Board Game Recommendations

[Travis_Meyer]

I am trying to come up with some christmas gift ideas and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for board games that they really enjoy. In particular, games with high replay value and games which can work well for 2 people are desired.

A couple of games I already have that I really enjoy:
Dominion
Legendary
Settlers of Catan
Power Grid
Terra Mystica
Battlestar Galactica

Thanks!

[TimD]

I really like the Dresden Files board game.
It's a co-op game that has options even for single-player and has an interesting mechanics for scaling difficulty. Knowing the plot of the books is helpful, but not necessary.

[Doonamis]

Good taste with Power Grid, although that, BSG, and Settlers are not 2 player.

My top recommendation would be Agricola, it's my favorite game behind Power Grid.  (Try replacing the paper money in Power Grid with some nice poker chips and thank me later)

Also, Pandemic is another really great co-op game that can be played with a number of players.  There are two flavors available, regular Pandemic or Pandemic Legacy (which confusingly comes in Season 1 and 2, and I know Season 1 has both a red box and a blue box version).  Pandemic Legacy evolves as you play it, with secret compartments to open, stickers to put on the board, and *gasp* asks you to rip up cards at times.  It changes over the course of playing it a few times, but is not infinitely replayable for those reasons.  The base regular game is a more normal board game which you can play as many times as you want.

If you want another entry level game, look at Carcassonne (which is great 2 player) or Ticket to Ride (Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries is more geared for 2 players).  If you get one of the ticket to ride games, I like the 1910/1912 expansions as they replace the mini cards with full size cards.