Several days ago, on some boardgame forum, I saw the question: if you could keep only two games, which two would you keep? It’s an interesting question. At first, it seemed like an easy question, but before choosing two games, I first had to decide how I’d choose. This proved far trickier than I thought, and it had a big impact on the two games I’d keep.
For example, I could just choose my current top-two games: Robinson Crusoe and Roll Player. A pretty solid choice, it seems to me. I enjoy both games, those are quite different in mechanisms and theme, and both have a lot of replayability left for me. So that’s that, right? Well… Both are pretty long, have a decent amount of setup, and are not particularly new gamer friendly. If I was always going to be playing with Natasha or Michael, these would probably suffice quite nicely. But, I often do a game night with family, and neither of these would likely work in that situation. Would I really want to choose these two and forego bringing games to family game night?
It’s worth a quick aside to point out the question doesn’t say I can only PLAY two games, just KEEP two, and it would be completely permissible under the parameters as asked for my family to provide games at game night, but then the loophole of just having someone else replace my entire collection and continue to have access to everything becomes available, rendering the decision pointless. For that reason, I chose to approach the answer from the perspective of keeping two games that would facilitate my hobby as currently constituted as much as possible.
Therefore, I need to keep a game that can be played at game night and act as a gateway game to new players. So, the combination of Robinson Crusoe and Roll Player won’t work. I must consider some lighter games.
Okay, lighter games – I have plenty of those. In fact, I have so many games just for this scenario that we haven’t even tried them all at game night yet. This should be easy… And it is: Pandemic. While I have several games that are tried and true gateways – Catan, Ticket to Ride, Small World, Mission Red Planet – there’s just nothing better, in my opinion, for family gatherings and introducing people to the hobby than Pandemic. It has never failed me in this scenario. Plus, it remains fun for me to this day. Everything about the game recommends it here: it plays four people; it is cooperative, which puts new gamers at ease and helps with rules explanation; the rules are fairly easy to understand; the theme comes through well and helps facilitate understanding; there’s great replayability by design and with in-box tweaks; turns are quick; it plays in a short enough period of time; and it’s a lot of fun.
This is easy, I pair the best lighter weight game, Pandemic, with my favorite game, Robinson Crusoe, and I have my two. That’s that. Right? Well… Two cooperative games? Shouldn’t I have a competitive game? Surely, I would want to compete against people occasionally (insert Leslie Nielsen joke here; you know the one). Would I ever choose Pandemic over Robinson when playing with Michael or Natasha? Probably not. That means half of my choices would only ever be played at game night. That doesn’t seem a very robust mix of gaming. Variety is the spice of life, after all. No, I’m afraid this just won’t do. If I’m choosing only two, I need a little more variety than two cooperatives that each will only be played with one group.
Obviously, there are two ways to go here: keep Pandemic or keep Robinson. If I keep Pandemic, I’d swap in my second favorite game, Roll Player. Roll Player and Pandemic. That’s a very good set of two games to keep. It gives me one competitive and one cooperative game, with very different themes, mechanisms, and feels to gameplay. Because they are so different, there’s a chance I’d choose to play Pandemic with Michael or Natasha, though Pandemic still feels like the weak link. Too weak? Maybe…
Another quick aside: honestly, I think I could live with that combination being my two games. Both are great, both would get played, and it wouldn’t leave many holes in the collection – so far as any two-game collection wouldn’t have holes. This is a perfectly fine choice for me and, in some big picture, omniscient, big-T-truth sort of way, could very well be the right choice. However…
What if I kept Robinson Crusoe, instead? I’d get to keep my favorite game, a plus, and I’d still have a cooperative game, so I can keep one of each type if I choose a competitive lighter game, of which there are many. I’m liking this idea just slightly more.
What would I substitute in for Pandemic? Choosing one of the aforementioned lighter games would eliminate the redundancy of two cooperative games, but I don’t actually like any of them as much as Pandemic. Would I ever choose one of those when playing with Michael or Natasha? Back to that problem again. So, ideally, what I need is: a competitive game that plays four or more people, is easy enough to teach to our families and new gamers, isn’t too long, and that I enjoy enough to play with Natasha and Michael. Easy?
No, but not impossible. There are three games that I think make good candidates; and much like I said before about Roll Player and Pandemic, I think I could be happy with any one of the following combinations with Robinson Crusoe.
The first is Dice Throne. It’s competitive, easy to teach, quick, and tons of fun. The mechanisms, theme, and feel of this and Robinson are very different, so I do think it would get played with both groups. That said, the game is a little more luck dependent than I typically enjoy and it doesn’t really play well at more than two. I don’t love the team game, and while I do have enough of it for everyone to play in pairs, we wouldn’t really be playing together as a group at game night. Great game, could live with it, but not my choice.
Next up, a very close runner-up for second choice: Wingspan. It’s fun, easy to teach, not too long, though it’s certainly pushing the limit more than the previous options, and competitive. I’ve introduced this game to enough people and with enough success that I’m confident my family could learn it and would enjoy it. A very deserving choice. That said, it just misses out on being picked because I do think the turns can be a little long, especially for game night/new gamers, and while I still enjoy the game, I’m not sure for how much longer that will be true. I do feel like my interest is starting to wane, meaning this could end up only being played at game night, and not very enthusiastically – by me, anyway. Close, but not quite.
And so, we finally come to it: the final threshold. What warm unspoken secrets will we learn, beyond the point of no return?
My choice for the second game, to pair with Robinson Crusoe, is: Viticulture. Now, I realize this choice is riddled with problems. I am obviously sacrificing, or, at least, potentially sacrificing, some viability at game night for increased viability with Natasha and Michael. Of all the games considered to be paired with RC, it is the one I am most confident the ShelfHelp crew would still choose. Avoiding that problem this time.
For families and new gamers, the length of this game is problematic. It’s longer than Wingspan, which was already pushing the limit of acceptable game length. However, the turns in Viticulture are quick because you only do one or two things on a turn, typically, limiting downtime. Also, while you will use a combination of many actions over the course of the game, many of them are divided up by the seasons, making it much easier to decide than one would expect. This also makes it a much easier to teach than one would expect. Finally, it has a great theme that is easy to understand and facilitates rules explanation. There is no doubt this game is the heaviest, longest, most challenging game of all my options to make work for game night/new gamers, but I am confident that with a few playthroughs it can be done. Therefore, it is a competitive game that plays four or more people, is easy enough to teach to our families and new gamers, isn’t too long, and that I enjoy enough to be played more than the other options in any and all groups. Checks all the boxes.
And that’s that. Robinson Crusoe and Viticulture, my answer to the question of which two games I’d keep if I could only keep two. Easy, right?
