Favorite 2 Player Strategy Games

My husband and I really enjoy playing strategy games.  We get to spend time together without spending much money. This list is full of games that we go back to over and over again.  All of these games also work great with more than 2 players.   Each of these titles are linked to BoardGameGeek.com where you will find a detailed explanation of the game.  In no particular order:

1.   San Juan

A card game version of Puerto Rico.   It is easy to set up, doesn't take to long, but involves some nice strategy.











2. Pass The Pigs

A dice game, where the dice are pigs.  A fun and lighthearted game.  How can you get too serious about pigs?  We were given a travel game for our wedding and have had fun taking the game on hiking and camping trips.  But to be completely honest, this game doesn't work that well when hiking.  Scoring how the pigs land is done best on a true flat surface, which is hard to come by in the "wild".  But that brings me back to "Really, how can you get too serious about pigs?"


3. Ticket To Ride

In Ticket to Ride you get the satisfaction of building something, in this case long train routes across America.  I like games were even if you loose, you still feel like you accomplished something.  Also, this game lends itself to making a fun soundtrack.  Make a play list of songs about different cities and also songs about trains and you are in for a fun time.



4.  Agricola 

This is one of my favorites.  But beware, it takes lots of strategy, lots of little parts, and lots of time.  But I love it!  Each person is raising a family, building a home and producing livestock.  Sounds simple, but there are so many different ways you can go to try to win.



 
5.  Bohnanza
Affectionately known as "the bean game".  Lower on the strategy end.  Higher on the social end.  There are different types of beans that you plant, harvest and trade.  In the two player version trading doesn't come into play quite as much, but it is still fun.






6.Carcassonne

In this game it is all about building and tile placement.  You are building castles, cathedrals, pastures and roads.  I think I would like this game even more if Luke didn't out maneuver me at the end every time!





7. Alhambra

This game is also all about building and tile placement, but in a different way than Carcassonne (meaning, sometimes I can beat Luke at this game).  Alhambra is quick and easy to learn but can still involve a lot of strategy.





8.Dominion

A game that is all about card play and building your dominion, in a lord of the manor sort of way.  I was reluctant to try this game for a long time due to there being a witch and curses involved.  But I then learned that you don't have to ever use the witch and curse cards.  This is the only game on the list that I have played for less than a year, so in a funny way my feelings about it aren't as strong.


Do you have a favorite two player game?

The Chick has Hatched! June 2010

Welcome to Our Family!

We are so thankful for our little girl!  One of my favorite parts of the whole weekend was soon after she was born,  Luke, with tears in his eyes thanked God for new member of our family.  It was such a tender moment.  I have spent the last 3 days looking at her in awe and amazement, so of course to me pictures can't capture how wonderful she is! 

The rest of the Blog was composed earlier this month while waiting for our little girl to arrive.

Garden

 Wow!  The growing season in TN is amazing!  This mid-western girl still cannot believe it!  We have harvested 1 jalapeno, with 2 on the way.  Our red bell pepper has 2 medium peppers.  The Roma tomatoes and the grape tomatoes have more green tomatoes then I could take the time to count!  and the flowers are going strong.  Here are my cone flowers and butterfly weed.  I started the butterfly weed from seed last year.  This year it reseeded itself and is doing amazing.  Our home came with some interesting day lilies that I had never seen before, like this one with the striped center.

Day Lilies

 

Jalapeno

 

Sewing

I took my first stab at sewing since middle school home economics (were I remember more about discussions of whether our teacher was wearing a wig than I do about sewing).  So I started with these flannel rectangles.  They are cloth reusable diaper wipes.  I am going to be using cloth diapers with our baby and so I thought I might try out cloth diaper wipes (though I am not as committed to them as I am to the cloth diapers.)  What a great first sewing project; I just sewed rectangles, and if I messed up it didn't matter because it was just going to be used on a baby's bottom!  I tried all three designs described here.

