Category: 1-2 Player Games

Battle Line: Medieval

| T3d-1978

This new re-themed version of Battle Line is a two-player strategy card game built around the theme of Medieval warfare. This re-themed version of Battle Line features 60 beautiful new cards by illustrator Roland MacDonald, as well as 10 full-color tactics “wildcards” that give players extra flexibility and choices and help make each new battle wildly different from the last.

Battle Line takes about 30 minutes to play. To win, you must create powerful formations along your side of the line of battle that are superior to those of your enemy. Victory goes to the player who wins 5 of the 9 battle flags (an envelopment) or three adjacent flags (a breakthrough). Based on Reiner Knizia’s original design published in Germany as Shotten-Totten, Battle Line enhances and expands that game system to give players even more tactical options and gut-wrenching decisions.

Battle Line places you in command of your army’s strategies. How will you muster your formations? Will you use your powerful KingsGuard to vanquish your enemy, or perhaps send the King of England or France to the front to win a critical flag? Or perhaps you”ll rely on your spies to determine the enemy”s strengths and weaknesses before committing your best forces. You’ll always have plenty of choices. With every card play, you’ll determine the strength and direction of your attack while plotting to fend off your enemy’s advances.

In Battle Line, you and your opponent lead the combined arms of the greatest units of the era. Will you, like the great Kings of yore, reign supreme? Play Battle Line, and find out.

Game Mechanics:

  • Card Play Conflict Resolution
  • Hand Management
  • Melding and Splaying

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.85

Azul Duel

| T3d-1978

Decorate the magnificent ceilings of the palace. Will the vaults look more beautiful by day or by night? Azul Duel invites you to play with light and pit opposites against each other.

This competitive strategic game for two players retains the purity and elegance of the original Azul while adding an extra tactical dimension in which you determine the pattern in which tiles will be placed, in addition to drafting tiles to complete that pattern.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.42

Aleph Null 🟢

| T3d-1978

As a successful Magician, you have been able to fund a lifetime of research by delivering to the petty demands of liars, philanderers, gluttons and the least of Humanity.

How refreshing, then, when a client should emerge with a commission of horrifying simplicity that has the potential for acquiring a vast amount of knowledge – perhaps the ultimate knowledge – albeit at the expense of many millions.

“Release the denizens of Hell into the Earth, with Baphomet – The Sabbath Goat – at their Head, for one night only and let them run amok. Let us see the consequences – for aesthetic reasons only, of course.”

However, do not expect this matter to proceed without interference from the Church and/or from Hell itself: the best-laid plans do not always go the way expected.

Inspired by the Black Easter novellas by James Blish, the aim of Aleph Null is to successfully summon the demonic Prince Baphomet who, when he appears, expects there to be no cards in your hand, the main deck and the discard pile; if there are any cards remaining in these ‘zones’, you lose. However, ‘not losing’ in this way doesn’t mean that you have won: any cards still in play also count against you – too many and you shall lose also. The sooner you ‘win’, the better your chance of surviving any due punishment.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Once-Per-Game Abilities
  • Physical Removal
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Sudden Death Ending
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 1 Player
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.70

300: Earth & Water 🟢

| T3d-1978

Step back into history during the Greco-Persian war as you and a friend choose a side in this historic conflict. Will you be the great Persian Empire, seeking to maintain its hold over the eastern Mediterranean, or the Greeks rallied around Athens, defending your home? In this card driven game, you will raise armies, play events, and maneuver your troops to defeat the other player and claim victory for youself!

Game Mechanics:

  • Card Driven
  • Dice Rolling
  • Point to Point Movement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.36

Air, Land, and Sea: Critters at War 🔵

| T3d-1978

In Air, Land & Sea: Critters at War, two players vie for control over each theater of war by playing cards and strategically utilizing their special abilities to win battles. Whoever gains the most victory points over several battles wins the war!

Gameplay is the same in this standalone game as in Air, Land & Sea, but with 100% critters and more vibrant colors.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Hand Management
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.70

A Little Wordy 🔵

| T3d-1978

From the award-winning, best-selling creators of Exploding Kittens and Throw Throw Burrito, A Little Wordy is a fresh and ridiculously clever take on the genre of tile-based word-unscrambling games.

