Baghdad: The City of Peace Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • Player Setup
• Gameplay
  • Card Spotlight
• Turn Structure
  • 1. Slide Character Cards
    • Resolving Effects
  • 2. Play a Character Card
  • 3. Move Boats
  • 4. Move Vizier
  • Take Action
    • City Tile Action
    • Building Site Action
    • Palace Site Action
  • Resolve Building Effects
  • 5. Pay Tuition and Gain Shame
  • 6. Draw Character Card and Refill City
• Bonus Actions
• End Game Scoring
  • Scoring Example
• Building Reference
• Wisdom Area Reward Reference
• Character Card Effects Reference
  • Day Character Cards
  • Night Character Cards
• Modules
  • Components
• Public Works
  • Setup
  • Public Houses
  • Contributing to Civics
• Contracts
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
• Objectives
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
• Solo
  • Bot Setup
  • Gameplay
  • Your Turns
  • Bot Turns
    • Reveal Active Bot Card
    • Move Boats
    • Move Vizier
    • Bonus Actions
    • Draw Character Card, Refill City
  • End Game Scoring
• Solo with Modules
  • Public Works
  • Contracts
  • Objectives

Components

• 1 Main Board
• 14 Palace Pieces (4 Foundations, 4 Walls, 4 Minarets, 1 Base, 1 Dome)
• 20 Day Character Cards
• 20 Night Character Cards
• 23 Building Tiles (levels 1-5)
• 72 City Tiles (3 sets: Starting, 1, and 2)
• 1 City Tile Bag
• 4 Skill Tokens
• 8 Scoring Tokens
• 33 Coin Tokens
• 12 Step Tokens
• 15 Wild Tokens
• 36 Goods Tokens (six types: four types x5, two types x8)
• 6 Shame Tokens
• 1 Scorepad
• 1 Golden Gate, 1 Black Gate
• 1 Civic Board
• 1 Public Buildings Board, 9 Public Houses
• 12 Contract Tokens
• 5 Objective Cards
• 16 Solo Bot Cards
• 32 Player Markers (8 per player)
• 4 Player Boards
• 12 Starting Character Cards (3 per player)
• 4 Viziers (1 per player)
• 16 Library Tokens (4 per player)
• 4 Favour Track markers (1 per player)
• 20 Boats (5 per player)
• 20 Houses (5 per player)
• 20 Architects (5 per player)
• 4 Reference Cards (1 per player)

Setup

1. Assemble the main board in the centre of the play area. Use the side of the palace area matching your player count.
2. Place the 14 Palace pieces in the matching slots of the Palace area. If playing 1-2 player, put the dome piece on top of the base piece and add 3 architects in an unused player colour to the corresponding spots below them.
3. Shuffle the 8 Scoring tiles. Place 4 face up in the matching slots in the River area and 4 face up in the matching slots in the Palace area.
4. Separate the Building tiles by level. Shuffle the level 1 tiles and place them in a face up stack in the top leftmost space of the Building area. Slide the top tile from the stack down to the bottom leftmost space such that two tiles in total are visible. Repeat this process for Buildings of level 2-5, placing the level 2 Buildings to the right of the level 1 Buildings, then the level 3 Buildings to the right of the level 2 Buildings, and so on.
5. Place the 4 Skill tiles in the three-book space of the Wisdom area.
6. Place the 24 starting City tiles into the tile bag. Draw tiles randomly to fill all the spaces in the City area. Students should be placed with the skill icon visible. Patients should be placed with the goods icon visible. Books and Artefacts may be placed on either side.
7. Place the '1' City tiles into the tile bag. Place the '2' City Tiles next to the main board.
8. Put the Coins, Step tokens, Wild tokens, and Shame tokens in piles sorted by type next to the board so that they are easily reachable by all players. This forms the general supply.
9. Place the Goods tokens next to the River area.
10. If playing with three players, return any Day and Night Character cards with the 4-player symbol (four dots) to the box. If playing with two players, return any Day and Night Character cards with the 3+-player symbol (three dots and a plus sign) or the 4-player symbol (four dots) to the box.
11. Shuffle the remaining Day Character cards into a face down deck, placing it above the left hand side of the Wisdom area. Reveal 6 Day characters, placing them on every slot in the Wisdom area.
12. Shuffle the remaining Night Character cards into a face down deck, placing it above the right hand side of the Wisdom area.

Player Setup

13. Randomly assign each player a player board.
14. Give each player a reference card.
15. Separate the Starting Character cards by their card back. Each player takes the 3 cards with the letter matching the player board they were assigned. Return any unused Starting Character cards to the box.
16. Each player chooses a colour, and takes all components of that colour. Place the Vizier next to your player board. Place 1 Boat on the starting space of the River area. Place your four Library tokens next to your player board to form your personal supply. Place the remaining player coloured pieces on the corresponding slots on your player board. Add 3 Coins to your personal supply.
17. Randomly select the starting player. Play will proceed clockwise. Players place their favour marker on the middle space of the favour track and then gain favour depending on their position in turn order:

Position in Turn Order	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Favour Gained	0	1	2	3

18. Place the remaining pieces on the matching slots of your player board.

Gameplay

Text in purple and italics are notes, used to remind you of when rules might be relevant, direct you to other useful parts of the rulebook, or give an informal summary.

The game is played in turns, beginning with the start player, and proceeding clockwise. Each turn, do the following.

1. Slide Character Cards — Slide any Character cards you played previous turns to the right.
2. Play a Character Card — Play a Character card into the leftmost slot on your player board.
3. Move Boats — If the Character card you played has boat icons, move your boats.
4. Move Vizier — Move your Vizier one quadrant clockwise, and take the action corresponding to the space you chose.
5. Pay Tuition and Gain Shame — Pay Coins and lose favour for each Student and Patient adjacent to your Vizier.
6. Draw Character Card and Refill City — Take an available Character card. Refill Palace and City areas.

