There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
I got into the hobby about two years ago in earnest and I started out with the "gateway" games like Ticket To Ride, Stone Age, Splendor, Dominion, and Pandemic.
I buy about one game a month and I can echo some of the earlier suggestions on this thread. Blood Rage is great, but unforgiving if you make a mistake. You can put all your eggs in one basket in that game and get slaughtered, but once you know what the cards do, you rarely make that mistake twice. Dead of Winter is great, as is Betrayal at House on the Hill (both games have crazy replayability due to the crossroad cards in DOW and the 50 scenarios in BAHH. Marvel Legendary is a great deck building game if you get tired of the theme-less (but awesome) Dominion. Stone Age is a great entry point into worker placement games. I haven't yet migrated to the Agricola's of the world. I also think Five Tribes is a nice twist on that worker placement mechanic. I am just now graduating to meatier games like Blood Rage, Cry Havoc, Scythe, and Istanbul.
My advice to you would be check out the "gateway" games (that typically have a weight rating on BGG of about 2.75 or less) to figure out what types of games you prefer. Then, once you do that, start moving into the heavier games of that type with more rules, nuance, and depth.