
coming from publishers that they're like, well, you know,
they see that this is where sort of the sweet spot with games is
going is into lighter games. And so that's what they want.
So that's what they're asking for.
Yep. Well, I hate to burst your
bubble, but my next title #2 it's another cooperative.
All right, let's hear it. OK, so and you and I talked a
little bit about it right before the recording.
That is Isoparian Guard by Sky Kingdom Games.
Guys, this game is incredible. It is a exclusive 2 player
cooperative open world multi narrative campaign game.
I've talked about it on the show before.
It is just incredible. Also, it's got audio narration
that you can get on forteller.com.
So plug for Forteller. There it is.
It's so good. It is incredible and it's got a
beautiful chips. So you put in your bag to
trigger. You have guard cards, what they
call guard cards, which are like your human abilities.
You slash, you stab you Perry. And then the whole thing is
surrounding the stonebound. There's these mystical stones
that speaking stones. They speak to you through the
narrative. You uncover all this.
There's a darkness over a safar, which is the Kingdom.
And you know, it's very, very DND ish, right?
In terms, in terms of theme, but it's really cool.
Like I said, it's cooperative. So you're just running through
this narrative together and you're either either fighting
together or you're listening to audio narration as the story
progresses, or you're fashioning equipment to better your, your
characters and your characters are linked.
So each campaign, there are 5 campaigns, there's 10
characters, but they're paired together, right?
And even even their miniatures probably shouldn't go off
screen. But so here's the miniatures,
right? Yeah.
So it's. Wow.
So this is basically moves around the map.
So you have Catherine and Yuri. And so the whole campaign is
Catherine and Yuri working together, and it's represented
in the miniature. And I know if anyone's watching
and sees this, no, we did not paint these minis.
I don't know why we haven't painted them.
The beauty is that the miniatures actually come apart
on the base so that you could paint them and then when you're
done, you can put them back on. But it's just just beautiful.
It's this beautiful narrative. Like I said, it's, you know, two
player cooperative. You don't, you know, I mean,
guess you could play it alone, you could play it solo, but you
have to manage both characters, right?
So it's one to two player essentially, right?
If you don't have a partner, you can still play it, enjoy it and
embrace the world. The chips, so you have like
ability chips that trigger the guard and stonebound cards.
They're black, which means they're permanent.
They'll go back into your bag. There's purple chips that will
they can come out, but they do go back into your bag at the end
of each combat. But then there's green, green
ones which are temporary. Once you pull them out, you
trigger their effect. They will not go back into your
bag. And then the red ones are
negative that your enemies can do too.
So it's beautifully designed, beautifully constructed.
The box is too large to fit in a single Cadillacs cube.
That's too much. That's too big.
Each. Each.
Campaign has its own spiral book.
We've been through the 1st campaign, we're in the second
one right now and probably after a few games of Sky Team we will
play Isafarian Guard on Valentine's.
It's going to be great. Nice.
So yeah, that is. Isoparian Guard.
So check it out if you can. It's really, it's cool.
You know, it's, it's, it's not like Bloomhaven or Frost Haven
where you know, you can play it at 2:00, but you need, you need
a three or four or, or if you're in a campaign where someone
can't show up, well, you can't play this week.
Yeah. We can always play this, right?
Yeah. We, we keep it set up on the
table. It's got it's, it's not designed
by Game Trays, but they partnered with Game Trays.
OK. So there's a lot of game trays.
Trays. Game Trays, trays with lids.
So if the cats come downstairs in the basement and you jump on
the table, they're not gonna know.
You know, it's fine. So Isafarian Guard, Sky Kingdom
Games. Check it out.
Yeah. So what's what's your second?
So we recently discovered, let's look at my list here.
So I recently introduced my husband to BGA probably within
the last month. I've only been playing on BGA
for two or three months. And then I finally talked him
into starting it. And now we do that a lot in the
evenings where we'll just like we're going to play this game,
do it on BGA. It's so fast, so easy.
