I’m looking for games which are for exactly 2 or 3 players. My wife, daughter and I played Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries yesterday, and it was so cool that the game was truly balanced around that exact number of players. Some combination of 2 or 3 tends to be who sits down at our table, and games that are best for 4 or 5 tend to not really work wonderfully with 2 or 3. Any suggestions? :)
Exactly 2-3 is a hard call, I think you already have pretty much the best pick with Nordic Countries.
The others that come to mind are on the heavier side and come with some caveats. Mottainai is one of my favorites and a single deck plays 2 or 3 but it can be difficult to get started with especially if everybody is going in cold. Fields of Arle with the Tea & Trade expansion (required for 3) plays 2-3 but it’s very difficult to find right now, rumor is that the the next print might come at the end of this year. Haggis is fun and not too hard but the custom deck that is required for 3 seems to be out of print.
There are a lot more choices if we open it up to games with a wider player count that play very well at both 2 and 3.
Edit: looks like there is new edition of Haggis in the works!
Oh crap yeah, Haggis! I got that years ago because I wanted something kind of like Tichu, but playable with less than 4 people. Time to go dig it out.
Check out Scout too, feels a bit like a streamlined Haggis with the neat twist of the double-sided cards. The two-player variant works well too.