You mentioned Risk, so I can only assume you want more from a strategy board game. If you're really serious about board games, and also like strategy, there is only one choice: Go. Go is the ultimate in strategy, and its longevity is testament to that fact. So many games have spawned from this most abstract of war games, but they are all pretenders, and do not offer anything close to the depth offered by Go.
Chess is good if you can memorize openings. You can also not memorize openings but be very good at mid- and end-game chess and be fairly good, but you will never be as consistent and able to beat noobs as if you memorized openings.
Stratego is good if you like chess but you're bad at it or you're a kid.
Don't forget about checkers.
Clue.
I'm always a huge fan of Pictionary if you have enough people to make it fun (4+).
Operation is really super extra fun if you're drunk and controlling enough to actually get people to start playing.
Battleship or one of its modern variants for 2 people is definitely a good time.
Trivial Pursuit is fun but can be one-sided.
Blokus is cool.
--
Of course all of this ignores the fact that there is a huge industry of people who take board gaming off the board and just cover their whole table. There are dozens or hundreds of books of parameters and rules for how to play. This is the world of miniature gaming. Games like Warhammer.. ..and.. ..Warhammer 40,000 will bring you into the strategy like never before. BEWARE miniature gaming can lead to LARPing.
|