Go to boardgamegeek.com and check out the top 100 games list. You will not find a "bad" game in the top 500 (there are over 80,000 games listed on the geek).

Spend a few hours reading and exploring there.

When you find some reviewers and posters that seem to share your tastes, make "geek buddies" of them, and then use the analysis feature to quickly see how they feel about any game you are interested in.

You'll never have to make off-topic posts like this again.

Alright here are some real good ones, if you want "the best" I'd probably have to go for 7 Wonders , it has good strategy, a bit of luck, can be played with up to 7 players and only takes 40 minutes per game.

Pure Strategy: (almost no to completely no luck involved, pure mind battle against the others, usually long games because lots of planning and thinking)

• Power Grid
  Everyone plays an energy provider and tries to power as many cities as possible and gain money by doing so, spending that money to buy new power plants and the resources to run them. Really well designed game with mechanics that hinder the player that is ahead and gives bonus to the players lacking behind so it is always a tight field and not sure who wins until the last round.
• Tzolk'in
  Appraise the gods in a game about the mayan calendar, very nicely design board game with cogs that move and your workers on it and a very very simple mechanic, you can only do one of two things, either put workings on the cogs or remove them and harvest what they were doing, yet there is very much planning involved in getting the best move.
• Steam
  You play railroad moguls trying to build a train network with actual track that has to be laid on the board, very nice mechanics again. Then try to buy locomotives and move cargo so you earn money. But don't spend money too fast because ... interest. You have to be able to pay interest for your loans, so the correct amount of expansion has to be found so you don't go into the bankruptcy spiral yet claim enough good spots fast enough.
• Russian Railroads
  Try to gain as much points as possible by either building the transsiberian railway, build small railways, invest into the industry or do a combination of everything. Great worker placement game with a lot of different strategies, there is no dominant strategy, the winner is usually the one who adapts best to use that strategy noone else uses.

Everyday games: (some chance involved, yet still awesome to play, usually faster)

• Dominion
  Really good game entirely with cards but feels like a boardgame and not a card game. Everyone starts with the same deck and then tries to buy more cards for the deck. The winner is the one who has the most victory point cards in his deck but the thing is, the more of these cards you have the more clustered your deck becomes and will stall your card combos. Really good mechanism and not too long to play a round. There's also a ton of expansions and you can mix all of them together.
• Quadropolis
  Every designs a city, having to choose from a shared stack of buildings available over the course of 4 rounds. Depending on how you choose to get a tile you can only place it on certain tiles in your city. Different building types give different amounts of victory points at the end of the game depending on their neighboring buildings and other criteria. Very fun to play and also very good art design in my opinion.
• Kingdom Builder
  Players try to claim spots on the map to build the Kingdom that has the best cashout at the end of the game. Almost no game will ever be the same because the victory conditions and well as the map are built randomly (with the map tiles come bonus tiles that enable special moves), and what strategy might be efficient for one map and some victory conditions will not be efficient in the next game. It's very easy to play because you only have a single card in hand have to play that, then draw one for next turn, but it is not so easy to choose the right placement for your settlements with that single card so you don't block yourself in future moves.
• Ticket to Ride
  Good train themed game where you gain points for making connections between cities (the longer it is the more points you get) and additional points for connected cities at the end of the game. You have to collect cars of the same colour to be able to claim a route of that colour so you have to be quick (and lucky) so noone else claims it before you do. Personally I think the europe variant is better as it is very easy to win the default american map just by claiming all of the longer routes instead of connecting your cities.
• 7 Wonders
  One of the best games every designed. And the best thing is, you can play it with 3-7 players (-8 with addons) and regardless of player count it always takes the same time (~40mins) because it's everyone's turn at the same time. You build your ancient civilization (corresponding to the 7 world wonders of the antique) by choosing a card from your hand, play that card in a way, then hand the rest of your hand to the player to your left, while getting the rest from the player on your right. Do that 6 times for 1 age. After that there is war with your left and right neighbor. Then the next age starts, you play through 3 ages (and 3 wars) and buildings increase in value (and cost) throughout the ages. Very well designed game.

