This weekend a few of my friends and I got together for a two day blowout where we did pretty much nothing but eat, drink and play board games.
As is always the case when this particular group gets together, we had a blast. There was too much food, probably too much alcohol and absolutely too many board games crammed into too little time.
In other words, a pretty damn good weekend.
Of course, we are here to talk about the games.
The cool thing about this particular weekend was that we played almost exclusively new stuff. Games that, for one reason or another, had been sitting on our collective radar but had never actually made it to the table.
So this list is effectively a collection of first impressions. Some good, some bad and, as you will soon discover, some that landed squarely in the great kingdom of “it was fine.”
Here we go!
Star Wars Outer Rim
We kicked things off with Star Wars Outer Rim, a 2019 Fantasy Flight Games release that has picked up some notable accolades over the years, including a Golden Geek nomination for Best Thematic Board Game.
This one has been on my must try list for quite a while, so when it finally hit the table I was genuinely excited to give it a go.
In Outer Rim, each player takes on the role of one of the many rogues, scoundrels and bounty hunters floating around the Star Wars universe. You have characters like Boba Fett, Han Solo and, naturally, one of my all time favorite smugglers, Lando Calrissian, who I immediately snatched up.
Nobody else was getting Lando.
The game itself is a competitive adventure game in which you travel around the Outer Rim delivering cargo, hunting down bounties, taking jobs and trying to avoid, or occasionally confront, patrols belonging to the various major factions. All of this earns you fame, which is effectively the game’s victory point system. Get enough fame before everyone else and you win.
Pretty straightforward stuff.
The production, as you might expect from Fantasy Flight Games, is completely over the top. There are cards everywhere, piles of tokens, character sheets, ships, markers and enough gorgeous Star Wars artwork to wallpaper a small apartment.
Fantasy Flight Games never disappoints when it comes to production values, all of their games look amazing on the table and Outer Rim is no exception.
Visually, the game absolutely delivers.
The gameplay itself is a little harder to pin down.
I would describe it as unique and interesting, but not particularly groundbreaking or deep. In fact, underneath all of the cards, tokens, characters, abilities, and various moving parts is actually a fairly simple game.
It is simple in that wonderfully overcooked Fantasy Flight Games sort of way.
There is a lot going on, but that does not necessarily mean there is a lot going on.
Outer Rim is clearly designed primarily as an entertainment experience rather than some deep strategic puzzle, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. There are plenty of decisions to make and certainly opportunities to play well, but at least in our game, luck played a pretty significant role in determining how things ultimately shook out.
I won, for example, and while I would love to sit here and explain how my brilliant tactical mind and mastery of intergalactic smuggling carried me to victory, the reality is that Lando caught some very fortunate breaks.
Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.
The game was also a bit too long for what it was. Again, this is something I have come to expect from Fantasy Flight Games. Outer Rim has enough going on to keep you entertained, but not quite enough going on to justify how long it takes to reach the finish line.
That said, I had fun.
I would certainly play it again and I think there are still plenty of characters, ships, jobs and strategies I would be curious to explore. I do suspect, however, that Outer Rim has a relatively short shelf life. This does not strike me as the sort of game you are going to pull out twenty or thirty times and continue discovering new layers.
It’s a fun Star Wars adventure game with great production values, plenty of theme and enough randomness to produce some memorable moments.
It was entertaining. It looked fantastic. I won.
It was… fine.
World Order
Definitely the highlight of the weekend and, judging by the reaction around the table, I suspect not just for me.
World Order comes from the same team that gave us the absolutely fantastic Hegemony, so expectations were pretty damn high going into this one. It did not disappoint.
In fact, I would argue that it exceeded my expectations in just about every way.
In World Order, each player takes control of one of the major powers of our modern world, China, Russia, the United States or the European Union, and then proceeds to do what major powers do best. Compete for influence, manipulate everyone around them and generally make the world a worse place in the name of national interest.
You know, geopolitics.
Mechanically, World Order is effectively a card driven deck builder, but describing it that way really undersells what is going on here. Deck building is the engine that makes the machine run, but wrapped around it is resource management, area control, economic competition, political maneuvering and a mountain of player interaction.
Like Hegemony, World Order blew the doors off almost immediately. Just from the rules explaination, I already knew I was going to love this game. It was everything I hoped it would be and more!
This game is a well of asymmetrical strengths and weaknesses, clever plays and wonderfully vicious gotcha moments.
Like Hegemony, however, the real magic is how perfectly the mechanics capture the theme.
You genuinely feel like you are engaged in this constant geopolitical tug of war where everything you do affects someone else. Every action feels meaningful, every play creates an opportunity for someone to respond and every mistake feels like an opening your opponents can exploit.
It doesn’t take long before this turns into a competitive grudge match.
Exactly as it should.
There are also so many clever little ways World Order tweaks familiar deck-building concepts to fit the game. One of my favorites is incredibly simple. When you purchase a new card, rather than putting it into your discard pile as you would in the overwhelming majority of deck builders, you put it directly on top of your deck.
That sounds like a tiny change. It isn’t.
It means that every card you purchase is effectively a card you are buying for your next turn, essentially planning your next move. You are not just improving your deck at some vague point in the future. You are making a strategic decision about what you are going to be able to do next.
This becomes even more important because World Order is an incredibly tight game. You play six rounds and, in each round, you play just four cards. Do the math.
You effectively get 24 actions in the entire game.
That is not a lot of time to establish global economic and political dominance.
Worse yet, there are only two scoring rounds, which means timing is absolutely everything. You can’t simply build some magnificent engine and assume that eventually it will pay off. Eventually may be too late. You need the right cards, in the right place, at the right moment and you need to understand exactly what everyone else is trying to accomplish while you are doing it.
That creates an enormous amount of tension from surprisingly few actions.
The production also deserves some praise, not because it is extravagant, but because it is incredibly clean. Almost everything you need to understand the current state of the game is right there on the board. Who controls what, where influence is building, where the money is flowing and where the next fight is likely to break out is all immediately visible.
The only truly hidden information is the cards in your opponents’ hands and even that mystery only goes so far.
World Order is a highly deterministic game. Luck exists, naturally, but this is very clearly a game that rewards good planning, good timing and, perhaps most importantly, understanding what the other players at the table are trying to do.
I absolutely loved it. There are games you play once and think, “Yeah, that was pretty good.”
Then there are games where you finish and immediately start thinking about what you would do differently next time.
World Order was very much the latter.
Without question, one of the best games I have played all year.
Meeples and Monsters
Released in 2022, Meeples and Monsters seems to have fallen between the cracks of the board gaming world, which is a little surprising given the caliber of its designer, Ole Steiness.
This is the same guy who gave us sleeper hits like Champions of Midgard, Altay: Dawn of Civilization, another really clever game that seems to have largely fallen through the cracks, and the visually stunning Deep Rock Galactic.
That said, after playing Meeples and Monsters, I kind of get it.
There is quite a bit of Lords of Waterdeep DNA here, but Meeples and Monsters is a considerably simpler worker placement game, lighter and executed with far less flair.
In Meeples and Monsters, you collect and upgrade heroes, whose various strengths and abilities you use to fight monsters and score points. As the game progresses, increasingly powerful monsters appear, eventually leading to final showdowns with end-game bosses. Manage your little army of wooden heroes better than everyone else and, presumably, you walk away with the most points and win the game.
The theme is actually quite fun, built around the gag that your heroes are literally wooden meeples. It is colorful, bright, very easy to learn and there is something inherently satisfying about upgrading your little wooden adventurers and sending them off to murder monsters.
The problem is that there really isn’t a tremendous amount to think about.
Unlike Lords of Waterdeep, where you are constantly weighing different options and trying to figure out how to squeeze the most out of each turn with a fair amount of player interaction, Meeples and Monsters has a tendency to present you with several options where one is very obviously better than the others.
Here are the things I can do. That one is clearly the best. So I do that.
Next.
Upgrading and finding interesting combo’s for your heroes is probably where the game was most interesting; there were certainly many ways to go, but really the game was kind of one-dimensional. If you played it once, you have seen everything your going to see.
The fact that it’s a worker placement game where after you place your workers down you remove them, means that blocking actions isn’t a thing, so there is considerably less interactions if any at all between players.
That is really the issue with the game. It is not that there are no decisions to make, it is that too often the game effectively makes the decision for you and it really doesn’t have much impact on the other players.
The main gimmick is that the heroes you have available for this worker placement game are drawn randomly from your bag. Part of the strategy is building the contents of that bag so that the heroes you draw work together and support whatever strategy you are pursuing.
In theory, that should create an interesting puzzle.
In practice, I think there is just a little too much luck involved in what actually comes out of the bag.
As a result, much of the game felt less like I was deciding what to do and more like I was drawing meeples from a bag to discover what the obvious best move was going to be that turn.
Draw your meeples. Look at the board. Spot the obvious move. Execute it.
Occasionally you might have two choices that are equally appealing and you actually have to stop and think about what you want to do, but those moments were the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time the game felt strangely scripted, despite the fact that the script itself was being randomly generated by whatever came out of your bag.
That is not necessarily terrible. There is something pleasant about the whole experience. You are upgrading heroes, killing monsters, getting stronger and watching increasingly ridiculous creatures appear on the board. The game moves along nicely and there is enough going on to keep everyone engaged.
It just never really challenged me.
Meeples and Monsters was fine, but I can understand why it disappeared under the radar despite having a recognizable designer behind it. This is certainly not Ole Steiness at his best.
I do think there is an audience for it, however.
If you have younger kids who are ready to move beyond basic family games and into proper hobby board games, I could actually see Meeples and Monsters being a pretty great step up. The colorful presentation, fun theme, straightforward decisions and constant sense of progression would probably go a long way with that audience.
For my group? It was fine.
Cascadia: Landmarks
Cascadia was the only game in our lineup that I had actually played before, but this time we added the Landmarks expansion and bumped the game up to five players.
Cascadia is, by just about any reasonable measure, one of the premier board games of 2021. It’s sitting pretty in the 61st spot on the 100 games of all time on BoardGameGeek list as of this writing and has collected awards from just about every place you can collect an award from.
At this point, I think it is fair to call Cascadia a modern classic.
I’m a pretty late bloomer here. I only played it for the first time this year and, apparently, I am considerably less impressed with it than the rest of the board gaming world.
Don’t get me wrong. I think Cascadia is a very clever puzzle game. There are plenty of interesting decisions, it moves at a brisk pace and there is something genuinely satisfying about watching this little ecosystem slowly come together in front of you.
When you pull off exactly what you were trying to do, it feels great.
For me, though, the whole experience is just a bit too benign.
We are all sitting around the same table, supposedly playing a board game together, but really everyone is off in their own little corner playing their own private game of Cascadia. The entire scope of player interaction basically boils down to someone taking the tile or animal you wanted.
You bastard. Then you move on with your life.
It reminds me quite a bit of Wingspan, which falls into a similar category for me. Everyone is technically playing the same game together, but most of the time we could probably erect little privacy screens around our play areas and it wouldn’t dramatically change the experience.
I’m just not a huge fan of games like that.
That said, I completely understand why so many people are.
In Cascadia, the basic premise is that you are placing habitat tiles and populating them with wildlife, trying to arrange everything into particular patterns that score points. Each turn you select a habitat tile and an animal token and add them to the growing puzzle in front of you.
At the end of the game, whoever has done the best job putting all of this together scores the most points and wins.
What keeps the puzzle fresh is that the wildlife scoring conditions change from game to game. You randomly select scoring cards that determine what arrangements of bears, salmon, elk, hawks and foxes you are actually trying to create.
It is simple, elegant and very easy to understand.
The Landmarks expansion adds another layer to that puzzle by rewarding you for building sufficiently large connected habitats. Put together enough of a particular terrain type and you can place a landmark, which gives you access to additional scoring opportunities unique to you.
It is certainly interesting and gives you one more thing to consider while constructing your little wilderness.
I’m just not convinced Cascadia needed it.
The additional ways to score points in the Landmarks expansion is a kind of benign way to approach extra scoring. You sort of did whatever you were going to do anyway for your main scoring and then grabbed things when the opportunity presented itself. I’m sure more advanced players will find better ways to use this expansion, but for me that approach worked fine.
For me, one of the game’s greatest strengths is how clean the original puzzle is. Landmarks adds another decision point and another scoring consideration, but I’m not sure it actually makes the game better. It makes it more complicated, certainly, but those are not the same thing.
I suspect this expansion makes considerably more sense for people who play Cascadia all the time. If you have played the base game twenty or thirty times and know its puzzle inside and out, adding another layer probably gives you exactly the sort of additional complexity and variety you are looking for.
For someone like me, who is going to pull Cascadia out once in a long while, I think I would rather just play the base game.
Ultimately, I walked away with pretty much the same impression I had the first time.
Cascadia is clever, polished, easy to teach and beautifully paced. I completely understand why people love it and I certainly wouldn’t object to playing it again.
It’s simply not the kind of board game that gets me excited. I liked it. It was…
You guessed it.
Fine.
Hamlet: The Village Building Game
The last game on my list is Hamlet: The Village Building Game, which is a clever little puzzly game about, as it says right there on the tin, building a village.
Who says board game names need to be complicated?
This very colorful and incredibly busy game has players collectively constructing a village out of awkwardly shaped tiles, connecting buildings with roads and creating a network through which resources can be transported.
The ultimate goal is to use those resources to construct the central building of the Hamlet, the church. Once completed, your humble little Hamlet officially becomes a Village and the game ends.
Apparently all that separates a Hamlet from a Village is a church. Who knew?
Along the way, everyone scores points for their participation in this increasingly chaotic group construction project, with each player trying to make sure that their contribution to civic development is considerably more valuable than everyone else’s.
Of all the games we played this weekend, I think Hamlet was the only one besides World Order that really got my attention.