The game ends when players have drawn all the Character cards available, and played all the character cards in their hands. Proceed to end game scoring, calculated using the enclosed scorepad. The player with the most points wins the game.

Card Spotlight

Character cards are at the core of the game. Each turn you'll slide previously played Character cards to the right one space, and then play a Character card face up into the leftmost slot on your player board. Character cards have effects that are triggered when cards slide off the end of your player board, which will happen three turns after you played them. Effects on Starting Character cards gain you rewards. Effects on Day and Night character cards have requirements. If you meet the requirement on a day card when their effect is resolved, you gain the rewards shown. If you meet the requirement on a night card when their effect is resolved, you will gain the points shown during end game scoring.

Character cards have a combination of skill icons and boat icons shown along the top of them. Boat icons are relevant during the 'Move Boats' step of your turn. Skill icons are relevant during the 'Move Vizier' step of your turn.

After you've played your first three Character cards, you'll have three visible for the rest of the game, as each turn one will slide off your board and you'll play one new one. A big part of the game is ensuring the Character cards you have visible each turn are contributing the skill icons you need to take the actions you want during the 'Move Vizier' step.

Turn Structure

On your turn, resolve the following steps.

1. Slide Character Cards

Move each previously played Character card on your player board to the right. If this would push a card off the end of the three slots, resolve its effect.

Resolving Effects

If the card is a Starting Character, gain the reward shown and then add the card face down to your personal discard pile. If the card is a Day Character, check the requirement. If the requirement has been met, gain the rewards shown, and then add the card face down to your personal discard pile. If the card is a Night Character, check the requirement. If it has been met, add the Character face down to your discard pile as normal. If it was not met, instead return the card to the box. Night Characters in your discard pile will be worth points at the end of the game.

See the Character card reference on page 12 for information on specific effects. Note that an important challenge in the game is planning ahead to make sure you can meet the requirements of Character cards you are going to play.

Once a played Character card has been flipped face down, its Skill icons and Boat icons are no longer counted. Until then, including when its effect is resolved, its Skill and Boat icons are counted.

2. Play a Character Card

Play a Character card from your hand face up to the leftmost slot of your player board.

3. Move Boats

If the Character card you played this turn did not have a Boat icon, skip this step. If the Character card you played did have a Boat icon, check the number of Boat icons across the Characters on your player board. For each icon, move one of your boats in the River area.

Boat Movement Restrictions

A Boat in the starting space may move either left or right, but once a boat starts in one direction it must keep going in the same direction until it reaches a port. Once a Boat has reached port it cannot move for the remainder of the game.

You may move multiple Boats on a turn, and you may move one boat multiple times, but you must finish moving one Boat before starting moving another. When you finish moving a Boat, if it is in a space with a Goods icon, gain the corresponding Goods token from the general supply. If instead it arrived in port, move the Boat to the empty slot furthest from the River. If there is an icon printed on the slot the Boat is placed, gain the corresponding reward. Then, you may resolve one of the following port actions:

• Spend any number of different types of Goods tokens to gain that many Coins, plus one Coin.
• Spend two Coins to gain any one Goods token.
• Spend five Coins to gain any two Goods tokens.

Note that selling Goods is a great way of generating money, which is otherwise tight in the game.

Boats in ports will gain you points during end game scoring.

At any time on your turn as a bonus action, you may buy a new Boat, as long as you don't already have a Boat in the starting space of the River area (see page 8).

If a boat would arrive at a port where all four slots are occupied by other boats, instead immediately return the boat to the starting space of the river area. It may continue moving as normal.

Nestore (yellow) plays a Character with a Boat icon. There are three other Boat icons on Characters on his player board, and so he may move his Boats a total of four spaces. They first elect to move their Boat 1 two spaces, finishing its movement on the Goods space and gaining that Goods token. Then, they use a movement to move their Boat 2 into port, placing it onto the furthest visible space, gaining a Wild token. Then, they choose to use their Port action to sell two Goods, including their newly acquired one, to gain three Coins. Then, they spend these three Coins to purchase another Boat 3 as a bonus action (page 8), before using their final movement to move their new Boat and gain one Goods token.

4. Move Vizier

If this is your first turn of the game, choose any City tile slot, Building site, or Palace site in the City area and place your Vizier on it. We will refer to these spaces collectively as locations.

If this is not the first turn of the game, choose any location in the next quadrant clockwise from the one your Vizier is in currently and then move your Vizier to it.

You may not choose a location with an opponent's Vizier on it.

You cannot choose a building site with a building already in it. If playing with three players, you cannot choose a building site with the 4-player symbol (four dots). If playing with one or two players, you cannot choose a building site with the 3+-player symbol (three dots and a plus sign).

Step Tokens

During this step, you may spend up to three Step tokens. For each Step token spent, instead move your Vizier to a location one additional quadrant clockwise.

Kuly (green) decides to spend two step tokens to move from the bottom right quadrant to a location in the top right quadrant.

City tiles on your player board provide benefits depending on their type:

• If you placed your second, third, fourth, or fifth Book on your player board, place the corresponding Library token from your supply into the Wisdom area, and gain the reward shown. See the Wisdom area reward reference on page 11.
• If you placed a Patient, immediately gain the Goods token indicated, and then flip the patient to the side without the Goods icon.
• Artefacts will be worth points during end game scoring. It's better to collect different types of artefacts if possible, as some effects score for the number of types you have.
• Students may be spent as a bonus action in place of Skill or Boat icons (see page 8).

In addition, if you placed the gained City tile such that you have a City tile above and below one of the bonus effects on your player board, resolve that effect. If you trigger two effects with the same tile placement, resolve them in either order.

