Mage Knight

Josh and Gwen came for wedding planning, but we squeezed in two games of Mage Knight. In the first game, he pretty much went his way and I went mine, although we teamed up for a city assault or two. In the second game, I was rather poor in mana crystals, so after a while he went ahead of me and cleared out dragons and such so I could get to each city with enough resources to participate in the assaults. That meant he did get more Fame than I did, but by the end of the game I also hit the top of the Fame chart, so it's not like his getting the extra Fame cost me anything.
To play efficiently, you definitely need a feel for what balance of resources you will require and how you're going to get them. Since "resources" includes movement ability, combat ability, healing ability, mana generation, recruiting ability, units, spells, relics, and extra actions, there's a bit of a learning curve. But I can be less than totally efficient and still capture the cities and win the game--I just won't be keeping up with Josh.