The nominees for this year’s SdJ and KdJ were announced this morning and unexpectedly, only three games appeared in each category rather than the five that have appeared for the SdJ in recent years. So without further ado, here they are:
Spiel des Jahres nominees
• Asara, by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling (Ravensburger)
• Forbidden Island, by Matt Leacock (Gamewright, Schmidt Spiele)
• Qwirkle, by Susan McKinley Ross (Mindware, Schmidt Spiele)
Kennerspiel des Jahres nominees
• 7 Wonders, by Antoine Bauza (Repos Production)
• Lancaster, by Matthias Cramer (Queen Games)
• Strasbourg, by Stefan Feld (Pegasus Spiele)
Well my predictions didn’t turn out too badly with all three SdJ nominees on my list and two of the three for the Kennerspiel award. I ignored Lancaster as it has only been out in Germany a couple of weeks.
In addition, the list of recommended titles from the SdJ jury, which includes both simple and more involved games:
• Blockers!
• Freeze
• Die Burgen von Burgund
• Geistesblitz
• Luna
• Mondo
• Safranito
• Skull & Roses
• Sun, Sea & Sand
• Uluru