Dicebreaker Recommends: Sobek: 2 Players, a quick and nasty delight

There’s nothing quite like a two-player board game to stoke the fires of competition. Two-player board games are great in that they offer the kind of uniquely competitive experience that no other type of tabletop title can provide – and Sobek: 2 Players is a prime example of this.

A recent remake/reimagining of a 2010 card game, Sobek: 2 Players takes the concept of the original – players are merchants attempting to make a tidy profit in an Ancient Egyptian market – and turns it into a more focused version, ditching the two to four-player count for a one-on-one experience.

Though the aim of the game is still the same, with players wanting to collect and sell as many matching products from the market as possible, the dynamic is completely changed. Whilst the original Sobek saw players taking cards from a shared marketplace on their turn, Sobek: 2 Players has competitors selecting tiles from a grid. You might still be picking things up, but this time what you’re able to pick up is decided by the placement of a little golden ankh.

The ankh may be small, but its impact on the gameplay of Sobek: 2 Players is immense. On a player’s turn, they can only take tiles that are on the same ‘row’ as the ankh. I use row loosely here as the grid technically has a series of rows – and columns – but the ankh has its own rules regarding what a ‘row’ is. Where players can take tiles from is determined by wherever the points of the ankh are facing, meaning that players will be able to take tiles from a diagonal ‘row’, for instance, as long as the ankh points are facing in the right direction.