If she is not a heavy gamer, I would say 7 Wonders: Duel over Castles of Burgundry. 7W:D is definitely more in the “stepup from Jaipur” class, but not yet in the hard euro land where I would see CoB – the structure of 7W:D lends itself to surprise victories and shenanigans that even give a less experienced gamer a chance to fight their opponent and see cool combos and plays. I’ve played it around 40 times now with my wife and can therefore say that it’s replay value is quite high – the variability of setup is quite good for that. It’s definitely a very good 2 player game, to me one of the best. And well, the setup is just so super fast, you don’t really mind to pull it out – no dreaded “man, I have to sort through stuff now to build play decks” or whatever shenanigans some games come up with. It’s more or less “topple over box, push some stuff around and you are ready to go”.

If she is not a heavy gamer, I would say 7 Wonders: Duel over Castles of Burgundry. 7W:D is definitely more in the “stepup from Jaipur” class, but not yet in the hard euro land where I would see CoB – the structure of 7W:D lends itself to surprise victories and shenanigans that even give a less experienced gamer a chance to fight their opponent and see cool combos and plays. I’ve played it around 40 times now with my wife and can therefore say that it’s replay value is quite high – the variability of setup is quite good for that. It’s definitely a very good 2 player game, to me one of the best. And well, the setup is just so super fast, you don’t really mind to pull it out – no dreaded “man, I have to sort through stuff now to build play decks” or whatever shenanigans some games come up with. It’s more or less “topple over box, push some stuff around and you are ready to go”.

Something I like in that broad area of “conquest games” is 1775, especially since it can easily play 2 or 4 players (with 4 it is a team game, which is perfect if the other two people you play with are more of the casual kind, as you can each team up with one of the “noobs” easily). It is kinda like a card-assisted/driven variant on Risk, just with much more handleable play time and lots of fun. It obviously is about the american revolution.

If you stick to two players, another one would be Wir sind das Volk about the ideological and economic fight between west and east germany from 1949 to 1989. Again, it is kinda card driven, with cards denoting events in the history of germany being played for effects or economic points, both sides trying to get the other side down (or in the case of the east usually more like trying to survive). Very interesting game play, very unlike other games I played, but still gives a strong “conquest” vibe (allthough obviously you don’t really concquer, but just expand your economy). Despite the name, it’s both in english and german.

And Polis: Fight for the Hegemony is another one that could work, this time about the fights between Sparta and Athens. Again only two player, though. But again not too deep (unlike a full-blown war game) but more leaning towards euro games with historic war theme integrated into the system.

All three games share that the sides are asymmetric, so playing as one side feels quite different from the other side (WsdV has the biggest asymmetry, though). All three games are on the borders from euro games to war games, which I feel is much more like PC concquest games than actual war games, which usually put much more burden on the player due to much more special rules for thematic reasons. War games can sometimes feel much more like study than like playing. The wuro (war-euro) games give a much quicker pace, while still keeping the theme (at least for me) intact.

Something I like in that broad area of “conquest games” is 1775, especially since it can easily play 2 or 4 players (with 4 it is a team game, which is perfect if the other two people you play with are more of the casual kind, as you can each team up with one of the “noobs” easily). It is kinda like a card-assisted/driven variant on Risk, just with much more handleable play time and lots of fun. It obviously is about the american revolution.

If you stick to two players, another one would be Wir sind das Volk about the ideological and economic fight between west and east germany from 1949 to 1989. Again, it is kinda card driven, with cards denoting events in the history of germany being played for effects or economic points, both sides trying to get the other side down (or in the case of the east usually more like trying to survive). Very interesting game play, very unlike other games I played, but still gives a strong “conquest” vibe (allthough obviously you don’t really concquer, but just expand your economy). Despite the name, it’s both in english and german.

And Polis: Fight for the Hegemony is another one that could work, this time about the fights between Sparta and Athens. Again only two player, though. But again not too deep (unlike a full-blown war game) but more leaning towards euro games with historic war theme integrated into the system.

All three games share that the sides are asymmetric, so playing as one side feels quite different from the other side (WsdV has the biggest asymmetry, though). All three games are on the borders from euro games to war games, which I feel is much more like PC concquest games than actual war games, which usually put much more burden on the player due to much more special rules for thematic reasons. War games can sometimes feel much more like study than like playing. The wuro (war-euro) games give a much quicker pace, while still keeping the theme (at least for me) intact.

Some smallish stuff new for me thus month: Oh my Goods is one I got as a travel game. Only played it solo so far (rules fir an automa approach on BGG), but quite fun. Will get more play, because of super fast setup and smallish space requirement. Next was Ohne Furcht und Adel, which I got for thise cases where our board game evening get a bit bigger than usual. So far only played two player with my wife, but we like it. And I got Yomi in German, played a few solo plays. It is fun and I hope to get some duels in, maybe get my wife to play it even. Biggest game new this month though was Leaving Earth, which I only played solo (and probably ever will only play solo). Fascinating game, heavy brain burner, with interesting theme. I like it, but it is a table hog in the base game allready, don’t want to think about playing the outer planet expansion. Game play feels a bit same-y sometimes, since what you do is often very repetetive, and it is the first game even I would call a bit mathy. Calculating multi-step missions from start to end with multiple rendevouz steps in between takes a bit getting used to. Still fun for me, but definitely a try-before-you-buy kinda game.

Some smallish stuff new for me thus month: Oh my Goods is one I got as a travel game. Only played it solo so far (rules fir an automa approach on BGG), but quite fun. Will get more play, because of super fast setup and smallish space requirement. Next was Ohne Furcht und Adel, which I got for thise cases where our board game evening get a bit bigger than usual. So far only played two player with my wife, but we like it. And I got Yomi in German, played a few solo plays. It is fun and I hope to get some duels in, maybe get my wife to play it even. Biggest game new this month though was Leaving Earth, which I only played solo (and probably ever will only play solo). Fascinating game, heavy brain burner, with interesting theme. I like it, but it is a table hog in the base game allready, don’t want to think about playing the outer planet expansion. Game play feels a bit same-y sometimes, since what you do is often very repetetive, and it is the first game even I would call a bit mathy. Calculating multi-step missions from start to end with multiple rendevouz steps in between takes a bit getting used to. Still fun for me, but definitely a try-before-you-buy kinda game.