Best BGA game to hone this life skill...

[oakye]

(yes, a serious question!)
...which games would you recommend to get better at office politics?

I'm going to guess the following mechanics must be present:
- it isn't obvious if someone has a lot more victory points than you, though you can get a sense if you are doing well or not relative to others
- a combination of strategy and chance but not too much chance
- plus it'd be interesting to see what other mechanics you may have thought of!

Off of BGA, I'd recommend some social deduction games like Secret Hitler or maybe The Resistance.

[RobertBr]

I wouldn't. And I would probably find your behaviour very annoying if you tried to practice that anti-social skill at a gaming table.

[oakye]

Well it would also prepare me better for unexpected actions made by others, similar to military actions in 7 Wonders that require defensive measures. I should provide more context that this is about awareness and defense, not offense. Many people in the workplace are skilled at this without having to play board games.

I could rebut my own request by saying that all boardgames here require some sort of logic (even those that incorporate chance). Real life, especially in an office environment without a meritocratic measure of success, doesn't have similar board game rules to act as guardrails to maximizing victory points honorably.