10 MORE Great Board Games for Date Night
One of our favorite ways to spend time together is by playing a great board game for date night! Making it out for the classic “Dinner and a Movie” date is pretty difficult around here, so instead we go for the “Dinner and a Game” dates!
With Valentine’s Day on the way, it’s the perfect time to do a follow up to our popular post on date night games! So we’re talking about 10 MORE of our favorite options to play together.
Wondering what we look for in a Date Night game? While any game that you love can make a great date night game, our criteria for date night shifts ever so slightly.
I like to prioritize the date over the game. The goal of a date is to connect and enjoy an evening together. That means that the game should help create an environment to do just that.
The games selected won’t take up your whole evening. No need to plan hours around a huge game! Go out for dinner or order in and enjoy it while you play!
The games below are also not overly complex and should be relatively free of frustrating elements. The last thing you want is to ruin a perfectly good date with an argument over the rules!
Most importantly, these are all games we feel are very fun to play as a couple. Some will be two-player only, others allow for more, either way, they’re Tabletop Family Date Night Approved!
1. Tussie Mussie
Listen up fellas! If you’re still looking for a gift for your love, (and yes, you should definitely get her a little something, even if she said no!) let me help you out!
Order a copy of Tussie Mussie. Head to the store to buy a selection of flowers. (Bonus points if you get one of each type on the 18 cards and create your own tussie mussie. Yes, it’s a thing.) Don’t forget to stop by the grocery to pick up a romantic and delicious selection of meats and cheeses to make a charcuterie board, and perhaps pair it with your favorite tasty adult beverage. Set the table with your spread, wrap the game up in cute Kraft paper wrapping, attach it to the bouquet, and present it to your love. BAM! You just won Valentine’s Day. (or any other day, really! Random shows of affection are my favorite!)
Tussie Mussie is a card game for 2 to 4 players with an “I cut, you choose” mechanic. Over the course of two rounds, you aim to have the most points by creating your own Tussie Mussie through selecting flowers (cards) to place in your small bouquet.
I love the simplicity of Tussie Mussie. It’s a lovely back and forth game that plays very quickly and satisfactorily. With just 18 cards, the game fits in its own billfold and is the perfect theme for a date night. Because it is so small, you can easily bring it with your to any restaurant (we do!) Able to pick it up quickly when the food comes, or keep playing easily as you dine and enjoy each other’s company.
2. Karuba
Karuba is an evergreen game for me. I’ll play it any time with anybody and it’s a great choice for date night.
I love a good ol’ fashioned race and Karuba will have you racing through the jungle to get to the temples before your opponent. Players start with identical boards and all use the same path tiles in the same order. However, how they use them and where they choose to place them is up to them! Each player can construct a unique path that they think will get them to the temples the fastest and win them the game.
It’s a light game, but sometimes that’s just what you need and we keep coming back to it year after year.
3. Targi
Targi is incredibly clever in that it creates the feeling of a tight, multi-player worker placement game but for only two players!
Players will place their workers on the edge spaces of a 5×5 grid. Players get to take those actions, and then, locating the intersecting spaces that match the row and column of their workers on the edges, they take those center cards. These cards are then able to be played into a display area where players will be able to earn advantages or victory points. The player with the most victory points at then end of the game wins.
I love how unassuming Targi appears at first look. But the strategy this small game packs inside is truly superb. The spatial element and the placement restrictions set on players is a really fun layer that I just love working through, because where I place my workers is just as if not more important as to what space they are on. It’s one of the best two player games out there and a must play for any lover of the worker placement genre.
4. Miyabi
This relaxing puzzle makes for a lovely date night!
Draft and stack garden pieces on your player board to build your Japanese garden. The higher your garden, the larger your points. You’ll have to plan carefully and draft meticulously in order to win.
This is a perfect choice for lovers of puzzles and abstract strategy.
5. Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done
Looking for a little more strategy? Crusaders is one of our most recent obsessions and has been a star of date night in our house for the last few months.
Move around the board, spreading the influence of your Order as you erect buildings and go crusading! Crusaders is a beautifully produced and fantastic strategy game that plays very smoothly and super intuitively. I was so impressed by just how quickly we were able to learn and get playing on our first game. (Always a massive bonus in my opinion.)