There was something going on here.
The village is technically a shared construction project, but everyone is naturally trying to shape that village to benefit themselves. You want roads going where you need them to go, resources available where you can reach them and buildings entering play that support whatever little economic empire you are trying to construct.
The village tiles are oddly shaped; there was no real symmetry to how the village comes together, which creates a lot of weirdness when trying to put different buildings into play. At first I saw this as a drawback, but the result was actually kind of interesting because you really couldn’t make a definitive plan on where you are going to put stuff. You sort of shoved it in where you could.
That creates some surprisingly interesting interaction because when you add something to the village, you are not simply improving your own position. You are changing the board for everyone.
Sometimes that means helping yourself. Sometimes it means accidentally helping someone else.
Sometimes it means putting something somewhere specifically because you know it is going to be a pain in the ass for one of your opponents.
Now we’re playing a board game. There were also clearly layers here that a single play did not fully reveal.
Certain buildings, for example, do not produce resources at all but can score you a considerable number of points. Building them, however, means making sure you can actually get the required resources to the right place. That requires planning your routes, understanding what resources are available and making sure you don’t stretch yourself too thin trying to accomplish everything at once.
There is a surprisingly delicate balance to all of this.
You need to pay close attention to which buildings are available, where resources are being produced and how the growing network of roads connects everything together. It is very easy to get ambitious, overextend yourself and suddenly discover that what looked like a brilliant plan two turns ago now requires you to spend several turns recovering while everyone else happily gets on with scoring points.
I did that. More than once.
That is probably what I liked most about Hamlet. When I made a mistake, it generally felt like my mistake. I could look back at what I had done and see where I had overextended, failed to plan properly or misunderstood how the village was developing.
That immediately makes me want to play again.
I also suspect there is considerably more strategy hiding underneath the colorful presentation than we uncovered during our first game. I came away thinking about different approaches I could take, different ways I could manipulate the village layout and, most importantly, things I would do differently the next time it hits the table.
That is usually a pretty good sign. I liked Hamlet.
It was clever, interactive, pretty to look at and had enough going on beneath the surface that I genuinely want another crack at it.
So after an entire weekend filled with games that were mostly some variation of fine, Hamlet managed to climb a few notches above that.
Not World Order good. But definitely better than fine.
Conclusion
This was a really fun-filled weekend; the truth is that even when games aren’t blowing your mind, it’s hard not to have a good time surrounded by friends.
I will say, however, World Order was the unquestionable king of the hill this weekend. It was a robust, clever, and deeply interactive game that really triggered an unquenchable urge to get it back to the table as soon as possible!
Søren is a guest writer here at Gamersdungeon, and we are thrilled to have him. It’s been a well-established goal that I have wanted to achieve to have more voices speaking through the Gamersdungeon platform, so big thanks, Søren, for your contribution. You’re always welcome! – Gamersdungeon
The best licensed games do not merely put familiar names on cards and miniatures. They ask a harder question: what should this universe force the player to do?
Star Wars is unusually easy to decorate a game with. Put Darth Vader on the box, scatter a few TIE fighters across the table, add a Wilhelm scream at a suitable moment and the licence is immediately doing visible work. The harder part begins when the box is open. A game can look exactly like Star Wars and still behave like something that could have been about medieval merchants, colonial railways or highly competitive turnip farmers. Theme is cheap when it only changes the nouns. The interesting licensed games are the ones where the verbs change too.
That is one reason Trials of Maya is such a useful recent example of the broader problem. A MOBA-inspired tabletop game cannot simply borrow colourful heroes and lanes as scenery; it has to translate a genre built around unique abilities, pressure, positioning and team roles into decisions that survive contact with cardboard. Star Wars tabletop design faces the same test. The galaxy already arrives with forty-nine years of expectations attached. The rules either turn those expectations into pressure, or they leave them sitting politely in the artwork.
The most interesting Star Wars games usually choose the former. Star Wars: Rebellion makes the Empire and the Rebel Alliance feel different before anybody quotes a film. Outer Rim turns the scoundrel fantasy into an economy of fame, jobs and people who are angry with you. Armada makes commanding a capital ship feel like issuing an order to something too large to change its mind quickly. The Clone Wars takes the relentless spread of a galactic conflict and turns it into cooperative triage. And, now, Zero Company shows that the same philosophy works when the table becomes a screen.
Rebellion: asymmetry does the storytelling
Rebellion works because its two sides are not simply different colours with slightly different unit values. The Empire has ships, troops, production and enough plastic to make the table look as though somebody has emptied a military warehouse onto it. The Rebels have a secret. Their base is hidden, the Empire has to find it, and almost every major decision follows from that imbalance. One side occupies space and gathers information. The other side survives by being difficult to locate, disrupting plans and making every Imperial deployment feel faintly suspicious.
Star Wars Rebellion is often described as “Star Wars In a Box”, a sentiment I fully agree with. It truly captures the sensation of watching A New Hope, with every mechanical and thematic detail perfectly captured. I fully agree with Soren here; it’s almost a magic trick what they manage to pull off with this game mechanically.
-Gamersdungeon
That sounds obvious because it is exactly how the original trilogy works, but that is the achievement. The hidden base is not flavour text explaining why the Rebel player starts with fewer pieces. It is the central engine. Probe cards eliminate possibilities. Imperial fleets spread out because ignorance is expensive. Rebel missions create diversions because a weaker military force cannot afford to play the same game as its opponent. Even the victory conditions are telling different stories: the Empire needs to discover and crush the base, while the Rebels need to outlast the machine long enough for resistance and reputation to grow.
There is a useful comparison with War of the Ring, another licensed design where asymmetry is not a balance problem to be sanded down but the entire point. Sauron should have armies the Free Peoples cannot sensibly match. The Fellowship should have a different route to victory. In both games, the source material gives the designer permission to make the players uncomfortable in different ways. Balance does not require sameness. In fact, sameness would destroy the fiction.
Rebellion is not beyond criticism. Repeated play can expose its structure, and the hunt for the base can occasionally end with the strategic equivalent of opening the correct cupboard by accident. But even those weaknesses reveal how completely the theme and mechanism are fused. If the search loses tension, the game loses Star Wars with it. That is a far more interesting failure than a game whose theme could be replaced by changing the card art.
Outer Rim: Han Solo is a job description
Outer Rim operates at the opposite scale. There is no galactic command chair, no Death Star to position and no reason to care which government controls the Core. The fantasy is smaller and, in its own way, more recognisably Star Wars: get a ship, find work, improve the ship, hire somebody useful, annoy the wrong faction, and become famous enough that people eventually stop asking whether the hyperdrive was legally acquired.
Never had the pleasure, but it’s been on my radar for a long time. I have an affinity for Corey Konieczka’s work, in fact, looking at my gaming shelves, this designer takes up a lot of shelf space. I believe it’s his attention to detail when it comes to linking theme and mechanics together flawlessly that sets him apart as a designer.
-Gamersdungeon
The goal is fame, but the important part is how many roads lead there. Bounties ask you to hunt people. Jobs turn the map into a chain of opportunities and complications. Cargo can be profitable until a patrol takes an interest. Reputation with the Empire, Rebels, Hutts and crime syndicates changes how safely you can move through the same space. The result is that being a scoundrel is not communicated by a portrait of Han Solo grinning from a card. It is communicated by the fact that your best plan is often profitable, questionable and likely to create a second problem before it solves the first.
That is what good thematic design does. It asks what behaviour the fiction should produce. Star Wars smugglers are not interesting because they own fast ships. They are interesting because they live inside networks of debts, favours, employers, rivals and authorities. Outer Rim turns those relationships into a playable economy. A patrol is not just an enemy token. It is a reminder that your previous decisions have a memory.
Armada: a Star Destroyer should not corner like a shopping trolley
Armada may be the purest example of a physical mechanism explaining fictional scale. Star Wars has always told us that capital ships are enormous, but film can cheat. A camera cuts, John Williams does the heavy lifting, and suddenly several kilometres of metal seem perfectly nimble. A tabletop game has to make mass something you can feel.
Soren is absolutetly correct here that Star Wars Armada captures the sensation of what we see on screen mechanically. The added magic trick is that Armada is a deep well of strategic possibilities. This is a war game in the purest sense, with a tremendous amount of Star Wars-based sci-fi realism assumptions that work as strategies. It remains one of my favorite miniature games of all time, a true masterpiece.
-Gamersdungeon
The command stack does exactly that. Larger ships plan commands in advance, with orders buried in a queue before they are executed. A navigation command chosen now may be the thing that saves you later, assuming you guessed correctly about where the battle would be by then. That delay creates command friction without requiring a thirty-page subsystem about naval bureaucracy. The Star Destroyer feels large because your intentions take time to travel through it.
Movement reinforces the same idea. The manoeuvre tool does not merely measure distance; it gives large ships arcs, inertia and commitments. You are steering a capital vessel, not dragging a miniature to a convenient spot because the ruler says it fits. The contrast with the movement-first design of Star Wars: X-Wing is instructive. X-Wing uses hidden manoeuvre dials to create the uncertainty of a dogfight, where reading an opponent matters because fighters can change the geometry of a battle in seconds. Armada slows that thought process down. Both games are about Star Wars ships, but they are not asking the same question.
This is where a licence becomes useful rather than restrictive. The designer does not need one universal movement system for every spacecraft. A TIE fighter and an Imperial-class Star Destroyer should not feel related simply because both have engines. One is a knife fight. The other is urban planning with turbolasers.
The Clone Wars: Pandemic becomes a war
Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes a more visible shortcut because its foundation is the Pandemic System. That could easily have produced a reskin: replace disease cubes with battle droids, rename outbreaks, put a Jedi on the cover and go home early. Instead, the useful question is what the Pandemic structure already understands. Pressure spreads. Problems multiply while you are solving different problems. No player can be everywhere, and ignoring one region because another looks more dramatic is exactly how a manageable board becomes a disaster.
I’m going to have to take Soren’s word on this one; I have neither played Star Wars Clone Wars, nor am I a particularly big fan of the Pandemic series in general. For me, the issue that Soren suggests is not a problem in this variant of Pandemic games is that it suffers from “Alpha Gamer Syndrome,” where a single, experienced player is pretty much going to dictate the decisions for the less experienced players.
-Gamersdungeon
That rhythm fits the Clone Wars remarkably well. Jedi move from planet to planet, droids accumulate, blockades obstruct routes, missions demand attention and villains push the game toward specific kinds of trouble. The system creates the feeling that the Republic is permanently short of time. Winning is not about clearing the map and admiring a clean galaxy. It is about deciding which crisis can be allowed to remain ugly for one more turn.
The best cooperative games understand that cooperation needs adversity rather than politeness. The appeal of designs built around genuine shared pressure is that the table has to negotiate priorities, not merely distribute chores. The Clone Wars inherits that strength from Pandemic and gives it a particularly suitable costume. Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and their allies are powerful, but the war is larger than any one of them. A Jedi can solve the problem in front of them. The rules make sure there is always another planet on fire.
Zero Company: the rules engine leaves the table
The interesting thing is that this design philosophy no longer stops at the edge of the table. Star Wars Zero Company is a single-player turn-based tactics game rather than a board game, but it is wrestling with the same question: how do you make the Clone Wars behave like more than a backdrop for blaster fire? Its answer is to make people, time and preparation into resources.
Everyone is talking about this game right now, it’s being hailed as one of the best Star Wars Games ever made by some reviewers, a claim I have heard many times said about many Star Wars Games. It does look awesome, and it’s definitely on the list!
-Gamersdungeon
On the battlefield, operators spend action points to move, attack, assist, use abilities and hold positions with overwatch. That is the familiar tactical layer. The more interesting translation happens around it. At the Den, the company chooses between missions and non-combat operations, and it cannot do everything in a cycle. Injured operators may be poor choices for dangerous deployments. Relationships between squad members can strengthen or weaken, with bonds unlocking combat synergies. Optional permadeath means a bad decision can become a permanent absence rather than a quick reload-shaped inconvenience.
A complete Zero Company guide quickly becomes less about listing guns and more about explaining those interlocking systems: squad builds, bonds, recovery, resources, the Den and the consequences of deciding who goes where. That is precisely why the game belongs in this conversation. The Clone Wars are not only represented by clone armour, familiar planets and a Jedi in the squad. The fiction is asking the player to behave like the commander of a small organisation operating inside a conflict far larger than itself.
There is a faint tabletop logic to the whole thing. You look at a roster, weigh limited actions, accept that one objective may have to be sacrificed for another and then live with the state you created. The computer handles the arithmetic, animation and line-of-sight calculations, but the dramatic mechanism is familiar: scarcity turns lore into decisions. The player does not merely watch a squad become close. The rules pay out when those relationships become tactically useful, and punish you when people are injured, unavailable or dead.
The real question is what the licence makes you do
Licensed games are often judged first by recognition. Does Vader look right? Are the miniatures detailed? Is the terminology correct? Those things matter, especially with a universe as obsessively catalogued as Star Wars, but they are the easy part. A game can pass every visual inspection and still feel strangely hollow once the first turn begins.
The stronger test is mechanical. The Empire should make you feel powerful and blind at the same time. A smuggler should make money by creating future complications. A Star Destroyer should force you to think several minutes ahead because several kilometres of warship cannot simply perform a tidy little U-turn. A Jedi in the Clone Wars should be extraordinary and still unable to be on six planets at once. A mercenary squad should become more valuable, and more frightening to risk, as its people develop relationships and history.
One example I think could have been part of this list to make the point is Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit. Strangely, the game does such an amazing job of linking theme and mechanics that it’s gained cult status among board game and Star Wars fans alike, and this is despite the fact that it’s actually not a particularly good game. It just nails that connection so well that it becomes “good” despite its flaws. It nails the point home that when theme and mechanics are synced up, even a mediocre game becomes good.
