Bania Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Set Up
• Bania Basics
• The Game Turn
  • Collect Your Elephant Marker Bonus
  • Buy and Place Tents
  • Roll For Resources
  • Place Your Elephant Marker
• Let's Play
  • Using Resources to Buy Tent Tiles
  • Placing Tent Tiles on the Board
  • Place Your Elephant Marker
  • Collect Your Elephant Marker Bonus
  • Roll For Resources
  • Rolling Elephant Bonus Icons
• The End of the Game / Winning
• Scoring
  • During the Game
  • At the End of the Game

Contents

• 1 Game Board
• 60 Tent Tiles
• 60 Resource Cards
• 4 Resource dice
• 4 Elephant Markers
• 4 Score Markers
• 4 Player aid cards
• 1 Cloth Bag

Set Up

Place the game board in front of all players.

Separate the resource cards by type (Oil, Spice, Silk and Incense) and place the 4 piles within reach of all players.

Each player takes one Score Marker and one Elephant Marker of matching color. Place the Score Marker on the outside track by the number 0 and keep the Elephant Marker for later use.

Place all tent tiles in the cloth bag.

To begin each game, each player draws 4 tent tiles out of the bag. These 4 tiles represent the personal supply of tents. During their turn, when a player purchases a tent, they may only take a tent from their personal supply.

Each player draws 8 resource cards, two of each type (2 Oil, 2 Spice, 2 Silk and 2 Incense).

Bania Basics

Players use resource cards to buy and build tents. Then they strategically place their tents on the board to earn points.

When there are no more legal moves left on the board, the game is over and the player with the most points wins.

The Game Turn

On their turn, a player may perform the following 3 actions:

• Collect your Elephant Marker Bonus (if available).
• Buy and place tents OR roll for resources.
• Place your Elephant Marker (if available).

Collect Your Elephant Marker Bonus

If your Elephant Marker sits on a tent tile on the board, you are eligible to collect bonus resources at the beginning of your turn.

Buy and Place Tents

Depending on the resources you hold in your hand, you may buy a tent (or tents) and place them strategically on the board.

Roll For Resources

If you are low on resources, you may choose to gather more resources by using your turn to roll the dice. You will earn resources based on how you roll. If you choose to roll, that is your turn and you will have to wait until your next turn to buy and place tents.

Place Your Elephant Marker

If your Elephant Marker is not already on the board, you may place it on a tile you have played during that turn. You will begin receiving bonus resources at the beginning of your next turn. If you chose to roll for resources rather than buy and place tents, you may not place your Elephant Marker on the board on that turn.

Let's Play

Using Resources to Buy Tent Tiles

On their turn, if they have the necessary resources, players may buy/build a tent tile (or tent tiles) from their personal supply and then place it on the game board.

On one side of each tent tile there are icons that show you which resources you will need in order to buy that tent. On the other side of the tent tile it shows what resource that tile will yield once placed on the board.

In order to buy and place a tent, you need the appropriate resources. Resources consist of the cards you hold in your hand, and also tent tiles that have already been played on the board and are available for use (more on that later). Therefore, you may use:

• only the resource cards in your hand
• a combination of the resource cards in your hand and available tent tiles already on the board
• only the available tent tiles on the board.

1. If you have two Spice resource cards and one Oil resource card in your hand, you may pay for the tent with those three cards.
2. Alternatively, if there is an available tent tile on the board that represents a Spice resource or an Oil resource, you may use that tent tile (or tiles) in combination with your resource card (or cards) to pay for the new tent. In order to utilize a tent tile (or tiles) from the board as a resource, you must place your tent tile ADJACENT to the available tile (or tiles).
3. Finally, if there are two Spice tent tiles and one Oil tent tile on the board that are 1) available and 2) positioned so that when you place your tent tile ALL of the tiles are adjacent to each other, you may use them to pay for the new tent. Also, if you need a particular resource card and do not have one in your hand, You may also turn in any THREE cards in your hand in exchange for ONE resource card you require.

NOTE: when you use a resource card to pay for a tent tile, you return the card (or cards) to their respective piles.

You may buy as many tents as you choose during your turn if you have the resources necessary. If you buy all 4 tents in one turn, draw 4 more tent tiles immediately and continue your turn. If you play fewer than 4, finish your turn by drawing back up 4.

