8) Belfort

This game is a great combination of worker placement, resource management, and area control. This game is elegant in that it is very simple to pick up and the game play is very straight forward, yet there is a lot going on and you're constantly pulled in so many directions as you try and complete as much as you can each turn. It also has a lot of details that I enjoy in games, namely 1) the player interaction when placing workers to gather resources and vying for the bonuses awarded to the player with the most workers in each spot leads to some tough decisions that I enjoy. and 2) the area control mechanic where you're fighting for a top 3 scoring spot in multiple (in this case 5) regions may be my favorite type of game mechanic.

Elves and Dwarves ready for duty. 

Yes - the other group was playing belfort too!

Nearing the end

My final player board

Final score in a tight game

This was everyone's first time playing and we all agreed that this is going to hit the table more in the near future. My one fear is that after multiple plays a single 'best' path to victory may emerge, but I should probably play it a bunch more to find out if thats the case.