Party games: (more about the fun and something to play in a good group (and maybe some alcohol involved)

• Robo Rally
  Hilarious. You have to program your robot with moves under time pressure (When someone finishes their programming you only got 1 minute left). After everyone programmed his there is the resolution and the 5 steps will be executed. AFter every move/turn all robots shoot, harming other robots (which lose programming ability the more damage they take). Your goal is to visit a set of flags to be the fastest around the course while escaping other's shots and not walk off the map. Easier said than done because the board has effects that also move you around and other players will also move you. Simply hilarious in a large group. So much bumping and unexpected stuff. (Oh you thought you walk through the corridor? Let me move you one space first then you can walk 5 times into a wall ahead of you.)
• Wits and Wagers
  Not sure if something needs to be said about this. Question will be read (the answer normally can't be known) everyone guesses, everyone bets on which guess is the closest guess, most points wins.

Cooperative games: (all of you play against the game)

• XCOM The Board game
  Rescue the Earth from Alien Invaders, whoever played XCOM on PC knows what this is about, excellent adaptation, partially under time pressure (planning phase).
• Space Alert + Expansion
  Fly a spaceship to a sector and try to defend yourself from Alien attacks for 13 turns, the clue is, you will only get revealed what is coming when during a 10 minute CD-track and have to adjust your actions (create new energy, link energy to different cannons on the ship, fire cannons with your crew) during these 10 minutes. If everything goes really according to plan will be shown in the resolution phase and maybe some mis-planning or a bad 'critical hit' from an enemy will throw a spanner into your plans and having someone late with energy replenishing so a perfectly timed shot will only make the actual guy at the cannon make a hollow 'click' on the button. Amazing game, hilarious in outcome. Perfect.
• Pandemic
  4 Deseases spread over the world and you and your friends are the strike force to contain and heal the deseases, very good game, good mechanics.
• Robinson Crusoe
  You and your friends are on an island and have to try to escape. The whole island is against you, wildlife, storms and depleting morale. Comes with different scenarios that determine what you have to do to escape.

These are probably the best of each category, if someone is interested I can give a lot more options but I think that should suffice for now.

I know this is X-wing miniatures board, but since this post does relate in some way, and I don't know of any other boards to put this on, I am putting here

So me and some friends have been getting into board games and such recently. We have enjoyed Star Wars X-wing minatures, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Bang!, Cards Against Humanity, Uno, and Game of Thrones risk

I have purchased Bang!, Cards against Humanity, and every Empire and Rebel fighter for Star Wars X-wing. I also plan on buying Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.

I was wondering if anyone had any opinons on some other games I was wonderign about and also which version of Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan I should buy? (for ticket to ride there is the regular, Europe, and Nordic countries. Just curious which one has more tracks to build)

Here are the other games I was looking at:

Ghostbusters

Superfight

Portal

Exploding Kittens

Carcossne

Halo Risk

Risk 2210 AD

Star Wars Armada

Star Wars Rebellion

Star Trek Attack wing

There is a lot of good advice about games that are good in the previous posts. I'd echo many of them (for what it's worth, I'm a board game librarian and teach board games to college students- cool job if you can get it).

Personally, I thought Portal was awful- it really just loops after the first two turns and tends to take 3x as long as the fun lasts. I'm also down on Settlers of Catan- there are many better games that fit a similar niche (I'd recommend Lords of Vegas). I prefer Ticket to Ride: Europe over the standard version; the new Sails/Rails one looks interesting.

I despise Cards Against Humanity because it forces players to be bad people (instead of letting them choose naturally). I don't think Exploding Kittens is very fun, and Superfight falls into the same "sit around with your bros and talk" family as Cards Against Humanity.

SW Armada is like X-Wing but slowed down- more thought, less action (at least in my experience). ST Attack Wing is like X-Wing but imbalanced and somewhat dorkier. Risk is Risk; how many versions do you need?

I'd highly recommend Lords of Waterdeep, Legendary/Legendary Encounters, and of course the Scum & Villainy ships for X-Wing. ;-)

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a fantastic game if you have a regular group to play it semi-regularly.

Star wars rebellion is Fun game, but it's best as a two player game imo. It's also long, but a lot of fun. The rule book is a nightmare, and it maybe best to watch YouTube at times. Really though the rule book is a nightmare, but don't let that stop you from playing, the pieces are beautiful, and it's a well designed game. Playing as rebels feels tough, but that's how it should be.

Ghostbusters felt dry. It's basically zombicide, but with something missing. It was okay, but after couple of games it really just gets repetitive. Zombicide can to, but I like zombicide better. Idk ghost busters felt like something was missing. The pieces were nice, but the ghost can be hard to tell apart as everything is a translucent blue color.

