Alhambra by Dirk Henn, a tile-laying, city-building game.
Amun-Re by Reiner Knizia, in which players compete to build pyramids and grow crops in ancient Egypt.
Attribut by Marcel-Andre Casaola-Merkle, a party game about guessing the opinions of other players.
Balloon Cup by Stephen Glenn, a tremendous two-player game about hot air balloons.
Clans by Leo Colovini, in which individual huts are moved together to form villages and no one knows for sure which color their opponents are.
Coloretto by Michael Schacht, a very light and quick set-collection card game.
Dracheninsel by Tom Schoeps, which requires players to work together to haul treasure back to their ships.
Edel, Stein & Reich by Reinhard Staupe, an update of the gem-collecting game Basari.
Fische, Fluppen, Frikadellen by Friedemann Friese, which finds players collecting fetishes to free the princess, sometimes jumping from table to table to do so.
Paris Paris by Michael Schacht, his second nomination this year and a game in which players compete to own shops and bistros in the areas most popular among the tourists.
Richelieu by Michael Schacht, his third nomination this year. This is a two-player card game version of the excellent board game Web of Power.
Rumis by Stefan Kogl, an abstract three-dimensional building game.
Die Werewolfe vom Dusterwald, a public domain game best known in the United States as Werewolf or Mafia.
As is the case every year, there are several games left off the nomination list which surprised me. The most notable this year is New England by Alan R. Moon and Aaron Weissblum, which includes a clever new auction mechanic and gameplay that's both simple enough for family gaming and challenging enough for serious gamers.
The next step for the Spiel des Jahres jury is to narrow the list to three finalists. Then, the winner is chosen.