This game has convinced me that not enough board games utilize the Mancala and Rondel mechanics! I truly cannot get enough of it in this game and it’s why we keep bringing it back to the table!
6. Welcome To…
If you enjoy roll and writes, make sure to give Welcome To… a look!
I love choosing this at home to play together. It’s light on player interaction and high on the tricky puzzle factor. You’ll flip cards (rather than roll dice) and mark the result you wish to use on your player sheet. What are you marking? You’re using the cards to fill in house numbers in your neighborhood! Using the cards and actions, you’ll aim to build the most valuable neighborhood while racing to complete public goals before your opponent.
Welcome To… is also a great choice for those who may not think of themselves as that big into board gaming. Being fairly easy to teach, it takes under 30 minutes to play and is a great game to pair with dinner or a drink.
7. Skulk Hollow
For a more intense battle against each other, Skulk Hollow is where it’s at!
I love the cinematic feel of Skulk Hollow. This is a strictly two player game and, no lie, it’s one of the very best available. You’ll battle each other, one taking on the role of the Foxen Heroes, and the other becoming the Guardian, angry that their land is inhabited by these Foxes and looking to destroy them.
What I love about it as a choice for date night is it’s playfully combative with lots of moments for dynamic highs and lows throughout the game. Needing just 45 minutes to play, you’ll be able to play a couple games back to back, giving new characters a try or perhaps switching roles to see how you each fare from the other perspective.
8. Wavelength
If you’re just starting a new relationship and looking for a fun way to break the ice and shake off any nerves, give Wavelength a shot. After all, one of the most exciting parts of a new relationship is learning about each other, and Wavelength will help you do just that!
You might wonder how this party game found its way onto our list, but it’s one you can actually play with just two. Adam and I love playing it together! The discussion and conversation this brings makes it perfect for a light and silly game to play. You’ll have a great time as you attempt to read each others’ minds.
9. Escape Room Games!
Ever wish you could enjoy an Escape room at home? Well you can!
These one time play games are some of our most favorites and they work exceptionally well with 2 players! We’ll buy one specifically for a date night and eagerly await the kids to fall asleep so we can get solving all of the puzzles.
There are many options in this category, each taking around 60 minutes to complete and often coming in a variety of difficulty levels to suit your tastes. Here are a couple of our favorites:
Exit: The Game
These are one time use games. You may need to write on, fold, cut up, or in some other way alter the material inside the box. It’s a lot of fun and offers some truly tricky puzzles inside. Make sure you read carefully and choose a difficulty level that you think is right for you. I recommend going a step easier than you think you need. These games have humbled me!
Unlock!
I love the Unlock! series because you don’t rip anything up. So while you can’t replay the game since you’ll know the solutions, you can gift it to your friends, family, or even donate to your local library. These games have a digital component to it. You’ll download a free app to help you play and offer hints when stuck. Once downloaded you will not need an internet connection.
You can even print and play your own small demo version of Unlock to try at home. Find out how here!
10. Charterstone
If you’re looking for a campaign style game to enjoy over the course of a few dates, check out Charterstone!
This is an adorable yet smart game from Stonemaier. Together you’ll colonize the vast lands of Greengully, building buildings and sharing the village with each other in your unique roles. Along way, you’ll play through 12 games, each expanding on the story and adding new elements to the game you are building. While you’re working together to meet the demands that the village must meet, you’re also seeking to outscore the other. So while there is a cooperative lean to Charterstone, it is still fully competitive.
Charterstone makes this list because it is such a fun story telling game that you can build together. In a relatively short time, you can work through all 12 of the games and afterwards, you have a unique, one of a kind worker placement game that you can enjoy playing again and again.
I love it because rather than like legacy games where you are destroying parts of the game, you are building towards something you get to keep. Yet the journey there is still wonderfully fun and immersive. While Charterstone is a heavier game on this list, because you add new elements to the game little by little, it does a wonderful job of easing you into a more complex game if that is something you have been concerned about.
Plus, the art is just wonderful!
(Charterstone will be back in stock from Stonemaier Games in Spring of 2020. You can call your local game store to see if they have a copy of it in stock now!)
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