Best board games for couples 2024

A two-player version of the 2010 leviathan 7 Wonders, Duel puts couples in a tight race to build the most advanced civilization and gather the most points. When you can’t travel for an exotic, romantic getaway, what better alternative than a city-building resource management game for two?

Players will run through three eras, jostling to secure a win through either military or scientific development. You’ll also need to start building your four allotted Wonders, meeting all prerequisites, gathering resources and playing mind games.

Rather than choosing cards simultaneously, as the original 7 Wonders had you do, players take turns picking face-up and face-down cards from a central collection. You’ll have to work your way to the resources you most desperately need, hoping they aren’t snapped up by your opponent first.

Although tallying up your points at the end of a match can sometimes  be a bit of a mood killer, 7 Wonders: Duel makes up for this minor annoyance by offering tons of variation, and replayability, in each game. It’s a solid choice for repeat game nights, and is sure to keep you coming back for more.

For the full story, read our complete 7 Wonders Duel review.

Regularly hailed as one of the finest two-player board games of all time – and rightly so – Michael Kiesling’s Azul is a game that authentically delivers on that old cliché: a feast for the senses. The gorgeous, patterned tiles are endlessly pleasing to the eye, clack together satisfyingly in their bag, and give the game a calming energy – even when your partner has just beaten you three rounds in a row.

Azul is a drafting game that casts you and your opponent(s) / life partner(s) as rival interior decorators, vying to impress the King of Portugal with your breathtaking five-by-five-tile wall designs. You’ll take turns choosing your desired tiles from shared pools, then using your picks wisely to create the highest-scoring, matching patterns you can.

Better patterns mean more points, and the player with the most points wins. It’s quite the epitome of the ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ mantra that so many modern board games strive for.

Like some others on this list, Azul has become such a riotous success that it’s spawned several sequel-slash-expansions – each of which provides a fresh aesthetic flavour, and some minor twists on the key formula, built around the same gameplay core: drafting beautiful tiles to complete patterns.

Easy to learn, but much deeper than it looks, Azul deserves a spot on every shelf – and its combination of arresting aesthetics, creativity and tactile fun makes it a super-accessible, low-stress game for casual nights in.

For a more info, read our full Azul review.

First released in the far-flung misty past of the year 2000, Carcassonne is a stone-cold classic board game known and beloved by many. An incredibly easy-to-teach tile-laying game, it famously makes for an excellent ‘gateway game’ for couples relatively new to the board game hobby.

You’ll be placing down tiles that depict parts of cities, roads or abbeys, building up a map of southern France with each successive turn. As you try to gather territory, you can cooperate, or purposefully muck up each other’s building efforts, claiming areas to block your opponent.

There’s something incredibly involving about physically placing down tiles, while bantering with your partner, making Carcassonne an excellent couples’ bonding choice.

No matter if you choose to play together, or a bit dirty, this game (even after 21 years) is hard to put down. As one of the best gateway games ever, it’s still one of the ultimate go-to board games for first date shenanigans.

For a fuller picture, check out our Carcassonne review.

One of the best cooperative two-player board games you can find, Codenames: Duet is a frequent favorite for many couples. The two-player spin-off takes all the best elements from the Codenames series, and squeezes them into a sleek, faster-paced team-effort structure.

As in the original Codenames, players must work together to decode messages, giving each other one-word clues to safely identify hidden field agents, while avoiding the deadly assassin.

Handed a grid of cards, each labelled with a single word, players will take turns providing clues, trying to hint at which of the cards laid out in front of them represent their friendly agents.

But you’ll need to move swiftly. With only nine turns to find all 15 of your compatriots, you’ll need to hint at multiple cards with a single clue,  linking the disparate cards together with whatever tenuous connection you think best.

This easy card game comes with 200 new cards and a campaign option that adds a fair bit of replayability. The united effort to win, as well as the fun wordplay puzzle mechanic, makes Codenames: Duet a winning choice for any pair of partners in their date night activity.

In Wingspan, the players must compete to attract the best birds to their respective wildlife preservations. Whoever attracts not just the most birds, but the prettiest birds, of the right types and at the right times, may crown themselves the aviary king or queen.

The game is decided in four rounds, with elements of resource management and tactical cardplay. Typically, Wingspan is best played with 3 or more players – but 2022’s Asia Wingspan expansion acts as a fantastic stand-alone expansion four couples to play, thanks to its signature Duet Mode.

The rules are changed slightly to account for the lower player count, leading to a more map-based victory route. There’s also a bit more player freedom to compensate for the lack of other players.

For owners of the original Wingspan, adding the Asia expansion is a no-brainer – it adds another 90 bird cards, after all – but this little box has a life of its own as a two-player ‘expandalone’, and we strongly recommend it.