But we discovered Donuts, the two player game.
What tell? Me No.
Tell me about this. It's like you're placing
doughnuts. Somebody is all the, you know,
cake doughnuts, somebody's all the chocolate doughnuts.
You put your doughnut out onto a board and each square that you
can put it on has just a line on it, whether it's diagonal or
vertical, horizontal. And so wherever you place that
doughnut, the next player has to place their doughnut in line
with that line. So if I put one that's on on a
diagonal going this way, now Phil has to put one of his
Donuts on this line diagonal, any space in that line.
And once you, if you are able to place one of your Donuts in the
center, like between two of an opponent's Donuts, then they
flip and to your color. And so you get 5 in a row, you
win. But it I don't know, we love it.
We're a little bit obsessed with it.
It's so thinky and just fast to play on BGA especially.
Sure. So it's it's good.
I like boop. I like that well enough.
But it feels feels different and like thinkier than boop.
OK. I mean, it is different because
that's three in a row you're making turning kittens into cats
and all that. But yeah, we like that one a
lot. We like Donuts.
Donuts, yeah. I don't think it really gets
enough love. I don't know that I have ever
seen anybody talk about it really, but we found it.
Never heard of it until today. So.
It's great, check it out. Donuts.
Yeah.
And that's another two player exclusive.
Yep. OK, because somebody's always
the cake Donuts, somebody's always the chocolate Donuts and.
It sounds like slightly slightly like Othello with the black and
white, the not marbles, but you if you get in between you flip
them over or something like. That that's.
That's great. But it's Donuts.
It's Donuts. Yeah, I love that.
I love that. Oh my God, Donuts.
Oh yeah. That's that is fun.
That's. Cool.
Do you know who published that by any chance?
I don't. I'd have to look it up.
You talk about one and I'll look it up.
OK, I'm going to do that. So my next one, you're going to
like my next one because it's not a cooperative game.
OK, good. And that is Jaipur.
That's a good one. Yes.
So this one, I'm going to put an asterisk by it.
This was before recording. This is what Katie said you
should talk about. I don't like, so I'm going to.
So this is Katie's choice, wife's choice.
She said Jaipur. And I was like, you know,
Jaipur's good. We've been playing that.
There's a whole new version. There's like an updated version.
I we still play the old original version.
I don't really know the difference, but yeah, that's a
really fun 2 player game that I can't seem to win.
Oh, what's up for Katie? Yeah, she manages to.
So it's it's two out of three, right?
Or best 3. Yeah, or you can get those
tokens. Right.
I can always get one of the three.
We usually always go 3 rounds, but she comes out with a win.
I just can't, I can't, I can't win with her.
You know, it's a, it's a beautiful set collection and you
turn them in for chips and, you know, it's a simple game, but
it's really good. I think I focus on the camel
cards a little too much because if you have, if you have the
most camels, you get the bonus five points for the round.
And Oh yeah. But Jaipur, that is my third two
player game for Valentine's Day. Yes.
I didn't even think of that one, but that's good.
But you should be proud of me. It's not cooperative.
Yeah, good job, PJ. What about Donuts?
Did you figure out the? Oh yeah, I found it.
So it was fun Forge. But it's by it's designed by
Bruno Kathala. Oh yeah, it's very good.
His games are so accessible and fun, so yeah, that's cool.
Donuts by Bruno, Yeah. I love it.
This is, yeah.
This is the Bruno we can talk about, right?
We can talk about this Bruno. Yeah.
OK, so how about #3 for you? So #3 this was Phil's
suggestion. Was patchwork very classic?
Good one. Yep, we don't play that one that
often because we usually go for SO in that sort of vein of
games, uve games, we play New York Zoo and Tangram city more
frequently than we play patchwork, but which I they both
play great at two players. So you know.
Yeah, no, their patchwork is good.
And Huey Rosenberg, so amazing designer and polyomino.
Polyomino, right? Polyomino, yeah.
Yeah, and it's the first game on our list for this episode that
has a Valentine's Day version. It does.