Placing Tent Tiles on the Board

As you purchase tents, you may place them anywhere on the board you wish, but where you play them determines the points you will receive (see scoring section later). Remember, no one player "owns" any settlement, so on your turn you are free to place a tile next to any open settlement. Also, on your turn you may place tents on more than one open settlement if you wish.

The opposite side of each tent tile has a solid color on it. This identifies the tent tile as either a Spice (red), Oil (blue), Silk (purple) or Incense (yellow) resource. When you place a tent tile on the board, place it with the solid color side up. All players may then use that tile, when available, as a resource when buying and placing their tiles.

You may only use a tent tile on the board as a resource if it is AVAILABLE, which means that there is a blank space beside it, and it is not a part of a closed settlement (more on that later).

4. When you place a tent tile on a space where it is not touching any other tiles, you have begun a new SETTLEMENT. As more tiles are played (by you or any other player) adjacent to the original tile and each other, the settlement grows.
5. You may even join two open settlements together by building a tent in the space between them.
6. Once a settlement consists of seven (7) adjoining tiles, it is immediately closed. The closed settlement is from then on UNAVAILABLE, and no more tiles may be added to any tile within the settlement.
7. A settlement may NEVER consist of more than 7 tent tiles (see fig. 4).

Place Your Elephant Marker

Your Elephant Marker is another way for you to earn resources. At the end of your turn, if your Elephant Marker is available to you, you may put it on any tent tile you placed on the board THAT TURN. Subsequently, you may collect an Elephant Marker Bonus at the beginning of each following turn as long as the tile on which it sits is a part of an OPEN settlement.

Once a settlement is CLOSED, all Elephant Markers are immediately returned to their owners and will be available to them on their next turn. Once an Elephant Marker is placed on a tile, it must remain there until the settlement is closed.

Collect Your Elephant Marker Bonus

The Elephant Marker Bonus you receive at the beginning of your turn allows you to take one resource card of every color represented in that settlement (maximum 1 card per color).

For example, if you had an Elephant Marker on a settlement consisting of 2 Incense, 2 Oil and 1 Silk, your Elephant Marker Bonus would be 1 Incense, 1 Oil and 1 Silk.

Roll For Resources

On your turn, you may decide to roll for resources rather than buy tent tiles (you may only do one or the other, not both.)

If you have 12 or more cards in your hand at the beginning of your turn (after you have taken your Elephant Marker bonus), you MUST build, NOT ROLL.

To roll for resources:

• You may roll all 4 dice up to 3 times.
• If some of the dice come up the resource you want, you may set them aside and use the remaining dice on your next roll.
• If you have set aside dice from a previous roll, but wish to re-roll them, you may do so.
• You may stop rolling at any time and collect your resources.

Rolling Elephant Bonus Icons

There are 2 halves of an elephant on the dice. If you roll both halves across 2 dice (creating a full elephant), you may then take your Elephant Marker bonus (1 resource for each color in your Elephant Marker's settlement) in addition to the other resources you have rolled. If you roll an elephant half without a second die showing the opposite half, then you get no resource for that die.

Roll examples as printed (the printed captions):

• Roll of Incense, Spice, and a full Elephant (both halves): Collect 1 Incense, 1 Spice plus 1 resource for each color in your Elephant Marker's settlement.
• Roll of Incense, Spice, Spice and one Elephant Half: Collect 1 Incense, 2 Spice and no resources for only rolling 1 half of the Elephant.
• Roll of two full Elephants (four dice, both halves each): Collect 2 resources for each color in your Elephant Marker's settlement.

The End of the Game / Winning

The game ends when no more tents may be legally placed on the board. The player who is furthest along on the outside number track (and thus with the most points) WINS!

Scoring

During the Game

If you start a new settlement (placing a tent which is not adjacent to any other tent), you receive three (3) points and immediately move your marker forward accordingly.

If you place a tent adjacent to any other tent, then you receive one (1) point and immediately move your marker forward accordingly.

At the End of the Game

In addition to the score you received from placing tents during the game, you also receive points at the end of the game as follows:

• Each person who has the most of any resource color cards gets 2 points.
• If two people tie on the number of cards in a particular color, both players get 2 points.
• The player who placed the final tile of the game earns a bonus of 3 points.

Points are scored immediately by moving the score marker on the outside number track.