Terra Mystica
Terra Mystica is one of the most strategic games I've ever played - and it doesn't involve any slaughtering of enemies. It's actually a simulation of economy, settling, and societal development. The in-game currencies are money, work, faith, and magic; they can be converted into one another. The number of variables is immense, and the tangle of interdependencies is very complex.
Every player represents one people with unique skills, needs, and capacities. The witches can zoom around on their brooms, so they can establish new settlements easily wherever there's a forest. The desert nomads can control sandstorms, which they will use to terraform neighbouring landscapes into the kind of land they need to establish new settlements. All of these peoples are very well balanced against each other, so that it's up to the players to make the best of their game.
The game material is rich and very well designed. The complex rules and mechanics follow some pretty clear algorithms, which are explained everywhere on the board, cards, and other material using a kind of visual programming language. This makes it very easy to follow the rules without having to constantly check them in the rule book.
All in all, this game is probably not really for me - too much strategy perhaps. However, I need to give it some more chances before deciding that.
Tags: games