It's got a every holiday version.
It does, I mean. Yeah, so we have one of the
early versions of the original and the, the tiles aren't cut
very well. It's, I don't know if it, if
it's a, you know, it's a production error, whatever it
is, whenever you're trying to place them on your quilt mat.
Sometimes they don't fit very well.
Yeah, we, we, we've taken an exacto knife and shaved off to
try to get them to fit. We we debate about getting a new
version because it seems like from everyone we've talked to,
they don't have this problem. And so I don't know.
I don't know. OK.
But it's like, what do you get? There's Halloween, there's
Valentine's, there's Americana, There's yeah.
And I don't know is there a difference?
Like is there any variation in gameplay between those or is it
just strictly? Not from what I it's not.
In my understanding, they're the same, it's just.
OK. Different holiday skins, which
is OK, that's fine. Because we've only ever played
the original. So I don't Yeah.
So patchwork, that's good. That's a good one.
That's a solid, that is a solid two player choice, man, Our
spouses, they really chose well, right?
Of course they did. They make excellent life
decisions. Oh absolutely.
My wife is never wrong, so going to say that right here now.
She's never wrong. I am.
Listen to the podcast Does She? She won't.
She she doesn't listen anymore. It's at some point I lost her.
I don't know when, but she she used to listen and give me notes
as every Good Wife does. And as a good husband, I would
listen. OK.
Yeah, at some point I lost her and it's fine.
That's OK. You know, so I usually ask like,
hey, what do you want to what do you want me to talk about on the
show? You know, and it's usually like,
and I do it and I should know better.
I should know better. This is Valentine's Day.
So we're going to talk about this is like couples therapy
session here. I should ask her several days in
advance rather than 5 minutes before I'm going to go on air
and be like so. What do you think?
Yeah. She's gracious enough to give me
one, and I mentioned her often on the show, but I have a
tendency I know better. But I'm like, I should have
given you more time, but I didn't.
Yeah. So I'll probably always.
Have good ideas? They do, and I will probably.
I will probably learn my lesson in another We've been married 15
years, so another 15 years I will probably have finally
figured. Figured it out OK.
So I want to mention another one and this is maybe it's a good
segue into the the two player versions 7 Wonders Duel.
It's a classic. I know it's a little cliche.
It's still on everybody's top two player game.
It seems to be, you know, it's a it is.
It is definitely better than its larger multiplayer counterpart.
I enjoy it more, yeah. Right.
And we find that's true of a lot of two player games. 7 Wonders
Dual we have talked about on the show a lot.
I'm not going to say a whole lot about it, but it's a classic and
we want to mention it. But recently Lord of the Rings
Dual, which uses the Seven Wonders engine, we played it at
Geek Way Mini just about a month ago and it was fine.
It was similar enough. Neither one of us, Katie and I
are not big Lord of the Rings fans, so I don't I don't.
The theme did not grab me. And because we already own 7
Wonders Duel with all the expansions, we were like, well,
OK, we you know, but to not reskin but use the Seven Wonders
Dual machine or engine or module and do a Lord of the Rings
version. It's different enough.
Lord of the Rings Dual is just different enough.
But Seven Wonders Dual is definitely we will play on
Valentine's Day for sure. Yeah, we'll, we'll definitely do
that. Do that.
So should we talk about the two player versions for me?
Do we want to? Do you think we should talk
about that for a few minutes? Sure.
Yeah. You mean just all of the
announcements and things that have come out recently?
Yeah. So there's there's one that just
came out and there's two that were recently announced, right.
OK. So I figured we'd start with
Evidel. Duo, right?
The duo, right? Two player version.
Yeah, two player version of its big sister Everdale.
But just what this week? I think it was this week.
Today. Even one of them, right?
I think it was today. So I think or maybe last week.
White Castle duel. Oh, I did see that one, yeah.
By Devere Games, I think that was released last week, but then
today, I don't know if it was today, but I saw it today for
the first that's Flame Craft dual.
