KASGHAR
Idea and Goal of the Game
As spice dealers, players traverse the Silk Road with their caravans, maintaining trade
relations with Kashgar in the west of China. They send out members of their caravans to
attract more people, and thereby increase the stock of spices, gold and mules that enable
them to fulfill valuable orders.
For fulfilling orders, and also for some of the people in their caravans,
they earn victory points. Once a player reaches 25 victory points, play ends with the current
round. The player with the most victory points is the most successful merchant of the Silk
Road.
Components
165 cards (125 person cards in 5 types and 40 contract cards)
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Reverse |
| 13 Patriarch cards |
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| 12 Start cards |
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| 76 Standard cards |
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| 12 Special cards |
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| 12 Additional cards |
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| 40 Contract cards |
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| 4 Player boards |
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| 4 Mule markers |
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| 4 Gold markers |
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20 Spice markers
(4 each in 5 types) |
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Preparing the Game
- Shuffle the 12 Start cards to form a nearby deck.
- Shuffle the 76 Standard cards to form a nearby deck.
- Shuffle the 12 Special cards to form a nearby deck.
- Shuffle the 40 Contract cards to form a nearby deck. Draw 4 Contracts and place them face up in the middle of the table.
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In your first game, do not use the 12 additional cards
that belong to the "Cut and Thrust" variant. They have
the same backs as the Standard cards, but their fronts
differ because of their beige-colored backgrounds. These cards (completely or
partially) can be shuffled in with the standard cards in later games to make play
more interactive and conflict-ridden.
- Place one of the Patriarch cards nearby.
Each player receives:
- 1 Player board
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1 Mule marker, 1 Gold marker and 5 Spice markers in the 5 spice colors. Place them
in their corresponding columns, all at value 3, on the player board.
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3 Patriarch cards. Place them face up and side by side.
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3 randomly-drawn Start cards. Place one each face up behind each of the Patriarch
cards. Each of these three columns of cards represents a caravan the player controls.
For 2-3 player games, place the remainder of the components back in the box.
Anatomy of a Person Card
- (top-middle): Card Name
- (top-left): Action Cost
- (top-right): Victory Points
- (second-from-top): Caravan Action (light background)
- (third-from-top): Parting Action (red background)
The Icons
- Ingwer: ginger
- Nelken: cloves
- Pfeffer: pepper
- Stern-Anis: star-anise
- Zimt: cinnamon
- Mulis: mule
- Beliebiges Gewürz: any spice
Course of the Game
General rule: the card texts always take precedence over these rules.
The starting player is the one having the starting card with the lowest rank (number at the
bottom right) in one of his caravans.
The current player selects the front card of one of his caravans. Then he must – depending
on the card – choose one of three options:
A) Caravan action, or
B) Parting action, or
C) Pass
Then it is the turn of the next player in clockwise order.
A) Caravan action
If the player wants to perform a caravan action with the selected card, he places this card at
the end of the same caravan, i.e. pushes it all the way back.
To perform the caravan action of the card, he must pay the costs specified in the light
background area by adjusting the corresponding markers on his player board. Note: some
caravan actions have no cost and can be executed directly.
An example cost shows an cloves flask followed by "- 1" [presumably meaning "pay 1 cloves"].
Now the player performs the selected caravan action as described on the card.
Cards obtained as a result of caravan actions are always placed behind the just-used card,
i.e. furthest back in the caravan.
When a card contains more than one caravan action, only one of the actions can be
performed. It is not allowed to pay again and perform the action multiple times.
B) Parting action
If the player wants to perform a parting action with the selected card, he removes the card
from the game (placing it back in the box).
To perform the parting action of the card, he must pay the costs specified in the red
background area by adjusting the corresponding markers on his player board. Note: most
parting actions have no cost and can be executed directly.
Now the player performs the selected parting action as described on the card.
Cards obtained as a result of parting actions are always placed furthest back in the caravan.
When a card contains more than one parting action, only one of the actions can be performed. It
is not allowed to pay again and perform the action multiple times.
C) Pass
If a player cannot or will not pay the cost of a caravan action and prefers not to perform the
parting action of the selected card, no action is taken. The card is still placed at the end of its
caravan. This ends the player's turn.
Exception: Cards displaying "!" in the card name cannot be passed, i.e if the Patriarch or
Matriarch (or the Additional card "Gate guard") is selected, the
player must perform either its caravan or parting action.
Turn Example
At the beginning of the game, Patriarchs are at the front of all caravans. The current player selects the
Patriarch in caravan 1 and places it at the back of the same caravan.
