Tabletopia News

Whether it's an old love or a first date, board games are a great way to spend the day with your partner! It's hard to beat the intimacy of spending time together and pitting your minds against one another. We've compiled a list of games that are perfect to share - be it because they have romantic themes or are adorable, but also because they work perfectly for two players. These games are a mix of competitive and cooperative games, depending on your mood!

These digital games can be played both online or in hotseat mode (meaning you can share the same screen if you're in the room with one another).

[h2]1. Love Letter[/h2]
[h3]2-6p, 15-45m[/h3]


"The noble Princess is looking for an ideal partner and confidant to help with her royal duties when she one day assumes the throne. You must prove your worth and gain her trust by enlisting allies, friends, and family of the Princess to carry a letter of intent to her. Can you earn the Princess' trust and become her confidant?"

Love Letter is a short and simple game, that relies on a little bit of luck and a little bit of deduction. On your turn, you'll draw a card, then play one of the two cards in your hand - activating its powers. Your goal is to eliminate the other players OR end the round with the highest numbered card. But be careful - the higher numbered cards are more easy for other players to discover!



[h2]2. Onitama[/h2]
[h3]2p, 15m[/h3]


"Onitama is a two-player, perfect information abstract game with a random starting set-up. On a 5x5 board, both players start with five pawns on their side, with the main pawn in the middle."

What makes Oniama so good is that it's chess with all the fluff cut out. The small board makes for very quick game sessions (though you'll likely go again and again!), and the real mastery is how you decide what your pieces do! Any piece can move according to the directions on the cards in front of you, but watch out - when you use a card's movement, you'll be passing that to the other player for them to use on a future turn. You'll always know what your opponent is capable of, but not what they'll do!



[h2]3. Calico[/h2]
[h3]1-4p, 30-45m[/h3]


"Calico is a puzzly tile-laying game of quilts and cats! In Calico, players compete to sew the coziest quilt as they collect and place patches of different colors and patterns."

Calico is a game that couldn't be simpler to understand, but it takes some sheer thinking power to win (also, all the cats in the game are based on real cats you can read about in the rulebook)! Your entire turn is to pick 1 of 3 tiles to place on your quilt board and match it with other colors and patterns. However the ways you can score points for your patterns on your board are all at odds with each other - figuring out what will make the best quilt is where the real challenge lies.



[h2]4. Fugitive[/h2]
[h3]2p, 20m[/h3]


"Fugitive is a two-player card game set in the world of Burgle Bros. One player is a fugitive trying to make it out of town while being pursued by an unstoppable agent. The fugitive plays cards face down to the table trying to work their way to a goal, while the agent must guess those cards to uncover them. If all the cards are face up, the fugitive is caught."

This game of cat-and-mouse pits two players against one another in completely different roles, and it's a tense ride! The fugitive plays down cards that pertain to the location they're hiding, while the agent tries to deduce where they are based on what's already come out and been revealed. If the fugitive manages to elude the agent for long enough, they'll escape!



[h2]5. Santorini[/h2]
[h3]2-4p, 20m[/h3]


"Santorini is a non-abstract re-imagining of the 2004 edition. Since its original inception over 30 years ago, Santorini has been endlessly developed, enhanced and refined by mathematician and educator, Dr. Gordon Hamilton."

This two player (or 4 player team) game sees you playing as Greek gods - attempting to reach the third level of your buildings before other players. But be careful, they can use their wiles and powers to block you or even claim victory first! This game looks gorgeous and is highly replayable, with multiple god powers to choose from.



[h2]6. ...and then, we held hands.[/h2]
[h3]2p, 30m[/h3]


"...and then we held hands. is a co-operative game about finding balance. To win, the two players must complete objectives and reach the center of the board."

By working together, you and your partner will attempt to reach the center of the board, but no talking is allowed! Figure out between you what your partner can do, as you can use either of your cards. However, if your partner ends up unable to move, the game is over. Empathy is the word here, and figuring out intent is the key to victory!



[h2]7. Aqualin[/h2]
[h3]2p, 20m[/h3]


"There's turmoil at the reef, with different sea animals forming swarms again and again."

School or be school'd in Aqualin - the goregoues sea reef game! Both players place stones on an empty field, but one player is trying to make groups of the same colour while the other is forming groups of identical sea creatures. These competing goals mean you're always going to be ruining best laid plans (while it happens right back at you)!



[h2]8. Pandemic: Hot Zone - North America[/h2]
[h3]2-4p, 30m[/h3]


"Disease threatens North America and only you can stop it! In Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America, players work together against the game to discover cures for three deadly diseases that threaten the continent. Travel to different North American cities to treat local populations, prevent outbreaks, and share research with your team. Can you discover the cures before it's too late?"

The original Pandemic is a modern classic of board gaming, and one that even your non-gaming friends have probably come across at some point in their lives. The Hot Zone format of Pandemic is a faster and quicker version of the game, taking only 30 minutes. All the challenge of the original in a much more compact and accessible format!



[h2]9. Fluttering Souls[/h2]
[h3]2-3p, 15m[/h3]


"Fluttering Souls is a captivating and beautifully illustrated two-player card drafting game based on the Japanese legend of The White Butterfly. Collect a kaleidoscope of butterflies in the hope of being visited by the White Butterfly; the soul of a lost loved one."

From Australian designer Joel Lewis comes this gorgeously personal and intimate game of attracting butterflies. Take turns picking a butterfly from the stack to complete sets!



