Strategy Board Games and where to buy them

Gaming nights usually consist of Settlers of Catan and maybe Munchkin. I indulged in a couple of Christmas presents for myself and got Pirate's Cove and Puerto Rico.

I have kind of a 'thing' for pirates, although I've no idea why. Pirates Cove is a great theme game, although it involves a lot of luck through dice battles. It also involves a considerable amount of trying to anticipate your opponents' moves so as to best screw them over. I think it will work well.

Puerto Rico is more of a pure strategy game. There is only a small amount of randomness in the game, and the rest of the uncertainty comes from actions of the other players. I've been trying to get the feel for the game by playing Puerto Rico online before I have a chance to actually play it in real life. After all, someone has to know how to play.

I can also recommend the place I got them from: The Games. The website is easy to use at the moment (may change as their range expands), and they use a device of having a hypothetical family of mum, dad and 2 kids. Each of the family members have different requirements for what makes a good game, and each game is scored as to how much it appeals to each family member. The website could be improved so the information is a bit easier to get at (fewer clicks and page loads), but as a rating device, it works pretty well.