Fabio (blue) chooses to move his Vizier to a City tile slot with a Patient tile. He has two figure icons on characters on his player board, so has more than enough to place the Patient on the leftmost slot of his player board. He then gains the Goods depicted on the Patient, adding the corresponding Goods token to his supply, and flips the Patient tile to its reverse side. Finally, because there are now City tiles above and below the bonus effect on his player board, Fabio gains a coin.

After moving your Vizier, resolve the following steps in either order:

• Take Action
• Resolve Building Effects

You must completely finish one step before resolving the next.

Take Action

The action you take depends on whether your Vizier is on a City tile slot, Building site, or Palace site.

City Tile Action

Gain the City tile on the location you put your Vizier, placing the tile on one of the spots of the matching colour on your player board.

Each spot requires a number of skill icons. You must meet or exceed the skill icon requirement shown in order to place a City tile in a given spot. You'll need figure icons to place Patients, abacus icons to place Students, quill icons to place Books, and pedestal icons to place Artefacts. You cannot take this action if you are unable to place the City tile you gained.

Skill icons mostly come from the cards you have face up on your player board. You may also gain them by spending Student tiles on your player board (see page 8), spending Wild tokens (see page 8), and from Skill tiles (see page 11).

Building Site Action

Find the lowest level Building that you have not yet constructed. Choose one visible building of that level from the Building area and spend the Coins indicated to place it on the Building site your Vizier is on. If you do not have the required Coins you cannot take this action.

Then, take a House from your player board and place it on the Building tile, to indicate that it is your Building. Houses require one or more masonry icons in order to place. You must have those skills available in order to take this action.

You may place any House that you meet the skill icon requirement for - you do not have to place them in order from top to bottom.

Finally, if you took a Building from the bottom row of the Building area, slide the top visible Building tile from the top row to the bottom row to replace it.

Kuly (green) places her Vizier on an empty Building site. As she has already constructed a level one Building, she chooses a visible level two Building, the Souk, and places it onto the site her Vizier is on. As she took the Souk from the bottom row of the Building area, she then slides the tile in the top row down, revealing the next building.

Palace Site Action

Choose one unbuilt piece in the Palace area and spend the Goods indicated. You cannot choose the base piece if one or more foundation pieces remain unbuilt. You cannot choose the dome piece if the base piece remains unbuilt.

Take an Architect from your player board and place it in the slot next to the chosen piece. Architects require one or more masonry icons in order to place. You must have those skills available in order to take this action.

You may place any Architect that you meet the skill icon requirement for - you do not have to place them in order from top to bottom. Architects in the Palace area will gain you points during end game scoring.

Then, if you chose a foundation, wall, or tower piece, place the piece on one corresponding empty space in the Palace and gain the covered reward. If you chose the base piece, place this piece on top of the four foundations. If you chose the dome piece, place this piece on top of the base.

Solo and Two Player Additional Rule

After the third foundation, wall, or tower piece is built, place a neutral architect in the slot next to the fourth piece, and add that piece to the last empty space in the palace. When a player builds the base piece, also add the dome piece to the Palace.

This rule is intended to make the palace slots more competitive at low player counts. The only function neutral architects serve is to block spaces. They are ignored for the purpose of endgame scoring.

Resolve Building Effects

Resolve the effect of all your Buildings in the quadrant your Vizier is in. If you have multiple Buildings, resolve them in any order.

You may resolve building effects on the turn in which you built that building.

5. Pay Tuition and Gain Shame

For each Patient on a space connected to the location of your Vizier, lose 1 Favour. If unable, gain one Shame token for each Favour you cannot lose.

For each Student on a space connected to the location of your Vizier, spend 1 Coin. If unable, lose two Favour per unspent Coin. If you are at the bottom of the Favour track, each time you would lose Favour, instead gain one Shame token.

Nestore (yellow) places his Vizier on a City tile. After taking his action, he spends one Coin for the connected student and loses one favour for the connected Patient.

Each time you spend a Favour, move your Favour marker one space down the Favour track. If you are at the bottom of the track, each time you would move down the Favour track, instead take a Shame token.

Shame tokens are worth negative three points during end game scoring.

6. Draw Character Card and Refill City

Draw one Character card from the Wisdom area into your hand.

If you chose a card in one of three leftmost slots, draw a card from the Day Character deck to replace it. If the Day Character deck has run out, instead draw a card from the Night Character deck to replace it. If there are no cards in either deck, leave the slot empty.

If you chose a card in one of the rightmost three slots, draw a card from the Night Character deck to replace it. If the Night Character deck has run out, instead draw a card from the Day Character deck to replace it. If there are no cards in either deck, leave the slot empty.

If there are no Character cards in the Wisdom area, you are near the end of the game. The game will end when all players have played every card in their hand. Once this happens, proceed to end game scoring.

Finally, for each empty City tile slot in the City that does not contain a Vizier, randomly draw a City tile to place there.

Bonus Actions

As a general rule, bonus actions may be taken at any point during your turn, including mid way through resolving any given step. Some bonus actions may have specific restrictions on when you can take them. These are outlined below. You may take multiple bonus action in the same turn. You may take the same bonus action multiple times.

Buy a Boat

You may only take this bonus action if you do not have a Boat in the starting space of the River area.

Spend the amount of Coins indicated under the cheapest Boat on your player board. Place that Boat in the starting space of the River area.

Spend Favour

You may take this bonus action if your Favour track marker is on or above the starting favour icon space. You may do this even if this action causes your favour marker to fall below the starting space.

Choose one of the following:

• Spend 1 Favour to gain one Coin. Note that this is a great way of generating money, which is otherwise tight in the game.
• Spend 2 Favour to gain a Goods token of any kind.
• Spend 3 Favour to gain a Wild token.

