Chai: Tea for 2

Chai: Tea for 2 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Objective

As countries look for their next cuppa tea, set sail your most delicious brews in Chai: Tea for 2. Facing off as opposing tea merchants, both players strive for the most victory points by securing tea clipper contracts and improving their tea plantation. Producing green, white, oolong, yellow, black, and the dark pu'ers, it's a race!

Ingredients

Tea tokens: 60 tea tokens (10 of each tea): Yellow, Green, Pu'er, White, Oolong, Black.

Tea workers: 14 tea workers (7 of each colour). The tea workers are dice.

Other components:

1 first player coin
1 tea assistant
6 double-sided tea merchant cards
28 tea plantation cards
2 double-sided tea plantation boards
18 ship cards (15 tea clippers, 3 junks)
6 double-sided harvest markers
5 building boards

Setup

The end of the game is triggered when one merchant fulfills the ship goal. At the start of setup, both merchants agree on the ship goal while serving each other tea.

Ship Goal Docking Time
3 (Galley) 25 minutes
4 (Square Meal) 35 minutes
5 (Hardtack) 45 minutes
Each merchant places a tea plantation board (A) in front of them. Shuffle the 6 tea merchant cards (B) and deal one to each merchant. Choose side A for standard play or side B for advanced play.
Each merchant receives a set of tea workers (C).
Place the 5 building boards (D) in the middle with the boards in the following order: harvest, market, palace, harbour, production.
Shuffle the 28 tea plantation cards (E). Place one card face-up in each die area on the market board, with the deck face-up in the six die space.
Shuffle the and place one face-up in three of the harbour board slots, with the deck face-up in the last slot.

Ship Goal	Docking Time
3 (Galley)	25 minutes
4 (Square Meal)	35 minutes
5 (Hardtack)	45 minutes

Merchant Card Powers

During set up, merchants choose to play with either side A or side B of their merchant cards. Side A is for standard play, while side B is for advanced play. At the end of the game, side A gives one victory point for each tea plantation card and fulfilled or unfilled ship that has the same tea type as their merchant card, while side B features a unique ability that can be used once per round (year).

Tea type	Side B ability
Yellow	Place a new tea token of the merchant's choice on the bottom space of their tea plantation.
Green	Move a tea plantation card to an empty space.
Pu'er	Use 2 movement points to move tea tokens upward in the tea plantation.
White	Add or subtract one pip to a single die.
Oolong	Swap two tea plantation cards with each other.
Black	Flip all facedown tea plantation cards faceup.

Plantation Boards - Side B

Side B of the player boards is also for advanced play, where a movement point is required to shift a boat to a different dock.

When playing on the advanced B side, if a white line is present, a tea token immediately oxidizes to a token of the player's choice from the options shown at the top of the line. Here, the player's yellow tea has become a green tea.

Gameplay

The game ends after 3-5 ships have been fulfilled. Players follow these steps each round (year):

The merchant with the 1st player coin moves the tea assistant clockwise 1-3 harvest markers of their choice. Merchants simultaneously receive the year's tea harvest. Flip the chosen harvest marker and move to the furthest clockwise position on the opposite board of the tea assistant's current board.
Merchants roll dice (tea workers) simultaneously.
Starting with the merchant with the 1st player coin, merchants take turns placing tea workers on building boards and resolving actions.
After all tea workers have been placed the year ends. Resolve the harbour and market boards. Check for the end of game ship goal, and if not fulfilled, return tea workers and restock the market and harbour boards for the next year.

Tip: Tea tokens may be discarded to the supply at any time during a merchant's turn to raise or lower a tea worker's dice value by one. Note that a 1 may become a 6, and vice versa.

Start of Round

Tea Assistant & Harvest Markers

At the start of the year, the merchant with the 1st player coin moves the tea assistant clockwise 1-3 harvest markers, placing the tea assistant on the chosen marker.