This is also why thematic games can survive long after the pleasure of recognising the artwork has faded. Star Wars: Destiny and Star Wars: Unlimited approach the licence through another design tradition entirely, but the same tension remains: familiar characters can attract us to the table, while the system has to give them something meaningful to do once they arrive. Theme is not the presence of Luke Skywalker. Theme is the set of pressures that makes a player understand why Luke Skywalker matters here.
That is the difference between Star Wars as decoration and Star Wars as a rules engine. A TIE fighter is a miniature; uncertainty and speed make it a dogfighter. A bounty hunter is a portrait; fame, contracts and faction heat make it a career. The Clone Wars is a logo; cascading crises make it a war. When the design gets that translation right, the game stops asking us to admire the galaxy from outside. It makes us obey its logic for a few hours.
And that may be the finest trick a licensed game can pull. The box eventually closes, the miniatures go back into their trays, and somebody spends ten minutes looking for the one token that has somehow migrated under the sofa. But for the length of the game, the rules made the galaxy exist.
–About the author–
Søren Kamper is the editor of Star Wars: Gaming, an independent site covering the history, design and present-day world of Star Wars video games. He has been writing about Star Wars games since 2009.
There is no question that, when it comes to tabletop gaming announcements, Gen Con is probably the single most important event of the year. This is where the industry’s biggest publishers pull back the curtain on what they have planned for the coming year and where many of the games we will all be talking about over the next twelve months are revealed for the very first time.
It has been a dream of mine for many years to monetize Gamers Dungeon enough that I could actually justify making the trip to Gen Con myself. So far, I would say the project has been a tremendous success spiritually, just not financially. The site continues to grow, the readership is fantastic, and more people are discovering it every month. I just have not quite figured out how to turn that momentum into a meaningful source of income without compromising what I think makes the site special.
I have always been a bit stubborn about maintaining the hobby feel of Gamers Dungeon. I never wanted it to become a wall of sponsored content or lose the authenticity that comes from simply writing about games because I genuinely enjoy them. Maybe one day I will figure out that balance.
Until then, I will just keep writing.
Thankfully, Gen Con has given us plenty to write about. There were a surprising number of exciting announcements this year, even so far as Gen Con goes, from long-awaited sequels and expansions to entirely new games from some of the biggest names in the hobby.
So, let’s dive into the ten announcements that caught my attention the most.
By the way, if you want to know about what went on at GenCon you can check out the official Lookbook and Program Book here. They went all out again this year, including some really great cover artwork, very much loved it!
10. Wizards of the Coast & Dungeons and Dragons
One of the most important RPG publishers in the hobby is Wizards of the Coast, and the most influential role-playing game on the market is Dungeons & Dragons. Whenever the company takes the stage at Gen Con or anywhere for that matter, people pay attention, and almost every announcement has the potential to shape the direction of the hobby for years to come.
That said, I found myself a little underwhelmed by this year’s presentation, which is why it lands in the number ten spot on my list.
The headline announcement was a collaboration between Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft. The upcoming Azeroth campaign setting will allow players to adventure across Blizzard’s iconic world while introducing familiar races, classes, and locations. It is the beginning of what will almost certainly become a long line of crossover settings for the Dungeons & Dragons brand in the years to come.
Personally, it did very little for me. I play Dungeons & Dragons because I want to experience classic fantasy through the lens of Dungeons & Dragons. If I want to play in Azeroth, I would rather just play World of Warcraft. I understand why Wizards of the Coast is pursuing these collaborations, but this one simply was not aimed at me, and I doubt any of the other crossovers will do much for me either.
The announcements became much more interesting once the focus shifted back toward the game’s own history.
Joe Manganiello, one of Hollywood’s most passionate advocates for D&D, appears set to continue championing the return of Dragonlance. A new Dragonlance book was announced alongside additional sourcebooks and novels, suggesting that Wizards of the Coast is continuing to invest in one of the game’s most beloved settings.
Even more intriguing was the announcement of a Greyhawk project inspired by previously unpublished notes from Gary Gygax himself. If handled with care, this could become something genuinely special for long-time fans of the game.
To round things out, Wizards also hinted that other classic campaign settings could be making a return, with Dark Sun being one of the names mentioned. That is much more my speed. Dragonlance, Greyhawk, and Dark Sun represent some of the greatest settings ever created for the game, and I would happily spend more time in any of them.
Dark Sun was without question one of the more controversial settings from D&D’s past and certainly problematic in terms of replicating content for a modern audience. I do love their decision to lean into adult content and to just throw a mature audience label on it.
Finally, Wizards teased what appears to be a Star Wars crossover arriving in 2027.
Again, I recognize that this is major news, but it did very little to excite me. If I want to play a Star Wars role-playing game, Edge of the Empire remains one of the finest modern systems available, while the classic West End Games Star Wars RPG is still, in my opinion, the definitive tabletop adaptation of the universe.
Interesting? Absolutely.
Important? Without question.
Exciting? Not really.
For me, the real story here was not the crossovers. It was the renewed interest in the classic worlds that helped make D&D the legendary game it is today. If Wizards of the Coast can recapture some of that old magic, these announcements could end up being far more significant than they first appear.
9. Railway Boom
I missed this release from Japan, which is not all that surprising, I suppose, but I do keep a close eye out for any train games; I love them and own quite a few already.
I have always had a soft spot for train games. While I love sprawling economic titles like the 18XX series and Railways of the World, those games demand a serious investment of both time and mental energy. On the opposite end of the spectrum, many lighter train games have left me feeling that they abstract away so much of the experience that they lose what makes the genre appealing in the first place.
Railway Boom, designed by Hisashi Hayashi, looks like it might strike a very interesting balance.
Originally released in Japan during 2025 with extremely limited distribution, this year’s international edition gives the rest of the world a chance to experience it. So if the name has never crossed your radar before, don’t worry. It is new to most of us.
The game revolves around building and managing a railway company through an economic system centered around auctions and investment decisions. What immediately caught my attention is the relationship between auctions and turn order. Strong economic decisions earn you advantages, but turn order determines which opportunities are available, creating an interesting tension where money alone is not always enough.
I have always enjoyed games that ask players to balance those competing priorities. It actually reminds me a little of Smartphone Inc., where timing can be every bit as important as raw efficiency.
From everything shown so far, Railway Boom appears to have the feel of a heavier Eurogame without crossing into the kind of exhausting experience that some economic games can become. It looks substantial enough to reward careful planning while still being approachable enough that I could see it reaching the table on a regular basis.
Another feature that immediately won me over is the inclusion of actual route building. For me, this is one of those essential ingredients of a great train game. Laying track and expanding a rail network creates a direct connection between the mechanics and the theme. It makes me feel like I am actually running a railway company rather than simply manipulating numbers on a spreadsheet.
That is one of the reasons I never fully connected with games like Russian Railroads. As brilliant as the mechanics are, they become so abstract that the train theme starts to feel interchangeable. If you are going to make a train game, I want to see trains, tracks, and networks spreading across the map.
Railway Boom appears to embrace exactly that philosophy.
It is still a bit of an unknown, but from everything I have seen so far, this is one of the Gen Con announcements that has me genuinely intrigued. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this one
8. Final Titan
Final Titan, I think, falls into a similar genre as King of Tokyo: fun, fast, and lots of cool powers. The artwork for this one is outstanding!
As much as I like to think of myself as someone who enjoys dissecting deep strategic games, it would be complete fiction to suggest that those are the only games I play or enjoy. Some of my favorite gaming memories have come from loud, chaotic, completely unbalanced games where the only objective is to laugh until your sides hurt.
Games like Galaxy Trucker and King of Tokyo have earned permanent places in my collection because they understand that sometimes fun is more important than perfect balance or some sort of deep strategy. There is room in this hobby for careful strategic planning, and there is room for absolute nonsense.
Final Titan looks like it falls squarely into the second category.
Designed by Richard Garfield, who has never been afraid to embrace big swings, crazy interactions, and spectacularly overpowered abilities, Final Titan is all about larger than life characters battling it out in a frantic king of the hill style arena until only one Titan remains standing.
From everything shown so far, the game combines drafting, timing, and wildly overpowered combat abilities into what looks like a fast-paced spectacle where the best stories will probably come from the ridiculous things that happen rather than who actually wins.
That is exactly the sort of design Garfield excels at. His games often prioritize memorable moments over mathematical perfection, and I think there is a lot of value in that philosophy. Not every game needs to be a carefully balanced competitive masterpiece. Sometimes the best games are the ones where everyone around the table erupts into laughter because something completely absurd just happened.
Final Titan looks like it understands exactly what it wants to be.
It appears to be the perfect nerd culture filler, packed with outrageous powers, dramatic reversals, and enough chaos to keep everyone invested right until the final turn.
This is one I fully expect to see hitting my table as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. It simply looks like too much fun to pass up.
7. Excalibur
Cool theme, cool genre, but the hidden role and identity games are very hit-and-miss. There are at least as many good ones as terrible ones.
Hidden role games have become something of a family tradition in our house. Whenever we head off on vacation, there are almost always a couple packed into the luggage. Games like Coup, The Resistance, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, and occasionally Bang! The Dice Game have provided countless evenings of laughter, accusations, and just the right amount of friendly betrayal.
The problem is that, after enough plays, even the best hidden role games begin to lose some of their magic. Once everyone knows the strategies and the personalities around the table, it becomes increasingly difficult to surprise one another. That is why I am always keeping an eye out for something new in the genre.
Excalibur immediately caught my attention.
One of the things that often frustrates me about hidden role games is how easily they can be unintentionally spoiled. A player misunderstands their role, accidentally reveals too much information, or makes an obvious mistake during setup, and suddenly half the mystery disappears before the game has really begun.
Excalibur appears to avoid much of that.
Rather than relying on players memorizing a collection of unique roles, much of the gameplay revolves around moving tokens and resolving the abilities printed directly on them. That gives the game a much more natural flow. Once everyone understands the basic rules, the components themselves seem to guide the experience, making it easier for newer players to participate without accidentally giving the game away.
I also like the variety of powers that have been shown so far. My family always enjoys games where everyone gets to do something unique, and Excalibur appears to have plenty of interesting abilities without becoming overly complicated.
The play time is another major plus. Hidden role games tend to work best when they stay short and energetic, and for me anything much beyond twenty minutes starts to lose some of its momentum. Excalibur seems to understand exactly where that sweet spot is.
It also takes a slightly different approach to player interaction. Unlike games such as The Resistance or One Night Ultimate Werewolf, where direct accusations drive much of the experience, Excalibur appears to focus more on deduction through gameplay. Players are trying to determine who controls one of two legendary swords. Holding Excalibur at the end of the game earns you victory, while being left with the cursed sword means defeat.
It is a wonderfully simple concept, but one that seems capable of creating plenty of memorable moments and tense decisions.
This is exactly the kind of game that thrives around my family’s table, and I have a feeling it will be finding its way into our vacation bag before long.
6. Dungeon Crawler Carl
I have never read the books or know much about this universe, but I think games setup for a good one-shot are few and far between. Alien RPG was probably the last one I thought did a good job of it. I’m hopeful.
I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of role-playing games built around comedy. Games designed primarily as jokes have always struggled to hold my attention. I never really connected with Paranoia, and while I certainly appreciated the wonderfully bizarre nature of Dungeon Crawl Classics, it was never something that stayed on my table for very long.
Dungeon Crawler Carl fully embraces the outrageous tone of the bestselling novels on which it is based. From everything shown so far, this is an RPG that is unapologetically designed to be funny.
Normally, that would be enough for me to lose interest.
But there is a catch.
For quite some time now, I have been looking for an RPG that fills a very particular niche. I want something that works brilliantly as a one-shot, requires very little preparation, and can be pulled off the shelf on a random evening when a few of my nerdy friends happen to stop by. Sometimes you do not want an epic campaign. Sometimes you just want to roll some dice, tell a ridiculous story, and have a good laugh for a few hours.
Surprisingly, that niche is not very well served.
Most modern role-playing games take themselves fairly seriously. Even systems with lighter rules often expect players to invest in an ongoing campaign, and they rarely feel suited to the kind of spontaneous pick-up and play experience I am looking for.
Dungeon Crawler Carl, however, feels like it was almost designed for exactly that purpose.
The premise alone is wonderfully ridiculous. Aliens invade Earth and force humanity into an intergalactic reality television show where contestants must battle their way through an ever-changing dungeon packed with monsters, traps, absurd challenges, and increasingly bizarre situations, all for the entertainment of a galactic audience.
That sounds like the perfect foundation for a memorable one-shot adventure, even if as a campaign, it’s not something I would have any interest in at all.
I also have another weakness that probably works against my wallet. Whenever something becomes inexplicably popular, I simply have to know why. I have to read it, play it, or watch it just to understand what everyone is talking about.
Dungeon Crawler Carl has become one of those phenomena.
So while it sits well outside my usual tastes, I can absolutely see a place for it in my collection. It may never replace my favorite fantasy RPGs, but I have a feeling it could become my go-to choice for those evenings when the goal is not to build an epic campaign, but simply to gather some friends around the table and have a ridiculously good time.
5. Satisfactory: The Board Game
I’m a huge fan of the PC game, and while my faith in crossovers has its limits, I’m really hoping for the best here. I do think the concept is very well suited for the table top.
I should probably begin with a disclaimer. At the time of writing, we know very little about Satisfactory: The Board Game. In fact, there is barely enough information available to form an opinion about what the finished product will actually look like.
That said, I simply could not leave it off this list.
Satisfactory, the PC game, is quite possibly the best video game I have played in the last five years. It completely consumed me for weeks. There is something incredibly satisfying about gradually building these sprawling, beautifully efficient production lines, watching resources flow through increasingly elaborate factories, and constantly finding new ways to optimize everything.