Gaining and Spend Favour

Each time you gain a Favour, move your Favour marker one space up the Favour track.

If you are the top of the track and would gain favour, you should take the spend Favour bonus action in order to avoid losing it.

Spend Wild Token

When taking an action that has a skill requirement, you may spend a Wild token and choose a skill icon type (quill, dome/pedestal, figure, or abacus). If you do, you count as having one more skill icon of the chosen type during this action.

Spend Student

When taking an action that has a skill requirement, you may spend a Student with a visible skill icon by flipping it to it's non-icon side. If you do, you count as having one more skill icon of the depicted type during this action.

At the start of the move Boats step of a turn in which you placed a card with a Boat icon you may spend a student with a visible Boat icon. If you do, you count as having an additional Boat icon for the purpose of determining how many times you may move your Boats.

End Game Scoring

One player should take charge of calculating the scores for all players, filling in the results for each player on the scorepad in the columns matching their player colour, while the other players call out the relevant information as needed.

For Scoring tiles in the River area, players should add together the multipliers gained from their Boats in the corresponding port. Record the total multiplier on the leftmost column of the scorepad, in the row corresponding to each Scoring token.

For Scoring tiles in the Palace area, players should add together the multipliers gained from their Architects in the corresponding section. Record the total multiplier on the leftmost column of the scorepad, in the row corresponding to each Scoring token.

The scorepad rows are:

• Patients on your player board.
• Students on your player board.
• Types of Artefacts on your player board. Try to avoid having two of the same type of Artefact, as you score for the number of types you have, rather than the number you have.
• Books on your player board.
• Your Boats in port.
• The number of Buildings you constructed.
• The number of Architects you have in the Palace area (i.e. the number of palace pieces you built).
• The number of Night Character cards in your discard pile plus the number of Night Character cards in slots on your player board that you have met the effect requirement for.

For each Scoring tile where the multiplier is one or higher, record the number of that thing you have in the middle column, and then record the total score in the rightmost column.

If you built a level five Building, record the points gained for that Building.

If you built either the base piece or the dome piece, record the points gained. You will have an Architect placed on the matching space in the Palace area.

Score each Night Character card in your face down discard pile. Score each Night Character on your player board that you have met the requirement of. Record the total point scored.

Record the total points scored for Artefacts you have collected, as shown on your player board.

Record the points scored or lost for your position on the Favour track, as shown on your player board.

Record the total points lost for Shame tokens.

Then, find your total score. The player with the highest total score wins, becoming the most eminent courtier in the great City of Peace.

In case of a tie, the tied player who scored the highest in the Night Character card row of the scorepad wins. If still a tie, the player higher on their Favour track wins. If still a tie, tied players share the victory.

Scoring Example

We are scoring Kuly (green).

Kuly records a 2x multiplier in the Patients row, a 3x multiplier in the Boats-in-port row, and a 2x multiplier in the Buildings-constructed row.

Checking the Palace area, Kuly then records a 4x multiplier in the Architects row, and a 2x multiplier in the Students row.

Kuly checks and sees she has three Night Character cards in her discard pile, and one face up on their board that she has met the requirement of, so writes 4 in the middle column of the objectives Scoring tile, and 8 (2x4) in the right hand column. She repeats this process, scoring 9 (3x3) for Boats in port, 8 (2x4) for types of Artefact on her board (though she has five Artefacts, two are the same type), 16 (4x4) for Architects in the Palace area, and 6 (2x3) for Students on her board.

Kuly did not construct a level 5 Building, but did build the 15 point base Palace piece. She gained 19 points for Night Character cards in her discard pile plus Night Character card on her player board that she completed the requirement of. She then scored 15 points for Artefacts on her player board, and lost 3 points for her Favour track position. She has no Shame tokens, and so she totals her score. She got 93 points.

Building Reference

Level 1

• Alchemists: Gain a Goods token of any type.
• Sailor's Guild: Move a Boat one space. Gain the corresponding rewards (either a Goods token or port action).
• Stables: Gain a Step token.
• Sufi Lodge: Gain a Favour.

Level 2

• Alchemist's Tower: Gain a Wild token.
• Emporium: Gain any two Goods tokens.
• Observatory: Move a Boat up to two spaces, or move two Boats one space each. Gain the corresponding rewards (either a Goods token or port action).
• Souk: Gain 2 Coins.

Level 3

• Academy: Choose a Student in the City area. Take a City tile action as if your Vizier landed on it, adding it to your player board.
• Bookshop: Choose a Book in the City area. Take a City tile action as if your Vizier landed on it, adding it to your player board.
• Clinic: Choose a Patient in the City area. Take a City tile action as if your Vizier landed on it, adding it to your player board.
• Workshop: Choose an Artefact in the City area. Take a City tile action as if your Vizier landed on it, adding it to your player board.

You cannot take this action if you are unable to place the City tile you gained. You may spend Student tiles (page 8) or Wild tokens (page 8) to give you additional skill icons.

Level 4

• Apothecary: Gain one Coin per Patient on your player board.
• Craftsmen's Guild: Gain one Coin per Artefact on your player board.
• Mosque: Gain one Coin per Book on your player board.
• School: Gain one Coin per Student on your player board.

Level 5

• Architect's Guild: During end game scoring, gain three points for each of your Architects in the Palace area.
• Grand Bazaar: During end game scoring, gain three points per Artefact on your player board.
• Madrasa: During end game scoring, gain three points per Student on your player board.
• Meeting Hall: During end game scoring, gain three points per Night Character cards in your discard pile or in slots on your player board that you have met the effect requirement for.
• Harbour Master: During end game scoring, gain three points for each of your Boats in ports.
• Hospital: During end game scoring, gain three points per Patient on your player board.
• Library: During end game scoring, gain three points per Book on your player board.