Onitama is a purely two-player game of abstract strategy between two martial arts masters. Each player has ten warrior monks – two Master pawns and eight Student pawns – at their disposal, and must guide them across the board towards victory.

Onitama benefits from a satisfying learning curve that’s deceptively simple at first, with your tactical options coming from randomly drawn movement cards. Victory comes one of two ways: either by capturing the opponent’s Master, or getting your own Master into your opponent’s Temple Arch space.

The small board space and high randomness of the cards mean Onitama is best played with tactical swiftness. Onitama punishes players who take too long thinking about what they must do next. It’s a game about seizing opportunity and punishing mistakes – making it the perfect dueling strategy game.

Throw yourself into the fury of a head-to-head quilting competition with this two-player tile game that’s halfway between Tetris and a nursing home (but in a really good way). You’ll be competing to create the finest, most commercially valuable quilt by snapping up stray patches of fabric and needling them together.

Patchwork‘s central tile-grabbing mechanics are simple enough. Each turn, you’ll be handed an array of oddly-shaped patches, which you can purchase if you pay their cost in buttons.

Once yours, you’ll be able to add the patch to your quilt to expand the burgeoning blanket. Take care, though, and be sure to arrange your patches tightly. The tiles won’t fit together neatly, and if you don’t think ahead, you’ll soon find that your glorious design is full of holes.

Some patches carry valuable buttons, too, which you’ll need to expand your quilt and earn points at the end of the game. Grab only those patches that fit snugly in your design, and you’ll soon run out of buttons; but let your greed get the better of you, and you’ll have a quilt so full of holes that you’ll be the embarrassment of the town.

Patchwork’s mix of Tetris-like tile placement and push-your-luck button grabbing does well to combine visual excitement with forward planning. Not tough on the noggin, and quick to play, it’s a great pick for couples after some breezy tabletop gaming.

Most two-player board games revolve around beating one’s opponent. Spirit Island sticks out – not only as a fully cooperative board game where the only way to win is together, but as one that’s complex, challenging, and refreshingly original in theme.

The players take on the role of animistic land-spirits, defending their home island from an escalating tide of colonial invaders. Each spirit has its own unique powers and mechanics, and, while all are powerful, all have costs and drawbacks too. Careful planning and timing is required to win – not to mention tough decisions and sacrifices.  It’s tough stuff.

Spirit Island is a game dripping with both variety and flavor, thanks to a wide array of cards, elements, and combinations to play. It’s also one that won’t be played the same way twice, since there’s a wide array of different factions to fight over each time (especially if you pick up the expansions).

Once you understand its complexities, Spirit Island is an incredibly rewarding cooperative experience.

Following up on the beloved hit Gloomhaven (long considered the best board game ever made) 2023’s heavy duty sequel Frosthaven sends you and your loved one on a perilous adventure to the eponymous, snowy town, deep in the frigid wastes in the North of the world.

As a small outpost, not much happens in this neck of the White Plains, but unfortunately, that’s soon to change. Your arrival coincides with disaster for Frosthaven, and you and your partner’s characters will have to muck in and help revive the town’s fortunes, by means of thrilling quests and adventures.

Despite the steep learning curve – on par with most crunchy, tactical tabletop RPGs – what comes next is one of the most dynamic and rewarding board game experiences ever. Frosthaven, much like a great Dungeons and Dragons campaign, offers an ever-shifting world that changes with each session.

In fact, it’s a lot like playing a a DnD campaign, without needing an omniscient Dungeon Master or (necessarily) more than two players – making it perfect for couples that want an absorbing fantasy tabletop adventure, without other people coming in to manage their chaos.

For more detailed info, read our full Frosthaven review.

One of our all-time favorite board games like Chess, Hive is a battle of wits and a great alternative for two players who love abstract strategy board games. By laying down hexagonal tiles decorated with different creepy crawlies, players compete to surround their opponent’s queen bee, without breaking up the pattern of tiles already placed down.

Each bug tile has its own moves and rules, and every play will leave you and your partner obsessing over possible new tactics – as well as all your previous mistakes.

However, like Chess or Go, Hive is one of those games you either have the feel for or you don’t, making it a useful temperature test when picking out a couples’ activity. If you and your significant other do get a taste for it, though, Hive will prove as addictive to you both as sweet, sweet nectar to a bee.

We’ve chosen to highlight the travel version, Hive Pocket, partly because its simple, compact design and handy little drawstring carry pouch lend themselves to the on-the-go tabletopper, but also because it includes the mosquito and ladybug expansions for even more tactical flavour.