[h2]10. Wingspan[/h2]
[h3]1-5p, 40m-90m[/h3]


"You are bird enthusiasts — researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors — seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your aviary. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats."

There's not much more that needs to be said about Wingspan that hasn't already been. This award-winning game of building out your bird habitats took the world by storm in 2019. Its accessible theme and its simple yet rich gameplay have made this game cross through the barrier of modern board games into the mainstream.

Renegade Game Studios are back again with their digital Renegade Con: now with more winter!

Join Renegade from February 12th-14th, starting at 12pm PST | 3pm EST for Renegade Con Virtual: Winter 2021. In addition to talks, livestreams, tournaments, workshops, panels, and interviews (whew!), you'll have the chance to demo some of their latest games. But you'll need to get in quick and reserve your slot!

Join the open ceremonies on Twitch (hosted by Mandi, Scott, & Sara) or view the entire streaming schedule here.

Welcome to Feierabend, a.k.a. Finishing Time, the after-worker placement game for 1-6 players by Friedemann Friese!

In Feierabend, you are playing a team of workers (female, male, and non-binary, too). Each day you leave work stressed and look for some fun in the evenings — but thanks to a 70-hour work week and a low income, you don't have many possibilities for relaxation. Sure, you can head to the pub for drinks, go on blind dates to find a partner, or fish or jog outside, but this is not a good work-life balance. It's a rat race.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
If you really want to relax, you need a higher income for you and your fellow workers — and the women on your team should be paid the same as the men. You want to work fewer hours each week, and taking a vacation would be good, too. Let the union help you fix this depressing lifestyle. This change might stress your employer, of course, but they already earn enough to be able to de-stress their life.

Each turn, place one (or more) of your workers on any available after-work spaces to gain relaxation. Taking leisure time doesn't cost anything, but going to town for amusement requires you to spend hard-earned money. Going on vacation for real relaxation is out of the question until your employer is convinced to grant your workers some time off. When your workers meet partners, you gain access to even better relaxation options.



At the pub, workers can relax and have drinks in front of the bar — or they can earn additional income and suffer more stress by working a second job there. You'll want to visit the union office, too, to strike for better working conditions. If you have enough strike tokens, you can force your employer to reduce working hours, increase your income, close the gender gap, or even send you on vacation.

After all your workers have been placed and taken their after-work actions, they are forced to return to work. You place them all on your factory where they then suffer stress, earn income, and gain strike tokens from the union, depending on the current working conditions.



The end of the game is triggered once a team gathers at least 40 relaxation. (In this game, relaxation is considered to be a currency.) Your workers are then placed on after-work spaces and go back to work one more time, after which the most relaxed team wins Feierabend.

Create a better (that is, more relaxing) life for your workers and their partners. Which team will relax the best and win the game? But really every team is a winner since they fought for better working conditions. Workers unite!

[h2]Play it now on Tabletopia![/h2]

P'achakuna takes you on a journey in the heart of the Andes together with your most loyal friend — your llama. The game includes both black and white llamas, with you controlling one color and your opponent the other. White llamas move only through the green valleys, while black llamas scale the barren mountains. Whatever the color, however, you want to visit mountain villages to deliver the dye that they desire, ideally collecting dye for yourself along the way.

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In P'achakuna, each player starts with one llama of their color in the center of the board in the white village, with a white dye loaded on its back. The board is composed of hexagonal tiles that are either half valley/half mountain, two-thirds valley/one-third mountain, or vice versa. The tiles are extremely thick so that you can grab the mountain section of the tile and pluck it from the board. Six villages sit on the perimeter of the game board, each corresponding to one of the primary or secondary colors. Each village has a random demand tile in it that shows two colors, one in high demand and one in low demand; neither of these colors can match the color of the village.

On a turn, you may first rotate one unoccupied tile; by paying two dye resources from your personal supply, you can rotate a second tile. You then must move each of your llamas at least one space, but you can move them further if you desire and if the terrain allows them to do this. You rotate tiles to create long paths of valley or mountain so that ideally your llamas can travel far with each move.

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If you move a llama into a village, you trade the dye on that llama. If the dye you carry isn't in demand in that village, you simply trade that dye for the dye from the village, say, green for yellow. If the dye is in demand, then you add 1-2 dye of that delivered color to your personal supply (depending on whether the demand is low or high), then you place a dye matching the color of that village on your llama. If you collect a color in your personal supply and don't have it in your scoring track, you can place it in your scoring track. No matter what, you replace the demand tile in that village, making sure the color of that village isn't on the demand tile.

During a turn in a village, you can hand in four dye from your personal supply to acquire a new llama that is then placed in that village with a dye from that village on its back. Each llama moves on your turn, and you can have at most three llamas.

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As soon as you have one dye of each of the seven colors on your scoring track, you win.

To hold the demand tiles, the physical game includes a handmade fabric bag from Bolivia and Peru, which supports the local community.

[h2]Late pledge on Kickstarter now![/h2]
[h2]Play it now on Tabletopia![/h2]

While you may think that Orcs are made for war, in this game you will find another aspect of the Orc society. From classic Totemology to Innovations, 10 main industries are waiting for their Elon Tusks to build new companies, startups, take loans and bring Orc’s economics to world domination.

Orconomics is a game for 2-5 players with a modular board. And you can try it on Tabletopia right now! Not only will it bring a lot of fun and competition, but it will also introduce some basic economic concepts such as money-saving, loans and company growth.



If you have tried the game and want to get a physical copy, you have a chance to win it right now in this giveaway.

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