Game theme and goal The players travel together with 3 caravans on the famous/notorious road system of the silk road, trying to extend their trading stock and to sell these profitably on markets. The best trader will be rewarded with the best jewels. The player with the most valuable jewel collection wins the game. Game-play The start player begins. Play runs in clockwise direction. Each round consists of the following 5 phases: 1. Place card(s) 2. Move a caravan 3. Take card(s) 4. Perform action 5. Replenish cards in the general display to 3 1. Place card(s) Each player must move one of the 3 caravans during his round. In order to move a caravan, the player places hand cards face up into his personal card display. For each so placed card the caravan moves exactly 1 field. In each round, only one type of merchandise card can be placed. The number of placed merchandise cards determines the exact movement of the caravan. Example: Gerd has 3x silk, 1x ivory and 1x porcelain on his hand. he wants to move the caravan of 2 (spices, porcelain) into the destination city „Samarkand “. Since the caravan is only 2 fields away from „Samarkand “, Gerd may play only 2 merchandise cards silk into his personal display. The merchandise cards are put down face up, so that all players can see the number of symbols for for each class of merchandise. The players form one column for each merchandise with 1 or more cards. Example: Katharina has 4x spices and 1x tea on their hand. However she would like to move the caravan of 1 (spices) only 3 fields. Katharina may thus play into their personal display only 3 merchandise cards with the symbol of spices. Since 2 cards of spices already lie in her display, she now has 5 spice cards in front of her. 2. Move a caravan Each player may move every caravan. The caravan of 1 moves always to the city with 1 jewel, the caravan of 2 moves always to the city with 2 jewels, the caravan of 3 moves always to the city with 3 jewels. According to the number of cards the player places in his personal display, he can move one of the 3 caravans as many fields toward its destination city. The caravan moves from village to village along the connecting lines with all its camels. Connecting lines with an arrow may be used only in the direction of the arrow. When the caravan reaches the village with the signpost to its destination city, the caravan must turn toward its destination city and may not move further in another direction. Only one caravan can be on a village. If a caravan moves over a village already occupied by another caravan, then this village is skipped and it is not counted for its movement . Example: Gerd plays 2 merchandise cards with the symbol silk. He decides to move the caravan of 2 (spices, porcelain). He takes the two camels and moves them 2 villages. He has only one way of moving this caravan. Example: Katharina plays 3 merchandise cards with the symbol of spices. She decides to move the caravan of 1 (spices). She takes the camel and moves it 3 villages. In this case she has two possibilities for moving the caravan. 3. Take card(s) No matter how many merchandise cards the player places during his turn, he draws only one card. The player can either take 1 card from the general card display or 1 card from the draw pile. If the player played merchandise cards, whose merchandise showed up in the caravan moved by him, he can draw one additional card. Example: In the above example Gerd placed 2 merchandise cards with the symbol silk into his personal display and moved the caravan of 2 (spices, porcelain) 2 villages along the trail. Since silk is not transported by the caravan of 2, Gerd may draw only 1 card. He decides for the ivory in the general card display. Example: Katharina placed 3 merchandise cards with the symbol of spices into her personal display and moved the caravan of 1 (spices) 3 villages along the trail. Since the caravan transports spices, Katharina may draw 2 cards (1 being her normal draw and 1 additional). She decides to first draw a card from the draw pile – 1x silk. Afterward she draws the merchandise card tea from the general card display. 4. Perform action After the player replenished his hand, he performs the action of the field (village or city) the caravan moved onto. Beside each village is an action field. Every time a caravan stops in a village (not moving over it), the appropriate action is performed (see section „actions “). 5. Replenish cards in the general display to 3. At the end of a round the cards in the general display are replenished to 3. After this its the next player's turn. Actions - Large market day If a caravan reaches its destination city, a „large market day” commences. The players sell the merchandise,seen as symbol on the camels. The numbers on the merchandise show the priority, in which the merchandise are sold. The commodity with the highest number is sold first, then the other merchandise in descending order. Example: Helmut moves the caravan of 3 into its destination city. The caravan consists of the following camels: Silk (10) - ivory (3) - silk (1). The merchandise are sold in the following order: 1. Silk (10), 2nd ivory (3), 3rd silk (1). The player with most merchandise cards of the appropriate commodity in his personal display may sell, during a stalemate the players with the higher cameleer. In case of a stalemate the players involved exchange their cameleers directly after the sale of this commodity. With more than 2 