Since next turn he would like to use the Grocer to fulfill a contract, he has chosen this
Patriarch. He could also have chosen the caravan 2 or caravan 3 Patriarch, but prefers using neither
the Servant nor the Prophet on one of his next turns.
He opts for the Patriarch's first caravan action because he wants to expand caravan 1. Both of the
Patriarch caravan actions are free, so the player pays nothing. As described on the card, the player
draws 2 cards from the deck of Standard cards and gets a Planter and a Baker.
He opts for the Planter and places the Baker on the Standard discard pile. He places the Planter
behind the Patriarch at the end of the first caravan.
The player could have instead used the Patriarch's second caravan action. Then he would have turned
the Patriarch side over to reveal the Matriarch side and placed it at the end of caravan 1. But he would
not have received a new card for caravan 1.
Fulfilling Contracts
Contracts can only be fulfilled by performing a caravan or parting action. Most have a cost
to be paid, as indicated on the Contract card. However, there are also caravan actions and
parting actions that explicitly satisfy a contract for free.
- (top-middle): Contract Name
- (left): Mule requirement
- (top-right): Victory Points
- (bottom): Costs
- (bottom-right): Immediate payout (only on 2 types of special contracts)
Paying costs is done by adjusting the corresponding markers on the player board.
For mule requirements: The player must have at least as many mules as shown on left part
of the Contract card. A few Contracts also require paying spices and mules or gold. For this
purpose the player reduces the corresponding marker(s) on his player board.
The player takes the fulfilled contract and places it face up in front of himself, so that all the
players can see its victory points value. Hint: multiple contracts can be overlapped so that all
victory points are visible.
Draw a new Contract card from the deck and place it so that once again there are 4 face up
Contract cards showing.
Example of fulfilling a Contract
The current player selects Grocer's parting action, removing the card from the
game.
With the Grocer parting action, he may Fulfill a face up contract and opts for the
Large Contract, earning 4 victory points.
The player must now fulfill the contract conditions and pay the costs. The condition having
at least 3 mules is fulfilled. Since the player must also give up a mule as a cost, he shifts the
Mule marker down by 1 on his player board. He also moves the cinnamon marker down 6
spaces.
The player takes the fulfilled contract and places it face in front of himself.
End of the Game
The game end is triggered as soon as a player reaches 25 victory points or more.
The current round is played to its end. The player who has the most victory points wins. In
case of a tie, the tied player who last earned points wins.
General Notes on the Rules
Increase: If a card says "Increase", it means that the spices, gold, or mules can be
increased to the specified value. Mules can rise to a maximum value of 6, spices and gold to
a value of 9. So in some cases it may be necessary to forfeit a portion of an Increase.
When spices, gold or mules indicators are separated by a "/" (slash) the player must decide
which one of these to increase. When there is no slash, all shown are increased.
Set: If a card says "Set", this means that the specified spices, gold or mules must
be set to exactly the specified value, regardless of the value they had before! This can
sometimes mean that the value may be increased, at other times that the value must be
reduced. It can also sometimes remain unchanged.
Remove: If a card says "Remove", it means that affected card is placed back in
the box and no longer used in the current game!
Turn: If a card says that this card is to be "turned", then the card is simply
turned on its back. The Patriarch and the Matriarch are turned over at the end of their
caravan actions.
Complete 1 Contract: If a card says "Complete 1 Contract" and nothing else
is specified, then this can be be a small contract, Large Contract
or special contract.
Draw Cards: When cards may be drawn, draw them from the corresponding deck:
Contracts from the Contracts deck,
Special cards from the Special cards deck, and Standard cards (and Additional cards) from the Standard cards deck. Because the variant
places the Additional cards in the Standard cards deck, when an instruction indicates Standard
cards, it also means the Additional cards.
Unselected Cards: After a Standard (or Additional) card is
drawn and placed in the specified position in the caravan, all of the unselected cards are
placed on the discard pile.
Unselected Contract and Special cards are placed under their respective decks.
Discard: The discard pile may be inspected by all players at any time.
Victory points: Each player's victory points must be visible at all times to all
players and called out on demand.
Important: The special rules on the cards always take precedence over the general rules in
the instructions.
Example: Normally, to fulfill a contract you must pay the cost in spices, gold and
mules specified on the Contract card. But some cards (e.g. the Scribe), permit fulfilling a
contract for free.
The designer:
Gerhard Hecht, b. 1966 in Munich, lives with his wife and two children near
Augsburg. He plays passionate table tennis, sees movies often and reads fantasy novels.
Already at a young age he began to change game rules and later implement his own ideas.
First designed almost 10 years ago, Kashgar is his first published game. He thanks all his
friends, whom he tormented with countless prototypes and who made it possible for the game
to be playable at all.