Carcassonne I never played except on Xbox. Fun addictive game. Not sure what the boardgames itself is like

One game I'll make special mention. City of horror. It's a cut throat game that makes you have to sacrifice your team mates in order to survive the zombie apocalypse. Game takes about an hour, objectives is get vaccine and wait 4 rounds for rescue. Each round when the zombies attack you have to vote a survivor to feed to the zombies,if you cant deal with them all. It is fun, if you like cut throat type of games. You can make promises then feed your friends to the zombies. Not complicated like risk, or rebellion. Fun game, and pretty easy to play

Twilight imperium is another epic type board game. Probably my favorite. It can take long, but after couple games you can fire off a game in about 4 hours. I really like all the options it has. Another one of my favorite

Ikusa if you like ancient Japan and axis and allies/risk type boardgames, with large armies generals,etc. Kind of like risk, but takes place in Japan, but takes long like axis and allies. Your generals leads your armies, and goes up levels, you can build castles, hire Ronan to surprise your opponent. Takes long but another one of my favs

Dominion is fun, but requires getting a lot of the other expansion. It's a deck building game, not so much a board game

As for the risk spin off games, they all seem pretty gimmicky. I've played a lot from couple different star wars, to Lord if the rings. Fun for couple of games.

I'm not a fan of firefly. It has a lot of cards but it's not a card building game it's a boardgame that'll have your table filled with deck of cards all around it. I wasn't a huge fan of the show either. So maybe it's just fans of the show who like it.

Never played ticket to Ride. But I've only ever heard great things about it

If you can find a copy of star craft the boardgames, it's another fun one, though I don't think they make it anymore, but the pieces are awesome looking, and it has that star craft feel. Ffg did amazing job capturing the essence of that game over to a boardgame.

XCOM is another fun one. Games and set up are fast compared to a lot of ffg type games. Requires an app to play, but it really is a fun frantic game. When you win, you feel like you've won, but it can be a very unforgiving game. Nice detailed pieces, and set up, clean up within couple of min. Also games don't take long. About an hour

Space cadet is another really great game. Best with 4 plus players, but each take on a role in a star ship. Each round you must play a mini game to see if you get the shields up, or can fire off your missiles, or increase your speed and miss the asteroids, and get your ship pointing in the right direction, while fighting off other ships and compete your mission. Highly recommended, and it doesn't take long, 60-75 min

Meh, Zombiside is so repetitive half a dozen plays its about all you get. Such a shame as it was so close to being a great zombie game

Zombicide is fun to play and a lot easier to drag a non-gamer along for the ride than some of the better but more complex games out there.

I'd recommend staying away from Star Trek Attack Wing unless you really love the IP, the game is a tad broken/rushed and isn't nearly as balanced as X-wing. So if you are looking for a Star Trek game how about trying Star Trek Ascendancy, it is coming out soon and seems to really represent Star Trek very well in my mind.

My son bought Evolution with some birthday money and the whole family loves it. It's a nice mix of:

1) not taking too long (an hour?)

2) not being too complicated

3) being complicated enough that it's got strategy

4) some random luck so that each game is different

7 Wonders and Lords of Waterdeep (or Stone Age) are the best recommendations so far. Someone recommended Suburbia, which is also great, but Castles of Mad King Ludwig is probably the better game.

There are a lot of recommendations so far that Id stay away from right now for various reasons.

1. Pandemic - I have a group that cooperative games just simply did not jive with, so it hasn't been a universal hit.

2. Pandemic Legacy - same as above, plus you have to have the same group of players play it over and over. You can't just pick it up and play it with anyone.

3. Twilight Empirium/Star Wars Rebellion/Archipelago/Robinson Crusoe/Battlestar Galactica - No, just no. You don't go from Settlers to any of these games. They all take a LONG time to play are way to complex for a new Boardgamer to digest, particularly well enough to teach.

4. Betrayal at House on the Hill - this is kind of a mess of a game. Great theme is its saving grace, but not a great game.

5. Space Cadets - what a nightmare to teach. Every person has their own station, which is completely different from all the others. It is basically like teaching 5 different games all at once. Fun, but too annoying to teach.

I wouldn't recommend any of the games on your list. Carcassonne is the closest to a match, but I find it pretty dry. Cards Against Humanity is funny once and the drops off the fun cliff after one play.

