Great thread with some good suggestions and games I'd not read about before. Always nice to broaden the horizons on what's out there.

Whilst I don't play that many modern boardgames these days, I bought Chess 4 a few years ago for use in some classes. http://www.abstractstrategy.com/chess-4.html
It's basically a four player chess variant, but it also works incredibly well as a two player game where you have two armies each. My brother and I have had some fantastic games with it.

Other old favorites include the already mentioned Talisman, Heroquest and Bloodbowl.