What the heck is a finca, anyway?

I love playing games. Particularly European board games, after being introduced to The Settlers of Catan several years ago by a former co-worker. Settlers was like a gateway drug into a whole new and exciting world of board games, which my whole family has since become immersed in. I've played many different games since then, all of which I've thoroughly enjoyed and most of which I had to go and buy a copy of for myself. Which leads me to Finca.

Finca is the name of a board game I bought recently, which came out some time last year. It came to be in my hands because it was literally put there by the proprietor of a specialty gaming store my sister and I frequent out in Surrey. That's the mark of a good shopkeeper and/or salesman. He recognizes his repeat customers, knows what they've been buying, and knows what other things they might be interested in.

When we entered the store, he walked over and proceeded to tell us about this great game he now had in stock again that he thought we'd enjoy. Apparently it was such a popular game that the publisher ran out back in January, and they finally produced another run. He grabbed a copy off the shelf to show us, then he excitedly told us all about the game. I was thinking of picking up a new game anyway and since this one was already sitting in my hands I decided that I'd buy it after we were done the rest of our browsing. Plus, when someone who owns and runs a shop filled with well over a thousand games is excited about a particular game (and he's played almost everything he sells at least once), it's a safe bet that it's a good one. As expected, he was correct.

Now, about the game. As with most games of this type, it's quite simple to learn and play. In a nutshell, you move your pieces around the windmill and collect fruit. You can trade in the fruit you've collected for a tile from the top of one of the stacks, and the one below it gets flipped over and made available to trade for. Once a stack of tiles has been depleted, the accompanying finca tile is given out for bonus points, and a wooden finca piece is put in its place. When the last finca has been put out, the game is over and everyone tallies up the points listed on the tiles they've collected.

I've had the chance to play three games so far, and I think it is indeed worthy of the 2009 Spiel des Jahres nomination it received. Now I'm wondering, if this game was just a nominee I wonder how much fun the actual winner is? And for an answer to this post's title, I looked it up this evening and it turns out that “finca” is the Spanish word for farm or farmhouse.