I'll throw out one more - Codenames. If you ever play with non-gamers, this is a must own. I've never had this game fail to get a request for more plays. People call it a party game, but I wouldn't say that. It isn't raucous fun that I'd want in a party, and I wouldn't play it with 40 people over for a party. I'd call it a "gathering" game. Family get-togethers, 6-8 people getting together for dinner, etc are what this game is perfect for.

Source: I own 300 Boardgames and run a bi-monthly game night.

Not sure what's more annoying. That this thread absolutely should be in the off-topic section or that only 5 of the 10 games listed are board games.

It's odd, because I've heard many boardgames say that x wing isn't a true board game, but have heard alot of miniatures gamers say it's not a real miniatures game either... not sure why it matters.

7 Wonders and Lords of Waterdeep (or Stone Age) are the best recommendations so far. Someone recommended Suburbia, which is also great, but Castles of Mad King Ludwig is probably the better game.

There are a lot of recommendations so far that Id stay away from right now for various reasons.

1. Pandemic - I have a group that cooperative games just simply did not jive with, so it hasn't been a universal hit.

2. Pandemic Legacy - same as above, plus you have to have the same group of players play it over and over. You can't just pick it up and play it with anyone.

3. Twilight Empirium/Star Wars Rebellion/Archipelago/Robinson Crusoe/Battlestar Galactica - No, just no. You don't go from Settlers to any of these games. They all take a LONG time to play are way to complex for a new Boardgamer to digest, particularly well enough to teach.

4. Betrayal at House on the Hill - this is kind of a mess of a game. Great theme is its saving grace, but not a great game.

5. Space Cadets - what a nightmare to teach. Every person has their own station, which is completely different from all the others. It is basically like teaching 5 different games all at once. Fun, but too annoying to teach.

I wouldn't recommend any of the games on your list. Carcassonne is the closest to a match, but I find it pretty dry. Cards Against Humanity is funny once and the drops off the fun cliff after one play.

I'll throw out one more - Codenames. If you ever play with non-gamers, this is a must own. I've never had this game fail to get a request for more plays. People call it a party game, but I wouldn't say that. It isn't raucous fun that I'd want in a party, and I wouldn't play it with 40 people over for a party. I'd call it a "gathering" game. Family get-togethers, 6-8 people getting together for dinner, etc are what this game is perfect for.

Source: I own 300 Boardgames and run a bi-monthly game night.

It's a pretty easy game and a lot of fun

Each station is a mini game yes you have to learn, but each one is a pretty simple concept. So not really all that hard to learn, and it sort of does feel like you and your friends are in control of a space sship like something out of star trek.

It's a game that I know people who don't play the epic type of boardgames play and enjoy it. They are the settlers of catan type of people. It's a highly recommended game, and doesn't take hours to play.

While I agree some games I suggested are very complex for a new type of player, but he was asking about rebellion and it's up there as well. What got me into these types of boardgames was risk. Was risk, then acis and allies and now I play everything. Have go start somewhere, so if the op wants to play a more complicated game I stand by my recommendation, and on a final note space cadet is a must play for any boardgamer

What is also great about it is there is a 2 min tutorial on YouTube for each station that each player can easily watch to teach you how to play your role. Not that hard if someone has a smart phone they can pass around the group while setting up

Also city of horror is great if your a Zombie fan. It can be cut throat but that's the appeal of it. Maybe not for everyone but I love getting to vote who gets eaten by zombies and having players try to get into building for precious resources. Sim e it only has 4 rounds it's not long, takes about an hour and after the first round or two you'll have a pretty good understanding of the rules

Thanks for the replies! Sorry didn't see the off-topic forum last night, saw the "general" forum but there were no posts in it so decided to post here.

Anyways, awesome reccomendations! I will have to save these! I forgot one other game I was interested in:

Star Wars Imperial Assault

Also does Star Wars Rebellion play like the old PC game? I remember playing that game and it was hella fun, and this game looks like it is literally the board game version of the 90's PC game

Thanks for the replies! Sorry didn't see the off-topic forum last night, saw the "general" forum but there were no posts in it so decided to post here.

Anyways, awesome reccomendations! I will have to save these! I forgot one other game I was interested in:

Star Wars Imperial Assault

Also does Star Wars Rebellion play like the old PC game? I remember playing that game and it was hella fun, and this game looks like it is literally the board game version of the 90's PC game

Not sure where you stand on lengthy and complex games, but it's up there

With rebellion My buddies took 10 hours their first game but that was learning everything, and the rule book didn't help as it really is a nightmare, and they resorted to going to YouTube to get their answers.

