I got the opportunity to play Dominion (Rio Grande games) over Christmas, and instantly liked it. While I only played one actual game, I got to start playing it three times (each time we'd get part way through and then someone else would want to join in, so we'd restart). So when we got home, I went straight out and got our own copy.
The quick overview if you've never seen it (and didn't follow the link above) is that Dominion is a card game based around the concept of deck building. Each player has their own deck of cards that they draw from, and during the course of play you can add cards to your deck. At the end of the game, the winner is the person who has the most victory points in their deck (certain cards give you victory points). The trick is that the victory point cards don't actually do anything in the game except take up space. The other cards are much more useful - action cards that let you do things and money cards that let you buy other cards. But they don't count at the end of the game.
It's one of those games that you could spent ages trying to describe, but is extremely easy to pick up if someone shows you how to play. Plus, others can describe it much better than I can.
The thing I really love about Dominion is that it manages to cross the line between a casual game and a gamer game. By which I really mean it appeals of both K and myself. There's a lot of strategic depth in terms of which cards interact will with others and what's available on the table. But the random setup means that every game is going to be different and it's not just a case of "oh, now I've worked out how to win it's boring". The other really appealing factor is that the game plays out in about 45mins. So in an evening you can happily have three or four games without spending the whole night.
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