It is an absolutely brilliant game.
Naturally, the announcement that it is coming to the tabletop immediately caught my attention.
The current Gamefound page offers little more than a brief overview of the concept and promises to recreate the experience of building an automated industrial empire around the table. Technically, that qualifies as information, but in reality it tells us almost nothing about how the game will actually play.
Will it focus on engine building? Resource management? Spatial puzzles?
At this point, your guess is probably as good as mine. Despite that, I cannot help being excited.
Every time I see the title, I immediately start imagining all the clever ways its mechanics could translate into a board game. There is enormous potential here. The constant optimization, expanding production chains, balancing inputs and outputs, and solving increasingly complex logistical puzzles already feel like they belong in a Eurogame.
Of course, I am also trying to keep my expectations under control.
Video game adaptations have a very mixed track record. Some manage to capture what made the original special, while others end up feeling like they borrowed the artwork and little else. Translating an experience that unfolds over dozens, sometimes hundreds of hours into a board game is no easy task.
Still, I am choosing to be optimistic.
Satisfactory is one of my favorite PC games of all time, and I would love nothing more than to see it become an equally compelling tabletop experience. Right now there are far more questions than answers, but this is one announcement I will be following very closely over the coming months.
Here’s hoping Coffee Stain’s masterpiece can beat the odds and become one of those rare digital adaptations that truly earns its place on the tabletop.
4. Drillers
The production on this game is pretty over the top, but mostly this pick is based on the publisher’s reputation. I love every single CGE game I have ever bought.
Whenever Czech Games Edition announces a new game, I pay attention.
Few publishers have earned my trust quite like CGE. Time and time again they have produced games that not only impressed me on first play but continued to earn their place on my shelf years later. In fact, if I looked back over all of my various Top 10 lists, I suspect Czech Games Edition would have more appearances than any other publisher.
That kind of track record buys a lot of goodwill.
Drillers is still something of an unknown quantity, so my excitement is tempered with a healthy dose of caution. There simply is not enough information available yet to know whether this will become another CGE classic or just an interesting experiment.
What I can say is that everything shown so far looks incredibly promising.
The artwork immediately grabbed my attention with a unique, colorful art style that has that come-together look, and the production already has that polished look that I have come to expect from the publisher. More importantly, I really like the core concept. I love a cool mech game, and this being about mining, I don’t know why how, perhaps years of Minecraft exposure, but it just appeals to me. It appears to sit comfortably in that middle-weight space, offering meaningful decisions without becoming overwhelmingly complex. That is a sweet spot that Czech Games Edition has consistently excelled at over the years.
If I am being completely honest, though, this entry is as much about confidence in the publisher as it is about the game itself.
Right now, Drillers has not earned this spot through detailed gameplay reveals or glowing previews. It has earned it because Czech Games Edition has built up years of trust with me, and because the game simply looks fantastic. Sometimes that first impression is enough to get a game onto your watch list.
Now it is up to designers Roman Bednář and Adam Španěl, two relative newcomers, to deliver on that promise.
I certainly hope they do.
3. Trials Of Maya
I’m thrilled to get the opportunity to review this one; it’s very much in my wheelhouse!
Even if you attended Gen Con this year, there is a good chance you completely missed Trials Of Maya. It was not one of the convention’s headline announcements, nor was it surrounded by the same level of hype as many of the bigger releases.
For me, though, this is a bit of an indulgent pick.
Everything I have seen and read about Trials Of Maya suggests that it was designed specifically for someone with my rather unusual tastes. I have always had a soft spot for games that do something a little different, especially when they combine strong and unique gameplay with deep world-building and a compelling narrative.
It reminds me a little of Syndicate Foundation in that regard. Rather than simply presenting a game with an interesting setting, Trials Of Maya appears to build an entire universe around its mechanics through a novel and expanded lore. I love that approach. It transforms the board game into something larger with presence, giving players an opportunity to continue exploring the world long after the game has been packed away.
That sort of commitment to storytelling is right up my alley.
To make things even more exciting, the publisher recently reached out and asked if I would be interested in reviewing the game. Needless to say, I accepted, so you can expect a full review here on Gamers Dungeon once I have had a chance to dive into it properly.
Just a few weeks ago I had never even heard of Trials Of Maya.
Now it is one of the games I am most looking forward to playing.
The gameplay itself also looks incredibly promising. The “How to Play” videos already available showcase what appears to be a MOBA-inspired design, with heroes battling over objectives and making tactical decisions that feel heavily influenced by the digital genre.
If there is one thing guaranteed to get my attention, it is a game that blends strategic combat with immersive world-building and a strong narrative foundation.
Trials Of Maya seems to be doing exactly that.
I have very high hopes for this one. Hopefully the finished game lives up to the excitement, because if it does, I think it could become one of the biggest surprises of the year.
2. Star Wars Unlimited
I’m just about ready to call Star Wars Unlimited a modern-day classic; it’s soooooo good.
I have to admit that I have not played as much Star Wars Unlimited over the past few months as I would have liked. Earlier this year it was on my table almost constantly, but lately it has settled into that comfortable place where it comes out every now and then for a few casual games.
That has not stopped me from collecting it.
Fantasy Flight Games used Gen Con to reinforce what was already becoming increasingly clear. Star Wars Unlimited is here to stay.
The coming release schedule is incredibly ambitious. Homeworld arrives this October, followed by the new introductory mini set, Icons, in November. Beyond that, Legacy of Skywalker, System Overload, and Galaxy At War are all planned throughout 2027, giving players a clear roadmap for the game’s future.
Admittedly, much of this information had already been announced before Gen Con, but there is something reassuring about seeing Fantasy Flight Games double down on its commitment. Collectible card games live and die by publisher support, and knowing there is a healthy pipeline of new content makes investing in the game feel much easier.
That is really what excited me most.
It is also worth saying that, even if the game somehow disappeared tomorrow, I honestly think Star Wars Unlimited has already earned its place among the great collectible card games. The foundation is remarkably strong, and the expansions have only reinforced that opinion. Sets like A Lawless Time and Ashes of the Empire have been outstanding, adding interesting mechanics while continuing to capture everything that makes Star Wars such a compelling universe.
Hopefully I am not tempting fate by saying this, but I genuinely believe Star Wars Unlimited has already secured its legacy.
Now it just has the opportunity to become even better.
With another full year of expansions already planned, I cannot wait to see where Fantasy Flight Games takes it next. For me, Star Wars Unlimited remains one of the most exciting games in the hobby today, and it is still right at the top of my must-play list.
1. Lord of the Rings: The King’s Gambit
Excited doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling right now about this game.
I don’t know much about Restoration Games, but with Lord of the Rings: The King’s Gambit, they have definitely got my attention now!
The game is a reimagining of the legendary Star Wars: Queen’s Gambit, one of those wonderful hidden gems that quietly disappeared into tabletop history despite being far better than most people ever realized. The fact that it is returning at all is exciting enough. Rebuilding it around what I consider to be one of the greatest fantasy worlds ever created simply pushes it over the top.
Over the past several months, Restoration Games has steadily released previews, designer diaries, and behind-the-scenes looks at the project. Gen Con felt like the moment where everything finally came together. With a planned release in September 2026, the finish line is clearly in sight.
Queen’s Gambit is, without question, a classic. Sadly, I don’t own this one, I, like so many, missed my chance, and these days trying to get a copy is expensive and difficult.
What impressed me most was finally seeing the game in action.
The spectacular multi-battle structure that made Queen’s Gambit so memorable appears to have survived the transition beautifully. Watching several interconnected battles unfold simultaneously across the table captures the scale of The Lord of the Rings in a way that very few board games have managed. It is ambitious, visually stunning, and from everything shown so far, remarkably faithful to both the original design and Tolkien’s world.
Simply put, it looks incredible.
Of course, I am trying to keep my expectations under control. We have all been excited about games before, only to discover that they never quite lived up to the promise. Until I actually get this one to the table, there will always be that small voice reminding me not to get carried away.
That said…
This is the announcement that excited me more than any other at Gen Con 2026.
If Restoration Games manages to capture even half of what made Queen’s Gambit so special while wrapping it in one of the greatest fantasy settings ever created, they could have something truly remarkable on their hands.
And if they somehow pull it off completely, there is a very good chance this will become one of my favorite board games of the decade.
Two-player board games have always held a special place in my collection. Partly because they’re simply easier to get to the table, but mostly because the experience feels far more personal. It’s just you and one other player, matching wits across the table without the downtime, debates, or scheduling headaches that often come with larger groups.
There’s also something wonderfully simple about choosing what to play. When only one other person’s preferences matter, finding the right game becomes a whole lot easier.
When I first sat down to write this list, though, I quickly ran into a problem. What exactly is the “best” two-player game?
Is it an epic historical war game? A fast card game? A thinky Euro? A cooperative puzzle? A tactical skirmish? Comparing those games directly felt a bit like arguing whether a Formula One car is better than a mountain bike. They’re built to do completely different things; it was awkward, simply didn’t make sense to me to have one list that jams everything into one place.
So rather than force them into one giant, slightly ridiculous ranking, I decided to organize this list by category.
For each category, I’ll crown my favorite game while also giving you two runner-ups. That way, instead of recommending just ten games, I can introduce you to thirty outstanding two-player experiences, each suited to a different mood, partner, or evening around the table. Hopefully that will be a lot more useful.
Whether you’re looking for a deep strategic duel, a relaxing cooperative adventure, or something you can teach in five minutes, there should be something here for you.
Let’s get to it.
1. Best Casual or Family Game
This is probably the category most hobby gamers find themselves reaching for.
Most of us gamer-gamers own shelves full of heavy Euros, sprawling campaign games, and intricate strategy titles, but the reality is that most people we invite over aren’t hobby gamers. They’re friends, family, neighbours, or colleagues who simply want to sit down and have a good time.
That means the game has to be welcoming and easy to get into.
For me, a great casual two-player game isn’t just easy to learn, it has to be intuitive. A new player should be able to rely on common sense rather than previous experience and still feel like they have a genuine chance of winning. If knowing the deck by heart or memorising opening strategies gives the experienced player an overwhelming advantage, then I don’t think it belongs in this category.
The best family games create close contests regardless of who’s sitting across the table. They let newcomers make sensible decisions, reward good instincts, and leave everyone feeling like they were competitive right until the final score.
Those are exactly the kinds of games I was looking for here.
3. Starship Catan
I have had Starship Catan in my collection for over two decades, and it still see’s play often enough that I just can’t ever see myself getting rid of it.
Poor Starship Catan has largely disappeared into history, overshadowed by the seemingly endless stream of Catan spin-offs that followed. That’s a shame, because in my opinion, it’s still the best two-player Catan game Klaus Teuber ever designed.
It takes the familiar Catan formula and strips away much of the randomness that people often criticize in the original, replacing it with a game that rewards clever planning without ever becoming intimidating. It’s one of those rare games that’s genuinely easy to teach, yet still offers enough meaningful decisions to keep experienced players engaged.
The presentation has aged remarkably well, too. The artwork has that wonderfully optimistic early-2000s science-fiction charm, the production is clean without being cluttered, and the gameplay strikes a lovely balance between competition and accessibility. You’re racing your opponent rather than constantly attacking them, which makes it an excellent choice for playing with spouses, family members, or friends who aren’t looking for a cutthroat experience.
Starship Catan is a pretty game, even by today’s standards, I think, thanks largely to Franz Vohwinkel, an artist whose work you have seen more times than you probably realize because he’s just about everywhere you look.
What really earns Starship Catan its place on this list, though, is how naturally people seem to understand it.
Like the original Catan, it rewards instincts that almost everyone already possesses. You don’t need years of hobby gaming experience or dozens of previous plays to feel competitive. Once the rules are explained, most players immediately understand what they’re trying to accomplish and can start making sensible decisions from the very first turn.
That’s exactly what I look for in a great casual two-player game.
And perhaps the biggest compliment I can give it is this: almost everyone I’ve introduced it to has immediately asked for another game. Twenty-five years after its release, that’s still a pretty impressive achievement that I can say about very few games in my collection.
2. The Duke
The Duke probably belongs in the abstract category, but this game is so approachable and will be so familiar to your casual observer that I had to add it here.
Another older game makes the list, but one that’s still brilliantly clever.
The Duke is often described as chess with a twist. Each player controls a small army of tiles that show their movement directly on the piece. Every time you move one, you flip it over, changing how it moves next turn. The goal is simple: capture your opponent’s Duke (king) piece.
There is a wide range of pieces that do all sorts of clever things, and in that respect it can feel like a far more robust game to onlookers, but you have very few pieces on the board at any given time, so the analysis here is not nearly as broad.
The rules can be taught in minutes, but the strategy runs surprisingly deep. Because most people already understand the basics of chess or checkers, new players immediately feel comfortable and start developing their own tactics from the very first game.
It’s also wonderfully compact, making it an ideal travel game, and most matches are finished in around 15–20 minutes.
Experience certainly helps here, but unlike chess, the learning curve is much shorter. After just a handful of games, new players will already have formed their own strategies and can put up a very respectable fight.
For me, it’s one of the smartest abstract games ever made, and one that deserves far more attention than it gets.
1. Patchwork
One of the easiest games to recommend to everyone, it’s a universal kind of fun.
I don’t imagine this pick will surprise many hobbyists. Patchwork has become the gold standard for introducing people to modern two-player board games, and I think it has earned that reputation for good reason.
The concept is wonderfully simple. You’re building a patchwork quilt by selecting oddly shaped tiles, trying to cover as much of your board as possible while managing your buttons (victory points) and time. The rules can be explained in five minutes, yet every turn presents an interesting little puzzle.
What makes Patchwork so perfect for this category is that success isn’t really based on experience with the game. Instead, it rewards spatial reasoning and problem-solving skills that everyone naturally brings to the table. A veteran may recognize a few patterns, but a first-time player can absolutely outplay an experienced one simply by solving the puzzle better.
