here's my current top 5 games:
1. dominion - the all-time classic. absurdly replayable, even with a handful of the now (also absurd) 13 expansions.
2. race for the galaxy - the ultimate value-for-time game, there's so much to chew on in a 30-60 minute, well, race.
3. the castles of burgundy - stefan feld is my guy, and this is arguably his best game, and undoubtedly his most popular. has a lot of depth but is also pretty accessible.
4. bora bora - stefan feld again, this one is sadly out of print and feels like it kind of flew under the radar of some of his bigger hits but man. what a supremely satisfying amalgamation of worker placement, engine/tableau building, and goal completion. it's one of those games that you spend the first half struggling to stop spinning your wheels, but when (and how) you get through makes it feel so good.
5. ra - the ultimate bidding game, and legendary designer reiner knizia's masterpiece. a testament to the "less-is-more" school of game design, and how much game you can pack in a handful of choices if you truly do it right. i'm always amazed at the clever plays and brutal mistakes i make every single time i play this one.
recently i've been playing a ton of macao (also stefan feld) on yucata.de and although it has solidly hung in the 6-10 zone in my rankings i feel like it could easily displace something here. another engine/tableau builder swirling around the most clever dice/action point mechanism of all time
it's an underwater adventure ride