Wisdom Area Reward Reference

Choose and resolve one of the following visible rewards. Then, cover the chosen rewards with the face down Library token. It can no longer be taken by other players.

Up to two times, move a Boat in the River area one space. You may split this movement across multiple Boats. Gain rewards for finishing movement on Goods token spaces and arriving at port as outlined on page 5.

• Gain two Favour.
• Gain a Step token and a Coin.
• Gain a Wild token.

Take one of the available Skill tiles and add it to the bottom left corner of your player board, covering the vacated area with the face down Library token. You count as having an additional skill icon of this type for the rest of the game.

Choose and resolve one of the following visible rewards. Then, cover the chosen rewards with the face down Library token. It can no longer be taken by other players.

• Choose any Patient tile in the City area and add it to your player board as if taking a City tile action (page 6).
• Choose any Student tile in the City area and add it to your player board as if taking a City tile action (page 6).
• Choose any Artefact tile in the City area and add it to your player board as if taking a City tile action (page 6).

You still need to meet the skill icon requirement to place the tile.

• Choose any empty Building site and construct a Building there as if taking the Building site action (page 7).

You still need to spend the Coins, and to meet the skill icon requirement.

Choose and resolve one of the following visible rewards. Then, cover the chosen rewards with the face down Library token. It can no longer be taken by other players.

• Choose any Patient tile in the City area and add it to your player board as if taking a City tile action (page 6). You may ignore one skill icon requirement on the spot you place it.

For example, if a spot normally requires four figure icons, you only need three.

• Choose any Student tile in the City area and add it to your player board as if taking a City tile action (page 6). You may ignore one skill icon requirement on the spot you place it.
• Choose any Artefact tile in the City area and add it to your player board as if taking a City tile action (page 6). You may ignore one skill icon requirement on the spot you place it.
• Choose any empty Building site and construct a Building there as if taking the Building site action (page 7). You may ignore one skill icon requirement.

For example, if a House normally requires four masonry icons, you only need three.

Character Card Effects Reference

Day Character Cards

1. Al-Khuwarizmi: If you have at least two Artefacts on your player board, gain a Wild token.
2. Banafsha al-Rumiyyah: If you have at least three Patients on your player board, choose a Patient in the City area. Take a City tile action as if your Vizier landed on it, adding it to your player board.
3. Ahmad ibn Musa: If you have at least two Students on your player board, gain a Favour and a Step token.
4. Sutayta al-Mahamali: If you have at least three Patients on your player board, choose a Student in the City area. Take a City tile action as if your Vizier landed on it, adding it to your player board.
5. Al-Hasan ibn Musa: If you have at least two Books on your player board, gain a Coin and a Favour.
6. Sharasim al-Hindiyyah: If you have at least three Artefacts on your player board, choose a Book in the City area. Take a City tile action as if your Vizier landed on it, adding it to your player board.
7. Al-Battani: If you have at least two Patients on your player board, gain a Coin and a Step token.
8. Zad Mihr: If you have constructed at least three Buildings, choose a Patient in the City area. Take a City tile action as if your Vizier landed on it, adding it to your player board.
9. Ibn Rushd / Averroes: If you have constructed at least two Buildings, gain a Favour and any Goods token.
10. Mariam al-Astrulabi: If you have at least three Books on your player board, choose an empty Building site. Take a Building site action as if your Vizier landed on it, adding it to your player board. You cannot take this action if you do not have the Coins and skill icons necessary to construct the Building.
11. Al-Saghani: If you have at least two Boats in the River area, gain a Step token and any Goods token.
12. Shahan: If you have at least three Favour, gain a Wild token. You have at least three Favour if your Favour track marker is on the three or four point spot.
13. Al-Jahiz: If you have constructed at least two Buildings, gain a Coin and a Favour.
14. Raabi'ah al-Adawiyya: If you have at least three Boats in the River area, gain any two Goods tokens.
15. Shen Kuo: If you have at least four Coins, gain a Wild token.
16. Arib: If you have at least two Boats in the River area, gain any Goods token and a Favour.
17. Ibn Fadlan: If you have at least two Books on your player board, gain two Coins.
18. Jabir ibn Hayyan: If you have at least two Patients on your player board, gain any Goods token and a Coin.
19. Al-Zahrawi: If you have at least two Artefacts on your player board, gain two Favour.
20. Zubaydah: If you have at least two Patients on your player board, gain a Step token and any Goods token.

Night Character Cards

1. Al-Tusi: If you have at least four Architects in the Palace area, gain 5 points during end game scoring.
2. Al-Ma'mun: If you have at least four Boats in the River area, gain 5 points during end game scoring.
3. Ibn Masawayh: If you have constructed at least three Buildings, gain 3 points during end game scoring.
4. Al-Kindi: If you have at least three Boats in the River area, gain 3 points during end game scoring.
5. Fadl al-Sha'irah: If you have five Students on your player board, gain 8 points during end game scoring.
6. Al-Razi: If you have five Books on your player board, gain 8 points during end game scoring.
7. Al-Idrisi: If you have five Artefacts on your player board, gain 8 points during end game scoring.
8. Isa ibn Ali: If you have five Patients on your player board, gain 8 points during end game scoring.
9. Al-Ijliyyah: If you have at least three Artefacts on your player board, gain 3 points during end game scoring.
10. Harun al-Rashid: If you have five Architects in the Palace area, gain 8 points during end game scoring.
11. Muhammed Ibn Musa: If you have at least three Books on your player board, gain 3 points during end game scoring.
12. Ibn Sina / Avicenna: If you have constructed five Buildings, gain 8 points during end game scoring.
13. Ridwan al-Sa'ati: If you have at least four Books on your player board, gain 5 points during end game scoring.
14. Al Farabi: If you have constructed at least four Buildings, gain 5 points during end game scoring.
15. Al-Ma'arri: If you have at least four Students on your player board, gain 5 points during end game scoring.
16. Ibn Al-Haytham: If you have five Boats in the River area, gain 8 points during end game scoring.
17. Al-Khayzuran: If you have at least three Patients on your player board, gain 3 points during end game scoring.
18. Hunyan Ibn Ishaq: If you have at least four Artefacts on your player board, gain 5 points during end game scoring.
19. Abū Nuwas: If you have at least three Students on your player board, gain 3 points during end game scoring.
20. Al-Zarnuji: If you have at least four Patients on your player board, gain 5 points during end game scoring.

