The shortlist for this year’s SdJ has just been published. The nominees were:
- Dominion, by Donald Vaccarino (Hans im Glück / Rio Grande)
- Fauna, by Friedemann Friese (HUCH & friends)
- Finca, by Ralf zur Linde and Wolfgang Sentker (Hans im Glück)
- Fits, by Reiner Knizia (Ravensburger)
- Pandemic, by Matt Leacock (Pegasus Spiele / Z-Man Games)
Four of these were in my picks for the award; the one that wasn’t is Fauna (an estimation trivia game that I’ve not played due to it being language heavy and only in German). My other pick, Diamonds Club, was at least on the jury’s list of the year’s recommended games, which was made up of:
- Cities, by Martyn F (Emma Games)
- Diamonds Club, by Rüdiger Dorn (Ravensburger)
- Einauge sei wachsum, by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling (Amigo)
- Maori, by Günter Burkhardt (Hans im Glück)
- Mow, by Bruno Cathala (Hurrican)
- Poison, by Reiner Knizia (Amigo)
- Valdora, by Michael Schacht (Abacusspiele)
- Zack & Pack, by Bernd Eisenstein (Kosmos)Â
My pick for winner continues to be Fits, even though it would mean back-to-back wins for Reiner Knizia. More info about the award is here.