I like to describe this game as “Tetris” like, something very easy for everyone to relate to.
Fast, approachable, endlessly replayable, and satisfying every single time, Patchwork remains my go-to recommendation whenever someone asks me for the perfect casual two-player game.
2. Best Hobbyiest Strategy Game
Not every board gamer is a hardcore strategist, but most hobbyists are willing to try just about anything. We bounce between Euros, area control, deck builders, cooperative games, abstracts, you name it. That doesn’t mean every strategy game is going to appeal to everyone, though.
For this category, I wanted games that I think almost any hobby gamer would enjoy, regardless of their particular tastes, simply because of the excellent and inspired game mechanics. These are the games I’d happily recommend to someone with a reasonably established collection because they’re simply excellent designs with broad appeal.
They’re a step up from the family games in the previous category in terms of complexity and challenge. The rules are a little (sometimes a lot) more involved, the decisions a little deeper, and you’ll probably be setting aside the whole evening rather than squeezing in a quick game after dinner. They will also require multiple plays to really get good at them, so they are specifically designed for people who are going to get together more than once.
Think of these as the modern strategy staples of two-player gaming. If you’re serious about the hobby, these are games you should probably experience at least once. As I have many other categories on this list, I have excluded games that I think fit into a tighter, more specific niche.
3. Through The Ages: A New Story of Civilization
Through The Ages is a versatile game that shows up on many of my best-of lists, including best of all time. It is, to me, among the best games the hobby has to offer.
This is definitely one of the heavier games on the list, and while it technically supports up to four players, I firmly believe it’s at its absolute best with two, though an argument can be made for three. With four players, this game really stretches the definition of board game night; it’s just too long.
Through the Ages is a civilization-building game where you’ll guide your nation from antiquity into the modern era, balancing military, culture, science, economy, and politics in a constant struggle to outscore your opponent. There’s an incredible amount of depth here, and it’s the sort of game that demands repeated plays before you truly appreciate all of its nuances.
Through the Ages is a card-driven game, but it’s not a card game. It’s probably closer to an action selection and resource management game; the cards are really a support mechanism.
What keeps me coming back is how dynamic every game feels. Despite its complexity, it never settles into routine. Every civilization develops differently, every draft presents new opportunities, and every opponent forces you to rethink your strategy.
It’s long, competitive, and occasionally downright ruthless, but if you’re looking for a two-player strategy game you can really sink your teeth into with a lot of replayability, Through the Ages is one of the very best in class.
2. The White Castle
White Castle is the new kid on the block, but I’m obsessed; it’s a contender for a 5 out of 5 review, which would make it only the second game to achieve this on gamersdungeon.net in 12 years as of this writing. It’s that good.
The White Castle is one of my favourite discoveries of the past year. While it’s excellent with three or four players, I actually think it’s a fantastic two-player strategy game as well.
This is an incredibly tight Euro where every decision matters. With only 9 (With base game) to 12 (with Matcha expansion) actions over the course of the game, every move feels significant, forcing you to squeeze every possible point out of your strategy. Despite that limited action count, the number of viable approaches is remarkable, making each game feel fresh and rewarding.
I also highly recommend the Matcha expansion. It adds another layer of strategic depth without increasing the rules overhead, making an already brilliant game even better.
The Matcha expansion adds an extra dice bridge and an additional action per turn, while also giving the game tremendous added depth. It’s one of those situations where the game is amazing without an expansion, but doubles down on the goodness with one.
Elegant, challenging, and endlessly satisfying, The White Castle is the kind of game hobbyists can happily play over and over while continuing to discover new strategies. It’s an exceptional design and an easy recommendation for anyone who enjoys deep, thoughtful Euros.
There is a The White Castle: Duel variant that’s designed for two players, but despite the good effort with that one, I still think the multiplayer version is superior as a two-player experience.
1. Star Wars: Rebellion
I know that not “everyone” is a Star Wars fan, but that is a tough pill to swallow for a guy like me who quite literally named his son Luke because of the original trilogy. Saying you’re not a Star Wars fan makes you, at the very least, a suspect individual!
This might seem like an unusual winner because it’s so heavily tied to its theme, in fact, had I not put it here, it would go into the Best Theme category for sure. That said, I get it, if you have absolutely no interest in Star Wars, then one of the other games in this category is probably a better fit.
That said, I’ve always found there’s a huge overlap between board gamers and nerd culture, and Star Wars sits comfortably at the centre of that Venn diagram. So I’m fairly confident this recommendation will resonate with a lot, if not most, people.
The reason Star Wars: Rebellion tops this category is that it succeeds on two fronts.
First, it’s simply an outstanding strategy game. Every session is packed with bluffing, long-term planning, military campaigns, political maneuvering, and difficult decisions. Both factions play completely differently, giving the game incredible replayability and making every match feel like a battle of wits, while remaining a reasonably approachable game.
Everything about Star Wars Rebellion reinforces Star Wars fandom; there is no question that Corey Konieczka is a huge fan; he would not have been able to create this game otherwise.
Second, and this is what elevates it above almost every licensed game ever made, it absolutely nails the theme.
Rebellion doesn’t just use Star Wars artwork; it lets you play the original trilogy. Every objective, every desperate Rebel mission, every Imperial search for the hidden base, and every dramatic space battle feels like it belongs in the films. The connection between the mechanics and the theme is about as close to perfect as I’ve ever seen.
If you’re a Star Wars fan, I honestly think this is a must-own game.
And if you’re not…Well, there’s a decent chance this game might make you one.
3. Best Historical Duel
Historical games, and historical war games in particular, are one of my favourite genres, which made this category surprisingly difficult. Narrowing the list down to just three games was no easy task.
There is one important caveat, though.
I’m not recommending games for experienced historical war gamers. That would be an entirely different list. Instead, I wanted to highlight games that I think any hobby gamer with an interest in history could comfortably dive into without spending six months learning hex-and-counter warfare.
To illustrate what I mean, I firmly believe Empire of the Sun is the greatest two-player historical war game ever designed.
There is no question that Empire Of The Sun is the best historical war game ever made, but to suggest it to anyone but the most dedicated historical war gamer would be madness.
It’s also one of the most complex board games I’ve ever played.
Even seasoned wargamers treat it with a healthy amount of respect, so recommending it to someone who’s merely curious about the genre would be doing them a disservice.
With that in mind, these are the historical duels I’d recommend first. They still deliver the tension, drama, and fascinating decision-making that make historical games so rewarding, but they’re approachable enough that a hobby gamer can jump in without feeling completely overwhelmed.
That’s exactly what this category is about.
3. Twilight Struggle
A classic is a classic for a reason; resistance is futile!
Despite one significant caveat, I think Twilight Struggle remains one of the best entry points into historical war gaming.
That caveat is the learning curve, not so much learning how to play but learning to play reasonably well. This isn’t a game you’re likely to become competitive at after a single play. Deck knowledge is absolutely critical, and it will probably take four or five games before you really begin to understand the subtle timing, strategic positioning, and difficult decisions the game throws at you. Until then, you’re going to get crushed by someone who has played before, and it’s going to happen fast.
Once it clicks, though, it’s exceptional.
Set during the Cold War, Twilight Struggle brilliantly recreates the political tension of the era through card play, influence, and global maneuvering. From the Space Race to proxy wars and diplomatic crises, the historical events feel naturally woven into the gameplay rather than simply pasted on as flavour.
Historical games are about history, so if a particular piece of history doesn’t interest you, a game based on it probably won’t change your mind. This is a great game, but like all historical games, you need to have at least a passing interest in the topic, and admittedly, The Cold War can be a bit dry for some.
It’s a wonderfully tense, deeply strategic design that rewards repeated play without ever feeling repetitive.
More importantly, it also helped popularize one of my favourite genres in board gaming: the card-driven influence control genre.
As it happens… that genre gets its very own category later on this list.
2. Sekigahara: The Unification Of Japan
Block games can be traced all the way back to pre-modern era gaming; In fact, you could argue the first board games ever made were block games like Senet. They are a rather classic format, but the concept is very simple. Block games tend to be relatively light historical war games in general.
I’m a sucker for two things: Japanese history and card-driven games, so Sekigahara was always going to have an uphill battle trying not to impress me.
This brilliant block wargame recreates the struggle to unify Japan using hidden wooden blocks, so you always know your own army but never quite what your opponent has assembled. Think Stratego, but with far more meaningful strategic decisions.
Stratego is a very simple take on the typical historical block game, but it’s a game most of us are at least familiar with in passing, as it’s been on store shelves since the 1940’s. It is, however, very one-dimensional; most block games, including Sekigahara, include elements like supply lines, terrain, and strongholds.
What I love most is that it delivers everything I want from a historical wargame without the intimidating complexity the genre is often known for. There are plenty of deep strategic decisions to explore, but the objective is always clear. You know what you’re trying to achieve; the challenge is figuring out how to do it with incomplete information and a hand of cards that never quite cooperates.
That uncertainty creates constant tension. Every battle is a calculated gamble, every move a bluff, and every commitment of troops carries real consequences.
One thing I really love about this game is that it really rewards repeated plays with the same opponent. Players will come up with gambits and strategies that work, then on the next game when they try the same thing, your opponent will be ready for you. There is a sort of evolution that takes place the more you play with the same person.
It’s certainly a confrontational game, so both players need to enjoy going head-to-head, but if they do, Sekigahara is one of the finest battles of wits I can think of.
1. Tide Of Iron
Historical war games come in many forms, but tactical war games tend to be something historical war gamers are particularly passionate about. You will often see historical war gamers argue about what qualifies and doesn’t qualify as a proper historical war game, even in cases like Tide of Iron, some may not agree that it’s sufficiently “historical”. Ignore nonsense like that; it’s a rabbit hole of stupidity.
It just wouldn’t feel right to have a historical gaming category without World War II making an appearance.
For me, Tide of Iron is the gold standard for introducing players to historical wargaming. It strikes an almost perfect balance between authenticity and accessibility, delivering enough tactical depth and historical flavour to satisfy seasoned wargamers while remaining approachable for hobby gamers taking their first steps into the genre.
That’s an incredibly difficult balance to achieve. Historical accuracy and detailed simulation usually come hand in hand with intimidating rulebooks, but Tide of Iron manages to capture the feel of battlefield tactics without burying players in complexity.
It’s also a fantastic production. The modular maps, miniatures, varied scenarios, and customizable forces make every battle feel different, while just enough dice-driven uncertainty reminds you that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. There is no better way to get someone to try this one than to simply show them what it looks like; the game sells itself.
Tide of Irons is a tactical game on the squad level, hailing from the big box era at Fantasy Flight Games. There are a lot of ways to expand your experience, including entire campaign books and expansions as well as many built-in variants for deeper immersion. If you enjoy the game, there is a tremendous amount of exploration available.
Most importantly, though…It’s simply a tremendous amount of fun.
The scenarios are varied, the tactical decisions are meaningful, and the game scales nicely for players of different experience levels. Whether you’re a history buff or someone who’s simply curious about the genre, Tide of Iron is the game I’d put on the table first.
It’s not just a great historical wargame. It’s a great board game, full stop.
4. Best Heavy Euro
For many board gamers, heavy Euros are something of a graduation ceremony. They’re not the games I recommend to someone who’s just discovered the hobby, but sooner or later most hobbyists become curious about what all the fuss is about. That’s usually the point where they take the plunge into heavier strategy games.
These are games that demand your attention. They’re longer, more complex, and packed with meaningful decisions. They often require several plays before you really understand what you’re doing, and a single game can easily occupy an entire evening.
The investment, however, is almost always worth it.
To me, heavy Euros represent some of the finest strategy game design our hobby has to offer. They’re intricate puzzles built around careful planning, efficient resource management, engine building, and long-term strategy. Luck usually takes a back seat, leaving success largely in the hands of the players.
They’re certainly not for everyone, but if you’re ready to dive into the deep end of board gaming, these are some of the very best places to start.
3. A Feast For Odin
This is a pretty complex game with tons of game critical decisions; it’s going to take many plays to get your head around the strategies involved.
While A Feast for Odin shines with three or four players, I actually think it’s just as enjoyable with two, making it an easy choice for this list.
This is the kind of game that feels like the culmination of everything you’ve learned from lighter Euros. Worker placement, resource management, engine building, and the wonderfully satisfying polyomino puzzle of filling your personal board all come together in one enormous Viking adventure.
It’s undeniably a heavy game, but I don’t think it’s overwhelming. The complexity comes from the sheer number of systems working together, rather than any individual rule being particularly difficult. If you’ve played a variety of lighter strategy games before, you’ll recognize many of the mechanics; they’re simply woven together into something much grander.
The amount of “stuff you can do” in this game is so broad that you may very well play the game half a dozen times and never take certain actions available to you.
Yes, it’s a little fiddly, and yes, it asks a lot of its players, but the payoff is immense. Few games offer this much strategic freedom while remaining so consistently rewarding to explore.
It’s a wonderful, thoroughly satisfying, albeit exhausting gaming experience.
2. Tapestry
The lovely thing about Tapestry is that the rules themselves are relatively simple, yet the amount of depth in this game- the sheer volume of possible strategies can be quite overwhelming. It’s a deep well, one I think is worth exploring for any serious gamer.
I should start by saying that I think Tapestry is at its absolute best with three players. That said, the two-player game is excellent and, perhaps more importantly, much faster. It feels less like a territorial struggle and more like a race to build the most efficient civilization.
What makes Tapestry such a great heavy Euro is that the strategic depth far outweighs the rules complexity. The rulebook is surprisingly approachable, yet the game offers an enormous amount of long-term planning, resource optimization, and engine building, not to mention dynamics. It’s an ideal stepping stone for players looking to move into heavier strategy games without first having to learn a hundred pages of rules.