For the unfamiliar, Ticket to Ride is one of the longest-running and most beloved modern train board games, first published in 2004. There have been many, many editions and expansions since then, with globetrotting adventures in Asia, Africa, and even the Old West.

In every version, however, players vie for control over the region’s railway systems, creating unbroken transport links between remote cities. The more cities they connect, the more targeted ‘routes’ they complete, and the closer they are to victory.

As player count increases, the routes start to get a bit chaotic, with players frantically trying to wrong-foot, second-guess, and outmaneuver each other to get where they want to go, while preventing their rivals doing the same. With only two players, that excitement sadly tends to deflate a little, with less necessity for direct confrontations.

Enter Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries! Unlike its predecessors, the Nordics edition has a more restrictive, challenging map that deliberately emphasizes aggressive gameplay and blocking opponents’ routes – perfect for a romantic railway-building duel.

Board games are the grandfather of all gaming – but modern ones have learned a lot from the evolution of their videogame kin. Exceed Fighting System brings fast-paced arcade action to the tabletop.

You can choose from a massive roster of both original creations and iconic video game characters. Characters from franchises like Street Fighter, Blazblue, and Shovel Knight are among the currently released seasons for Exceed.

From there, players must channel their inner esports players through their cards. Will they be a combo fiend, playing high risk to deal massive damage? Do they opt to hold onto powerful moves, playing defense until it’s time to punish? Or do they just want to throw fireballs?

These questions – typically reserved for EVO – are the mindset one needs to excel in the Exceed Fighting System. If you and your beloved are the type of couple that tends to settle your squabbles over a hard-bitten 1v1 on Mortal Kombat or Tekken, give Exceed a go next time.

A long-lived, prolific, and very popular episodic narrative card game with dozens of expansions available, AHTCG is possibly the best horror board game to grace the tabletop, and it’s one of the best card games ever made, period.

Arkham Horror combines the greatest elements of cosmic Lovecraftian literature into a rollicking adventure. Become an investigator on the twisted streets of Arkham, and unearth the phantasmal peculiarities that lie within its belly. So far, so Cthulhu board game.

Your foes will be insidious, your findings incomprehensible, and the dangers that lurk in the abyss will test your sanity. But your journey will be fabulous.

Each player takes the role of an investigator concerned with some mysterious happening in the city of Arkham. Journeying from location to location, you’ll investigate your surroundings, defend yourself from all manner of vile creatures, and progress through the scenario’s breadcrumb trail of clues towards its conclusion.

As much a game of survival as action, it does well to capture the psychological fantasy of the Cthulhu mythos in suitably cosmic narrative adventures. With a sizeable rulebook, this isn’t a game to quickly pick up and play. Be prepared to spend an evening on each adventure, and when you’ve mastered the basics, delve into the game’s light RPG elements to create a character-specific action deck.

Even better, your choices will have permanent effects on later scenarios, adding a lovely element of persistence to the world. A great pick if you love fabulously interactive storytelling.

The uncompromising wilderness of market trading might not be your first preference of theme when spending an evening in with your partner, but Jaipur’s colourful setting, and streamlined, push-your-luck gameplay, will have you both joyously profiteering like any good investor.

A competition to gain the Maharaja’s favour, this well-loved two-player board game (and renowned gateway game) pits you and your partner against one another, to buy, sell, and exchange your way into unbounded riches.

What makes Jaipur so brilliant is its simplicity. On your turn, you may either buy or sell – that’s it. Exchange cards from your hand for those revealed in the central marketplace, as you try to nab the most valuable goods, or collect any high-scoring camels that might wander into the bustling town square. And when you’ve accumulated a hefty portfolio, sell the goods for profit, discarding cards in exchange for valuable tokens.

But Jaipur’s financial incentives get a little juicer. You’ll get bonus rewards for selling multiple goods of the same type at once, encouraging you to bide your time and accumulate a fat stack before selling.

But, as the game progresses, the value of highly demanded goods will fall, pushing you to hawk your growing portfolio as quickly as possible. Players face the eternal struggle that meets all investors – do sell I now for an immediate reward, or wait out the market in the hope of a bigger return?

Quick to set up and a breeze to play, with matches lasting no more than half an hour, Jaipur works through its intuitive turn-to-turn gameplay. Although you’ll be focusing on amassing your own wealth, the changing central marketplace and dynamic value of goods add an element of player interaction.

You’ll be breathing a sigh of relief when your opponent leaves that essential card in the market for you to claim next turn, or be left to watch in horror as their exchange halves the value of your own hand. Simple, but addictive.

Check out our Jaipur board game review to find out more.

