BY SAGGYHEAD
SANTO DOMINGO
Stefan Risthaus
2-6 Players
20-30 mins
Age 8+
Santo Domingo is a small box euro game where each player has the exact same starting hand of cards. Everyone plays simultaneously, and you are trying to outfox your opponents by playing your cards cleverly to gain resources and victory points. There are three resource tracks in the game, these show you how many of each resource are up for grabs that round.
Each round everyone plays two cards from their hand face down at the same time and they are all revealed together. The cards are numbered 1 to 8 and each have different powers. The cards each have differing powers, but the reward you get will depend on where the counter is on the tracker at the time, and who else played the same card as you. If both of you play your number 1 Captain card, which allows you to split the available victory points. You might get half as many VPs as you were expecting, so playing cards at the right time is imperative. If you want a small box game with a whole host of eyes up crunch, then take a look at this one!
HANAMIKOJI
Kota Nakayama (中山 宏太)
Age 10+
2 Players
15 mins
In many two player games, it is important to keep one eye on what your opponent is doing, but sometimes that heads up approach is really the whole game! In Hanamikoji, you are trying to win the favour of either four geishas or to win the favour of geisha with a combined point value of 11 or more.
Each player has four action tokens per round, these all are different, one lets you burn a card, some are I split you choose type actions. You take turns to use up all four of your action tokens, laying cards down on either side of the geisha row. At the end, the player who has played the most cards for a geisha will win the favour of that geisha and the favour token will move towards that player. If it is a tie then the token will not move (which may mean you manage to retain favour).
You keep playing this cat and mouse game until one player has reached the win condition. This is a tug of war style game with a small setup time, small box size and small price tag. If you often find yourself playing at two, and want an eyes up experience which is ALL about you guessing what your opponent will do next, then perhaps this one is for you!
MANCALA
Unknown
Age 5+
2 Players
10 mins
Mancala is one of the first non-mass-produced games that I learnt how to play. My parents used to love games that used glass beads as counters, and mostly were bought at the House of Marbles. We used to go there a lot, and wow it was such a cool place. I never used to really play a game with the marbles I collected over the years, but I loved owning them.
Mancala is an ancient two-player game where you are trying to capture as many of your own and your opponents stones into your “home-y”. The person with the most stones in their score cup wins. You each start with four glass beads in each of the cups on your side and you must decide which cup to take all the beads from and drop one into each cup moving clockwise. If your last bead lands in an empty cup on your side, you capture all the opponent’s stones in the cup directly opposite. The game ends once one player cannot make any more moves.
If you want a game that will look good on a coffee table, and can be played with two easily in ten minutes, then check out Mancala.
