Best Board Games
First - party games. These are not my favorites, but they are popular and easy to add to an event.
Resistance (5-10 players, 15 minutes) You are either a government spy, or one of the noble resistance. But only you know for sure. You and your crew take turns assigning people to missions, and then you see if the missions succeed or fail. Figure out who the spies are... before it's too late!
Telestrations (3-12 players, 10 minutes) No scoring - you get a word or phrase, you draw it, you pass it along. The next person guesses... then the next person draws. And so on until you fill a book. Then you just share the silliness! Just played this for the first time this weekend. Silly and fun!
Sushi Go (Party) (3-7 players, 30 minutes) You start with 7 cards, take one and pass it to the left (or right, depending on round.) Just make a pair, a set or build up your dumpling supply. Simple... but then the person beside you keeps stealing the wasabi cards you want... what?!
Dixit (3-5 players, 45-60 minutes) Simple game somewhat like Apples to Apples but with beautiful artwork and free-form creative word/phrase selection. Good way to see how people think creatively!
Second - gateway games. These up the strategy involved, but are still very approachable.
Ticket to Ride (2-5 players, 45 minutes) Get some train tickets (LA to Chicago!) and start collecting the train cars you need to place your routes on the map. But... meanwhile your opponents block off NY to Philly?! Ouch. I've played this 7 year old nephews and 55 year old in-laws. (For an upgrade, break out a saw and make card holders!)
Carcassonne (2-5 players, 45 minutes) The quintessential tile-laying game. Simply dip your hand in the bag of tiles, take one out... and find a place to add your castles, roads and churches to the kingdom. Place a meeple there to set yourself up for points later. Don't be shy with your meeples... but don't run out before you get lucky and draw a church! Once you learn the game, add farming, and the river is an easy way to make for a more interesting, larger kingdom (and one very lucky farmer!) This game really is a must - easy to learn, hard to master, some luck but plenty of strategy.
Catan (3-4 players, 45-60 minutes) While you can play with fewer or more players than 3 or 4, I think that's the sweet spot. This is one of the "original" European-ish style games to go mainstream. There's still LOTS of luck involved in the dice rolls, but once you learn it, you can play with where you start your island colonies, and become the master of resources... or get stranded on the coasts.
7 Wonders (2-7 players, 45 minutes) The way you pay for things is slightly confusing to new players at first, but overall this is an easy game to play, and you all take your turns at the same time, so there's zero downtime. You play 3 rounds with 7 cards each, so it doesn't take too long. There is a huge variety of strategies to go for (military, science, guilds, etc.) The flexibility of how many players and the speed of this game makes it very easy to recommend. My wife and I even like the two-player variant, though the Duel game that came out is even better (for two players!)
Third - excellent strategy games. Slightly more involved, but worth it.
Isle of Skye (2-5 players, 60 minutes) A recent addition to my collection, but a fast favorite! Tile-laying with an auction twist. Not much harder to learn than Carcassonne, and the different combinations of goals during each of the six rounds is really fun, plus the decisions you make on how to price the tiles you draw is really interesting.
Castles of Burgundy (2-5 players, 45-60 minutes) An introduction to dice as... strategic items. While dice rolls add a hint of luck, what you do with your dice roll is actually really strategic in this game of building the best kingdom. You could be the best sheep farmer, or build a lot of castles and take advantage of the free turns they grant you, or sail boats and get a jump on your opponent. So many different strategies. This plays super well at 2 players, but it scales really well, too.
Lords of Waterdeep (2-5 players, 45-60 minutes) Let your inner geek out. This is a Dungeons & Dragons themed "worker placement" game. Over eight rounds, you have to carefully decide where to send your agents to recruit wizards and warriors to complete your quests. Open up outposts and get bonus access to fighters and clerics when your opponents send their agents to you. This is one of the easiest worker placement games to learn, but once it dawns on you how clever and strategic this kind of game is... you might start looking for similar games!
Fourth - games that I love for the theme, components or other reasons.
Euphoria Dystopian future, amazing colorful board, wonderful dice and components (worker placement)
Viticulture Wine-making from fields to bottle! (worker placement)
Brew Crafters Beer-making; a million components (worker placement - beware long setup times but worth it!)
Cosmic Encounter An updated classic galactic diplomacy game that's a lot of fun for 3-5 players
Tales of the Arabian Nights Forget strategy. Hilarious story-telling game! One of the most fun!
Five Tribes Like Mancala, but... way more colorful. Lot of different ways to win this Arabian themed game.