players involved in the stalemate, the players with the highest cameleer exchanges his cameleer with the player with the lowest cameleer. The player, which can sell his merchandise removes half of his laid out cards of this merchandise (round up) and puts these on the discard pile. Subsequently, he chooses one of the jewels from this city and puts it behind his view screen. If no player has merchandise cards of the relevant merchandise in his personal display, the merchandise is not sold and no player receives a jewel. If all other merchandise are sold, remaining jewels will be removed from game. If the caravan consists of more than one camel, their merchandise are sold according to the same rules. Example: First: silk (10) is to be sold. Helmut, Gerd and Katharina have each 3 merchandise cards silk in their display, Sabine has no silk laid out. Helmut, Gerd and Katharina have a stalemate, thus their cameleers determine, who may sell the silk. In the moment Helmut possesses the 4-cameleer, Gerd the 2-cameleer and Katharina the 1-cameleer. So Helmut has the right to sell silk. He removes 2 merchandise cards silk from his personal display and discards them. He then selects one of the 3 jewels and places it behind his view screen. After this he exchanges his 4-cameleer with the 1-cameleer from Katharina. Second: ivory (3) is to be sold. No player has ivory in his display. So Ivory has no customer. Third: silk (1) is to be sold. Gerd and Katharina each have still 3 merchandise cards silk in their display, Helmut now only 1 merchandise card silk and Sabine still none. Again the higher cameleer decides, who may sell silk. Katharina possesses now the 4-cameleer, Gerd has the 2-cameleer. So Katharina now has the right to sell their silk. She removes 2 merchandise cards silk from her personal display and discards them. She selects one of the two remaining jewels and places it behind her view screen. After that she exchanges her 4-cameleer with the 2-cameleer from Gerd. The remaining jewel will now be removed from game . Accounted for camels are placed back into the caravanserai at the end of the row waiting there. If all merchandise of the caravan is sold and the camels placed in the caravanserai, a new caravan with the same size starts now from this city. Example: The caravan of 3 (silk (10) - ivory (3) - silk (1)) moved into the destination city „Byzanz “. The order of camels in the caravanserai is as follows: tea (5) - tea (6) - porcelain (4) - spices (9). First silk (10) is sold and then placed behind spices (9). Next ivory (3) is placed behind silk (10) and then silk (1) behind ivory (3) at the end of the row. The camels tea (5), tea (6) and porcelain (4) are placed into the old destination and new starting city of “Byzanz”. Next, the destination city of the new caravan is determined. The new destination city is -depending on the size of the new caravan- 1, 2 or 3 empty cities in clockwise order. Empty means, the city is at the moment not occupied by either caravan nor jewels. There is always at least 1 empty city. Occasionally it can occur that empty cities must be counted several times Example: The new caravan of 3 starts in „Byzanz “. The new destination city is determined, counting -starting from „Byzanz “- 3 empty cities in clockwise order. For the moment there are only 2 empty cities - „Yspahan “and „Chang' an “. So you count in clockwise order Chang' an-> Yspahan - > Chang' an. „Chang' an “is thus the new destination city. Finally new jewels are pulled from the bag according to the size of the caravan and placed in the new destination city. The players may ask at any time, how many jewels are still in the bag. Example: In the above example „Chang' an “ is the new destination city of the caravan. Since the caravan consists of three camels, three jewels are pulled out of the bag and placed at „Chang' an “. - Small market day (ivory, spice, porcelain, silk and tea) If the movement of a caravan ends in a village, which shows a symbol of one of its carried merchandise, then a „small market day “ commences. „The small market day “is exactly the same as „the large market day “ except there will be only one merchandise for sale. If the caravan carries 2 merchandise of that symbol, only the highest will be sold. The salesman receives a colorless jewel from the caravanserai. If no player has suitable merchandise cards laid out, the merchandise is not sold and the action is void. Since no merchandise was sold, no camel is exchanged. Example: Sabine moves the caravan of 3 (tea (6) - tea (5) - silk (1)) on the village with the action „small Mark day (tea) “. Since the caravan carries tea, a „small market day “ commences. There are 2 merchandise tea in the caravan tea (6) and tea (5), only the higher one will be sold. Sabine is the only one with tea in her personal display. She discards her single merchandise card tea and takes 1 colorless jewel from the caravanserai. The camel tea (6) is placed at the end of the camels in the caravanserai and the front camel spices (9) joins the caravan. The caravan of 3 now moves on toward its destination city containing spices (9) - tea (5) and silk (1). Example: Gerd moves the caravan of 1 (porcelain (7)) on the village with the action „small market day (ivory) “. Since the caravan does not transport ivory, the action is void. - Black market If the movement of a caravan ends in a village with the action „black market“, also a " small market day" commences. In this case the