I saw that one too, right? Right.
Is there another one? I feel like this one I'm missing
that just was. Was announced, but that one I
think is actually almost out right.
Maybe it is out. And then there was a King of
Tokyo Dual. King of Tokyo just came out as
well, yeah. And yeah, Everdale and yeah,
King of Tokyo, I remember seeing that one.
And but I think that Splendor Duel was kind of one of the
first ones that I remember seeing them make an actual and
I'm sure there have been others before that, but that's the
first one that I remember as like interesting that they're
taking a full two to four player game, pairing it down, changing
it, whatever to make it a better two player experience.
And I've see a lot of people actually prefer Splendor Duel to
the big game. I haven't, not one of them.
Are you not? I haven't played it so I don't
know, but I like Splendor well enough, but I would be
interested to see how they changed.
You are absolutely right. Everyone seems to prefer
Splendor Duel over Splendor. I agree that that is correct for
for Katie and I, we sold Splendor Duel.
OK. To keep splendor, it's the one
off. So 7 wonders Duel is better than
its big sister. 7 Wonders Imatep Duel is so much better than its
counterpart Imatep. And if people feel that way
about Splendor, of course we'll see.
Everdel Duo looks like it's better King of Tokyo.
I've heard mixed reviews. I'm interested to see how that
one changed too. I haven't really read anything
about it, but. Our friends across the pond,
Craig and Becky from get into Games.
They they said that King of Tokyo is great and that the dual
version is not as it doesn't do anything new.
OK. And if you like King of Tokyo,
then just keep your King of Tokyo.
If you like King of Tokyo but you don't own King of Tokyo, get
the two player version. So it's kind of a mixed bag.
Just recently Isle of Cats duel. Well, that's right, yeah.
Which it's better than. Really, you have to teach me all
of these games, PJ, all of these two player games, because I do
that. I will happily do that.
I just haven't. Isle of Cats duel blew us away.
We played it. We were like, OK, no Isle of
Cats is a solid game. Plays well at 2 all the way to
at 5 right? It's it's amazing, but the dual
version is so it's so tight. The action economy, everything
is just perfect. Tokaido Duo is better, better
than the big version. We sold Tokaido and kept the
Duo. And I don't know anyone who
disagrees with that. Maybe they don't want me to.
They won't. They don't want.
To they won't tell you that they disagree.
Well, no, tell me, Tell me, you know, But yeah, dude, that's
another one. So these two player games just
keep coming out. Yeah, and seem to be better.
White Castle Duel, I'm going to tell you right now, surprised
me. That is a that's a solid game.
It's a solid title that just came out by Devere Games just,
what, a year? Two years ago, Yeah.
Hasn't been out long. We have a Cadillacs cube, a
completely devoted to devere games because we have so many of
them, right? And they fit well in the cube.
And I'm like, do they need a two player version?
I'm going to buy it. So yeah, flame craft is a huge.
My wife loves flame craft. We recently picked up the
upgraded wooden bits for all the food and resources.
Now there's a dual version. You got to try that one too.
We're going to get that one. Too, we will probably end up
with the Azul 2 player because we love all of the Azul games.
That was actually on my list of games to talk about that play
well at two players. Like it goes up to four but it
plays perfect at 2:00. What do you think?
What do you think for you, for you and and your husband?
What's the appeal of Azul right? They so like we will play them
sporadically and we always choose a different one.
We have all four of them and we choose a different one because
they all are unique in their own way and they feel unique, but
they also feel familiar in the way that you're drafting and the
way that you're placing, even though there's so many different
ways that you're paying for the tiles or you're not paying for
the tiles and the way that they're going and you're bored.
But there's sort of this universal appeal to us that
it's, it's different every time. It's a great puzzle.
They play in 30 minutes for the most part.
And you know, we can play it with his parents.
We can play them, especially the original.
We can play with just about anybody, but it's still a great
puzzle for us too, every time. So what do you, what do you,
what's your take on the all the different versions, right, You
said you have them all. I.
