Shahrazad Review

Shahrazad is a solo or two-player pattern building game designed by Yuo and published by Osprey Games. The tiles are meant to represent parts of a story, and your table is your tapestry of tales woven together. In order for the stories to make sense, they must follow a plot, represented by the numbers on the tiles. So, your challenge is to play the tiles such that the number always increase in value going left to right across the table. The twist is that you only have two tiles to choose from each turn, so you must plan ahead carefully and avoid getting trapped in a tale that you cannot finish!

How To Play:

You have 22 story tiles to work with in Shahrazad, numbered 0 through 21. Each tile has three bits of information: Its number, its color, and all of the other tiles that share its color.

One tile will be placed in the center of the table and both players will get their first two tiles. On your turn, you will either place a tile on the table or you will replace a tile. After you do one of those two things, you draw one new tile and your partner takes his or her turn.

To place a tile, you add it above, below, or to the side of one of the other tiles. When adding to a row, you will place it halfway up or down one of the tiles on the table. If you choose to replace a tile, you swap a tile on the board with one from your hand. You still draw a tile at the end of your turn, but you now have to place two tiles on your next turn.

After all the tiles are placed, the round ends. First, while scanning left to right, in instances where tiles are touching another tile and are not numerically greater than a preceding tile, you flip the greater of the two tiles over. You also must make sure the remaining face-up tiles are touching each other in a continuous line from left to right. If not, you must flip over even more tiles. Flipping tiles is not what you want, and will effect your score though. In the end, all the face-down tiles count against your score, and the face-up tiles are your points.

The Components:

The tiles are fabulous. Amazing artwork that draws you in, The tiles themselves are very thick and sturdy they will stand up to play for a long time. Osprey could have used playing cards instead of tiles,I for one am glad they did not go this route. The instrucion book is well written and proiveds you with enough information to get up and playing very fast.

Final Thoughts :

Easy to learn, but a challenge, I think even non gamers will like this one, the small size makes it perfect to take with you where ever you go. does not even take up a lot of table space. Another solid selling point is the option for a solo play, which some people really enjoy.

Shahrazad is available via Osprey website now. Or via Amazon