Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 20-30 minutes

This review shares a lot of text in common with my reviews of 10 Days in Africa, 10 Days in Europe, and 10 Days in the USA, since they all use the same core game system, but on different maps.

The Components

As with many Out of the Box games, 10 Days in Asia contains a number of components in a very densely packed box. They include:

• 1 map
• 78 tiles
• 4 sets of tile holders
• 1 rulebook

Map: The map is a simple geopolitical map of Asia, with the countries each labeled and painted in one of five colors (orange, yellow, red, blue, or green). This isn't actually a game board, but rather a reference map for playing the game; it's needed to show the relationships of the various countries. Some countries are conneted by (brown) railroads while some islands are connected by (black) bridges or ferries. In addition to the countries, two water masses are shown on the map: the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Finally, there's also a little inset of the Middle-east to help clarify the connectivity of small countries like Lebanon and Cyprus.

The map is 6-panel and printed on solid cardboard, with the slightly glossy, full-color map on the front and a nice texture on the back.

Tiles: These tiles are thick cardboard, printed full-color front and back. 57 of them show countries, each featuring the country's name and a colored depiction of the country's shape (matching the shape & color on the map). There's also a variety of information on each, including the country capitol, population, and size. A few of the countries are duplicated.

The other 21 tiles show transportation: 7 ships, 5 railroads, and 10 planes (two per color).

Tile Holders: There are eight tile holders in all, two per player, one labeled days 1-5, the other 6-10. Each one is painted black and has gold lettering inlaid into the wood. They're sturdy and high quality.

Rulebook: A 4-page book, printed on high-gloss cardstock. The rules include ample illustrations and examples and are easy to follow.

Overall, the components in 10 Days in Asia are all very high quality. They're also pretty plain, though there's been some improvement that's made them more colorful since earlier 10 Days games. I've given them a "4" out of "5" for Style.

The Gameplay

The object of 10 Days in Asia is to arrange a group of 10 tiles depicting countries and modes of transportation in order, from day 1-10 on your rack.

Forming a Trip: In order to win 10 Days in Asia, you have to create a 10-day trip, which is to say you have to put together a coherent set of 10 tiles. Here's the general rules for a legal trip:

• It must start with a country and end with a country.
• If a country is next to a country on your rack, they must be adjacent to each other on the map or else connected by a ferry line or bridge.
• A ship may be placed between two countries both adjacent to the water mass listed on the ship tile (Pacific or Indian).
• An airplane may be placed in between two countries, if they and the plane are all the same color (e.g., Iran is Yellow and Malaysia is Yellow, so you could play Iran-yellow plane-Malaysia).
• A railroad may be placed in between two countries if they are both on the same railroad line, as depicted on the map.

They give an example of a 10-day trip in the rules, which goes like this: Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, railroad, (pink) Kazakhstan, pink airplane, (pink) Indonesia, Malaysia, Pacific Ocean ship, China. If you take a look at your favorite Atlas, you'll see that all the adjacent countries are indeed adjacent. The railroad line that connects Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan goes to 12 different countries in the northwest of the board.

Special Rules for Asia: This game is part of a series of "10 Day" games, and thus far each of the games has had a few variant rules. This edition includes ferry lines and bridges, which had only been seen previously in Europe. Like Europe it also has ships, while Asia is the first game to introduce railroads (both of which substitute for cars in some of the earlier sets).

The idea of including duplicated countries is also something that has only shown up in the more recent games. It's very useful here because huge countries like China, India, Iran, and Russia are among the duplicates. This is also the first 10 Days game to make the wise decision to mark those duplicates on the map, here with an asterisk, so that you know when you have an improved chance of drawing a tile.

Setup: A draw pile of tiles is initially placed to the side of the map. Each player grabs a pair of racks, then fills it with tiles, in any order, one at a time. Each new tile must be placed in an empty slot; there's no moving things around afterward. Once each player has placed their first 10 tiles, the top three cards from the draw pile are then placed face up to create three discard piles. Play then begins.

Order of Play: Each turn a player takes two actions during their turn:

1. Draw a Tile
2. Place the Tile

Draw a Tile: The player draws a tile either from the draw pile or from one of the three discard piles.

Place a Tile: The player then either discards the tile he drew or else places it on his rack. In order to place it on his rack he must replace a tile already there, discarding the previous tile.

A discard may be played to any of the three discard piles.

Note that there is no opportunity to rearrange tiles once you've put them on the rack (except for discarding, and then picking up in a future round, a very dangerous activity). You only get to replace old tiles with new ones, and thus you need to have made a good set of initial placements, then slowly improve them.

Winning the Game: When a player completes a full 10-day trip, he then pushes over his racks, proudly displaying his trip to his competitors, and wins the game.

Relationships to Other Games

Rack-O (1956) is the oldest game that I'm aware of in this particular genre. There, you try and organize 10 cards in an ascending order in your rack, with very similar gameplay. I'm not aware of other games that use racks, until Moon & Weissblum's games.

Moon & Weissblum originally published this game system as Europa Tour, which was based on a European map, and only published in Germany; they quickly followed up with 10 Days in the USA, 10 Days in Africa, and 10 Days in Europe, all published in the US by Out of the Box. 10 Days in Asia is the newest game in the series.

The Game Design

10 Days in Asia is a very simple game.

On the good side of the game design, I find the play fast, simple, and enjoyable. There's some real opportunity for strategy, particularly in the setup round where adroit placement can give you a good lead, and later on, when careful selection of good countries with lots of adjacencies can help you out a lot. The strategy level is actually quite good for a game of this length and weight.

On the bad side there's a high random factor in the game, and the discard piles just aren't as useful as they appear (since there's little chance that you'll ever get back a discarded tile if you're playing against serious players).

As with Europe, I feel that Asia pushes itself to be as much of a gamer's game as is possible for a game of this weight. Boats and railroads both help to make the game much more interesting and strategic that the original, which included cars as total wild cards. I do have some concerns with the map, mainly that the Middle-east seems somewhat difficult to connect to and through, but I suspect I might be able to overcome that problem with additional plays.

On the whole, I've enjoyed all the 10 Day games I've played. My favorites are Europe and Asia because of the increase in strategic play--though Asia falls slightly behind Europe for me, overall. As with all the games in this series, the balance of randomness, strategy, and length is top-notch, so I've given it an above average "4" out of "5" for Style, with this one edging slightly upward.

Conclusion

10 Days in Asia in another entry in Moon & Weissblum's 10 Day series. It's a filler game that balances a good amount of strategy with a light, fast-paced gameplay. Ships and railroads provide interesting new mechanisms that make this release more strategic than the earlier USA and Africa games. As with all the games in this series, it's highly recommended if you enjoy light fare for your fillers & I think it'll be phenomenal for geography teachers.