Tokaido Duo

Playing as the pilgrim and hopping between the three roles keeps every turn interesting, and my wife and I finished our first game wanting to immediately reset the board. The two-player count is perfect for us since it doesn't feel watered down like some games do at that number.

The two-player mode is surprisingly tight, with each turn forcing a real choice between the pilgrim, merchant, and artist paths. My wife and I finished a game in about half an hour and immediately set it up again.

I played it three times in one sitting just to try different routes, and the way each facet of the journey changes your scoring strategy keeps it feeling fresh every time. The compact board is surprisingly easy to set up on a small table too.