Dominion!
Even though they're not my games, I'd love to introduce more people to Dominion. I thought it would be hard to top a game like Settlers of Catan, but Rio Grande has done it with Dominion. There's far more randomness and scenarios available, and a lot more cursing (even from me! Y'all would be shocked!). It's very fast paced and easy to learn. Timban and I played two "short" games in about 45 minutes each tonight while our other halves were engaged in something more old fashioned called Shut the Box. The last time we played two player it went on for at least a couple of hours. I should have jotted down some notes about that one - I kept whipping out either the Torturer or the Witch and I believe he had the Torturer as well.
Like any good game, it has a couple of expansion packs already. The Intrigue expansion really beefs up the basic game with interesting attack cards like the Witch, the Torturer, the Saboteur, Dukes, Wishing Wells and Coppersmiths. Two player is fun, but Intrigue is more suited to four players - there's one card - Tribute IIRC - where you can attack the player to your left, and another one where everyone's top card gets passed to the next player.
The goal is to acquire enough coins to purchase actions, attacks, more money and property cards. The game ends when either three of the card "suits" are all gone or the last province is bought. The person with the highest number of property cards wins, although curse cards gained via cards like the Witch are subtracted.
Like any good game, it has a couple of expansion packs already. The Intrigue expansion really beefs up the basic game with interesting attack cards like the Witch, the Torturer, the Saboteur, Dukes, Wishing Wells and Coppersmiths. Two player is fun, but Intrigue is more suited to four players - there's one card - Tribute IIRC - where you can attack the player to your left, and another one where everyone's top card gets passed to the next player.
The goal is to acquire enough coins to purchase actions, attacks, more money and property cards. The game ends when either three of the card "suits" are all gone or the last province is bought. The person with the highest number of property cards wins, although curse cards gained via cards like the Witch are subtracted.