This subject gets beaten to death every once in awhile. Recently we had threads on good 2 player games. An extensive list was made and I made sure to copy down all the responses made. Still, this last bout of suggestions doesn't completely fit my needs so I'll take the podium and ask a variation of "What games should I look for..."

First my cousin and I try and play a game a week and the block of time we have to fool around with is about 3 to 4 hours. Both of us feel like trying a lot of different things rather than just the same game each week so this is what we are looking for:

Good 2 player games that can be played under 4 hours that have some kind of violent content to them. Both of us are really just little boys that still want to play war and have adventures so the issue for us is not to just play any game, but to play a game about war or some kind of overt conflict. Heaps of German games are coming out that sound good, but alot of it seems to be racing or trading games and we want to clobber each other. The other factor here is that my cousin tends to digest rules slowly, so the denser the rulebook becomes, the more his eyes glaze over and the fun factor plummets. We want something that he can learn in a night and have a good game over without a massive learning curve.

Here are some of our sucessful games:

Battletech, Star Fleet Battles, Fellowship of the Ring, Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Axis and Allies, Shogun, Fortress America, Conquest of the Empire, Man O War.

What Bombed on us:

Avalon Hill's Tac Air, Siege of Constantinople (S&T #66), China Incident (Wargamer #37).

So as you can see the the pattern here is that once it becomes more wargamish the rules become too technical, the counters too small, and the pace too slow. The problem is that I want to sink my teeth into something a cut above beer and pretzel, but not too much to cast a pall of the evening as I consult the rules every two minutes.

So to sum up, what I'm looking for is some games that are 2 player, play under four hours, have a mid level of complexity, and have some kind of violent content. Suggestions?

Second Question

My girlfriend also likes to join in every once in a while for a game. I've got heaps of multiplayer games, that is my big area of interest, but in the end you usually need 4+ to play these games as they should be played. When it comes to these games it doesn't matter what the content is, just as long as it is good and solid as a three player game. This is where I expect to get plenty of german titles. I've already got Settlers, Fury of Dracula, Dragon Masters and Blackbeard as sucess stories in this area. What else to look for?

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