Catan is a classic for that very reason, its enjoyable, easy to pick up and some of the expansions vastly change the game and add extra challenge for those who are proficient in the vanilla game.
Spent last week at Spiel Doch and Ratinger Spiele, played a fair few games, it was good to be able to actually play the new ones and not spend half the time fighting for a seat like at Essen.
Race to the New Found Land, Hans im Gluck. Good game, nice that you can have multiple ways/gaming styles to score points. you have to watch what everyone is doing trading and where they are expanding to know the best course of action. looks open to a pirate expansion in the future, as there was no stealing mechanic or failed trades so that could be a new element. Ended up buying it and already played it again and still enjoyed it.
Zambezi, Burley games. Family game where you flow down a river avoiding obstacles such as crocodiles and rocks. A bit of fun and nothing too taxing on the brain. a good family game for sure and up to 8 can play.
Seringeti. Deck builder with fantastic art work, designer has tried to avoid the constant reshuffle of dominion and instead gone for balance and utilising abilities efficiently rather than stacking a deck with 1 powerful card.
Luxor-Forgotten Treasures, Queen games. Good fun game, was a kickstarter which should be sending out in July or so but they had masses of stock, regret not buying a copy. Interesting movement dynamic which is based of cards so not random, worked well, then its about artifact collection and maximising position for final points. Works well and again nothing too stressful with some thought but not to intense.
Moorea, DLP games. a lot like splendor or Century spice road. but lacking the clever dynamic and balance of the latter. This was boring, it's a race to collect the draw and hand enhancement cards. Who ever gets there first will then have an advantage over the others and can stack the points too rapidly for others to catch up, then it just drags on until the end. It's a shame as I like this style of game usually but this falls short.
Lost Cities, Kosmos. This was a bit dull tbh. you move your characters along paths towards the lost cities. Final points are gained from the meeples positions. first 3 steps on every path are negative. The movement comes from building decks of cards from your hand which correspond to the colour of the path. Lacks any real strategy beyond limiting yourself to maybe 3 paths. the game ends when 5 meeple are beyond a certain point and this doesn't take long enough to allow full exploration. The added rules expect you to play multiple rounds and then compare points which too me made it repetitive and Dull. Its a shame as Kosmos is usually solid.
Igloo Mania. Fun family game, u remove pieces of an igloo and score points whilst trying to stop the polar bear from sinking, bit of fun but would be great as a new drinking Jenga.
Samsara, Thomas Weber, Gerhards Spiel and Design. Amazingly crafted game, 2 player, the aim is to gain points by moving your balls around a track. The twist is all balls can be moved by any person, so your opponent has many opportunities to stop you from being able to score. Its a good thinker and looks fantastic. Gerhard have the license for production and make other amazing wooden board games.
Heblo. This I am actually including a link for, its fantastic. Its a dynamic abstract strategy. The aim is to remove your balls from the board or have all of the ramps pointing down. Balls can only roll down a ramp or side step across ramps. The board is made of a series of seesaw like planks which u guide the balls along. (difficult to explain and poorly done here) but its a heavily tactical game and requires a chess level of thinking and dynamic. also the construction is amazing.
http://www.heblo.eu/