What’s more romantic than the threat of nuclear war? GMT’s infamously complicated two-player war board game Twilight Struggle is best known and loved among heavyweight wargamers, but, even if you’re more of a casual gamer generally, it’s worth your time to learn the rules to this one – especially if you’ve an interest in Cold War history.

Spanning the whole period from the post-WW2 territory scramble of 1945 through to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Twilight Struggle sees the Soviets battle the USA in a tug-of-war for control of territories across the globe.

YouTube channel RollforCrit manages to cram a tutorial into nine minutes, so you can watch that below to get a feel for it.

Gameplay is separated into three phases, offers tons of difficult decisions and even has a Defcon track measuring the impending threat of mutual annihilation, making Twilight Struggle feel like a vast, moving story that neatly simulates the ideological tension between the two countries.

The complexity and depth of Twilight Struggle have rightfully made its name as one of the best two-player board games of all time. If its reputation or gameplay don’t convince you of its date-night capabilities, just remember that a Cold War (while possibly leading to global devastation) is basically just another way for some good old-fashioned strategic flirting.

Ares Games’ epic, three-hour Middle-earth wargame bonanza is revered giant among two-player board games, and with good reason. But this one is definitely not for the faint of heart.

A complex, expansive two-player Lord of the Rings board game, it’s a perfect fit for experienced couples with plenty of free time, and it’s much prettier since the 2nd edition released in 2011, but – and we mean this – it ain’t for everyone.

Because, at its crux, War of the Ring succeeds by being an ingenious yet punishing experience, that will keep you and your partner coming back for more, even though the last game left you gibbering, scarred husks, and your living-room floor covered with orcs.

Here’s Shut Up And Sit Down’s iconic 2018 video review for a deeper visual dive:

In the battle of good versus evil, players fight for control of Middle-earth, moving forces (and/or hobbits) across a detailed board that will, in itself, be a visual pleasure to any Lord of the Rings fans. Its complexity and hard tactics may seem like too much at first, but soon you’ll realise these features make the game fun for partners.

After tasting defeat, you’ll find yourself obsessed with calculating different ways to win, staying up at night thinking about all the moves you could have tried to defeat Sauron’s forces, and ever more optimal ways you could (and should) have made your partner struggle harder.

If you can push through the first playthrough, and grasp the in-depth rules, there’s no better game than War of the Ring to shackle couples together as they continually puzzle out new ways to fight their way across Middle-earth.

First released in 2019, this clever, addictive political board game throws you and your partner into the thick of the 1972-74 Watergate scandal – one of the most dramatic episodes in American political history, represented in straightforward, yet very tense tug-of-war-style gameplay.

One player acts as the Nixon administration, scrambling to conceal their dirty deeds – the other as The Washington Post newspaper, on a mission to expose Tricky Dick’s dark doings to the eyes of the world.

Prolific YouTube tabletop game reviewer No Pun Included gave it a glowing review back in 2019 – you can watch that below.

Not only is Watergate an incredibly streamlined game that’ll grab you straight away;  it’s also a brilliantly-produced, atmospheric experience that does a good job of capturing the 1970s setting. The linen-finished cards, spider-web pinboard and characterful artwork featuring the big names of the day will be appreciated by any history-loving couple.

Watergate is a short, simple and consistently enjoyable game that we’re prepared to bet will have many players hooked after their first round.

This is a board game that’s all about relationships. You and your partner take on the role of a fictional couple, and it’s up to you to play out the story of their romance.

Like real relationships, the aim of Fog of Love isn’t necessarily to ‘win’ – this is a cooperative, immersive storytelling experience that encourages you to be creative, engage in dialogue, and simulate a real relationship.

The satisfaction of your fictional couple can change based on your decisions and dialogue, as can aspects of their personalities. In the end, you’ll discover this relationship’s destiny.

Will they stay together happily or unhappily? Is one person secretly a heartbreaker? Will a breakup happen, and why? This is an intense but intriguing game to try out with a partner.

There may be no secrets in a strong relationship, but a little mystery now and then never hurt – and you only have to check the podcast download charts to realise grisly true crime tales are more in vogue than ever.

For couples who love solving puzzles and devouring murder mystery games together, cracking cases through their combined ingenuity and deduction, we can’t recommend the Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective board game series strongly enough.

In each of these boxes, you’ll find a map of London, various newspapers, and a booklet filled with locations and notable persons’ statements. You’ll also find several scenarios – each of which is an unsolved mystery that the great detective himself has decided to delegate to you.

Together, you’ll need to pore over the game’s pages and read between the lines to solve the mysteries. Beating Sherlock to the perp is nigh-on impossible, but there’s a lot of satisfaction to be had in solving a case – and it’s an experience that’s even better when shared.