Free, online, turn-based games for n00bs that are still sort of interesting

I wouldn't mind getting into a turn-based game with some coworkers. My daughter is an intern in DC right now, and is looking for some free, online, turn-based games to play with the other interns, during this period that I am referring to colloquially as "Hot Intern Summer" (also the name of the Google maps list I sent her). She is with the Hinckley institute from the University of Utah and leans left, but many of the interns are blonde, nordic-toothed BYU students who are decidedly more conservative, and, in my opinion, a little arrogant. She is doing research for some think tank on the Nordic Defense Strategy. Not her wheelhouse, but she'll do good work and is meeting interesting people. Her boss was Utah's democratic candidate for governor a while back.

My daughter is a born gamer, and treats her academic career like an optimization game, thinking strategically in ways I never did. We played that Japanese train deckbuilder once, and she was putting together a brutal meatgrinder, but I hadn't clarified the end-game conditions very well, and the game ended before she could implement her House of Pain. She is still pissed off about that and will not play that game ever again, so I sold it to some guy who was pretty excited to get it and the expansions.

I think they are going to play Diplomacy at the end of the internship, when the shattered relationships and betrayals (and that's just the dating scene) won't matter as much.

I'm 98 percent confident I've asked this exact same question elsewhere, but can't find it.

I thank you for your insights. Game systems that enforce the rules are probably ideal, and I'm going to say that Reef Encounter is probably not a good pick. I still have trauma from getting trapped in a three-month long game.

What about roboracer.net ? It has a bit of a learning curve, but all kinds of setups are possible difficulty-wise.
They could play in their own closed group or with the small crowd over there who are extremely nice folks. They also have serious puzzles.
I'm pretty active there and would be happy to help you get started if interested.

www.spielbyweb.com/ seems to be running still. Fair warning; they do have Reef Encounter.

yucata.de is all turn-based and has ~100 or so games.

boardgamearena.com does have a turn-based mode.

My own online version of Black Vienna ( www.aleknevicus.com/bv/ ) is good if you like pure deduction games.

All are free and "enforce the rules."

BGA gets my vote. Make one account, play a few hundred games, with more coming out every week. All rules-enforced.

You can play turn-based (that's actually all I play) and you can set the thinking time, all the way from "you have two days to take your turn" to "you have 30 minutes to take your turn". Everyone gets extra time, so you don't automatically lose if you run out of time. And you can restrict the playing hours to a certain range, so peoples' timers won't count down during the non-playing hours -- so you can let everyone sleep or whatever.