A game that my brother found that is really fun is called Settlers of Cataan. He brought it with him when our family was together at Christmas. I had never heard of it before, but had it so figured out that I beat everyone by the fourth game.

In college, I played Axis and Allies with some friends. I got beaten pretty badly the first time. Then I got my own strategy and got better. We started playing one Friday afternoon and we were still playing at 4 o'clock the next morning. No one had made any progress at all, so we quit and there was never any mention of playing it again.

Another great game is Beyond Balderdash. It's fun to play with a group, especially when some people aren't taking to completely serious and write down funny answers.