Here’s how it works: You’re each given a pile of letters. Rearrange your letters until you come up with a word. Be sneaky and choose a word that your opponent won’t easily guess.

Write it down, keep it a secret. Rescramble your tiles, pass them to your opponent. The goal is to examine your opponent’s tiles and try to figure out their word. You do this with Clue Cards. These tell you things such as: what’s the first letter, how long’s the word, or what does it rhyme with? You win by using as FEW of these clue cards as possible to figure out what word your opponent wrote down.

It’s thoughtful, strategic, highly-replayable, and built specifically for two players. It’s not a game about having the mightiest vocabulary – it’s a game about making clever choices.

The longest, most complicated word isn’t always the best choice. Sometimes, picking a smaller, common word is better because your brainiac opponent will overthink things and blaze right past it. Trying to figure out your opponent’s secret word can be both hilarious and (delightfully) maddening. A Little Wordy levels the playing field against veteran word wizards.

Game Mechanics:

  • Tile Placement
  • Word Game

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 5 – 15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.09

Chess

| T3d-1978

Chess is a two-player, abstract strategy board game that represents medieval warfare on an 8×8 board with alternating light and dark squares. Opposing pieces, traditionally designated White and Black, are initially lined up on either side. Each type of piece has a unique form of movement and capturing occurs when a piece, via its movement, occupies the square of an opposing piece. Players take turns moving one of their pieces in an attempt to capture, attack, defend, or develop their positions. Chess games can end in checkmate, resignation, or one of several types of draws. Chess is one of the most popular games in the world, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments. Between two highly skilled players, chess can be a beautiful thing to watch, and a game can provide great entertainment even for novices. There is also a large literature of books and periodicals about chess, typically featuring games and commentary by chess masters.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Grid Movement
  • Pattern Movement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • Variable Time
  • Difficulty Weight 3.68

Caverna Cave vs. Cave

| T3d-1978

In the two-player game Caverna: Cave vs. Cave, each player starts the game with only two dwarves and a small excavation in the side of a mountain. Over the course of eight rounds, they’ll double their workforce, open up new living space in the mountain, construct new buildings and rooms in which to live, and dig for precious metals.

In more detail, each player starts the game with an individual player board that’s covered with a random assortment of face-down building/room tiles and only one space. Some tiles are face up and available for purchase at the start of play. Four action tiles lie face up as well. At the start of each of the eight rounds, one new action tile is revealed, then players alternate taking actions, with the number of actions increasing from two up to four over the course of the game. As players excavate their mountainous player board, new building and room tiles are added to the pool; some rooms can be used immediately when acquired, whereas others require the use of an action tile.

After eight rounds, players tally their points for buildings constructed and gold collected to see who wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 2 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.56

Bushido

| T3d-1978

Bushido is a game of dueling martial artists, testing their training against one another. One shall prevail and prove their techniques superior. The other will return to studying until they are strong enough to win.

Players begin with a card draft which represent the training of their fighters.

After training players play a series of round wherein they play technique cards from their hands, or change their guards, in order to create a pool of combat dice which they hope to use to strike their opponent or defend their attacks.

In this game damage escalates quickly so players must be able to block, evade, and strike simultaneously to try and keep the momentum of the encounter in their favor.

The game ends when one warrior has bested the other.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small 🟢

| T3d-1978

Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is a new take on Uwe Rosenberg’s Agricola designed for exactly two players and focused only on the animal husbandry aspect of that game. So long plows and veggies!

In Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, you become an animal breeder of horses, cows, sheep and pigs and try to make the most of your pastures. Players start with a 3×2 game board that can be expanded during play to give more room for players to grow and animals to run free. Sixteen possible actions are available for players to take, with each player taking three actions total in each of the eight rounds.

The player who amasses the most victory points through enclosing space with fences and acquiring the largest number and variety of animals and victory point-generating buildings will be the winner.

Four Standard Buildings and 4 special buildings are available in the base game. These buildings each provide unique special abilities during play and/or VP at game end. Balancing the tension between building infrastructure (fenced pastures and buildings) and acquiring animals (the single biggest source of end-game scoring) is the key to success!

Game Mechanics:

  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.35