Modules

In addition to the base game, this box includes three additional modules – Public Works, Contracts, and Objectives. You may play with these modules in any combination. We recommend not using modules for your first game.

Components

Public Works Module

• 1 Public Houses board
• 9 Public Houses
• 1 Black Gate
• 16 Player markers (4 per player)

Contracts

• 12 Contract tokens

Objective Module

• 1 Golden Gate
• 5 Objective cards
• 16 Player markers (4 per player)

Public Works

Setup

After completing the setup of the base game, do the following

1. Place the Civic board to the side of the main board, next to the building area.
2. Place the Public Houses board next to the City Area.
3. Place the Public Houses on the spaces of the Public Houses Board matching your player count. In a two player game, place 4 Public Houses. In a three player game, place 7 Houses. In a four player game, place all 9 Houses. Return any unused Public Houses to the box.
4. Place the Black Gate to the South of the City.

Public Houses

When you construct a Building, you may choose to make it public. If you do, take the Public House from the highest point value slot on the Public House Board and place it on it. Then, instead of placing your own House on the constructed Building, place it on the space on the Public House Board vacated by the Public House.

Your Houses still require masonry skill icons in order to place on the Public Houses Board. You must have those skills available to take this action.

When resolving Building effects during the Take Action step of the turn, in addition to resolving the effect of all your buildings in the quadrant your Vizier is in, resolve the effects of a number of public buildings in your quadrant up to the number of Houses you have on the Public Houses Board.

For example, if you have two Houses on the Civic board and there are three Public Buildings in the quadrant your Vizier is in, choose two Public Buildings to resolve the effects of. If you have equal to or more Houses on the Civic board than there are Public Buildings in the quadrant, you may resolve every Public Building in the quadrant.

Public Buildings you have constructed count towards Character card objectives, and towards Building-based scoring.

For the purpose of tracking objectives and scoring, count the number of Houses not on your player board.

During end game scoring, add to your score the points shown next to each of your Houses on the Public Houses board.

Contributing to Civics

When you gain a City tile of a type you have not yet contributed to the Civic board instead of your player board, you may choose to add the tile to the Civic board. If you do, place the tile in the row matching the tile's type and in the column matching your player colour, in the unspent (left) position on the slider. You do not gain the benefit associated with the tile's type. Tiles you have placed on the Civic Board do not count towards endgame scoring tiles.

For example, if it was a Patient, you do not gain the Goods tokens indicated.

Placing City tiles on the Civic board requires one skill icon. You must have that skill available in order to do this.

For example, to place a patient on the Civic board, you need one figure icon.

City tiles you have contributed to the Civic board do not count towards Character card objectives and City tile based scoring.

During the Move Vizier step, when you move your Vizier from the South-East quadrant to the South-West quadrant (i.e. when your Vizier passes the Black Gate), you must choose one of the following:

Extoll Virtue: Place a Player Marker on a City tile in the column matching your player colour that doesn't already have one. Gain one Favour per City tile in your column.

You may only choose this option if their is a City tile without a Player Marker in your column.

Seek Charity: Find the column on the Civic board with the most City tiles. Lose one favour per City tile in that column. If you are at the bottom of the favour track, each time you would lose Favour, instead gain one Shame token.

During end game scoring, deduct five points from your score for each empty spot in the column matching your player colour on the Civics board.

Contracts

Setup

After completing the setup of the base game, shuffle the Contract tokens into two face up stacks of six. Place each stack in the corresponding slots in the river area.

Gameplay

When one of your Boats arrives in a port, rather than taking a port action, you may instead fulfil the visible Contract next to the port by spending the two goods indicated. If you do, gain three coins, and place the Contract face down into your supply.

When taking an action that has a skill requirement, you may spend a Contract in your supply by returning it to the box. If you do, you count as having one more skill icon of the indicated type during this action.

Objectives

Setup

After completing the setup of the base game, do the following.

1. Place the Golden Gate to the North of the City.
2. Shuffle the 5 Objective cards into a face up stack above the Golden Gate. Slide the top card from the stack to the right, such that 2 Objective cards are visible.
3. Add the matching Player markers to each player's supply.

Gameplay

During the Move Vizier step, when you move your Vizier from the North-West quadrant to the North-East quadrant (i.e. when your Vizier passes the Golden Gate), place a Player marker on an available space on one of the two visible Objective cards, and then gain the effect shown.

See the icon reference on the back of the rulebook for effects shown.

The zero space on an Objective card is always available. Other spaces on Objective cards are available if no other player has a marker on them, and if the card-specific condition is met:

• You have a number of Books on your player board equal to or larger than the number of the space.
• You have a number of Patients on your player board equal to or larger than the number of the space.
• You have a number of Students on your player board equal to or larger than the number of the space.
• You have a number of types of Artefact on your player board equal to or larger than the number of the space.
• You have constructed a number of Buildings equal to or larger than the number of the space.

