All this week we've been playing Twilight Imperium (a huge space empires boardgame) at lunch.  Sandy picked up the 3rd edition and we've been having an epic space conflict among 5 of us.  Note that when I say all week at lunch, that's the same game.  We're maybe 2/3 of the way through.  The third edition of TI seems a little more polished than the 2nd, but it's still a monster game.  Periodically random other ES folks will wander by while we're in the middle of some esoteric rules deciphering and mock us (and we're certainly deserving of it).  TI is no Squad Leader or World in Flames when it comes to rules complexity, but it's a lot more intricate than our usual boardgaming fare around the office -- games like Puerto Rico, Fist of Dragonstones, Pitchcar, and the like.

I need to spend more time getting my homebrew boardgame designs in shape.  Games like TI are inspiring to me because they are so much fun even with such unwieldy complexity.  I constantly see ways I'd like to try and improve on their game mechanics.  Of course, most of my boardgames wind up like many of my little weekend games... 50% finished and not very playable.  But it's still fun to mess around with 'em.