A big part of the game is the ability to anticipate your opponents’ strategies and plan your own, while making sure you’re getting under your opponents’ feet now and then to slow them down. There is a bit of a give and take here that I really like, and this is a lot easier to do when playing Tapestry with two players. The more players you add, the more complex this games strategy becomes.
Experience definitely matters, though. Your scores will improve dramatically as you learn the game, which means newcomers can feel outmatched during their first few plays. Fortunately, almost all of the information is open, making it easy for experienced players to offer advice without spoiling the experience.
Deep, elegant, and remarkably accessible for its weight, Tapestry remains one of my favourite introductions to heavier Euro gaming.
1. Marco Polo II: In The Service Of The Khan
This is a heavy Euro that I think a lot of people passed on mainly because of the subject matter, but I personally think it’s one of the true standouts in the heavy Euro category.
Now we’re talking about serious Euro gaming.
Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan is one of the finest economic strategy games I’ve ever played. Building on the award-winning The Voyages of Marco Polo, it expands the original with more strategic variety, greater flexibility, and a simply fantastic production. I genuinely love both games, but if I had to choose one, Marco Polo II gets the nod.
This is one of those rare games that, while you can play it with up to 4 players, is absolutely best as a duel. In fact, I would argue against playing it any other way.
While the game uses dice, don’t let that fool you into thinking luck dominates the experience. Like The Castles of Burgundy or Catan, the dice create interesting constraints rather than determine the winner. The real challenge is adapting your strategy and making the most of the opportunities you’re given.
There is a lot going on in this game, and the fact that it uses dice does give it that “luck” element that I don’t think everyone will appreciate. That said, you’re not going to win this game because you got lucky with the dice; far from it. The dice are just a factor to contend with in the same way Castles of Burgundy, for example, uses dice.
What I admire most, however, is how competitive the game remains regardless of experience. A veteran will usually make better decisions, but new players rarely feel completely outclassed. Scores stay surprisingly close, and every game feels like a genuine contest rather than a lesson in how much more experienced someone else is.
It’s a wonderfully rich strategy game with enormous replayability, and despite being one of the very best heavy Euros I’ve played, I still think it’s criminally underrated on BoardGameGeek. If you’re ready to dive into the deep end of Euro gaming, I wouldn’t necessarily start here, but you definitely want to end up here at some point.
5. Best Themed Games
One of the greatest strengths of board games is something no other medium can quite replicate: the connection between theme and mechanics. A good board game doesn’t just tell you a story, it makes you live it through the decisions you make.
Most hobby gamers would probably agree that theme alone can’t save a bad game. We’ve all played beautifully produced games with incredible artwork that turned out to be mechanically dull. Equally, we’ve played brilliant abstract designs wrapped in themes so forgettable they could have been about almost anything.
The magic happens when the two come together.
When every mechanic reinforces the theme, every decision feels natural, and you stop thinking about rules and simply start playing the role the game asks of you. That’s when good games become great ones.
The following three games all achieve that in spectacular fashion. They don’t just have great themes; they make you feel like you’re living them.
3. Fury Of Dracula
I will grant you that Fury of Dracula is niche, but the connection between theme and mechanics is so strong and so much fun, it’s not going to be a problem for anyone.
Although Fury of Dracula is designed as a one-versus-many game, I honestly think the very best way to experience it is as a two-player duel.
At its heart, this is a wonderfully atmospheric game of cat and mouse. One player controls Dracula as he secretly moves across Europe, leaving a trail of clues behind, while the other commands the famous vampire hunters in a desperate race to track him down before it’s too late. The day-and-night cycle, hidden movement, and constant sense of uncertainty create a level of tension that very few board games can match.
What I love most is how perfectly the mechanics reinforce the theme. Every clue feels significant, every wrong turn feels costly, and every encounter with Dracula becomes a memorable story in its own right.
The thing with Fury of Dracula, that “niche” part, is that you really want someone who knows how to play Dracula really well. The difficulty is sort of set by that player. A poor performance by Dracula can make it feel flat and disappointing. When Dracula is executed well, however, it’s just a box of fun.
I enjoy the multiplayer version, but I find the constant table discussion often gives away too much information to the Dracula player and introduces long stretches of downtime for the vampire hunters. This dulls down the game and results in a lot of the tension escaping through the cracks. In a two-player game, every decision is immediate, every bluff matters, and the psychological battle between hunter and hunted takes centre stage.
It’s tense, cinematic, endlessly replayable, and one of the finest examples of theme and mechanics working together.
I absolutely adore this game. It does not get to the table often enough.
2. Star Trek Fleet Captains
Star Trek Fleet Captains, for fans of Star Trek, would make this my number one pick without any question. When it comes to picking the best themed game, I effectively picked War of the Rings because I’m a Middle-earth fan first, a Star Trek fan second.
Trekkies are a unique breed of nerd. More than any other fanbase I know, they care about the details, the nuance of the shows and movies. Get those wrong, and they’ll let you know about it.
Star Trek has been adapted into dozens of board games over the years, and if I’m being honest, most of them have ranged from forgettable to downright awful.
Star Trek: Fleet Captains is the exception.
Rather than simply wrapping Star Trek artwork around generic mechanics or trying to squeeze the theme into some adaptation of another game, it is designed from the ground up and captures what Star Trek is actually about. Exploration, diplomacy, scientific discovery, dangerous away missions, impossible decisions, and yes, the occasional spectacular space battle. It understands that combat is only one part of the Star Trek experience, that science and utopian philosophy are the main characters.
Normally, when a game uses stock images, especially in franchise games, I consider it a red flag, a short cut indicitive of what the rest of the game will be like, but in Star Trek Fleet Captains, the characters are the stars of the show, and they are so iconic, so memorable, that I think it just works. It’s not a shortcut so much as a bit part of getting you in the mood.
Every ship, captain, and mission feels like it belongs in the universe, and the two expansions only deepen that experience without losing what made the base game special.
If you’re a Star Trek fan, this is THE board game to own.
And while it supports more players, I honestly think it’s at its absolute best as a two-player duel.
1. War Of The Ring
War Of The Ring is so thematic, it borders on an activity more than a game. You are literally rewriting the Trilogy as you play, making your own decisions, your own story branches, and yet it all culminates in everything wonderful you expect from the Lord of the Rings story. I love this game.
War of the Ring is to Lord of the Rings what Star Trek Fleet Captains is to Star Trek. Same boat, different franchise.
This magnificent asymmetrical strategy game doesn’t simply retell Tolkien’s story, it lets you live it. One player commands the Free Peoples, desperately trying to buy enough time for the Fellowship to reach Mount Doom, while the other unleashes the overwhelming military might of Sauron. Every decision reinforces the central theme of the books: hope triumphing against impossible odds.
It’s a complex game, and I’ll happily admit that the rulebook can be intimidating. But there comes a point where flawless execution outweighs complexity, and War of the Ring crosses that line with ease.
I could write an entire thesis on why this game is so amazing, but all you really need to know is that it just bleeds Lord of the Rings from every orifice, and this is more than enough to satisfy a Lord of the Rings fan. It’s Lord of the Rings, in a box.
This isn’t just another licensed game. It’s an experience.
For many fans, it’s practically a hobby in its own right, offering endless opportunities to relive, or rewrite, one of the greatest fantasy stories ever told.
If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, I honestly can’t recommend a better board game. Accept no substitutes.
6. Best Card-Driven Influence Control
I know this is a strangely specific category. Two things.
First, this is my favourite genre in all of board gaming, so my list, my rules. Indulge me a little here.
Second, I genuinely think this subgenre deserves the attention. There are at least two dozen outstanding two-player card-driven influence games, and narrowing this list down to just three was harder than picking the winners in several of the previous categories. Honestly, this could have been a Top 10 list all by itself.
The genre works so well with two players because it’s built around history’s great rivalries. Whether it’s the Cold War, ancient empires, political struggles, or ideological conflicts, these games are almost always about two opposing forces trying to outmanoeuvre one another through careful planning, clever card play, and long-term positioning rather than outright military conquest. I’ve already snuck in Twilight Struggle in the Best Historical Duel category.
The three games I’ve chosen here represent what I consider the very best the genre has to offer.
That said, they vary enormously in complexity. Some are approachable enough for newcomers, while others demand repeated plays before they truly reveal their brilliance. So while I have a clear winner, the best game for you will depend entirely on how deep you want to dive.
If this genre appeals to you, I’d encourage you to do a little extra research before buying.
3. Washington’s War
It has the look of a very traditional historical war game, and the assumption might be that it’s going to be very complicated, but nothing could be farther from the truth. This game is very light on rules complexity, though it’s quite deep strategically.
Of the three games in this category, Washington’s War is by far the most approachable, making it an excellent introduction to the card-driven influence genre.
Set during the American War of Independence, one player commands the British Empire while the other leads George Washington’s struggling Continental Army. The conflict is beautifully asymmetrical. The British possess overwhelming military strength, while the Americans must survive long enough to build support and ultimately secure French intervention.
The struggle for control of the thirteen colonies creates a wonderfully tense tug-of-war, with influence, positioning, and timing often proving more important than outright military victories.
What makes Washington’s War so appealing is how streamlined it is. Compared to many games in the genre, the rules are refreshingly clean, the number of special exceptions is kept to a minimum, and the card play remains elegant without sacrificing strategic depth.
It’s no surprise that many historical gamers consider it a modern classic. As a spiritual successor to We the People, it refines many of that game’s ideas into a tighter, more accessible package.
Iconic historical leaders are key to the game; they are the movers and shakers that will decide the fate of the war, and this game respects that historical importance through the rules and impact they have on gameplay.
If you’re curious about card-driven influence games but aren’t ready to tackle the heavier titles, Washington’s War is exactly where I’d recommend you begin.
2. Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul
Another cover that has that “historical War Game” look, but the reality is that this is a game I think anyone can learn; in fact, it’s much simpler to get your head around than more popular variants of this mechanic like Twilight Struggle.
Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul is a deeper and more demanding game than Washington’s War, but I still think it’s remarkably approachable for what it is.
The conflict is wonderfully asymmetrical. Caesar commands the disciplined might of the Roman Empire, while the Gauls are little more than scattered tribes desperately trying to resist one of history’s greatest military commanders. Naturally, that means the pressure is on Rome. The Gauls have the advantage of time, difficult terrain, and a defensive position, while Caesar must execute an efficient campaign before the opportunity slips away.
One of the reasons I enjoy introducing this game to new players is that the roles naturally suit different experience levels. A newcomer can take the Gauls, whose strategy is a little more intuitive, while the experienced player tackles the far more demanding challenge of leading Caesar.
War, or perhaps more specifically combat, is a much bigger part in this game than most card-driven influence control games, and it’s a much better game for it.
Despite being a proper wargame, I don’t think it’s any more difficult to learn than many modern heavy Euros. Most of the mechanics are straightforward, and the cards do a fantastic job of bringing the historical figures and events to life while presenting both players with a fascinating strategic puzzle.
Victory for Rome is genuinely difficult, and that’s exactly what makes playing Caesar so rewarding. It’s a bit lopsided, but that is very specifically why I think this game is so good.
1. Imperial Struggle
Imperial Struggle is a pretty complex and deep game, it does favor experience and can be quite unforgiving, but any mistake you make in this game you won’t repeat. There is a natural strategic learning curve here, and you will quickly get your head around it. Just don’t expect to become an expert right away; this game takes many plays to learn to play well.
There isn’t much debate in my mind.
Imperial Struggle is the finest card-driven influence game ever designed, and one of the greatest board games ever made. It currently sits at #2 on my personal Top 20, and I don’t see it moving any time soon.
Set during the century-long global rivalry between Britain and France, the game isn’t simply about military conquest. You’ll compete for influence through diplomacy, economics, colonial expansion, and, when necessary, outright war. Every decision feels like part of a much larger struggle for control of the world.
What elevates Imperial Struggle above almost everything else in the genre is how seamlessly it blends history with gameplay. The mechanics don’t just represent the conflict, they explain it. Before playing this game, I knew surprisingly little about the historical rivalry between these two empires. After dozens of plays and plenty of reading inspired by the game, I’ve come to appreciate just how brilliantly the designers captured this fascinating period of history.
It’s unquestionably a game for experienced players. I wouldn’t recommend it as your first historical game or even your first card-driven influence game.
But it should absolutely be your destination.
I think most look at this map and find it a bit off-putting, even if they appriciate it’s artistic beauty. All of this stuff after a couple of plays, however, will make sense, and by your second or third game you will be able to access the board state at a glance, and that is very specifically because this map is so well made.
Once you’ve worked your way through the genre and finally arrive at Imperial Struggle, you’ll either understand why so many players consider it the benchmark against which every other card-driven influence game is measured or Twilight Struggle will be your favorite game in this genre. There is a reason that the community is split on this, Twilight Struggle is in a sense, the common standard, but if I can be so bold as to say, true aficionados will recognize that Imperial Struggle is the true masterpiece.
7. The People’s Choice
This may be my list, but after so many categories, it only feels fair to let the wider board gaming community have its say as well.
Whether you agree with them or not, there are good reasons these games consistently appear at or near the top of rankings on BoardGameGeek and countless other “best of” lists. They’ve been played by thousands of people, recommended time and time again, and have earned reputations as some of the finest two-player games ever published.
Of course, these rankings change over time. New releases often generate a lot of excitement, and the hobby has a tendency to fall in love with the latest masterpiece before settling into a longer-term consensus.
That’s perfectly fine.
For this category, I’ve combined the community’s favourites while excluding games I’ve already covered elsewhere in this article, along with more niche titles that, while excellent, appeal to a much smaller audience.
These are the games that have achieved something much rarer.
