German-style..?
Catan is the gateway drug, a great beginner's introduction to the strategy of games. A couple of nights ago I was playing Small World, something which I'd say is a step up/along (diagonal?) from Catan - once you know the ruleset it's quick and easy, with enough variety game-on-game. Similar to the DOS game Isle Wars, or Risk, but... not. It also begins to integrate the whle idea of classes and powers that you find heavily control the intense games (D&D!)
Carcassonne is alright but I don't really care for it much.
Card-based games, such as Munchkins, rely on power-sets and classes and stuff... I've played a few but I do get confused/bored. Recently played Citadels, which is an incredibly simple and quick game.
Order of the Schtick (or just stick?) is a mix of card-and-D&D -- card-based but you build the dungeon as you go. Can take hoursandhoursandhours. My problem is that I tend to have the wrong strategy from the get-go and it's just a waste of time after that.
Yet to finish a game of Zombies, despite three attempts. Wanna love it due to zombies but it's just not well balanced. Zombie Dice is quicker, easier and more straight forward.
I've heard a lot about ticket to ride - from the same company that made Small World... I think...
I have a couple of friends who get together every tuesday night and play games. One of them has a massive collection of niche games that take an hour to understand and up to 10 to play. He was trying to tell me about the different games companies behind the games and the history of the board game... There's certainly a lot there to get involved with, and it made me realise that I didn't really understand D&D players at all, I just looked down on them. Now I understaaand.
Oh, and @Oxigen_Waste go to the movie thread and recommend me some movies that are like the list I posted.