With that said we can get a game in 2-4 hours now, which I say is about the regular time to play once you get the rules down. It's learning the rules that's the hard part.

Also im not a fan of it for 3-4 players. It really seems like a 2 player game. 4 players you just feel like your sharing one brain, and in the end if there is a more experienced player on one team it seems like he just makes the decisions and the other player is there for the ride. Not quite a spectator, but close

Imperial assault and armada are like XWing in a way that you'll end up wanting to buy each expansion as they come out. Don't need to but why wouldn't ya?

Armada takes longer to play, and has a higher price tag. Imperial assault didn't interest me, played it once and that was it. There was some severe balancing issues awhile back k with it, but they fixed that with an errata to a card so you'll definitely need to get the faq for that

Rebellion is awesome. I never played the PC game, so I'm unqualified to compare. Armada is also great, with gorgeous minis as we've come to expect from FFG.

As noted above, Star Trek Attack Wing is...not good. For all the talk around here about power creep, imagine a ship with a PWT and 6 red dice, plus assigning almost any pilots/upgrades from any faction to any ship. And limited upgrade types, so most secondary weapons fall under the same category, rather than dealing with separate torpedoes, beam weapons, etc. it leads to crazy broken combos on capital ships which maneuver like fighters and mostly can only fire into the forward 90 degrees of their ship. (Ever looked at the Galaxy -class Enterprise? How can that only fire into a little 90 degree arc, exactly???)

Ghostbusters can be fun for a play through or two, but gets repetitive quickly. I think I got more entertainment out of painting the figures than I did playing the game. Really, it's kinda like Zombicide, but with less variation between characters and the ghosts only move reactively most of the time (whereas zombies in Zombicide at least keep staggering toward your characters to eat their tasty flesh).

Rebellion is awesome. I never played the PC game, so I'm unqualified to compare. Armada is also great, with gorgeous minis as we've come to expect from FFG.

As noted above, Star Trek Attack Wing is...not good. For all the talk around here about power creep, imagine a ship with a PWT and 6 red dice, plus assigning almost any pilots/upgrades from any faction to any ship. And limited upgrade types, so most secondary weapons fall under the same category, rather than dealing with separate torpedoes, beam weapons, etc. it leads to crazy broken combos on capital ships which maneuver like fighters and mostly can only fire into the forward 90 degrees of their ship. (Ever looked at the Galaxy -class Enterprise? How can that only fire into a little 90 degree arc, exactly???)

Ghostbusters can be fun for a play through or two, but gets repetitive quickly. I think I got more entertainment out of painting the figures than I did playing the game. Really, it's kinda like Zombicide, but with less variation between characters and the ghosts only move reactively most of the time (whereas zombies in Zombicide at least keep staggering toward your characters to eat their tasty flesh).

Two games to keep on radar is ffg is making the classic video game doom a boardgame, and the dark souls board game looks very interesting. Can't wait for that one. it reached it kick-starter goal I believe in 3 hours, so a lot of anticipation for that one

I've played Rebellion four times now, and each time the game has had a different feel. It is a lot of fun, but we can't seem to finish a four player game in under 5 hours.

TL:DR - but here is my list anyway

Backgammon

Pandemic

Paranoia

Diplomacy

Axis & Allies

Risk (any version) although Middle Earth and Star Wars are my favorite

I'll throw out one more - Codenames. If you ever play with non-gamers, this is a must own. I've never had this game fail to get a request for more plays. People call it a party game, but I wouldn't say that. It isn't raucous fun that I'd want in a party, and I wouldn't play it with 40 people over for a party. I'd call it a "gathering" game. Family get-togethers, 6-8 people getting together for dinner, etc are what this game is perfect for.

Other light fun social games that play a bunch of people - The Resistance, Mafia de Cuba, Spyfall.

Thanks for the replies! Sorry didn't see the off-topic forum last night, saw the "general" forum but there were no posts in it so decided to post here.

Anyways, awesome reccomendations! I will have to save these! I forgot one other game I was interested in:

Star Wars Imperial Assault

Also does Star Wars Rebellion play like the old PC game? I remember playing that game and it was hella fun, and this game looks like it is literally the board game version of the 90's PC game

Imperial Assault is amazing.

