At the moment, our days at work seem to be getting longer and longer, and not in that good way that comes with the arrival of spring and more daylight hours. During the week it's really too easy to come home, collapse on the couch and turn into a zombie in front of the tv, to not talk to each other, to zone out.
So we try to find ways to get out of that headspace that long days at work can put us in, to changer les idées. We play a lot of board games in our house, mostly eurogames like Carcassonne. And cards, like Canasta or 500 (even though for some reason Sylvain seems to get some perverse pleasure out of making me score).
I wanted to add a couple of new games to our repertoire this week. When searching for information on good 2-player games online, I kept coming across intriguing lists entitled "Perfect Games For Couples", with games and descriptions like "really non-confrontational" or "guaranteed to not cause conflict between you and your partner".
So. Um. Yeah. What I want to know is, where is the fun in "non-confrontational"? When that dice gets thrown, when the cards are set out, when the tiles are shaken up, that's when it gets interesting. Heated. Competitive. And we call each other "bitch". But that's when we end up rolling around on the floor laughing.
Not to mention that it's a good way of ensuring that we don't turn into zombies. Because that's just icky. And I really don't want to have to eat brains.
We have some friends who will end up not talking to each other for two days and sleeping in seperate beds after a particularly rousing board game. DrH doesn't really like confrontational ones and usually won't use all the attacking possibilities of eg. the Tower extension of Carcassonne (and therefore doesn't like it when I do!).
What's the card game you have there? I don't recognise it.
I'm beginning to think I should start some blog reviews of the board games we have, there are just so many these days!
PLEASE do some board game reviews! I would love to see what else you're playing and what you think of them as a 2 or 3 (or more) person game etc. I'm looking for more games, so I'd love to read what you have to say.
I have to admit that we switch between agressive and non-confrontational games and styles, depending on how we feel. I think it's pretty easy to do both with Carcassone.
The card game is Lost Cities / Les Cités Perdues. It's quite an easy card game that is fun to play from time to time, especially when we're tired and looking for something light.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/
Your post got me goggling and I cam across the above site that had a nice scoring system and even a category of "spouse approved".
have fun!
Gilbert
Ahhhh, Gilbert, I'm huge fan of boardgamegeek and their lists are actually what I'm alluding to in this post ;)
The "spouse approved" thing just cracks me up, even though it is a bit belittling, because they're constantly talking about (usually) female partners being too impatient for games... Because in MY household, I'm the über-geek that is pushing Sylvain to play these complex games. hehe.