That elusive "cult of the new". Don't we all fall victim to a certain extent? When you first pick up the hobby, just look at all of those games!!! It's also not too long until you join in reading all the Essen hype. Eventually you may get burned out, but there are those who remain in the cult of the new for the rest of their lives. I also find that those are very happy people.

Yspahan has been out long enough now that I believe it has lost it's "cult of the new" status. I personally don't think it should fade into obscurity. It did break into the top 100, but I don't see it making any runs for the top 50. That might not be good enough for many of the calloused veterans to consider it worth playing. I'm writing this review to try and convince people to at least give it a chance.


Description


Yspahan has a largely forgettable theme supplemented by cute camel meeples. They're not pastel sadly, but you can have lots of fun stacking cubes on their backs.



What Yspahan does have is an unforgettable use of dice. Each turn you role a bucket of dice. You put them on an action track grouped by pip count and in ascending pip count. Each space represents a unique action, and the more dice on the space the larger the benefit. Each player takes a group of dice and performs an action. Then a new day starts and the bucket of dice are rolled again.



What actions do you get to do?

1. Collect resources.
2. Place cubes in the market place.
3. Move cubes from the market to the caravan.

You can also build buildings and take cards that both let you break the rules.

You collect points from:

1. Building buildings
2. Having cubes in the market or the caravan
3. Cards that give bonuses


1. Analysis Paralysis / Downtime


Yspahan prides itself on being a very fast game. It is unlikely to take much more than an hour to an hour and half. We can play a two player game in well under 45 minutes.

The dice do a great job of steering your decisions without making them for you. Once the dice have been rolled and allocated, some of the actions are going to be a lot juicier than the others. On most turns, it will come down to 2-3 reasonable options. This limited scope does a good job at keeping analysis paralysis at bay.

The last player on a turn may not have large groups of dice left, but they still have the option of taking cards or trying to move one of their cubes from the market to the caravan. These actions do not depend much on what group of dice you take or how many there were.


2. Multiplayer Solitaire / Player Interaction / (Competitive / Casual)


Yspahan keeps a healthy dose of player interaction. When you select an action, then you remove those dice and make it unavailable for others. Space in the market and caravan is limited, although they both clear out periodically so you can't be locked out the entire game. Beginners may try forcing an opponent to send a cube from the market to the caravan, but in general this just will backfire. Still, there isn't any true conflict or battling, so you'll have to look for that elsewhere.

I find this makes for a very good crossover game for the competitive and casual crowds. The competitive people will enjoy the multiple paths to scoring points while the casual crowd will enjoy the amount of game play packed into the short play time. The competitive people might bemoan the luck of the dice. And the rules are a bit obtuse in parts for the casual crowd.


3. Skill / Luck / (Competitive / Casual)


Yes, there are dice. Yes, they can throw the game at times. But an experienced player is still going to clobber the newbies most of the time.

The biggest complaint is that the first player to receive a large batch of camels will have an unfair advantage, and this is controlled entirely by the dice. I would say they have an advantage, but not an insurmountable one. Still, it is enough to turn certain people off of the game.

If a competitive person sees past the dice, they will notice the synergies between certain buildings and certain scoring paths. They will enjoy trying for the more complicated strategies that take many turns to pay off. They will want to try to go for the dedicated caravan route that generates cards on the side and maximize their utilization.

Most of the casual crowd will be happy with the simple joy of rolling buckets of dice each turn. I can't help but smile when I buy additional dice on my turn and get to roll two hand fulls! Additionally, it is fun to feel the story line of the game and handle the camel meeples.


4. Runaway Leader / Effective Elimination / Catch-Up Mechanics / Score Obfuscation


This steps back to the "first batch of camels wins" argument. I haven't really seen it in my games, but I haven't paid close attention. If you believe in this, then there might be a runaway leader problem.

Beyond that though, I find that the scores tend to be amazingly close even when taking different routes to victory. A player that invests heavily in buildings might fall behind in the beginning, but expect them to surge back once they start utilizing them. Additionally, paths that focus on the caravan or the market both seem about equal.

Also, the few bonus cards in the game can be held until the end to give a nice uncertainty to the scores. It's not uncommon for at least one player to earn 10-20% of their final score on their last turn by cashing in cards. This keeps everyone on their toes.

A true beginner can get left behind though. In particular, if they don't pick a strategy early and try to exploit it, they just won't make the big scores later. Yspahan rewards people for picking a path and sticking to it.


5. Fiddliness / Elegance (Rules & Bits)


I find the rolling of the dice and the moving of the bits to be very fluid and elegant. The only bits are coins, camels, cubes and cards. There's a few other pieces on the board, but they don't change hands at all. Once you understand how to play, the game moves very quickly and never seems to drag.

The rules on the other hand are kind of rough. The rules are written excellently; it's just how many of them there are for such a simple game. It's practically impossible to get a beginner all the way up to speed in the first few turns. They will probably remember everything by the end of the game, but not before then. There are so many small things to remember that greatly impact the game. Being able to buy extra dice; the exact way the caravan is scored; how often the caravan is scored; the turn order on the last day; exclusivity of bought dice; turning in cards for an extra die. There are just more exceptions and easily forgotten rules than you can shake a stick at. I'm not convinced they are all needed to make it such a great game.


6. Theme / Enjoyment


You notice how I brushed over the theme in the beginning description? That's because it's pretty weak. Get your cubes to market and get your cubes to the caravan. Is that what people will remember? No! They will remember rolling buckets of dice!

And really, that's what it comes down to. There's just a lot of fun in rolling buckets of dice and seeing what result comes out. It creates moans of protest and shouts of delight. That alone is probably enough to carry Yspahan to the enjoyable level.

Luckily, the enjoyment doesn't stop there. Yspahan lets you pick a strategy and carry it through the game. Having that plan and executing it well makes for a good time.


7. Tactical / Strategic


If you hadn't picked up on it yet, I think that Yspahan has a great balance of short and long term decisions.

For the tactical side, deciding what group of dice to take for what action each turn is a great little exercise in trade offs. Some decisions will be obvious, but many of them will be pleasantly fuzzy.

On the strategic side, pretty much the first building you construct will commit you down a given path. There are buildings that supplement market scoring and buildings that supplement caravan scoring. There's even buildings that help you build all of the buildings.


8. Approachability and Player Ranges


I find Yspahan to be an approachable game. In particular, the short playing time doesn't ask for a large commitment from the first time player. The number of small rules exceptions do seem a little baffling at first though. The boards and bits are also bright and colorful, and who doesn't like the sound of dice?

Yspahan plays well with 2-4 players. The official rules for 2-players don't come in the box, but they can be gotten on the Ystari website easily. The game scales well, but does maintain a different feel depending on the player count. Even though, there's not a given player count that I prefer. Most of my games have been 2-player, and I enjoy those as much as anything.


Conclusion


Yspahan is not the perfect game, but it can be a darn good game depending on the situation. If you want to have a combination of:

1. Short playing time
2. Rewards for skillful play
3. Buckets of dice

There's just not much else out there. Even ignoring the dice, there's not much else that stacks so much balanced long term planning in a short play time.

On the downside for me is the lack of a solid theme and the large number of minor rules. Others will just be allergic to dice.

So with the new year of 2008 upon us, I tell you to take a moment and look back at Yspahan. If you like middle weight Euros and haven't given it a chance, then I think you're missing out on a gem.