Titan (AH): An excellent game. Playing time can get long with 5-6 players, especially if they are fairly new to the game. There is much room for strategy to affect results, and I really like it. I wouldn't want to start a game of Titan without at least 1 hour/player.

Car Wars: I used to play a fair bit of it. It has evolved a fair bit over time, when I started it was a simple little pocket game -- cheap, fast, easy to play. It has become quite massively complex. You may find it comfortable, since it in some ways resembles a miniatures tank game, except that you are running on a grid, rather than using measured distances. (Though, really, the grid can be done without, and it run almost entirely as a miniatures game.) It may escalate over the $30 mark. Playing time varies depending on setup, single car duels can be done in 15 minutes or less; more complicated multi-car duels can take much longer.

Settlers of Catan (Mayfair): An excellent 4 player game, also reasonably playable for 3. Not really playable for 2 people. This is well worth buying, and is the only game in this list that I have found to have strong cross-over to non-gamers. Strongly recommended. Playing time 1-2 hours, generally faster with more experienced players.

Diplomacy (AH) A classic. This is an excellent strategic/diplomatic game. Pure strategy, no luck element, negotiation and hidden orders. It really needs 7 players (the full complement) to be properly balanced, is ok with 6 (though loses much of the dynamism of the full game) and isn't really worth playing with 5 or fewer. To win a game usually requires back-stabbing an ally at least once, don't play this game with a group that has difficulty separating in-game choices from real-life, that is if someone will carry feelings from a back-stab in-game to real-life interactions, that is not a good person to play Diplomacy with. Still, an excellent game. This game also has a dedicated play-by-mail and play-by-email following. This, also, tends to be a fairly long game, I wouldn't even start without at least 3 hours, and can run to 6+ depending on length of game, time allocated for each Diplomacy phase, and how rigidly enforced those times are.

OGRE/GEV (SJG): Two great micro-games, but they are micro-games, limited in scope, complexity, and depth. They are also just 2-player games. They are great to have around for people who have been eliminated from a longer game to play as side-amusement. (Say, the people who have been eliminated from a game of Titan or Diplomacy.)

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