Two Player Games to Play with Your Significant Meeple

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a pair in possession of a date night, must be in want of a board game.”

If a board game is your go-to entertainment when you get together with a group, it makes sense that you would reach for one on a date night with your significant other. 

But not all board games play well for just two people. One of my recent favorites — Flip 7 — is best for three or more folks, and is actually great with a large group. As much as I want to make my husband play the Bridgerton edition of Love Letter, that’s a tough one to pull off with just two of us.

So for Valentine’s Day, what is arguably the datiest night of the year, board games that are meant for just two make the perfect third wheel.

“You and me and the board game makes three tonight.”

Fog of Love

In Fog of Love, you create a fictional character and play out a love story over a series of chapters and love scenes — sweet, serious or dramatic. You have trait goals you’re working towards that are secret from your partner, and you make choices during scenes that improve your satisfaction or cause you to place personality tokens, hopefully working toward your trait goals and a destiny card in your hand.

Fog of Love is so much fun on several levels. If you’re in a long-term relationship, you have the opportunity to roleplay in a playful way, and act out stories and scenarios that are probably foreign to your actual relationship.

At the same time, you probably have a good idea of how your partner will choose in certain scenes, or can guess their assigned trait goals. 

For those in a new relationship, it’s a cute way to spend some time together and hone your storytelling abilities.

Lacuna

When you want to give your love flowers, give them Lacuna.

I’ve written about Lacuna before.

First, you get to chaotically dump wooden flower tokens onto a silk kerchief. Romance, amirite?

Then, you place your romantic metal pawns in between flowers of matching colors to create an invisible line and claim those flowers. Finally, any unclaimed flowers when you’re out of pawns sexily go to the player who has the closest pawn.

Okay, so I’m really stretching the romance of the game, but it’s honestly just a visually appealing game for two that also involves silk. That’s like the start of all of the Shades of Grey books, I’m pretty sure.

The winner is the player who claimed the most colors along the way, but really, we’re all winners for the memories we made along the way.

Sail

What will your partner do in the face of a giant sea-kraken, sea salt spraying their eyes and the roar of a storm on the horizon? 

You can find out in Sail, a cooperative trick-taking game that pits two pirates against a wrathful old one and a vengeful sea.

You’ll try to pair certain symbols in the cards you play with your partner to undertake actions that will move the ship forward or deal damage to the kraken. You’ll have to try to anticipate your partner’s intentions without communicating, otherwhile you’ll end up in Davy Jones’ locker.

Sail gives a certain je ne sailor quoi to cooperative gameplay. If you appreciate giant, oceanic monsters as much as I do, working with a loved one to flee or fight them will give you the kind of swashbuckling butterflies that remind you why you fell in love in the first place.

boop.

At first glance, boop. may not seem like the ultimate date night game.

You each begin with kitten pawns, booping each other one space away as you place pawns on the bed. Line up three of your kittens in a row, and they graduate into cats. Line up three cats in a row, and you win the game. It’s not easy, though — your opponent is booping your kittens and cats around, and even off the bed!

Knocking cats off a bed may not sound like a typical Valentine’s Day game for you and your lover, but when you’ve been married 13 years, it’s not hard to pretend that last little “boop” was revenge for the theft of the blankets last night, or the unmitigated snoring that kept you awake at 3 a.m.

boop. is the kind of teasing fun you can get away with after years of affectionately learning each other’s little quirks, and a perfect game for a strategy-minded couple looking for some cute mischief.

Regardless of the game or activity you choose this Valentine’s Day, I hope you get to spend time with the ones you love!