Lost Cities has been my favorite two player game for sometime. The plus points are that it does not go on for too long (30 minutes at most), and often people who do not like board games also readily play it (because they like it). Its essentially a card game with a small board which can be replaced by any board with five spaces. Five because you can launch expeditions to up to five cities. The better your expedition is, the more points you get (including double, triple and quadruple if you are ready to boast early on that you will do good). There are also penalties for not completing an expedition. Its that simple! No complex rules at all.
There are no dice to bring in extra chance (besides what naturally comes about by having a deck of shuffled cards). BUT, and that is a big but, if you think that you can just be logical and win, it generally does not happen. At any point you have access to seven cards and you have to decide which of the different expeditions to feed AND simultaneously try to keep the opponents' expeditions in check. That tension means you have to take chances. So though a straightforward game it is extremely fun to play.
In principle you can use a standard deck of 52 cards and mimic this game with four expeditions. But having five expeditions provides that extra edge. With four expeditions it can be like a series with just two matches. Neither here nor there.
The game won the International Gamers Award in 2000. You can also try playing it online at flexgames.com.
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