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I'm not often too bothered by theme in games. I think as I have delved into the world of the Euro game I have become more focused on the mechanics. Mostly this is a relief because when another game about trading spices and silk comes along I don't immediately write it off. Kashgar is exactly that, but it uses a interesting caravan system that may just elevate it over the lacklustre theming...
Kashgar
In Kashgar, each player is given three 'Patriarch' cards - don't worry they have 'Matriarchs' on the backs - and three starter cards to form their first three 'caravans'. They place these cards face-up in three columns with the Patriarchs at the front, each column forming a caravan. On a turn the players may activate one front card for one of it's power and move it to the back of its caravan, activate it for a 'parting' power which are in red and generally more powerful, but remove the card from the game, or pass moving one of their front cards to the back of it's caravan.
To give you an example, the Patriarch card has two normal powers. You can choose to draw two more cards from the deck and add on to the back of this caravan, or flip the Patriarch over to the Matriarch side and place it to the back of its caravan. The Matriarch lets you search the discard pile for a card, but you will have to get it to the front of the caravan again first!
The end game is triggered when a player earns 25 points. Points can come through character cards but more often through order cards. Four of these are placed in the middle of the table and providing you have the resources required and a character at the front of one of your caravans who let's you fulfil orders then you can take one of these cards. Many character cards let you increase or trade your resources in some way to enable you to fulfil some of the better scoring cards. All resources are tracked through wooden tokens on your own player board.
Kashmere
Of course, these basic rules are messed with and broken through the assortment of character powers you will find in Kashgar. The cards are supremely well balanced between normal and parting powers, and how many points they offer. For example, one card is worth three points but has a very useful parting power and no normal power. Do you try to place it in a large caravan hoping you will never have to waste a go passing to send it to the back, or put it in a smaller caravan where it will essentially block that caravan for the rest of the game? Of course, there are cards that let you change the order and make up of your caravans so that might give you more options.
From the off you will be managing three caravans one card at a time, each one with the Patriarch/Matriarch card in. How you do this is a great puzzle to solve and akin to a open information deck building game. Do you keep all caravans roughly the same length with a good variety of cards to enable you to respond to situations well? Do you have a small caravan with a character that can fulfil orders in so this is a regular option for you? Do you try and remove a caravan or add another in?
While all the cards are played face-up, in reality you will have enough of a job keeping track of your own caravans and what is in them to even think of tracking other players moves accurately. This is emphasised by how fast turns are due to only choosing one option each time. The lack of interaction is helped with an optional mini expansion included in the box, which has some very mean cards! But ultimately your interaction will mainly be limited to snatching a contract card that someone else wanted before they can.
Kashback
Scoring is another problem in Kashgar. The end game is triggered by a player having 25 points, but there is no easy way to record this other than continually counting. Cards are coming in and sometimes out of your tableau so often that this can be a tough task on top of trying to play the optimal moves. Thus, this seems like a poor way of triggering the last round.
By all rights Kashgar is a game I should love, but something holds me back from giving it top marks. I recognise that many people will love this game but I just don't. Every time I've played it I've come away thinking that I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't be sad to never play it again.
That being said I don't review just to tell you games I like! Objectively speaking I can see that Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road is a fantastic game of resource management with a super compelling deck building mechanic at it's core, subjectively it just didn't 'do' it for me!
