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Yspahan FAQ

68 questions players ask · Updated Nov 13, 2026 · Full rulebook

Setup and goalTurn structureThe SupervisorThe CaravanSouks and buildingsCards2- and 3-player variantsYstari Box

Setup and goal

  • What happens if you run out of cubes, camels or gold?
  • Can Yspahan be played with five players?
  • Is there a tie-breaker when Yspahan ends in a tie?

Turn structure

  • How does the first player marker pass from day to day and week to week?
  • In the 4-player game, who plays first on the last day?
  • What does a player do when no dice group is left for them?
  • Can one dice group give you more than one action, such as placing cubes plus moving the Supervisor and drawing a card?
  • What does the first action on a dice group depend on?
  • Are dice group values counted by the number of dice or by their pips?
  • Does each player take exactly one dice group per day, and what happens to dice nobody takes?
  • Can you take a dice group whose neighborhood is full, to move the Supervisor or draw a card?
  • If the only dice showing a number are yellow, can players other than the first player take that action?

The Supervisor

  • If you place a cube in a shop next to the Supervisor, is it sent to the Caravan?
  • Can the Supervisor move past the end of the road, or turn around, if he still has movement left?
  • Can you spend gold to move the Supervisor zero squares?
  • How far does the Supervisor move, and how can you adjust it?
  • Can another player change where the Supervisor moves?
  • Where does the Supervisor go at the end of each week?
  • Can the Supervisor move back onto the space it just left?
  • After moving the Supervisor zero squares, can the next player move him back onto the same square?
  • Which shops does the Supervisor affect when he stops next to shops?
  • Does a wall count as a shop when the Supervisor stops beside it?
  • If a zero-square move keeps the Supervisor in place, do the shops beside his space still send cubes?

The Caravan

  • When the Supervisor sends several cubes to the Caravan at once, who chooses the order they arrive in?
  • If only one Caravan space is left and two cubes are sent at once, what happens?
  • When is the Caravan scored, and when is it emptied?
  • When the full Caravan is emptied, do its cubes go back to their owners or leave the game?
  • How is a player's Caravan score calculated?
  • Who scores when an opponent's Supervisor sends your cube to the Caravan?
  • When a card places a cube on the Caravan, what does it score?
  • Is the Supervisor the only way to send cubes to the Caravan?
  • Can you pay a camel to send a cube from your own stock to the Caravan instead of one in a shop?
  • What is the most cubes one Supervisor move can send to the Caravan?
  • Does the Caravanserai owner draw a card when their own cube goes to the Caravan?
  • Does a card that places a cube on the Caravan give the Caravanserai draw?
  • If the Supervisor sends my cubes to the Caravan and I draw a card from the Caravanserai, can I play it to change what happens to those cubes?

Souks and buildings

  • Can you finish a souk and start a new one in the same turn?
  • If you have an unfinished souk in a neighborhood, can you start a new souk there?
  • Can you choose which open shops in a souk your cubes fill, including ones away from the road?
  • Must you place every cube a dice group allows, or can you place fewer?
  • Are incomplete souks cleared at the end of each week?
  • Are built buildings removed from the board at the end of each week?
  • When do you score points for a building: when built, or at the end of the game?
  • Can you build before taking a dice group, and how many buildings can you build in a turn?
  • How does the Hoist's free extra cube work?

Cards

  • When during your turn can you play a card?
  • Can you play a card right after you take or draw it on your turn?
  • Can you discard a card to get one more die from the group you take?
  • Can you play both the build-without-camels and build-without-gold cards on one building to build it for free?
  • Can you build the Paddock for free with the build-without-camels card?
  • Can you hold the camel-to-points and gold-to-points cards until the last turn, and is there a hand size limit?
  • Can you score the same coins or camels twice by playing two points cards in one turn?
  • Does the discard pile get reshuffled when the draw pile runs out?
  • How many cards are in the deck, and how many of each?

2- and 3-player variants

  • In the 2-player game, who is the first player each day?
  • In the 2-player game, does the player trailing on points get an extra action on the last day of week three?
  • In the 2-player game, does the active player get a second dice selection each day?
  • In the 2-player game, is building an extra or an action?
  • In the 2-player game, can build-discount cards be used after a regular action?
  • In the 2-player game, what happens to yellow dice the starting player buys?
  • In the 2-player game, how many camels go on each line of the Caravan?
  • How does the Caravan change in a 3-player game, and does the last day change turn order?

Ystari BoxExpansion

  • Do the Ystari Box souk-scoring cards require the neighborhoods shown on the card?
  • Does the Ystari Box expansion allow five players?
  • Do the Ystari Box expansion cards replace the base game cards?
  • In the 2-player game with the Extra Action card, can you use it to build?
  • Does the revised draw-two-keep-one card rule apply to the Caravanserai?
  • Can the Yspahan Souks card let you claim a card placed in the discard pile by any means?