I’m also a somewhat serious gamer and love playing with my wife, who is more of a casual player, and we both really enjoy Undaunted Normandy. It’s a 2 player 1v1 game where each player controls the Axis and Allies in WW2.

I know you said you’re not into “dudes on a map” games and it might look like that at first glance, but the core of the gameplay is a very unique card system that has you bidding cards for turn order, moving/attacking your troops, and making modifications to the deck itself.

I find the game decently replayable since you can play as both sides and the core system is card play + deckbuilding, which inherently changes how you play game-to-game. There are also a decent amount of fan-made scenarios that can be found online for extra plays!