I've played quite a few strategy games with a NMB friend who attends our church, including war games like Axis and Allies, and nation-building games like Civilization. He usually wins, especially at Axis and Allies, because he's so good at choosing the most efficient strategy and sticking to it. I like having options and trying new and different moves, plus I sometimes get distracted by periphery conflicts in, say, Africa or Alaska and put too many resources into those.
I'd enjoy playing more eurogames (like Catan), but those games usually require more than two people and it's hard to find people who have both the time and interest - most of my friends are more the party-game type. Or no game - just sitting around talking
