About two months ago I purchased the game Yspahan on a recommendation from David Coleson (Better known for his excellent podcast “The Spiel” with Stephen Conway) whom I met at a local game retailer. The game was recommended as fairly light, but still had some excellent choices to be made as well as a spiffy way to use the 12 dice that come in the game. I was a little hesitant at first because of the price. It ran $49.99 at the retail store, so I passed on it at first. Well, that didn’t last long and I soon aquired the game do to overloading my poor brain with images and rules from this addictive website.

After about 2 months and close to 20 plays later I decide to write a review of the game, so here I am. The purpose of this review is to give you a good idea as to what you can expect from the game. I am not going to repeat the rules verbatim, but I will touch on some of them. Enjoy.

Components
When you first open the box you are greeted with a rulebook, 7 boards, 12 dice, a bunch of little wooden cubes, a pile of wooden camels, some yellow wooden discs, and a few pawns. Now I love quality components and this game does not disappoint. The rules are very well written. Ystari games does a very good job at providing good quality game bits. The components and rule booklet are similar in quality to Caylus for those of you who have played it.

The main board consists of 4 sections marked by a crate, sack, barrel, and vase which represents the city of Yspahan and where most of the game will take place. One board is used to show the caravan, and another is used for dice placement. Finally the last 4 boards are used by each player to indicate any advancements you have purchased.

The camels and yellow discs(Gold) are used as income to help you purchase advancements throughout the game, while the little wooden cubes are considered a players “goods” and are in each respective color. The pawns mark the start player and the supervisor that sends goods to the caravan.

Gameplay
So how does it play? Well the object of the game is to get the most points really. The main way to get points is by placing your colored goods on shops in each of the 4 quadrants of the main board, sending goods to the caravan board to be scored later, or buy building numerous advancements on your personal player board. You can also get points from cards that let you trade camels and gold for points, but the 3 listen above are the main way.

One thing about the game is it has a set number of turns. You basically play 3 weeks of 7 days (one turn is equal to a day in Yspahan). This assures that the game will only be so long and that you have limited time to do what you want. I enjoy the fixed time on this game. It is over well before it wears out its welcome. I have played with experienced players where a game lasts no more than 30 minutes.

A turn consists of the starting player rolling 9 dice (3 dice can also be purchased by the starting player for 1 gold a die and can only be used for that players selection) and placing them on the dice placement board with the lowest going on the bottom and the highest going on the top. All the other numbers are place from the bottom up. The placement corresponds to the quadrants on the main board as well as gold and camels. This makes sure the quadrants on the main board that have higher point values in their shops see fewer dice throughout the game. I love this balance.

Once all the dice are placed the starting player selects a line of dice to use. That player can either place a good in a shop for each dice on that quadrant line, take money or camels equal to the number of dice, or take 1 of 2 alternative actions. These actions consist of taking 1 card, or moving the supervisor the number on the dice in order to move yours or your opponent’s goods to the caravan. The shops are scored at the end or the week, so you get 3 scoring rounds except for the caravan board.

The caravan is what gave me a little confusion. As you send goods to the caravan you gain points based on how many goods you have on the caravan and multiply it by the highest line of the caravan you reached (x1, x2, x3). You actually can score this board at the end of the week and when it is full you score it, clear it, and play on it some more. The main way to get goods on the caravan is to move the supervisor, so you need to pay attention. You can send your opponent’s goods to the caravan, but at the same time are still giving them some points. You just need to weigh the cost of doing that. It seemed like a different game of moving goods around to me and I avoided this part the first couple of games.

That is pretty much it for gameplay. The game really flows and is easy to learn. It’s one of those games where you really need to set up a mock turn with new players and run through watching them go “Ohh. I get it now”

Conclusion
Yspahan is a very well designed game. As I mentioned it flows very well together and the person that takes advantage of all the elements will often times win. There is a random element to the game with the dice, but it is just enough to make every game interesting. Some are close, while others are not. You can definitely blame the dice for some things that don’t go your way, but when that happens there is usually another way to get points. As you may or may not know this game was nominated for the Spiel Des Jahres (German game of the year) but did not win. I agree wholly with the nomination and being one of only two games I have played from this year’s batch of nominations it had my vote. The game is fast, smooth, and beautiful to look at. If I was to gripe about anything it would be the price and setting it up for so short of a game. It takes a little more effort than usual for a 30-60 minute game, but while you have it setup…best out of 3? I rate this game a 9 and highly recommend it to anyone who likes Euro style games and aren’t scared of a little randomness. I am certainly glad I added it to my collection. Thanks Dave.


edited for spelling and grammar.