but it was a risk I was willing to take!
Oh covid… the monkey wrench you threw into my life. For those who know me, know that having a weekend at home with nothing to do rarely happens. If I am not working on an event, I am usually attending one, or travelling to new city or town to play.
I won’t lie the first 2 weeks back in March were great; I caught up on sleep, my husband remembered my name, and my dog realized two people actually do live at home! Ok – it wasn’t that bad – but you get the picture…
Fast forward 10 months, our province is on lockdown, so only essential trips to the grocery store is allowed, and obviously my industry is at a standstill. Finding things to occupy my time have been key to not completely losing my mind! All of our DIY projects around the house are completed, the weather has turned a tad colder, my bookshelf is getting bare, and if my husband gives me “that look” if I say I am bored one more time… things may get hairy
Enter in BOARD GAMES! Jesse (the aforementioned husband) and I have always been fans of board games. Fair warning – it gets competitive – not going to lie – but there have been “minor” fights about who won, “minor” disagreements how the other gloats when she always wins but overall it’s a common love for the two of us. We bring board games to my brother and sister in law’s place in Ottawa every time we visit (again gets competitive to the point we need to have a tally board), we invite friends over for dinner and game nights – but with Covid now reducing our circle to just your household – we have been having to find games that are fun just for the two of us (did anyone else’s head have Will Smith’s “Just the two of us” play in your mind…no?? How about now?)
I tend to support local rather than Amazon when we purchase our board games – I highly recommend Gaming Kingdom. They are located in Kanata, Ontario but they have a great online store and shipping is quick and seamless! They really know their stuff and have a huge catalogue of board games, video games, trading card games and more!
Ok I’ll stop talking. Here are my current 3 recommendations for games for two people (and a pooch).
Disney Villainous
Villainous allows players to take control of one of six Disney Villains, each one from a different movie. Each player has their own villain deck, fate deck, player board, and 3D character.
Each villain has their own devious objective to complete, and have unique abilities, as well as different strategies to twist and thwart your opponent’s objectives.
On each turn, the active player will move their character to a different location on their own player board, that location will dictate what type of actions can happen, they then refill their hand to four cards. Cards are allies, items, effects, conditions, and sometimes curses. Your cards will be key to fulfilling your evil plans.
The great thing about this game, is your strategy changes each time you play and your objective depends on the villain you choose. This game is great for two players – but can be played up to six.
Oh and the best part. They already have two expansions pack that allow for more characters to choose from (three per pack)
Order Disney Villainous here , and the expansion packs here
New York 1901
Who wants to time travel back in time, and build up New York City? Welcome to 1901 – a board game where you are commissioned to start building skyscrapers thought the financial district. This game reminds me of Ticket to Ride (train routes are replaced by skyscrapers, and the color of train is replaced with color of tile that you can build upon) Not only is it a fun game of strategy, but its fun to try and block your opponent from building or scoring additional points.
You first build bronze level buildings and then later in the game those buildings can be replaced by silver level and gold level buildings.
This is a game that keeps you on your toes, which street do I want to build upon, what shapes do I have left to use, how can I upgrade for my points, did I secure any extra points?
Catan – Rivals for Catan
We are huge fans of Catan, we have all the expansion packs, and it is always in our top 3 games to play with friends, so when we found out about this two player game we were excited to test it out.
In “Rivals for Catan” you are using cards – there are no longer tiles, houses and roads. Each player starts with two settlement cards connected by a road card, as well as your 4 region cards + 1 gold region card.
The region cards – lumber, brick, wheat, ore and gold all have dice rolls located in the middle, these will rotate should the dice roll result be favorable.
Each settlement is worth 1 victory point, and if you upgrade a settlement to a city, you receive another victory point.
The first player to have 7 (or more) victory points wins the basic game.
Just using settlements, and cities won’t be enough to win this version of Catan, it is also important to place heroes, build buildings and trade ships!
Start with the introductory game – it takes approx. 30 minutes to play, and will help provide the basics. Then you can move onto the challenges of the three theme sets (included), “The Era of Gold”, “Era of Turmoil”, and the “Era of Progress”. The winner gets to 12 victory points first.
Then once you have mastered the three theme sets, there is an expansion called the “Age of Darkness”, this will give you three new theme sets “Era of Intrigue”, “Era of Merchant Princes”, and “The Era of Barbarians”.
Well I hope you like today’s choices! There are a ton more in store, if there is a game you want some more info on – or that you like! Drop me a line below!
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