After placing a marker and resolving the corresponding effect, if the number of markers on the Objective card is equal to the number of players, discard the card, and return all markers on it to player's supplies. If any player had a marker on the five space of the Objective card, place the discarded Objective card face down in your Character card discard pile. Otherwise, return it to the box.

Then, if you discarded the Objective card to the right of the stack, slide the top Objective card in the stack to the right to replace it, so that there are always two visible Objective cards.

During end game scoring, gain five points for each Objective card face down in your Character card discard pile, and each visible Objective card you have a Player marker on the five point reward of.

Solo

In the solo mode you will be playing against a Bot.

Bot Setup

1. Choose a difficulty. Look at the Bot side of each player board. Place the board corresponding to your chosen difficulty on it's Bot side to the right of your playing area and within reach. Difficulties are Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert.
2. Shuffle the 16 Bot cards into a face-down deck. Place them in the leftmost slot of the Bot's board.
3. Choose a colour for the Bot. Take all components of that colour. Place the Vizier next to its player board. Place 1 Boat on the starting space of the River area. Place its four Library tokens next to its player board. Place the remaining player coloured pieces on the corresponding slots of its player board.

Resolve Setup and your Player Setup as if you were playing a two player game. See pages 2 and 3.

Gameplay

You will take a turn and then the Bot will take a turn. After you have drawn all the Character cards available, and played all the character cards in your hands, the Bot will take one final turn. Then the game ends, and end game scoring is resolved. If you have more points than the Bot, you win. Otherwise, the Bot wins.

Your Turns

Your turns work exactly as in the multiplayer game.

Bot Turns

The Bot does not gain or spend coins, goods, step tokens, wild tokens, shame tokens, or favour. Instead, each turn, it resolves the following steps.

Bot turns are structured as follows.

1. Reveal Active Bot Card
2. Move Boats
3. Move Vizier
4. Draw Character Card, Discard Active Bot Card, Refill City

Reveal Active Bot Card

Draw the top card from the Bot deck, placing it face up in the middle slots on the Bot's board. This is the active card.

Move Boats

Add together the Boat movements shown on the front side of the active card (the middle slot) and on the top card of the Bot deck (the leftmost slot). Move the Bot's Boat in the river area this many spaces.

The normal Boat movement restrictions apply to the Bot.

A Boat in the starting space may move either left or right, but once a boat starts in one direction it must keep going in the same direction until it reaches a port. Once a Boat has reached port it cannot move for the remainder of the game.

When a Boat on the starting space, or on a junction between two rivers moves the Bot will choose a direction.

1. The bot will choose the direction that leads to the port with the fewest boats in it.

2. If both directions are tied the Bot will choose the direction that leads to the port it would currently score the most points for.

   Consider both the value of the port slot multiplier as well as the number of completed items.

   For the purpose of evaluating the Night-Character port, the Bot assumes it will score every Night character currently in its discard pile.

3. If both directions are still tied, check the number in the highlighted square on the top card of the Bot deck against the graphic shown on the bot's player board, and move the boat in that direction.

When the Bot's Boat arrives in port, immediately add a Boat from its player board to the starting space of the river area. If it still has movement left to resolve, it will continue moving this new Boat.

Move Vizier

Look at the four symbols on the active Bot card. Each symbol corresponds to an action. From among these four symbols, the Bot will choose and do the thing you have done the most times.

• The number of Books on your player board. If the Bot already has five Books on its player board, ignore this symbol.
• The number of Patients on your player board. If the Bot already has five Patients on its player board, ignore this symbol.
• The number of Artefacts on your player board. If the Bot already has five Artefact on its player board, ignore this symbol.
• The number of Students on your player board. If the Bot already has five Students on its player board, ignore this symbol.
• The number of Buildings you have constructed. If the Bot has already constructed five Buildings, ignore this symbol.
• The number of pieces of the Palace you have built. If the Bot has already built five Palace pieces, ignore this symbol.

In case of a tie, the Bot chooses the tied action that appears highest on the active card.

City Tile Slots

If the Bot chooses a Book, Patient, Artefact, or Student symbol, it will find a matching City tile in the next quadrant clockwise from its Vizier's current position, place the Vizier on that slot, and place the tile in that slot into the leftmost available space on the Bot's player board. On its first turn, the Bot will choose the Quadrant clockwise from the one your Vizier is in.

If there are none of the matching City tiles in the Bot's chosen quadrant, it will instead choose and place its Vizier on the next clockwise quadrant that has one.

In rare situations this could cause the Bot to place the Vizier in the same quadrant it moved from.

If there are multiple of the matching tiles in the Bot's chosen quadrant, it chooses:

1. The slot that is connected to the fewest students and patients.
2. If still a tie, check the top of the Bot deck. Depending on the symbol shown, it chooses the City tile in the outer ring of the quadrant, or the City tile in the inner ring of the quadrant.
3. If still a tie, it chooses the first tied City tile slot clockwise from its Vizier's current location.

If the Bot chose the Artefact symbol, it ignores slots that contain artefact types that it already has on its player board.

If the Bot placed its second, third, fourth, or fifth Book on its player board, place the matching Library token in the section of the wisdom area matching the number of Books the Bot has, in the space matching the highlighted number on the top card of the Bot deck.

1 is the furthest left space. 2 is the next furthest left space, 3 the next furthest, and 4 is the furthest right.

Note that the Bot does not actually receive these rewards. It simply blocks them so that you cannot take them.

Building Site

If the Bot chooses the Building Site symbol it will select an empty Building site in the next quadrant clockwise from its Vizier's current position, place the Vizier on that site, and construct a Building. On its first turn, the Bot will choose an empty Building site in the quadrant clockwise from the one your Vizier is in.