They’re not just critically acclaimed; they’re genuinely popular, widely played, and have become modern classics in the two-player gaming world.
3. Jaipur
I’m not sure I would put this game on any list I would create, but I do appriciate it’s elegant design, straight-to-it gameplay, and fantastic pacing.
Before 7 Wonders Duel, before Patchwork, and before the explosion of dedicated two-player games we enjoy today, there was Jaipur.
Released back in 2009, Jaipur arrived at a time when two-player hobby games were usually long, heavy strategy affairs. Lighter games almost always catered to larger groups, leaving very few options for people simply looking for a fantastic game to play with one other person.
Jaipur changed that.
This wonderfully elegant set-collection game proved that a dedicated two-player game could be quick, approachable, and strategically satisfying without sacrificing depth. It quickly became one of the defining gateway games of the hobby, and for years it was the game almost everyone recommended when someone asked, “What’s the best game for two players?”
In board gaming, a simple-looking game is far more likely to trigger a positive response than a complex-looking one. In particular, a game with pretty but few components does a lot to alleviate that stress casual gamers feel when you open a box.
Although newer titles have inevitably stolen some of the spotlight, Jaipur has quietly endured. Its recent reprint has introduced it to a new generation of players, and it’s still easy to find games on Board Game Arena, a testament to just how timeless the design really is.
To me, Jaipur is one of those games every hobby gamer should experience at least once. Like Catan or Ticket to Ride, it’s become something of a rite of passage.
Nearly two decades later, it’s still one of the finest two-player games ever made.
2. 7 Wonders Duel
7 Wonders Duel is a stone-cold modern classic, of that there is no doubt.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “Best Two-Player Games” list that didn’t include 7 Wonders Duel. More recently, The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth has joined the conversation, but the original remains one of the defining two-player games of the modern era.
When 7 Wonders took the hobby by storm, a dedicated two-player version felt almost inevitable. Remarkably, it wasn’t just a good adaptation; it became a classic in its own right.
It’s a very pretty game; it’s a simple game, yet it’s a strategically deep game. It’s kind of a perfect storm, so I’m not at all surprised by its popularity. The fact that it can be played in under 30 minutes is just a cherry on top.
The game strikes a near-perfect balance between accessibility and depth. The rules are easy to teach, games rarely overstay their welcome, and beneath the elegant drafting system lies a surprising amount of strategic nuance. Whether you’re pursuing science, military dominance, or simply outscoring your opponent, every draft presents meaningful decisions.
More than a decade after its release, 7 Wonders Duel is still a fixture at game nights around the world.
There aren’t many games that can claim that kind of longevity. That’s the mark of a true modern classic, and I agree with it wholeheartedly.
1. Azul
This abstract game from 2017 blew the doors off the board gaming hobby. It’s sitting pretty along with titles like Settlers of Catan and Ticket To Ride in terms of popularity.
While Azul is an outstanding multiplayer game, it loses remarkably little at two players. In fact, it’s become a regular fixture on “Best Two-Player Games” lists, and I completely understand why.
More than just a successful board game, Azul helped define a generation of modern tabletop gaming. Like Settlers of Catan before it, it’s one of those rare titles that escaped the hobby and found its way onto the shelves of mainstream retailers and family homes around the world.
The premise couldn’t be much simpler. Players draft colourful tiles to decorate a palace wall, creating a wonderfully elegant puzzle that can be taught in just a couple of minutes. It’s one of those games that almost anyone can learn, making it a perfect replacement for classic family favourites like UNO or Yahtzee when someone says, “Let’s play a board game.”
I think, when it comes to board games, one universal truth is that people love puzzles.
Despite its simple rules, there’s far more strategy here than first meets the eye. Reading your opponent, timing your drafts, and balancing immediate points against long-term planning creates a game that’s easy to enjoy but difficult to perfect.
Elegant, beautiful, and endlessly replayable, Azul has earned its place as one of the defining modern classics of the hobby, and like all modern classics, there are literally dozens of variants.
8. The Dodo Bird Category
Some games simply go the way of the dodo.
They’re out of print, increasingly difficult to find, and if you do stumble across a copy, there’s a good chance it’ll cost you a small fortune. That makes them difficult to recommend today, at least from a practical standpoint.
But I couldn’t bring myself to leave them off this list.
These are games that, in their prime, would have comfortably earned a place somewhere in the rankings. They’re classics that deserve to be remembered, even if publishers have chosen to let them disappear into history.
Who knows, perhaps one day they’ll return in a shiny new edition.
Until then, these are my favourite extinct two-player masterpieces.
3. Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit
A franchise game from Avalon Hill is by default a major red flag, but with Queen’s Gambit they really knocked it out of the park.
When The Phantom Menace hit cinemas in 1999, Avalon Hill (under Hasbro) was given the license to produce a board game based on the film. Like most movie tie-ins of the era, expectations were… low.
We couldn’t have been more wrong.
Today, Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit is one of the rarest and most sought-after modern board games ever produced. If you can even find a copy, expect to pay anywhere between $500 and $1,300 on the secondary market.
The reason is simple: it wasn’t just an impressive production; it was an excellent game.
The Queen’s Gambit recreated all three climactic battles from The Phantom Menace simultaneously. One player commanded the Gungan army against the Trade Federation droids, another led Queen Amidala’s assault on the royal palace, while, towering above it all on a magnificent multi-level board, Darth Maul faced Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi in one of the most iconic lightsaber duels in Star Wars history. While the game could be played multiplayer, it very clearly worksed best as a two-player experience.
The Queen’s Gambit is as much spectacle as it is a game. It’s as much fun to look at as it is to play. Finding a reasonably priced copy of this game is not going to be easy.
Mechanically, it’s surprisingly approachable, but it’s the production that made it unforgettable. Few games have captured the feeling of recreating a movie quite so successfully. Later titles, such as the 2015 edition of Star Wars Risk, borrowed elements of the formula, but none matched the spectacle or table presence of The Queen’s Gambit.
For years, Star Wars fans have hoped for a reprint. While nothing has been officially announced, rumours of a spiritual successor or modern reimagining continue to circulate.
If it ever happens, I’ll be first in line, but don’t get your hopes up!
2. Star Wars: X-Wing
There are a few different editions of this game in terms of rules and releases, but the original, 1st edition Star Wars X-Wing was the best we ever got.
I’m honestly trying not to turn this into a Star Wars list, but some games are simply too good to ignore.
At its peak, Star Wars: X-Wing wasn’t just the best two-player miniatures game on the market, it was arguably one of the best two-player games, period. To this day, I struggle to think of another miniature game that combined accessibility, tactical depth, and cinematic action quite so perfectly.
X-Wing captured the feeling of fast-paced dogfights better than any game before or since. It was simultaneously epic and intimate, with every maneuver dial and every firing arc creating meaningful decisions. In many ways, I never really thought of it as a miniature game; I just thought of it as an exceptionally good game.
A huge part of its success was how approachable it was. The ships came pre-painted, games were played on a compact 3′ x 3′ battlefield, setup took minutes rather than hours, and a competitive collection could be built for roughly the cost of a handful of modern board games. Compared to most miniature systems, it felt refreshingly affordable and easy to get into.
Star Wars dog fighting at it’s best!
During its golden years, X-Wing was an enormous success. Unfortunately, like many collectible miniature games, it eventually became a victim of its own expansion cycle. New releases arrived at an increasingly aggressive pace, balance became more difficult to maintain, and many players felt the focus had shifted from refining the game to continually selling new products. Interest gradually declined, ownership changed hands, and eventually production came to an end. It was, in a way, a victim of its own success, and I would argue corporate greed.
Unlike some of the games in this category, however, X-Wing isn’t impossible to find. Fantasy Flight Games printed enormous quantities of ships over the years, so the second-hand market is still full of them at very reasonable prices.
Officially, though, Star Wars: X-Wing has gone the way of the dodo. And that’s a genuine loss for tabletop gaming.
1. Battlelore
The command and colors system is a lot of fun, but there is no question that this is the definitive variant for me! Although I will say that Battle of Hoth, the latest iteration, is really awesome too and mostly for the same reason.
Richard Borg’s Commands & Colors system has become one of the most successful tabletop wargame engines ever created, spawning adaptations covering everything from the American Civil War to Ancient Rome, Napoleonics, World War II, and even Star Wars.
For fantasy fans, however, there is only one game that truly stands above the rest: BattleLore.
Taking the proven Borg formula and transporting it to the world of Terrinoth was an inspired decision. The familiar command card system remained intact, but the addition of magic, legendary creatures, unique faction abilities, and asymmetrical armies gave BattleLore an identity all of its own. It felt less like a historical simulation and more like a fantasy battlefield where anything could happen.
What made the game truly shine was its range of expansions. New factions, creatures, heroes, and scenarios allowed players to customise the experience in countless ways. Unfortunately, that’s also what makes collecting BattleLore today so painful. The core game is difficult enough to find, but completing a collection now requires a considerable investment on the secondary market.
BattleLore was a lot more unit-focused than other versions of the Command and Color system. The game understood that fantasy monsters needed to be special.
Thankfully, the Commands & Colors system is still alive and well. Games like Star Wars: Battle of Hoth prove that Richard Borg’s design remains as compelling today as ever.
As for BattleLore, I remain optimistic. Unlike other games in this category, this one feels destined for another life.
Here’s hoping someone gives it the reprint it deserves.
9. Best Two-Player Abstract Games
There are already a few abstract games on this list, but by “abstract” I’m talking about games that don’t even pretend to have a theme. These are games that fully embrace the puzzle, strip away the narrative, and rely entirely on clever mechanics and meaningful decisions.
There are a staggering number of abstract two-player games out there. In fact, most pure abstract games are designed specifically for two players, which made this one of the hardest categories to narrow down.
I also think it’s one of the most important categories on the list. While the theme is often what draws hobby gamers in, it can have the opposite effect on people outside the hobby. Asking someone to roleplay a medieval merchant or command an alien invasion isn’t always the easiest sell.
Puzzles, however, are universal.
Abstract games remove that barrier completely. They’re easy to explain, immediately familiar, and appeal to something almost everyone enjoys: solving interesting puzzles. I’ve found they’re often the easiest way to get even the most reluctant non-gamer to sit down at the table, and before long, they’re asking for another game.
3. Hive
Hive is a game, even if you have never played it, that will feel familiar. It has the quintessential “of course something like this exists” thing to it.
While Hive isn’t completely devoid of theme, what’s there exists almost entirely to help identify the different insects and their unique movement. You’re never meant to immerse yourself in the world or tell a story. The theme simply gives the mechanics a memorable face.
At its heart, Hive is a wonderfully elegant abstract game. Each player places insect tiles onto the table, with every piece moving according to its own simple rules. The objective couldn’t be more straightforward: surround your opponent’s Queen Bee before they surround yours.
Despite the simplicity, there’s plenty of room for clever play. Positioning, timing, and anticipating your opponent’s next move are everything. Much like chess, you’re often trying to force a particular response before springing your real plan, although Hive is considerably easier to learn and far less intimidating for newcomers.
It’s compact enough to throw into a backpack, can be played almost anywhere, and takes only a few minutes to teach. That combination of accessibility, portability and strategic depth has made Hive a modern classic.
It may not receive the same attention as some of the bigger names in the hobby, but it’s one of those games I can happily recommend to almost anyone.
2. Onitama
Yes, I hate the shape of this box too, but what is inside is well worth finding an odd place on your game shelf to put this thing.
Very reminiscent of The Duke, which I also love, I don’t feel bad about including both games on this list. They share the same core concept, but each has enough personality to justify its place.
Each player begins with four students and a master on a compact 5×5 board. Rather than every piece having its own movement, players instead share a small pool of movement cards. On your turn, you perform one of the available moves, then pass that card to your opponent and take a new one. It’s an incredibly clever system that ensures the puzzle is constantly evolving throughout the game.
The objective is wonderfully simple. Capture your opponent’s Master or move your own Master into your opponent’s temple.
Like all great abstract games, the rules can be explained in just a few minutes, but mastering the strategy is an entirely different challenge. Every move changes not only the current position but also the options available to both players on future turns, creating an elegant tactical dance where planning ahead is just as important as reacting to what’s in front of you.
Onitama is a kind of modern-day chess, yet oddly enough it feels like an ancient game from China. It’s a thinker, and you can attain a pretty high level of mastery over it.
This is very much a “one more game” kind of experience. Matches are quick, every setup feels different thanks to the randomized movement cards, and it’s the sort of game that quietly keeps finding its way back to the table.
More than a decade after its release, it’s still one of the finest abstract games ever designed, and one that I expect will remain in my collection for many years to come.
1. YINSH
I doubt anyone would ever buy this game on impulse; it’s in the hobby the sort of game that get’s passed around and recommended by gamers to gamers. Which is sad because it really is one of the best abstract games ever made.
Yinsh is part of Kris Burm’s celebrated GIPF Project, a series of abstract games that includes equally strange-sounding titles such as TZAAR, DVONN, ZÈRTZ, LYNGK and, of course, GIPF itself.
I haven’t played every game in the series, so I can’t honestly say how they all compare, but if BoardGameGeek’s rankings are anything to go by, Yinsh is widely regarded as one of the finest. Having played it, I find it hard to disagree, not just in the series but so far as abstract games go in general.
The objective is deceptively simple. Players move rings around the board, leaving markers behind as they travel. Create a line of five markers, and you remove one of your rings from the game. Be the first player to remove three rings, and you win. There are, of course, various shenanigans beyond that, including flipping opponents’ markers.
Explaining the rules is easy. Playing well is another matter entirely.
Yinsh is one of those games that forces your brain to think differently. Every move changes the state of the board, flipping markers, creating new threats and often setting up combinations several turns into the future. It reminds me a little of a more involved Othello or Go in the way every move influences everything around it, yet the puzzle is entirely its own. The strategic possibilities go far deeper than anything I’ve ever been able to master.
