The games are almost always physically lovely, with heavy-duty, beautifully made wooden and cardboard pieces. They tend to be deceptively simple to learn and wildly complex to play, but not always some are so hard to learn that Ben has had to pre-digest the rules for us by sitting with them for hours on end until he's can explain them (I realize that this is a hindrance, but worthwhile). These are serious strategy games, often European in origin, that involve very little luck and very little boring down-time.
