Let's talk Board Games: Introduction

Hi! Let's talk board games.
I've been into gaming for a few decades now.
I had an A.D.A.M. computer before I knew what board games were and even a Nintendo Entertainment System before board games.
Risk (1959). Risk was my first ever board game played, even before chess, albeit barely.
Playing Risk was exhilarating compared to video games. Though you could pull me away from Tetris, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, and Zelda I would try to play board games in the video game down time.

Playing Risk was a challenge. Everyone gets a set of cards and places a single cube on each represented country. Then the first player places a few extra cubes and starts attacking. Dice vs dice; high rolls win; ties to defender. A teacher, 4 other students, and myself played. Last day of school, grade 2, after Mr. King taught us the basics, we dove in and packed out a game in an afternoon.

Chess, even today, is a challenge for me. I'm better at seeing a big picture, but not the details to get there. I rely on a lot of luck and random occurrences in games and games with a lot of those two elements are my specialty.

My all-time favourite board games are:

1. Monopoly: I've lost one game; under a 20 minute time restriction; I was very careless.
2. Mage Knight: Part deck-builder, part hand management, part adventure, part strategy, and some decent luck. I find Mage Knight to be fun and challenging, even if it takes a few hours to play.
3. Eclipse: A space Risk played over 9 game rounds. Expand the universe and your empire while making allies or foes.
4. Firefly: Joss Whedon's FIrefly made adventure board game. Find crew. Get jobs. Keep flying.
5. I debate between Risk (1959) and Talisman here. Since we all know about Risk (the 3-hour game) I'll talk about Talisman. Roll dice and move. Encounter another character or the space you land on. Get stronger and claim the crown of command to kill your opponents for good.

I am very uncertain how often I will be posting; this is technically my first on the internet. I'll be reviewing, quick-explaining, and giving my overall opinion about all my games in alphabetical order. I have 268 and growing and I have at least 1 game for each letter of the alphabet. Did you know Amway made a board game called "Victory Circle"? It's my only 'V' game.

Alright. This is it for now.
Thanks