highest merchandise will be sold. In all other respects the „black market” resembles a “small market day”. Example: Sabine moves the caravan of 3 of spices ((9) - tea (5) - silk (1)) on the village with the action „black market “. Since spices (9) are the highest merchandise a „small market day (spices)“ commences. - 1 camel If the movement of the caravan of 1 ends in a village with the action „1 camel“, the player may draw an additional merchandise card from the general display or draw pile. When the 2er or caravan of 3ends on this field, the action is void. - 2 camels If the movement of the caravan of 2 ends in a village with the action „2 camel“, the player may draw an additional merchandise card from the general display or draw pile. When the caravan of 3ends on this field, the action is void - 3 camels If the movement of a caravan ends in a village with the action „3 camel“, the player may draw an additional merchandise card from the general display or draw pile. - Customs If the movement of a caravan ends on a village with the action „customs“, all other players (except for the active player) must reduce their card hand to 4. Card hands with 4 or fewer cards can skip this. The players themselves determine, which cards to discard. Beginning with the player left of the active player the players reduce in clockwise order their card hand and discard the excess cards. - Sandstorm If the movement of a caravan ends on a village with the action „sandstorm“, all other players (except for the active player) must discard a card from their personal display. Empty personal displays skip this. The players themselves determine, which card to discard. Beginning with the player left of the active player the players discard a card. - Robbers If the movement of a caravan ends on a village with the action „robbers“, the active player takes any card from the personal display one his fellow players and places it directly into his own personal display. The robbed one takes now (as replacement for its loss) a card of another player and places it into his personal display. Follow this ruling: No player may be robbed twice; the active player may not be robbed; a player without cards in his personal display is skipped. In this way a „circle robbery” occurs. The last player, who is robbed has no more player to rob, therefore he draws top card of discard pile and places it into his personal display. If there are no cards in the discard pile, draw a card from the draw pile instead. Note: All cards taken are placed directly into the respective personal display of the players and are not taken into the card hand! Example: Sabine moves a caravan on „robbers“. She takes 1 merchandise card porcelain from Gerd and places it to her 2 merchandise cards porcelain. Gerd chooses Katharina, to rob her 1 merchandise card porcelain and places it into his personal display. Katharina may rob only Helmut, since Sabine as active player is forbidden and Gerd was already robbed. Unfortunately, Helmut has no cards in his personal display. So Helmut is ignored and Katharina receives the top card from the discard pile - the merchandise card ivory. Example: Sabine has the lowest cameleer and begins the play. She plays 1 merchandise card spices and moves the caravan of 1spices (9) 1 field on the village with the action „robbers “. After she draws 2 cards, the „robbers“ activate. Since momentarily none of her fellow players have cards laid out and also no card is in the discard pile, she draws the top card of the draw pile - 1 merchandise card silk - and places it directly into her personal display. With that, the action „robbers “is finished. - Bazaar If the movement of a caravan ends on a village with the action „bazaar“, the active player may discard 3 different merchandise cards from his personal display and receives for that a colorless jewel from the caravanserai, which he places behind his view screen. Example: Helmut moves a caravan on the bazaar, he discards 1 merchandise card porcelain, silk and tea each from his personal display and takes a colorless jewel from the caravanserai. - Baksheesh If the movement of a caravan ends on a village with the action „Baksheesh“, the active player takes a card from the general display and puts it directly into his personal display. As a payment for this he discards 1 card from his hand. Example: Katharina has 3 merchandise cards in her card hand. All 3 cards show the symbol silk. She plays all 3 merchandise cards silk and moves the caravan of 1spices (2) three fields on the village with the action „Baksheesh “. Now she has to draw a card. There are 3 merchandise cards -1x silk and 2x tea in the general card display. She decides to take 1 tea on her hand. Now comes " Baksheesh". From the remaining card display – 1x silk and 1x tea Katharina may take 1 card and place it directly into her personal display. She decides to take silk and places it to her 3 silks already laid out. As payment she discards from her card hand 1 tea. At the beginning of her next round Katharina's card hand is empty; so she cannot move a caravan and must instead draw 2 cards (see specialties). End of Game If, -at the end of a “large market day”- there are no more sufficient jewels in the bag to equip a new destination city, then the remaining jewels in the bag will be removed from game and the camels forming the new caravan will be placed back in the caravanserai. The game continues with the 2 remaining caravans, until the next