Two Player Reviews - Patchwork, Lost Cities: The Board Game, Sky Team

 On Usual Play

My wife, Sarah, and I are usually playing games together most nights, so we generally look for games that fit well with a two-player theme or player count, so it was a delight for us to borrow a few games from friends, one with a distinctly two-player bent to it. I know in the last year or so, there have been quite a few games that have released a "duel" variant of the game, limiting play to two people only. While many might find this frustrating, with Sarah and I generally playing games at two players for now, this fits our specific needs quite well.

I thought I'd take some time today to review a few games that we borrowed from friends that we've attempted to play two-person and give some perspectives on what it's like versus what I expect that a higher player count would offer. What's been most interesting to me is that Sarah and I have very different opinions on a few of the games, so I will include some of her perspective on them as well.

Patchwork

Release Year: 2014
Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
Publisher: Lookout Games
Mechanics: Grid Coverage, Income, Open Drafting, Rondel, Square Grid, Tile Placement, Turn Order: Stat-Based, Turn Order: Time Track, Victory Points as a Resource
Josiah's Score and Thoughts: 8.0 - I personally liked this little game as it is not only quick to set up, but also play. There's nothing mechanically deep with Patchwork, but sometimes simplicity is clever in it's own right. While I'm not terribly certain that I'd go out of my way to purchase the game myself, I know that I wouldn't turn down a copy of the game for my collection. It's a nice and relaxing way to end the night and I often find myself stumped by my decisions that I have to make during the game as Sarah has chosen a piece that I wanted or got one of the leather pieces before I did. The catchup mechanic is interesting too and I think it's nicely implemented in the game to allow for neither player to overtake the other person in pieces taken. If this feels and plays like many other "duel" games, I'm definitely interested to see how they play in comparison.
Sarah's Score and Thoughts: 8.25 (She said "between 8 and 8.5") - "It's because it's easy to setup and teardown, but also challenging" - Sarah spends most of the day at home taking care of our daughters so at the end of the day, sometimes it's nice for her to have a lighter game that is able to be set up and played without too much depth to it. As we've played more and more games, she's tended towards the lighter games, but still surprises me on occasion with a deeper game that she likes (like Everdell).

Lost Cities: The Board Game

Release Year: 2008
Designer: Reiner Knizia
Publisher: KOSMOS
Mechanics: Hand Management, Open Drafting, Set Collection
Josiah's Thoughts and Score: 7.5 6.5 - I certainly liked the board game significantly better than Lost Cities as the board game added more objectives to work towards and the randomization of scrolls added up to a different experience. It still maintained the same feeling of the card game, but overall, I found that it was slightly more mechanically deep and more enjoyable for me than the card game. I do also appreciate how it has both a long and short version of the game for those that don't want to spend 30-40 minutes on the game and prefer a quicker 15-20 minute game. It's not enough for me to really want to own the game, but I wouldn't turn down a game of it. [edit] After replaying the game for a third time, I realized that I wasn't as much as a fan of the luck of the draw mechanic as I had thought. It just didn't sit right with me as I could prepare for a move and yet never get the right card for it, knocking a point off the score for me.
Sarah's Thoughts and Score: 8.0 - When we were discussing Lost Cities: The Board Game, Sarah mentioned that she really enjoyed the nature of having to play cards in ascending order. She also liked how the different scrolls on the board were randomized each game, which resulted in a different feel for each game as we played it. There's enough to think about to make it slightly deep, but not too much that she has to overanalyze every possibility to ensure she's making a good move.

Bonus game that has been played by myself and my buddy Anthony but has not been played with Sarah and I:

Sky Team

Release Year: 2023
Designer: Luc Rémond
Publisher: Scorpion Masqué
Mechanics: Communication Limits, Cooperative Game, Dice Rolling, Scenario / Mission / Campaign Game, Worker Placement with Dice Workers
Josiah's Thoughts and Score: 6 - I feel like I'm being contrarian with this one, but I just didn't enjoy Sky Team as much as it had been hyped up to be. I did like the tension that was built throughout the game, but it just missed the landing for me (pun intended). The idea of rolling and then placing dice is fun, but even after several games, it just didn't stick in my mind as something that I'd love to play again and again. Sure there's a "campaign" you can go through, but if I'm going to play the game, it's probably going to be with Sarah and I can't see this being something that she would like. I felt ok about it after each play so I'm not really certain this is the game for me. That isn't to say that I wouldn't play a game of Sky Team if offered; I just probably wouldn't be the first person to suggest it and I'd only play with the right person. That's why I gave it a "6" versus the quality of the game being bad.
Anthony's Score and Thoughts: 9 - "I love the idea of being able to finish the game in a quick time before my kids go to bed. There's also an amount of tension that is prevalent throughout the game that is fantastic. And it has a fun campaign..." I will also note here that Anthony tends to not have too much time to play games at the end of the day and thus likes to have a quicker game that he can get into and through versus a longer game like I prefer.

This is a shorter post today as we haven't had too much opportunity to play many games that are designed around two players, but I do play a good portion of games with a player count of 2 (I also play a lot of solo games but that's not what this post is about!). Therefore, I'm trying to come up with some reviews of games from a perspective of someone who plays most games that way since player count can affect how games feel.

Some games are designed with that player count in mind and others are not, so I'm trying to give a wide perspective on them by offering several reviews from those perspectives and really come at it from two separate angles: my own perspective, and the partner that I played with (be it wife or friend). I'll probably do a series on the games that I've played with Sarah over the next few weeks to review and analyze things from both our perspectives to really give a variety of games that I talk about. Additionally, since I've played quite a few games in two-player count with my friend Anthony, I'll probably intersperse some thoughts and games from him with these reviews as well.

Give me your thoughts: I personally try to let hype for something die down before I try it (or read/watch it) so I can form my own opinion of the product. What are your thoughts on popular games? Do you try them if they're all over BGG (or the news?)? What are some great two-player games that you've played this last year? Are there any games that are built around a larger player count that you feel work better with a smaller count?

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*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 21/6/2024*