Favourite board game other than chess?


I have been playing Go on and off for a number of years, I find the strategy harder to get to grips with than chess. More recently I have started to learn Shogi and Xiangqi.
Shogi is a great game, when you capture a piece it becomes yours and you can drop it on the board on your side as a move, but it's not easy to find opponents.
For front to front play it may be difficult, depending on where you live. But, online, there are plenty of places you will find a game, like Shogi24 and 81squareuniverse (http://www.81squareuniverse.com/). The game is growing a lot on some western clubs also.
I think that Shogi is by far the best "Chess game" of all (western chess included), for reasons I have exposed in this thread:
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-players-mentality?quote_id=7928681&page=2#last_comment
You can find a very enlightening comparison (with chess) text here:
http://shogipro.com/article2_e.html
And for those who may be interested in Shogi, you need nothing more than Hidetchi's videos to get going (from beginner to intermediate level). He even discussed Shogi softwares and playing sites in his videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkz0LVBg0W4
Don't get scared with japanese characters. After 2 or 3 games, they become second nature. Just threat them as the abstraction they are, after all, before learning chess, nothing suggested that the pointed long pieces should be moving in diagonals.

I am a huge fan of Axis & Allies!! It takes a long time to play a game, and requires a boatload of room, but those are it's only negatives. It is fun and challenging.

Backgammon is my favorite game, and I like chess a lot (was captain of chess team in High School, bought chess computer in 1979 etc)
By far and away Axis & Allies is the next best board game! - The expansion sets have spiced the game up even more over the years as well!

Right now it's Havannah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havannah
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2759/havannah
The next time you ask I might say backgammon. Those two game often hover between #2 and #3 spots.

Arimaa
arimaa.com
It is much less tactical than chess for the most part and guess what? The best humans can still whup the best engines. There is a $11,000 prize for programmers if they can program a bot to convincingly win matches against three picked humans. Even I have beaten the 2012 challenge bot, and I've been playing just over 3 months.
Risk, by far
Once you learn the secrets of strategy - and there aren't very many - if you are playing with others who also "get it" it just boils down to pure chance on the dice.
I don't really agree. When you have skilled players it comes down to diplomacy, which can make the game pretty damn complex. To mention just one thing, you often have to figure out how to economically place your forces when the balance of power is unclear and you're not sure who's friend or foe. IMO even one unskilled player makes the game unsatisfying since he usually ruins it. Most of the time it's someone who's easily manipulated.

Risk, by far
Once you learn the secrets of strategy - and there aren't very many - if you are playing with others who also "get it" it just boils down to pure chance on the dice.
I don't really agree. When you have skilled players it comes down to diplomacy, which can make the game pretty damn complex. To mention just one thing, you often have to figure out how to economically place your forces when the balance of power is unclear and you're not sure who's friend or foe. IMO even one unskilled player makes the game unsatisfying since he usually ruins it. Most of the time it's someone who's easily manipulated.
Risk is a cool game. Both points are taken, and you are both correct, in your own way. Among peers, it's still fun, even if there is the chance aspect.
I mentioned Stratego earlier because it's a game I can play with my girlfriend's kids that is a game, but also invoves some thought.