caravan reaches its destination city. Now there will commence a completely normally „large market day “. After that, the last caravan on the game board is placed immediately into its destination city and a last -special- „large market day “is commenced. Before the merchandise is sold, all players may place their complete card hand into their personal display. Then the merchandise is sold according to the general rules. The game is over and the players count their victory points. Example: Helmut moves the caravan of 3 (silk (10) - spices (9) - porcelain (4)) into the destination city. The three merchandise are sold according to the general rules and the camels are placed into the caravanserai. In the bag are only 2 jewels left, the new destination city cannot be equipped with 3 jewels, so the caravan of 3 does not leave the city for new trading. The camels of the new caravan remain in the caravanserai and the 2 jewels in the bag are removed from game. Now the remaining two caravans move on. The game continues, until one of the two caravans reaches its destination city. Let us assume, that Katharina moves the caravan of 2 (porcelain (7) - tea (6)) into its destination city. As first porcelain is sold. Katharina and Helmut each have 4x porcelain in their personal display. Sabine and Gerd have each 1x porcelain laid out. Katharina has the 5er-cameleer and has thus the right to sell. She discards 2 porcelain from her display and takes one of the two jewels behind her view screen. At the same time she exchanges her 5er-cameleer with the 3er-cameleer of Helmut. The camel is placed into the caravanserai. Tea is next. Katharina and Gerd have 2x tea laid out, Helmut 1x tea and Sabine unfortunately no tea. Again the cameleer decides. Katharina now has the 3er-cameleer, Gerd the 4er-cameleer. Gerd discards 1x tea and places the remaining jewel behind his view screen. Now Gerd and Katharina exchange their cameleers. The camel is placed into the caravanserai. Now the caravan of 1 (tea (5)) is left on the game board. The caravan is placed directly into its destination city. Before starting the last “large market day” of the game, all players may place their card hand into their personal displays. Since only tea is sold, all other cards are of no concern. Gerd has 1x tea in his hand and places that in his display,now having 2x tea. Katharina has no tea card in her hand, so that she stalls at 2x tea. Helmut has 1x tea in his hand, summing up to 2 tea in his display. Sabine however received 3 tea in the last rounds, so now she tops the other with 3 tea in her display. She discards 2x tea and places the last jewel from the destination city behind her view screen. Valuation The players calculate the total value of their jewels. It is important to collect jewel sets as much as possible. A set consists of maximal 5 jewels in different colors. The more different colors in a set, the more valuable it is. A set has the value of 1, 3, 6, 10 or 15 (1+2+3+4+5) victory points depending upon the number of different color jewels. Example: Katharina has 3 blue, 1 yellow, 2 green, 1 red, and 1 violet jewel. She has thus the following three sets of jewels: Set 1: 1x each: blue, yellow, green, red and violet = 15 victory points (1+2+3+4+5) Set 2: 1 blue and 1 green = 3 victory points (1+2) Set 3:1 blue = 1 victory point. In total Katharina has 19 victory points in colored jewels. The colorless jewels (you only receive them through the actions „small market day “, „black market “and „bazaar “) are counted after the row 2-4-8. As soon as a player would receive his third colorless jewel, he returns his colorless jewels to the caravanserai and receives an 8 point victory marker. Example: Katharina has 1 victory point marker with the value 8 (for three collected colorless jewels) and two colorless jewels behind their view screen. The two colorless jewels are worth 4 victory points, together with her victory point marker Katharina has thus 12 victory points in colorless jewels. The player with the most victory points wins the game. In case of a stalemate, the player with the higher cameleer wins. Specialities - Draw pile exhausted When the draw pile is empty, shuffle the cards of the discard pile and place them as the new draw pile - A player does not want to sell merchandise A player may decline selling his merchandise. If the player with the most merchandise cards in his personal display (of the merchandise to be sold) does not want to trade, he passes his right to sell to the player with the next most cards in his display and so on. Should the unlikely case arise, that no one wants to sell, then there are two rules: during a “large market day” the jewel is removed at the end of this market; during a “small market day”or „black market “ the action is void (in particular,no camel is exchanged). - During a market day no player has a suitable merchandise in his personal display If, -during a market day- no player has the appropriate merchandise in his display then there are two rules: during a “large market day” the jewel is removed at the end of this market; during a “small market day”or „black market “ the action is void (in particular,no camel is exchanged). - Empty card hand If a player has no more hand cards at the beginning of his round, then he cannot do anything except draw 2 cards. Note: Feel free to give us note regarding errors, misspellings or wrong/bad wording; I'm not a native speaker and would appreciate helpful corrections.