 

The next project took things up quite a few notches.  But I had Holly (Luke's mom) teaching me as we went, and so I learned a lot.   For the valance for the nursery I was originally going to make it out of the Juicy Jungle fabric by Alexander Henry.  Then I realized it might look a little busy for a valance.  So I got the idea to make a valance and applique some of the animals from the fabric onto it.  Pretty ambitious for a second project!  I was really thankful that Holly was willing to take on this adventure with me.  We used a gabardine fabric in cream for the main part of the valance.  It has a wonderful hang to it.  For the applique I used an iron on bonding agent called Heat n Bond, and then I did a small zigzag stitch around the edges of the fabric to prevent raveling.    

The Bean Game

This month's game is one that I've enjoyed for many years, it's called Bohnanza.   I'm trying out a game ranking on a strategy-social continuum.  1 to 5. 1 being a very concentrated strategy game where you want no distractions and 5 being a laid back social game.  Bohnanza would get a 3 on this scale.  It is a nice combination of some strategy but fun social time also.  It involves planting beans in fields and harvesting them.  But you only have two fields.  So deciding when to plant, when to harvest and when to trade bring in the strategy.

For those of you who have played this game before with me, you might be interested in an that I really enjoy called High Bohn Plus.  It has a western theme in which you buy different buildings that let you do certain things that other players can't.  With this expansion more strategy is added, and so it would go to a 2.5 on the scale.

What do you think of my strategy-social scale?  Is it helpful?

Nursery

Here's a short video of the nursery.

May 2010 Blog

Happy May!

We've been busy decorating our nursery and getting it ready the baby.  We are doing an animal themed nursery with animal alphabet cards, hung on the wall.  Yes, we are aware that we don't have the alphabet cards in the correct order.  We don't have room for the entire alphabet on the wall, and the baby isn't quite ready to be worrying about order anyways!


Besides still working on some physical things in the baby's room we are really ready for her to come at anytime.  We tell her this everyday, but she hasn't decided to maker her journey yet. 

 My mom, Patsy, made a beautiful crib skirt out of this fabric by Alexander Henry called "Juicy Jungle".  Luke's mom, Holly, and I are working on a valance for the window.  We are appliqueing some of the animals from the fabric onto the valance.  I'm really excited about my adventures in sewing.  It has something I've been afraid to try since middle school because of the precision involved.  But I'm relearning the whole process, and I'm excited about all the craft options.  Baby's aren't too fussy about straight stitches,  so this is a good place to start!

Does it mean you all ready for a baby when you can diaper a duck blindfolded?  At a recent baby shower this was a skill I found myself capable of!

Salad Dressing Recipe
An easy but healthy meal Luke and I like to make is taco salad.  It is easy to improvise with what we have on hand, or ingredients we desire at the time.  But we never knew what dressing to use.  Some restaurants offer a creamy dressing on taco salad, but we wanted to steer clear of that direction.  We usually end up using more salsa than we need to just to make our salad "wet".  We tried this dressing the last couple times we had taco salad, and felt like it really helped balance our salads.  It is subtle and provided that "wetness" we desired.

Taco Salad Dressing
6 servings

Ingredients
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons lime juice (1 lime)
cumin to taste

Mix ingredients and serve over taco salad.  Extra will keep in the fridge.

Click Here For Printable Recipe


A Sweet Love Story

I recently watched "The Young Victoria" and I highly recommend it.  I knew nothing of Queen Victoria's early years as Queen, and so I found the history really interesting.  At the same time it is an extremely endearing and sweet love story.  If you enjoy period pieces and simple and sweet stories, then please see it, you will enjoy it.


Board Game

Recently I have been learning how to play Alhambra, a strategy game that my friends Matt and Betsy own. (well technically Betsy gave it to her dad for Christmas but has then has been borrowing it back!)


Some nice things about this game is that it is a strategy game, but it is not very complex to learn.  Basically you are buying and building rooms. But how you get your money, what you buy and how you build, that is what the game comes down to.    Another nice feature is that you can play it as a two player game.  Luke and I are always looking for good two player games.   But we've also played with 6 people and had fun (like any strategy game with a lot of people, everyone has to be committed to the game).  Let me know what you think of it if you try it out.


I Won Something!

With my new adventures in sewing, I have been looking at sewing blogs and websites.  The website Sew Mama Sew had a give away day with people from other blogs coming together and giving away items.  And I won this fabulous camera strap from VMJess.  Check out her Etsy shop if you are interested in a cute camera strap.  She uses lots of fun fabrics.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/vmjess