If there are no empty Building sites in the Bot's chosen quadrant, it will instead choose and place its Vizier on the next clockwise quadrant that has one. If there are multiple Building spaces in the Bot's chosen quadrant, it chooses:

1. The slot that is connected to the fewest students and patients.
2. If a tie, it chooses the first tied City building site clockwise from its Vizier's current location.

When the Bot constructs a Building, it chooses one of the lowest level Buildings in the Building area that it has not yet constructed, places it in the empty site, and places the top House from its board onto this Building.

When constructing buildings of level 1-4, to determine which of the two Buildings it chooses, check the top of the Bot deck. Depending on the symbol shown, it chooses the one in the outer ring, or the one in the inner ring, and then slides the top visible Building tile from the top row to the bottom row to replace it.

When constructing a level 5 building, the bot chooses the building that it would currently score the most points for. In case of tie, use the method above.

Palace Site

If the Bot chooses the Palace symbol it will select the empty palace site in the next quadrant clockwise from its Vizier's current position, place the Vizier on that site, and build a piece of the Palace. On its first turn, the Bot will choose the Palace site in the quadrant clockwise from the one your Vizier is in.

If the Palace site in the Bot's chosen quadrant is occupied by your Vizier, it will instead choose and place its Vizier on the Palace site in the next clockwise quadrant.

The Bot uses the following criteria to choose which Palace piece to build.

1. It chooses the piece that it would currently score the most points for. If the Base piece can be built, the Bot will choose that, as it scores the most points.
2. It chooses the tied piece that would cost the fewest goods.
3. It chooses the first clockwise tied piece.

To determine where the Bot puts its chosen piece, check the top card of the Bot deck, and put it in the empty space matching the highlighted number, or the next available numbered space as indicated by the arrows.

• 1 is the space that would earn favour.
• 2 is the space that would earn a wild token.
• 3 is the space that would earn ship movement.
• 4 is the space that would earn a step token and coin.

Note that the Bot does not actually receive these rewards. It simply blocks them so that you cannot take them.

After the third foundation, wall, or tower piece is built, place a neutral architect in the slot next to the fourth piece, and add that piece to the last empty space in the palace. When a player builds the base piece, also add the dome piece to the Palace.

The only function neutral architects serve is to block spaces. They are ignored for the purpose of end game scoring.

Bonus Actions

If during the above step the Bot places a City tile covering an icon, or removes a House from its board that reveals an icon, resolve the corresponding effect.

• Look at the four symbols on the active Bot card. From among these symbols, the Bot chooses and takes another the action in the same manner as it did during the Move Vizier step, with the exceptions that it disregards the symbol corresponding to the action it already took this turn, and that it does not physically move the Vizier piece again. Note that the Bot may get this benefit multiple times in the same turn, if it covers or reveals multiple icons.
• The Bot builds a piece of the Palace, as described in the Palace Site section above. Note that the bot does not move its Vizier to a Palace Site as part of this effect. If the bot has already built five pieces of the Palace, ignore this symbol.

Draw Character Card, Refill City

Check the top card of the Bot deck.

If it has a Day character symbol, find a Day character card that the Bot has met the requirement of and add it facedown to a stack to the right of its player board.

If it has met the requirements of multiple cards, take the leftmost one. If there are no Day characters the bot has met the requirement of, take the Day character it is closest to meeting the requirement of. In case of a tie, take the leftmost tied card.

If there is no card in the space indicated, take the card from the closest numbered slot. In case of a tie, take the card from the higher numbered slot.

If there are no Day Characters in the display, but there are Night Characters, disregard the above step and instead take the leftmost card.

If there are no cards in the display, skip the above step.

If it has a Night Character symbol, find a Night character card that the Bot has met the requirement of and add it facedown to a stack to the right of its player board.

If it has met the requirements of multiple cards, take the one worth the most points. If still a tie, take the rightmost tied card.

If there are no Night characters the bot has met the requirement of, take the Night character it is closest to meeting the requirement of. In case of a tie, take the one worth the most points, If still a tie, take the rightmost tied card.

If there are no Night Characters in the display, but there are Day Characters, disregard the above step and instead take the leftmost card.

If there are no cards in the display, skip the above step.

Finally, refill the empty Character card space in the Wisdom area, and any empty City tile slots, in the same manner as at the end of a player turn.

For example, the top card of the Bot deck has a Night Character symbol and it is choosing between the above cards. The bot has one Building, two Patients, and no Books. It is two away from the requirement of night card 4 and 5, and four away from night card 6. Card 4 is worth three points and card 5 is worth five points, so it takes card 5.

End Game Scoring

You score as in the multiplayer game. The Bot scores as it would in the multiplayer game, with the following exceptions.

1. The Bot scores the Night Characters in the rightmost slot on its player board that it has met the requirement of by the end of the game. It does not need to have met the requirement of Night Characters mid-game in the way players do.
2. The Bot scores the points for Favour shown on its player board. As the Bot does not collect or spend Favour, it scores a flat rate depending on the difficulty you are playing.
3. The Bot counts as having no Shame tokens.

Solo with Modules

You may play solo with any combination of modules. For each module you play with, add the following rules.

Public Works

Contributing to Civics

Each time the Bot passes the Black gate, it places a City tile from the main board onto the Civic Board, of the type corresponding to the topmost empty slot in its column.

Public Buildings

The Bot will make every Building it constructs public until there are no more slots available on the Civic board. At the end of the game, it scores points for Houses on the Civic board as normal.

Contracts

When a Bot Boat reaches a port, discard the top token from the Contracts stack.

Objectives

Each time the Bot passes the Golden gate, it places a Player marker on the Objective card in the highest numbered available space that it has met the criteria of. In case of a tie, it chooses the left Objective card.

If the Bot placed a marker on the five point space, when the Objective card is discarded, add it face down to the rightmost slot of the Bot's board. The Bot scores points for those cards as normal.