See. Are they necessary?
Probably not, but to me they are different enough that I like to,
I like to analyze them, especially as a game designer,
and I like to just see how different things are working in
different versions of the game. Like the original game, you are
paying to put your tiles there, but it's different than the way
that you're paying for your tiles with Queen's Garden, which
is my favorite. I love that one.
OK, so I don't know. It's just that puzzle that I I
love because it's different for every version but feels the
same. I feel like I'm repeating
myself, but it's that's what appeals to me, right?
And you, I think you said this, it plays really well, two
players. Yeah, it scales very well.
Do you think it needs a dual? Do I think it needs it?
Yeah. I mean, probably not.
But I love Michael Keasling's games, so I am just whatever he
wants to come up with, I want to play it because.
OK. I don't know.
They feel so mathematically based that I just, I don't know.
They blow me away every time I play them and we recently played
Paris. I don't know if you've played
that one. It's big, huge.
It's got the monument in the middle with the keys and.
The the triumph. Yeah.
And it, it was awesome. Burned a hole in my brain, but
it was great. And as I was playing that game,
I just kept thinking over and over like how all of his games
feel so based in mathematics. And I know that's sort of that's
true for every game. Yeah, but some more than others,
I think. But it just everything feels so
tight and it's just, I don't know, OK, you know, it kind of
blows my mind when I play some of his games.
So I'm interested, I think, all that to say, I'm interested to
see what he would do with A2 player only game.
What about the Azul mini? Do you have that?
Oh, like a travel version? Yeah, it's a travel version.
And. It's poor.
So it's unique in that you've got a plastic grid is your
player mat, so the tiles fit neatly.
So if you knock them around, they don't.
Yeah. We really like that too.
And we're like, do we need a dual version?
But. But does that one does it plays
exactly the same, right? It does, yeah.
It's two to four players and we're probably going to get the
dual version as well. Good for you.
Take my money, take my money. So I know that you've got a
fairly long list. What else did you want to talk
about that are great games for couples to play on Valentine's?
OK, so Wingspan was also on my list, but that one, we play that
one a lot too. And I think it plays great at
two players. But we also own Wingspan Asia,
which is the two player only stand alone game and we've only
played that a handful of times. And it adds this really
interesting. Have you played it where you are
putting those your black and white tokens onto the board
based on what you've just played right.
And I don't know that it was needed, but it's kind of a cool
variation on Wingspan. But we generally will just play
the original base game rather than getting out the the stand
alone the Asian version but. Thank God.
For exists. Yeah, thank God for the nesting
box that we could do that, because if we wanted to play
like before the nesting box, we were just like, here are the
cards we're going to play Wingspan, you know?
So now if you want to play just the bass, it's all sorted out
and we can get the necessary cards.
I think the my one criticism of Wingspan is just the sheer
volume of cards. Of stuff, yeah.
Yeah, I get it. There's a lot of birds, you
know. So have you upgraded your cubes
to wooden birds? Yes, but I don't do that for
very many games. But games that we play over and
over, I have, yeah. We, so I've got the, I got the
Pelican because that's the state bird of Louisiana.
And and then we got the cardinal obviously, because in the
Midwest it's common. We've got a friend who loves
purple. So we found a purple bird
because we want, because I think The thing is, if you're going to
upgrade, upgrade it for everyone because it's really terrible.
If you have friends over, you bring out Wingspan, you're going
to teach it to here. You get the little wooden cubes,
I get the big fancy bird. Yeah.
You have to have enough for everybody.
You really do, You really do. But Wingspan, See, I would not
have thought about that. Wow, it plays well at 2.
That's not that's not one I would have thought about.
But then of course I got big Isafarian guard for.
About yeah, right. So that on my list come.
On exactly what else do you have on your list?
So one that we also enjoy at two players is Mist Wind actually.
So that's a new one that just came out this year and it's a
big pick up and deliver game with the whales that are, you
know, floating in the islands and they're delivering different
things. It's great.
