Kashgar - General game info
Kashgar
2-4 players, 60 minutes, 12 years and older
AuthorGerhard Hecht
IllustratorFranz Vohwinkel
Published byKosmos
Online since 2015-09-15
Developed byAitor (ArkTheLad)
Mike Lietz (mikelietz)
Boardgamegeek143175
Yucata.de owns a license for the online version of this game. A big "thank you" to the copyright owners (publisher and/or author and illustrator) who make it possible to have this game for free online here!
Kashgar - Rules

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)

    Reverse
13 Patriarch cards Card Card
12 Start cards Card Card
76 Standard cards Card Card
12 Special cards Card Card
12 Additional cards Card Card
40 Contract cards Card Card
4 Player boards Board
4 Mule markers Mule
4 Gold markers Gold
20 Spice markers
(4 each in 5 types)
Spice Spice
Spice Spice
Spice

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.
  • 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.
Game Setup

Each player receives:

  • 1 Player board
  • 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.
  • 3 Patriarch cards. Place them face up and side by side.
  • 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

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

Symbol Key
  • 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.

Card rank

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.

Example move

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.

Example move

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.

Contract
  • (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.

Example fulfillment

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.

 
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