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I'm planning on playing London with 2 players for the first time next week, and am thinking of using the "Ben & Zen-Luca" variant.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/621605/the-ben-luca-2-pl...
In the original thread a few people said that this variant worked really well, but it's been dormant for a few months, so I just wanted to bring it up again to see if more people have been trying it and get an idea of what you think. Is this the best way to keep London interesting with 2 players? Has anyone tried both this and the Finbar Swift variant?
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/618833/two-player-varian...
How do they compare?
I'll put up my own report when I've tried it out.
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Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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Well, I'm biased of course, but I'd try mine first.
I'm not saying it's the best or anything, but it's simple and easy to remember and implement. The Finbar variant looks complicated to setup, and removes so many cards and map areas it reduces the game space.
Myself, what I like in a game is when the direction a game takes is based on what the players do. If the players decide to build south of the river, then that's the area in contention. Next game, they might be fighting over a different area of the map. Or, one game I'm heavily into card type X, then next game card type Y.
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UnknownParkerBrother wrote: Well, I'm biased of course, but I'd try mine first.
Nothing wrong with being biased when you've helped come up with a good solution to a problem. 
Thanks for posting your variant. It's the one we're going to try first. It does seem like the most simple and elegant way to keep things interesting with two players, and I agree that keeping things more open is probably a better idea, at least for how I like to play.
Anyone else out there who has tried one of these variants?
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Ken Dilloo
United States
Washington
Always bet on Chorizo!
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I have tried the Ben n' Zen-Luca, a few times, and it works very well. Thought the other one was a good idea, but I don't like removing cards, for many reasons. One of them is if you only have one copy, of a card, only one player has a chance to draw and play it. Only being allowed to have one copy of a card at a time eliminates some of the overpowered cards, in two player. Makes for more interesting decisions, by forcing you to either hold, or put the card on the display.
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After going back over the rules, I have one question about the "Ben & Zen-Luca" variant. Do you limit the card display to 3 columns in this variant, as the rules say you should when playing two players, or do you use 4 columns? I ask because in the variant you put a neutral marker on a borough every time you clear a row on the card display, and I'm wondering if only having 3 cards per row would cause the card display to be cleared so often that the neutral player takes most of the boroughs.
I just wanted to check on this before I try it out.
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Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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awesomeunclet wrote: After going back over the rules, I have one question about the "Ben & Zen-Luca" variant. Do you limit the card display to 3 columns in this variant, as the rules say you should when playing two players, or do you use 4 columns?
Just the normal 3 columns as specified by a 2 player game.
We haven't found that it fills up too quickly, because it becomes something you're aware of as you play. "Gee, if I discard now, another district will be gone", or "I'd better take a loan and buy a district, they're really going quickly this game", etc.
The pace varies from game to game depending on your play style.
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We finally got around to playing a 2 player game tonight using the Ben and Zen-Luca variant, and I was impressed. It was a very simple and elegant way of keeping the game tight and the length down with 2 players. This is the way we're going to keep playing it with 2. Great game, although my wife destroyed me this time around. Maybe we'll have another go at it tomorrow.
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This variant makes the poverty management harder & the gameplay shorter: the two main things that make the "vanilla" game with 2 players boring compared to 3-4 players gameplay.
London is now one of our favorite 2 players games and the most played in the past month.
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Anson Bischoff
United States
Salt Lake City
Utah
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The variant works very well. The game is faster, poverty matters more, and certain broken strategies are subdued.
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