And so I one thing that I don't like in bigger games when when
it requires an AI player that you have to deal with at two
players, I do not like that. There's a couple games we've
played the fox experiment was one.
I really liked that game a lot, but it was so much upkeep with
the third AI player that we only played it once because we don't
we don't have three players to play with very often.
So we just haven't gotten it back out anyway.
So Miss Wind, you do have to do that, but it's so easy to
operate good flipping over tokens and we can play, you
know, whole board, it's just us, but then you're flipping over
these tokens for the AI players, it's so easy.
All they're doing is blocking different spaces.
It is, it's great. It's a big pick up and deliver
game. So yeah, that would be.
Yeah, that that third player, third ghost player, really kind
of ruins an experience for Katie and I.
Yeah, it can. If I know ahead of time that it
has that. I generally won't buy a game.
But I didn't read about it with the Fox experiment, especially
until I cut it out to play and I was like, Oh no, we have so much
to keep up with. Yeah, because that's, that's a
problem I noticed a lot of publishers, they will print on
their box 2 to four, two to five, two to six.
But it's really not two. It's 2 + a ghost third.
Yeah. That's not the same as a two
player, you know. I don't want to spend my turn
like my. I don't want to spend my brain
power keeping up with something else.
Yes, yeah. But I also understand as a
designer why sometimes those things have to be in there.
So it's not anybody's fault, I guess.
It's just that's how it is. But it can be a.
Deterrent. It is very true.
We played Arc Nova the other day.
That plays really well at two players.
It does, yeah. I would not be surprised if
there were not a Duo version of that to come out right.
May not be necessary, but I wouldn't be surprised if it came
out right. But I think, I think you could
streamline it. I think you could tighten it for
two players. I don't know what that would
look like. That's why I'm not at the game
designer. Yeah, I'm.
Just a podcaster who talks about all the games y'all make.
That's what I do. Well, you're very good at what
you do. Well, thank you.
Thank you so much. You know what, you're not so bad
yourself. Some of your games are pretty.
Your games are pretty fun. You know what, Speaking of your
games, I'm going to tell you one that plays at two players really
well and hits our table all the time is Dinosaur Exhibit.
Really. You guys still played it?
Oh. Gosh yes guys, if y'all have not
y'all need to find a copy of Dinosaur exhibit.
It is an amazing rolling right? That is just I don't know what
to say. It's just really good and plays
well at 2:00. Thank you.
We kind of fudge it and play it at a higher player count than
you intended it to be. Oh yeah.
Yeah, because everyone loves that game and our friends who
have kids love that game. So yeah, so there we go.
We're going to plug Kristen's game a little bit there.
That's right. At the end, well.
Yeah, well, we originally bonded over that game.
Like that's How I Met you for the first time in person.
It's. True.
It is. It is very true.
I think at one point, like I, I had, I had five copies in my
possession, right, Right. I think so, yeah.
So we bought a copy, I think, actually, I think when it came
out, we bought 2 copies because we knew we wanted to give it
away as a gift. And then we gave another copy to
another friend and then we met you.
You gave us a copy to give to, like, our boss who's got six
kids. That's right.
Yeah. They loved it, right?
Oh yeah. Because they took pictures.
And so I. Took that the other day I was
going through my files and I found that picture of them and
the thank you note and it was so sweet.
And while it's multiplayer, that is a great two player game and
quick and quick. So it's scale, scales, scales
really well. Yeah.
So, Kristen, thank you so much for joining me for episode 110
and celebrating Valentine's Day. I hope that you and Phil have an
amazing day to gather and that the kids, the kids are quiet so
you can play games. And I know that's a time
constraint, but, yeah. But thanks.
You want us again? Happy Valentine's Day everyone.
Do not forget to like and subscribe to the channel.
Please leave comments, I'd love to hear them.
We're going to keep going. This is the plan while gas out
right now. I'm just going to have people
filling in and we're going to continue to unite players around
the world. Thanks again guys.