Good Abstract Games

Before choosing to come to Wittenberg University, I got in touch with the school's role-playing group. I had recently started playing the recent edition of D&D back in Boston and was hoping to find a new group. I was assured there would be a campaign starting up after I got there. Sweet!

I went to the group's opening meeting a few weeks back, even though I had already figured out who I was going to be playing with. Once there I realized that this is actually a full-fledged gaming group, not just focused on role-playing. In particular, the club is proud of the number of board games they have amassed! Every Saturday night, they hold an open gaming night, where most people play some board games.

I will likely be showing up this week, bringing Atropos and Tsuro with. I am curious, though, which good board games people know of that are interesting theoretically---either because they have difficult strategies not overwhelmed by randomness, or they look more like abstract combinatorial games. I know that there are already well-known games like this (Chess, Go, etc) but which lesser-known games fit into this category?

Let me know and I will have them ready for Saturday!

As a note: I have been getting plenty of emails about topics mentioned in these posts. I will try to address everything and will post my own thoughts in comments... when I have a chance. I love getting the emails, but please consider posting a comment directly to the blog. :)