It doesn’t look like much, but this game has a very deep level of mastery; it’s a true brain burner. This is a game of pure skill, plain and simple.
For a game with no theme whatsoever, Yinsh also has a wonderful physical presence. The chunky rings, solid components, and clean, minimalist design make it a pleasure to play.
More than twenty years after its release, Yinsh remains one of the premier abstract games ever designed, and I suspect it will still hold that reputation twenty years from now.
10. New Kids On The Block
Thanks to the explosion of board games since the early 2000’s more games are published each year than the year before, so there is never a shortage of new games to try.
Now I consider a game new if it was released in the last 2-3 years, mainly because unless a game is some sort of phenomenon that attracts a lot of attention, it can take that long for a game to get sufficient traction and exposure before you even hear about it, let alone try it.
The following are the three best 2-player games released in the last couple of years.
3. Lord of the Rings: Duel For Middle-Earth
You might assume that this is just 7 Wonders Duel with a Lord of the Rings skin; it is not, and saying that about this game is just willful ignorance.
I already mentioned this game earlier on the list, but I think it’s good enough to deserve a category all of its own.
At its heart, this is clearly built on the foundations of 7 Wonders Duel, but rather than simply applying a Lord of the Rings skin to an existing game, it meaningfully improves the formula.
The familiar drafting remains, but the victory conditions have been reworked to better fit Tolkien’s world. Instead of simply chasing points, players are constantly balancing military control, the Fellowship’s journey to Mount Doom, and the support of Middle-earth’s allies. Every path to victory feels thematic and keeps both players engaged until the very last turn.
For me, this is essentially 7 Wonders Duel 2.0. It takes everything that made the original great, wraps it in one of the greatest fantasy settings ever created, and adds enough new ideas to justify owning both games.
While there is quite a bit going on in this game, the simplicity of the core mechanic maintains it as a casual or newbie-friendly game, much in the way 7 Wonders Duel could be described. It’s just good gaming with a cool theme.
If you pick up the Allies expansion, I think the game gets even better. The unique faction abilities add a welcome layer of asymmetry that makes the Free Peoples and the Shadow feel even more distinct, bringing the theme to life in ways the base game only hints at.
For fans of Tolkien, this is rapidly becoming one of the definitive two-player games, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, ten years from now, it’s remembered even more fondly than the game that inspired it.
2. Dune: War For Arrakis
I don’t doubt its potential, hence its presence on this list, but there are quite a few great interpretations of the Dune universe in board games, many of them are stone-cold classics.
Dune: War for Arrakis sets out to do for Frank Herbert’s universe what War of the Ring did for The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars: Rebellion did for Star Wars. That’s an incredibly ambitious goal, but from what I’ve seen so far, it’s a remarkably successful attempt.
Like those games, War for Arrakis is built around two highly asymmetrical factions battling over the fate of an iconic setting. Event cards bring key moments from the story to the table, action dice drive difficult decisions, and famous units such as the Fremen and the Sardaukar all play exactly the roles you would expect.
I’ve only played it once, so I’m not ready to declare it a masterpiece just yet. A single learning game is rarely enough to fully appreciate something of this size. What I can say is that it immediately gave me the feeling I was hoping for. It felt big, cinematic and unmistakably Dune. That’s often something I can recognise after just one play, and it left me wanting to get it back to the table as soon as possible.
If you’re looking for a great Dune game, Dune: Imperium is still my favourite, especially with three or four players. It’s one of the best worker placement games ever made. War for Arrakis, however, isn’t trying to compete with it. It’s a completely different experience.
In my experience, there are two types of people in the world: people who love Dune and people who hate Dune. I don’t think this game will make you a fan if you’re not already, and if you love Dune, this one is likely going to stick the landing.
This is a game about the war for Arrakis itself. It puts the conflict between House Atreides and House Harkonnen front and centre, delivering the kind of grand, narrative-driven experience that only a dedicated two-player game can provide.
If it continues to impress over repeated plays, I wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually joins the ranks of the genre’s all-time greats.
1. Toy Battle
For anyone active in the hobby of board gaming, seeing Toy Battle on this list should come as no surprise; it’s a phenomenon- this is a game everyone is playing.
With its bright colours, chunky toy soldiers and Saturday morning cartoon presentation, it would be easy to dismiss Toy Battle as a children’s game. I assure you, it’s not.
Toy Battle is one of the smartest two-player games released in years, proving once again that simple rules and deep strategy often make the best combination.
Players deploy units onto the battlefield, each bringing its own unique ability, in an effort to capture the opposing headquarters. The rules can be taught in minutes, but the interaction between unit powers, board positioning and the game’s clever supply line system creates an endlessly fascinating tactical puzzle.
Every decision matters. Commit too early and you leave yourself exposed. Wait too long and your opponent seizes the initiative. It’s one of those rare games where every turn feels important without ever becoming complicated.
Its dominance at the 2025 Golden Geek Awards surprised absolutely nobody. Toy Battle arrived seemingly out of nowhere and immediately established itself as one of the premier two-player games on the market.
Simple to learn, lightning fast to play, yet incredibly rewarding to master, I genuinely believe Toy Battle is well on its way to becoming a modern classic. If people are still talking about it twenty years from now, I won’t be the least bit surprised.
Conclusion and Final Notes
The truth is that I could put this list together 10 times and come up with different games to put into each category, not to mention easily come up with more categories; the goal here isn’t really to make some sort of definitive statement but to expose hobbyists to some games they may or may not have heard of.
To me, a good top 10 list is going to give you a hankering to buy/try something new, and hopefully I have managed that with this list.
I get a lot of questions from readers. Some are wild, some are insightful, and some are just thinly veiled excuses to argue about dice rolls. But none show up in my inbox more often than this one:
“Which is better, Star Wars: Destiny or Star Wars: Unlimited?”
Honestly, it’s such a common question that I feel like Obi-Wan being asked for the millionth time if the Force can help you win at sabacc. So fine. Today, we settle this. Lightsabers down, cards up, let’s talk Destiny vs. Unlimited.
Now, if we’re going strictly by canon, this fight is already over. Destiny was discontinued back in January 2020 with its swan song set, Covert Missions. Unlimited, on the other hand, is still very much alive, kicking, and racking up wins like a young Luke Skywalker.
I was sad to see Destiny get discontinued, but I was not terribly surprised by it. The game had a lot of business issues related to supply, and it was way too expensive.
But here’s the thing: every CCG veteran knows that just because something is “out of print” doesn’t mean it’s “out of the fight.” If history has taught us anything (besides never betting against Han in a tight spot), it’s that the old guard sometimes outshines the flashy new kid on the block.
Case in point: Legend of the Five Rings. The AEG original ran for a glorious twenty years, shaping stories, tournaments, and countless arguments about clan honor. The Fantasy Flight reboot barely limped to four years before being retired. By any metric, the classic run was the true Shogun of Rokugan.
Legend of the Five Rings was a complex and deep CCG with a dedicated following, an awesome community, and a very long history. I loved this game; one of my biggest regrets in life was selling off my collection many moons ago. What a fool I am!
But I digress. We’re not here to talk samurai, we’re here for blasters and dice. So let’s buckle in and jump to lightspeed: it’s Destiny vs. Unlimited, once and for all.
What Makes A CCG “good”
Before we can really pit these two games against each other, let’s get our bearings and talk about what actually makes a good CCG. I mean, sure, flashy art and cool tokens are nice, but if that’s all it took, every holochess set on the Millennium Falcon would be tournament-ready. In my book, there are three pillars that matter most.
First: the mechanics have to be balanced. No single meta should be the Death Star of the game, capable of blowing up entire tournaments just by existing. Winning and losing needs to happen on the battlefield (or playmat), not in the deckbuilding phase where whoever owns the shiniest, rarest card automatically wins.
Second: theme matters, a lot. Especially when we’re talking about a galaxy far, far away. If Jar Jar Binks somehow outmuscles Darth Vader in combat, then we’ve veered straight into “special edition” nonsense. A good CCG should feel like the universe it’s set in, so that both fans and players are immersed in the same story.
Third, and maybe most important: publisher support. Sets need to release on a steady cadence, playtesting has to be tighter than a stormtrooper’s helmet, and the collectible element has to actually feel… collectible. Publishers can’t be afraid to step in with bans, errata, or even mid-course corrections when something breaks the game. And when they do mess up (because they will mess up), they’ve got to fix it faster than the Millennium Falcon making the Kessel Run.
Now, sure, there are other things that make a great CCG, but without these three, the whole enterprise collapses. Get these wrong, and no amount of flashy marketing or movie tie-ins will save you.
Alright, let’s talk Destiny for a minute.
Back in April 2018, I wrote a review for Star Wars Destiny where I boldly proclaimed:
“The robust nature of CCGs combined with FFG’s commitment to the product means this game likely has a long and bright future ahead of it.”
Yeah… about that. Let’s just say that prediction aged about as well as Anakin’s relationship with sand.
The truth is, Destiny never really hit hyperspace on any of the three pillars that make a CCG thrive.
Balance – The game looked balanced at first, but cracks started showing up after the first set. These balance issues piled up, whole metas dominated by a handful of characters or combos by the 3rd set. By the end, they would have had to ban entire card types to straighten out the game. It was quite broken in the end.
Theme – They nailed the Star Wars feel, no argument there. Rolling those chunky dice and throwing Darth Vader into the fray felt amazing. But mechanically, a lot of cards just did variations of the same thing, and after the initial hype, the design space started to feel cramped. It was like being promised a galaxy of possibilities and then realizing most of the planets were just Tatooine with a different filter. By the 3rd set, you had dozens of cards that all did things so similar they were practically the same card, and the costs of cards could vary drastically, and rarely did any of it make thematic sense.
Publisher support – FFG wanted to back Destiny; you could sense that they thought they had a big winner on their hands, but the Force wasn’t with them on logistics. Supply shortages, constant delays, and radio silence for excessively long periods meant the community spent more hours speculating on forums than actually playing. By the time new sets arrived, the hype had often fizzled.
Here’s the thing: when Awakenings dropped, Destiny felt incredible. It had that fresh, lightsaber-sharp energy, and it was easy to see why so many of us believed it had a long future. But by the second and third sets, the cracks had become death-star-sized.
The final set of Destiny illustrates one of the key problems of the game: an inflexible design space. They ran out of ideas way too soon, and the games different sets became quite indistinguishable from each other. For the most part, they started to feel very repetitive.
And just to twist the vibroblade a little deeper, Destiny was stupidly expensive. Even by CCG standards, it was pretty ridiculous with a tough entry point for new players. If you wanted to be competitive, your wallet felt it. Big time.
Don’t get me wrong: I still love Destiny despite it all. I’ll happily crack it out for a casual game, and it’ll always have a special spot in my collection. It really is a one of a kind, a true diamond with rough edges.
As a long-term product, I don’t think there was much hope. This game pulled a Boba Fett, awesome in its debut, but swallowed by the Sarlacc pit way too soon.
Star Wars Unlimited
Star Wars: Unlimited landed in March 2024 with all the pomp and circumstance of a new Imperial Star Destroyer sliding out of drydock. The hype was real, the launch was smooth, and yes, it came from the same publisher that once gave us Destiny. Déjà vu, anyone?
But here’s the difference: Unlimited actually nailed the three pillars of CCG success. No gimmicky dice, no fiddly side mechanics, just a straight-up, classic collectible card game. FFG followed a tried-and-true model like they had a copy of The Jedi Path propped open on the table.
The result is a well-balanced, well-supported game that wears the Star Wars theme like a perfectly tailored robe. Every detail feels polished, every release has hit its mark, and the game hums along with the confidence of a Jedi Master. By all practical measures, Unlimited is CCG perfection.
Star Wars Unlimited knows its audience. If you are going to launch a starter set for a Star Wars Game, your opening play is a duel between the two most famous characters in the setting. This was a fantastic starter set, even if you don’t plan to collect Unlimited, its worth getting. It’s that good!
And yet… here’s where the holocron cracks. For all its precision, Unlimited doesn’t really have that wild spark of uniqueness that sets it apart in any way. There are no dice rolling across the table, no risky design choices, no “wow” factor that makes you stop and say, THIS is what makes this game special. Instead, it feels like Magic: The Gathering, just dressed in Star Wars robes.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic design. I enjoy it, I collect it, and I’ll happily sit down for a game when the opportunity arises. But I don’t wake up at night plotting new deck builds like I did with Destiny or find myself agonizing over deck-building problems like in Lord of the Rings LCG. Unlimited is a reliable, polished, and thoroughly fun game, but it doesn’t break the mold in any way; in fact, it’s using the most traditional CCG mold there is.
Destinity vs. Unlimited
Alright, the cards are on the table, the dice have been rolled, and the time has come to declare a winner.
And the winner is… Star Wars: Destiny!
Now, hear me out. The logic is simple: if I’m reaching for a game right now, between these two, Destiny is the one I grab.
It’s flawed, no one’s denying that. But it’s also unique, risky, and downright fun. Destiny brought something to the table that no other CCG did: dice. Rolling those chunky, shiny dice, seeing what the Force decides… it’s unpredictable, it’s exciting, and it’s exactly the kind of chaos a Star Wars game should embrace.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Unlimited. It’s polished, dependable, and a joy to play. This isn’t a duel to the death between two CCGs, I’ve got at least a dozen on my shelf, and there’s room in this galaxy for all of them.
When I reach for a CCG, I want something special. Something that separates it from the cookie-cutter card games that populate the universe. Destiny has that spark, Unlimited I don’t thing does. There have been plenty of games like Unlimited, but there’s never been anything like Star Wars Destiny before, and there hasn’t been anything like it since. One of a kind. Risky. A little chaotic. That’s why, in my book, Destiny still rules the galaxy.
