Sands in the Whirlwind (Khyber Pass Games)

Another good effort by this small but very good DTP imprint, a combined euro-american effort on the Senussi revolt in Egypt in 1915-1916 and the British expedition to crush it.

As for the previous title of Khyber Pass, graphics is really good, with iconic combat counters and a map that is mostly desert. Rules are of the usual IGO-YUGO system, with the Senussi player going fisrt. There is no ZOCs (as in Jewish War) and this time the Senussi player has a few dummy counters to complicate life for the British player.

Anyway, even without the dummy counters, the game is still fun to play and not easy to win for the British player. As in Jewish War, even in this Sands in the Whirlwind the burden of the attack is totally on one side (Victory conditions are very difficult for the British player who has to annihilate the rebel and exit three units from the west side of the map, while the Senussi wins simply having one combat unit on the field at the end of the 14 turns of play), but the situation could push the defender to try a few counterattack that could be decisive for the final result of the game.
I’ve liked more the Jewish War, but even this Sands in the Whirlwind is a very good game to play, probably better one on one, still very fast to conclude (about an hour or so), full of interesting tactics to adopt with a system really simple that could be mastered in a few minutes even by a novice.

And toward the introduction of new gamers in the field, this DTP designs are like manna from heaven: easy to learn, fast to play, very competitive and really fun to play over and over.
Khyber Pass is perhaps the best DTP imprint on the market today, and I ask an applause for Andrew Preziosi, Dennis Bishop and all the other folks working for this small but fantastic gaming producer.

I rate the game 7 out of 10

Roberto Chiavini