I recently finished listening to The Spiel's Spiel des Schpiel 2009, and I have to say that my opinion of this year's Spiel des Jahre nominations has gone way up.

Of course, it doesn't change my opinion that Pandemic should win, but that's kind of a given.

I had heard a lot about FITS, and it's been firmly planted on my wishlist for a month or more.  The games that I have been enlightened about are Finca and, most interestingly, Fauna.  As I've mentioned before, I really didn't know much of anything about either of these two games, but after hearing Stephen's and Dave's descriptions of them, they've both gone on my wishlist as well. 

Finca sounds like a pretty standard eurogame with some beautiful components and some nice little mechanics.  You move farmers around a rondel-esque windmill to collect fruit, and then you use donkey tokens (ass chits, whatever) to deliver them to different communities on the island.  It's simple, but the specifics of the mechanisms appear to have some cool opportunities for clever play.

On its surface, Fauna seems to be an unlikely addition to either a eurogame awards list or to my collection.  At its most basic level, it is an animal trivia game.  But much as in the way that Wits & Wagers does, Fauna uses some cool wagering and scoring mechanics to make it a lot more about estimation and smart game play.  It appears to be a fantastic family game that is steathily educational, and especially with the fact that it was designed by Friedemann Friese (who has yet to win the SdJ), I wonder (as did the Spiel guys) if Fauna might be this year's dark horse winner.  Whether it wins or not, I sincerely hope that it makes its way over to the US in an English version. 

And I also want to extend my gratitude to Stephen and Dave for another great set of shows covering the SdJ finalists!