I still think the best "board" game ever is Diplomacy. You have to have long-term strategy and broad goals, tactical manuevering skills, and inter-relational skills and persuasion.
Oh and did I mention that there are NO elements of chance invovled (dice, cards, etc.) Everything is up to what you and the six other players simultaneously decide.
Only problem is it takes
forever to play.
Map:
http://www.diplom.org/Online/maps/map_c.gif
Rules:
http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/res.../2000AH4th.pdf
In other game news, I learned how to play Settlers this past weekend (went straight into expansion) - quite fun once I caught on...