Valentine’s Day is here, which is typically a time for us to show our significant others how much we care about them. I am a quality time type of game and love to spend time with my wife doing lots of activities including hiking, visiting parks, taking neighborhood walks, watching movies and true crime documentaries and sometimes even playing board games. I have tried over the years to get my wife more interested in gaming, both in wargames and more traditional Euro games, and have had spotty success but there have been several games that she has really enjoyed and would play with me at any time. In this Best 3 Games with post, we will take a little different look at some of the wargames that I have been able to convince my wife to give a go. These games are not focused on nor marketed to the romantic crowd, so you will not see Love Letter on this list (although that game is great in it’s own right!), but once you play them you will come to realize their appeal and how they may be able to convince your love to share a wargame with you! Here are my Best 3 Games with for…Couples!

3. Memoir ’44 from Days of Wonder

Memoir ’44 is a part of the Commands & Colors Series of wargames that uses cards to allow the player to take actions and activate units on the board. This system is very playable and easy to teach but provides some element of historical narrative about the D-Day Campaign of World War II. The other part about the game is that it has a toy factor as it uses little army men and tanks to represent units on the board as well as other terrain features such as barbed wire and tank traps.

At the heart of the Commands & Colors Series is the use of cards called Command Cards, which can be classified as Section cards and Tactics cards, that are used to take actions with various groups of units on a hex board that is divided into 3 sections, including the Left, Center and Right. The game is about managing that hand of cards and playing them where they can make the most impact. But, when a certain section cannot seem to draw cards, the game quickly slows down and players have to be flexible to make the most out of the cards that were dealt. There are also custom Battle Dice that represent hits, retreats and special actions. The units on the field of battle are made up of figures or blocks. The C&C Series have volumes representing various different historical periods, including both modern and ancient.

I have found that there is something to like in the series for anyone’s taste and the system was made to have a broad appeal to all types of gamers. I found that my wife could pick up the mechanics pretty quickly and formulate a good and effective strategy for the chosen scenario. We had a good time playing Memoir ’44 and have played several games. She is very competitive and she has beaten me at least a few times but has now moved onto other games that I will share with you.

2. 13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 from Ultra PRO

13 Days simulates the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and is a 2-player only card driven game that pits the USSR against the USA. As you struggle for influence and positioning on the global stage you’ll invariably escalate the situation which can lead to a nuclear war. The tension in the tug of war is palpable and you’re actively trying to avoid using the nuclear option, because if you escalate the game to the point of nuclear war, you lose.

The game is a card driven game that allows players to use the events on their cards to add influence cubes to various areas on the board to score victory points. The key to the game is managing that hand or cards and understanding how best to use them. There is also a bit of bluff and subterfuge that must be included to keep the other player guessing about your priorities. This game is baby Twilight Struggle and plays in about 45 minutes as opposed to 3 hours. Each turn players will have to choose a secret objective that both you and your opponent can score against and then play cards or events to place or remove influence cubes in relevant board areas. Placing influence represents an upping of the ante, and so raises DEFCON. You can push this for a time, but you then need to start deescalating, as DEFCON automatically will increase at the start of a new turn, and due to certain events or scoring objectives.

Such as great tight game that my wife has loved playing. We played this game after we tried Fort Sumter, which is the next game on this list, and she liked it but wanted to go back to Fort Sumter.

1. Fort Sumter: The Secession Crisis, 1860-61 from GMT Games

Fort Sumter: The Secession Crisis, 1860-61 from GMT Games is a fast playing Card Driven Game that focuses on the events leading up to the eventual secession from the Union of the State of South Carolina on December 20, 1860 and the commencement of hostilities in the American Civil War as the CSA began the bombardment of Fort Sumter located in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 12-14, 1861. The game is not a true wargame but a historically themed battle of the wills as players will use cards to place Political Capital Tokens in various colored spaces located on the map in order to gain control over those aspects of the crisis.

The board is made up of various similar colored spaces grouped throughout a map of the then United States of America stretching from Kansas and Texas in the west to the eastern seaboard. The spaces that are similarly colored and grouped are called Crisis Dimensions and one space in the group is highlighted with a white border which is called a Pivotal Space. You will also see that the spaces have various colored cubes already in them and these are Political Capital Tokens that are placed through card play by players to gain control. None of these tokens start on the map at the beginning of the game.

The central concept of the game is that of manipulating the various spaces on the map by playing Strategy cards, either for their event or for the number of Political Capital Tokens that can be placed. The number in the upper left hand corner of each card is what is referenced when playing a card for the Political Capital Tokens. The picture below shows three cards, two of which offer 2 Political Capital Tokens that can be placed in any space and one that offers 3. You will also notice that behind the numbers are colored boxes which are important in relation to the printed events on the cards. If the square matches your role, either that of the Unionist (blue) or the Secessionist (gray), rather than simply using the card for the points, you then are granted access to the printed event, which typically is more powerful than the numbers.

This game seemed to really catch the interest of my wife and we have played this game well over 50 times since its publication in 2017. It is short playing, thematic, deep strategically and gives the player the angst of having to make tough choices about where they use their limited cards while preparing for the special last turn of the game called a Final Crisis where players can manipulate the board further to score one last time being the end.

I hope you have enjoyed my look at the Best 3 Games with for…Couples!, and if you are anything like me playing a game with my true love is fun, engaging and very competitive as each wishes to win. But that hasn’t stopped us from enjoying the experience of playing these games together. I hope you have romantic plans with your sweetheart tonight, besides playing these great board games…but if not, count yourself lucky and have fun trying your hand at love.

-Grant