31 March 2025
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Four fantastic head-to-head board games – those games that invoke such competitiveness between just two players, and give you the biggest feelings of accomplishment when you win.
Written by Mae Funnel
Unmatched
Unmatched answers questions you didn’t know you needed asking, such as who would win in a fight between Bigfoot or a T-Rex? It’s a head-to-head two-player skirmish game that you can play with up to four players but arguably, the newer cooperative Unmatched: Tales to Amaze is better at that count. Pick your characters of any combination from the sets they offer, put your minis on the playerboard, shuffle your player decks and you’re ready to begin.
The game itself is simple – play cards from your hand in clever ways to combo your turns and take advantage of your character’s asymmetrical ability. Every deck is made up of a combination of the same cards, and yet manages to thematically reflect each of the different characters using superb art and slight changes in card text.
For example, play as the raptors and deal more damage on attacks for the more Raptors minis you have surrounding your victim, or play as the Invisible Man and move freely between fog tokens you’ve added to the board.
There are box sets and expansions galore to choose from and the variation comes with the different characters, playing around with each of their decks, manoeuvring, drawing cards and scheming. You win by outlasting your opponent in battle, needing to reduce their health dial to zero before they do the same to you.
This creates these defensive dances during play with a push-your-luck element, knowing when to time manoeuvring away to be able to draw cards you know are in your deck somewhere, or holding your ground and hoping that one defence card left in your hand will be enough to keep you alive till next round…Where you can make the final blow.
Related article: The Best 2 Player Games
Splendor Duel
The two player specific version of the classic Splendor, and my now preferred version of the game and is certainly superior to playing Splendor at two is Splendor Duel. You’re picking up lines of up to three gems from a shared board, and spending them to collect cards to build up your tableau, giving you permanent gems to spend on future turns, with the added secondary game of outlasting your opponent to make them replenish the board that’s oh so satisfying (gaining you a privilege in the process.)
There are now three different end scoring criteria: collect ten crown symbols found on various cards, or have 20 points, or 10 points on cards on gem colour.
The privilege tokens, new to this variant, add a catch-up mechanism where you’re able to spend one in addition to your turn to draw any token from the board, as well as the clever use of only two new pearls gems in the game, which are needed to pay for so many cards (and preventing a runaway leader).
Or, you could forgo drawing from the board on your turn to pick up a wild gold token and reserve any card of your choice, preventing the other player from now having access to it.
This is a great head-to-head game and the best two-player tableau builder I know, where you’re constantly trying to keep aware of what the other player is doing to try and anticipate what tokens they’re going to take, what cards they’re working towards, and how many points they have. It means it’s wholly engaging for both players throughout.
Related Article: What are Duel and Duet Games?
Courtesans
The newest release on this list, this 2-5 player game shines at two and I wouldn’t play it at any other player count. It’s simple, and yet your ability to mess with one another is delicious. You have three courtier cards in your hand at the start of your turn and play them to either a central court, in front of you, or in your opponent’s player area. That’s it.
Where you play your cards matters, as if they’re played above the tapestry-like mat at the queen’s table means that faction is ‘esteemed’, and under the mat means they’ve ‘fallen from grace’.
That’s a fancy way of saying that the number of cards in the colours family will score either positive or negative points depending on if there are more above or below the table at the end of the game. Lastly, any cards in front of anyone from ‘esteemed’ families score a point.
This sounds very simple, but the four special roles scattered within the deck add a layer of bluffing and head game that keeps the game coming back to the table time and time again. There are nobles who count as two cards, spies who are played down and only revealed at the end of the game, assassins who, when played to an area, take out a card of your choosing, and guards who are immune to being assassinated.
The production quality is fantastic, the cards have a metallic shine and the small differences in art between the special cards carrying daggers or shields are a very nice touch. The game is fast-paced and impressed me with how much you can influence how your opponent scores by either playing negative points straight in front of them, or by placing cards that change that stack of previously positive scoring cards into negative.
Radlands
A two-player post-apocalyptic duelling card game where you’re trying to destroy your opponent’s three base camps first is bound to be a winner. Your choice in camps matters as they’re the abilities you have access to during the game and also determine your starting hand size, giving you tactical decisions straight off the bat, and forcing you to balance the better actions with a decent number of starting cards.
Radlands is all about the multi-use cards, drawn from a shared deck. You might be playing them down onto your player grid as characters, discarding them for an ability in their top left, playing events onto the event tracker or at the very least playing them face down as a ‘punk’ which can provide a very helpful temporary shield to a valuable card you’re trying to protect.
In this wasteland, you use water as the currency to pay to play cards & activate their effects. Water is scarce, which is hugely thematic, leaving you struggling to do everything you want to each round, you’re trying to maximise your actions as what you do & when you do it matters.
The design choices in this game bring it to life, like the smoothness of drawing the water tower card to your hand so you don’t forget you have an extra one to spend on your turn. The phenomenal psychedelic Mad Max style art gives the game such table presence, the deluxe edition is phwooar (that’s the technical term) and while not 100% necessary to play, the playmats are functional and elevate the game, making it easier to visually see where your card rows are.
There’s something satisfyingly ominous watching your raid card edge closer to your opponent each round – and it feels like such an achievement when you take out the other players’ last base, especially when you can both see it coming.
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