Two games in one core box, plenty of gameplay just in the core, plus a gazzilion options for expansion. It is by far my favorite game.

All depends on how well the imperial player does. One game my rebel was was found in turn 4, and then in another game it was found in turn 4-5 but then I moved it and in the end he couldn't find where it relocated.

It dies feel very thematic. One game playing as imperial I lost, but I blew up 3 planets with the death Star, and capturing leaders, rescuing them, blowing up planets death Star, and the victory conditions, etc. Ffg did a very good job imo.

Highly recommend for any boardgamer as a must play. May not suit everyone, but if your a star wars fan. It's pretty hard to pass up

• Ghostbusters - No clue
• Superfight - if you and your friends like having silly arguments, sure
• Portal - no clue
• Exploding Kittens - fun and funny exactly once. Not worth actually purchasing.
• Carcassonne - pretty good game, but a little dry
• Halo Risk - Never played it, but it's Risk. There are tons of better war games out there than Risk.
• Risk 2210 AD - See above comment. Seriously, if you really want Risk, go get Risk Legacy. As far as I can tell, it's the only actually good Risk game. Of course, it does require a group of friends willing to commit to the Legacy feature.
• Star Wars Armada - It's more different from X-Wing than most people realize. Try a demo game with someone who already has it first.
• Star Wars Rebellion - This is likely to be one of the best games you own but never play. Good luck finding that one other person who wants to invest the many hours into playing a full game, much less ever playing it with you again.
• Star Trek Attack wing - BLASPHEMY! HERESY! BURN IT WITH FIRE!

This pretty captures my own views pretty perfectly. Edge, I think you'd fit in perfectly with my weekly gaming group.

To the OP: there's a lot of factors? How big is your gaming group of friends? If it's three people, that opens up what you can play, but if you've got six or more it really limits the games that can get to the table and support that many players. Years ago, my group was 4-5 of us, and we'd play a ton of Eclipse and similarly 'heavier' games. For the past few years, our weekly boardgame night has grown and now we have an average of four of five couples, so we're very limited in what we can play shy of breaking into two separate tables (which no one wants to do, because the whole point of a boardgame night is to socialize and catchup with one another).

If you have fewer players, but at least four, I'd consider:

Nexus Ops instead of anything Risk-related, quite a fun game and quick to learn with replayability

Eclipse probably the best 4X game out there, and while complex is not that complicated once everyone learns how the tech track works

Coup a fantastically fun and quick hidden-role cardgame

Battle Star Galactica a fun hidden-roles game with some novel mechanics, even if you don't like BSG

Seven Wonders is a card-drafting game that has sort of replaced Dominion in that role

If you have more than six, I'd consider :

Codenames fun party game

Telestrations fun party game, combines Pictionary and the telephone game

Ricochet Robots a brain-burning puzzle game, not for everyone but awesome for those who like it

Has anyone mentioned Small World yet, because that's superior to Risk in every way. It's a faster play, no one is eliminated, strategic, and not as cutthroat. Not to mention every game is different when the powers/races match up.

If you get Settlers of Catan, I also recommend the Helpers of Catan expansion. Purists may scoff at this, but it makes the game a little easier for new players and overall, makes the game faster to play. (If you like Star Trek, you can get the Star Trek Catan which includes the "Helpers").

Personally, if I was after a better version of Risk (which isn't much of an ask, imo, can't stand that game), I'd be wanting to play Kemet . It's heavier, with more going on, but when it comes to throwing a bunch of little plastic soldiers (and giant scorpions, sphinxes etc) at your friends it's great. Though Small World is a good shout for something that keeps the lightness.

King of Tokyo

Elder Sign

Sheriff of Nottingham

Also watch Will Weatons's TableTop on YouTube they demo most every game anyone has mentioned here and will give you a good feel of it before you buy

Has anyone mentioned Small World yet, because that's superior to Risk in every way. It's a faster play, no one is eliminated, strategic, and not as cutthroat. Not to mention every game is different when the powers/races match up.

If you get Settlers of Catan, I also recommend the Helpers of Catan expansion. Purists may scoff at this, but it makes the game a little easier for new players and overall, makes the game faster to play. (If you like Star Trek, you can get the Star Trek Catan which includes the "Helpers").

Seconded. Helpers adds a lot of options for the players to accomplish what they want outside of the dice randomness. Smooths out a lot of rough edges in the game.