With Friends

Camels, Bakschisch and Black Market

SeidenstraSSe

Tea from Chang’an to Byzantium

Kid                       

Family                  

Friends         ein    

Expert                           

Alter                    

Spezial                 

Tashkent, Amritsar, Samarkand, Palmyra or Byzantium – A hint of adventures and Arabian Nights, the taste of sand between your lips, hot desert winds, camels and  silk! We are traders trekking with three caravans along the old legendary Silk Road!

Already before we start we are confronted with a decision: Shall we use the side of the board where actions at locations are pre-set or do we distribute actions randomly – we decided to try the pre-set actions for our first game.

The composition of the caravans is also decided randomly. The camels are set out face down, distributed and then turned up. One is placed in Tashkent, two in Amritsar, three in Chang’an and the remaining four go to the caravanserei. Each of the camels carries a certain ware, so now we have a random distribution of merchandise among the caravans and three caravans on the board, one with 1, one with 2 and one with 3 camels. Finally, each player receives four ware cards, three are placed into the open display and each player gets randomly dealt a camel driver. Gems in the destination cities are yet to be placed, the lay-out demands 1 in Ysphahan, 2 in Samarkand and 3 in Byzantium. Thus the destinations for the caravans are set, the 1-camel caravan always to the 1-gem city, the 2-camel caravan to the 2-gem city and so on.

Play goes round the table, a move comprises displaying cards, move caravan, take cards, implement action and replenish open display. In your turn you can only play cards of one ware and move all camels of a caravan accordingly, 1 space for each card played. The cards go into your personal display. Squares occupied by other caravans are left out and not counted. At crossroads featuring a pointer for the appropriate target city the caravan MUST take the road to this city.

At the end of the caravan’s move the action indicated by the village reached by the caravan is implemented. Kamele (Camels) give you ware cards, Zollhaus (Customs Office) asks non-active players to reduce their number of cards held to 4, Sandsturm (Sandstorm) costs them a card from their display and the Räuber (Robber) enables the active player to take a card from the personal display of another player into his own display. Basar lets you discard 3 different cards from your display and take a colourless gem instead. Bakschisch lets you transfer a card from the open display to your own, the card must be paid for with a card from your hand. Schwarzmarkt (Black Market) initiates a Little Market Day for the most valuable merchandise in the caravan.

A Little Market Day is also held when a caravan reaches a place showing the image of a ware that is carried by the caravan. Only this ware is sold, the player with the most cards of this ware in his display may sell, he receives a colourless gem. The details of the sale follow the procedure of a Grand Market Day – details later.

Colourless gems have a special status, if you get the third one, you put all of them back to the caravanserai and receive a victory point marker of value 8, which is added to your victory points at the end of the game.

At the end of your turn you draw a card, either from the pile or from the open display. If you did play cards for a merchandise that is carried in the caravan you moved you draw an additional card.

If the caravan reaches its destination, a Grand Market Day is held and all wares are sold. This is the most interesting and attractive part of the game, because rather surprisingly not the player who moved the caravan to its destination sells! All merchandise in the caravan is sold in order of value, most expensive one first. The player who has the majority of cards of this merchandise in his display may sell. A tie is decided by the camel drivers: Who has the more valuable one sells, BUT afterwards he swaps his driver with the player in the tie who owns the cheapest driver. If you sell you discard half of your corresponding merchandise cards and choose a gem from the city. If nobody has cards of the merchandise no sale takes place. Leftover gems go back to stock, camels dealt with go to the end of the queue in the caravanserei. A new caravan of the same size is started beginning with the first camel in the caravanserei queue, new destination is – in clockwise direction - the next empty city in a distance equal to the size of the caravan, the city must be free of caravans or gems and gems are placed there according to the size of the new caravan..

If there are not enough gems left, play goes on until one of the remaining caravans reaches its destination. After market day the last caravan is moved to its destination, players can place cards from their hand in their display and a last market day is held.

Then sets of coloured gems are scored. A set with all five colours scores 15 points, four colours yield 10 points, three colours 6, two colours 3 and one colour 1 point.

The player owning the highest total from gems owned and victory point markers wins and was the most successful trader on the Silk Road.

A fascinating game with simple rules offering lots of allure, you must always check closely what merchandise you have, what do the others have? Who moves which caravan, can I use my camel driver or should I hold a Little Market Day because this lets me introduce a ware into the caravan that fits a majority in my display … Lots of possibilities and opportunities, actions in the villages can hit players hard! Take care they do not hit you if you want to win!

Dagmar de Cassan

Spieler         : 2-5

Alter            : ages 12 and up

Dauer           : ca. 60 min

Autor           : Hanno und Wilfried Kuhn

Grafik          : John Frederick Lewis, Sabine Weiss

Vertrieb A.   : Pegasus

Preis            : ca. 35,00 Euro

Verlag          : DDD 2009

  www.ddd-verlag.de

Genre                    : Trade and position game

Zielgruppe             : With friends

Mechanismen         : Move caravan, trade goods, collect gems

Zufall                     : 3

Wissen                  :

Planung                 : 5

Kreativität              :

Kommunikation      : 7

Geschicklichkeit      :

Action                   :

Kommentar:

Very attractive implementation of the topic

Interesting caravan mechanism

Lot of choices available

Vergleichbar:

Samarkand, Marco Polo

Atmosphäre: 5

Dagmar de Cassan:

A fascinating mixture of luck and your own decisions, the topic has been met precisely