Both merchants receive the 2 tea tokens shown and place them on the bottom space of their tea plantation board.
In addition, each merchant takes extra tea tokens and/or extra tea token movement up to the number shown on the harvest marker in any order and combination desired. The extra tea tokens chosen in this manner must each be unique.
Tea token movement used to move any tea token on a merchant's plantation board up one step on the corresponding colour path. (see "Tea Plantation Cards" on page 9 for more information).
After both merchants complete the harvest marker actions, the harvest marker is flipped and moved to the furthest clockwise position to the right of the production board or left of the harvest board, opposite of the tea assistant's current board.
The tea assistant always moves clockwise around the harvest and production boards.

Example: Both merchants take a green & white tea token. Blue Merchant takes 1 black tea token and moves 3 tokens. Red Merchant takes 1 green, black and oolong token, and moves 1 token.

Example: The merchant with the 1st player coin moves the tea assistant clockwise 3 harvest markers. Both merchants receive what is on the marker. The harvest marker is flipped and placed in the furthest available clockwise position on the production board.

Example: On the next turn, the merchant with the 1st player coin moves the tea assistant clockwise 2 harvest markers, continuing over to the production board side. Merchants receive shown tea tokens and extra tea tokens and/or tea token movement.

Building Boards & Tea Worker Actions

Legend: a lightning bolt marks Immediate Actions. An hourglass marks End of Year Actions.

Harvest Board (immediate action)

Merchants may place a tea worker of any value on the harvest board to collect one tea token of their choice, placing it on the bottom space of their tea plantation board. The harvest board can hold any number of tea workers.

Example: The Blue Merchant places one tea worker on the harvest board and takes an oolong token from the supply, and places it on their plantation board.

Market Board (immediate action)

Merchants may place a tea worker in an available tea worker spot on the market board to collect a tea plantation card:

Tea workers may not displace each other.
The tea worker must be of equal or greater value than the dice value shown for the tea worker to be placed there.
Once placed, the merchant takes the tea plantation card of that space and immediately places it in one of the available slots around their tea plantation board. Immediately perform the actions shown on the card to the adjacent tea plantation board space (see "Tea Plantation Cards" below).
If a tea worker is placed in the six die spot, the merchant draws the top 3 cards of the deck, placing one on their tea plantation board, and returning the other two on top of the deck in whichever order the merchant prefers.

(See "Tea Plantation Cards" on the next page.)

If a merchant's tea plantation board is full, they may acquire a new market card, but immediately discard the old card in their plantation, placing it at the bottom of the deck.

Example: The Red Merchant places a tea worker of equal or greater value to the 2 value space and receives the Silver Needle planation card. (Printed as "planation" in the source.)

Tea Plantation Cards

Tea plantation cards are placed in available slots around merchants' tea plantation boards. Card abilities trigger immediately and must occur if an ability is possible.
- An ability triggers when a card is placed from the market board, or when a tea token of the type shown on the card enters the space adjacent to the card.
  - A tea token can move up multiple spaces by continuously entering spaces with adjacent movement cards.
    - Flip the card facedown if the card has a 1-time ability that was triggered. Facedown cards do not trigger again until they are flipped faceup.
      - If a plantation card moves tea tokens to the top of the board they remain there until they are loaded onto a ship (see "Ship Cards" on pg. 12 for more information).
        
        Some plantation cards are also worth points at the end of the game in addition to their abilities.

Example: The Red Merchant places the Silver Needle plantation card in an available slot next their plantation board, next to the bottom space of their board. (Printed as "planation" in the source.)

Example: The Silver Needle card moves the white tea token up one space, which is then moved up again by the White Matcha Card.

Example: The Silver Needle card moves all yellow tea token up one space.

Tea Plantation Card Powers

Sweet Tea: Move up tea tokens of that colour up one space.
2 Scented Tea: Move up tea tokens of that colour up one space. Flip over card after use and receive 2 VP at end of game.
Silver Needle, 2x First Flush: Move up tea tokens of both colours up one space and flip over card after use.
Earl White, Earl Grey, Pu'er Tuocha, Korean Ttokcha, White Matcha, Genmaicha, Milk Oolong: Move up tea tokens of that colour up one space and receive 1 VP at end of game.
Mountain Yellow, Pu'er Brick, Pu'er Cakes: Move up tea tokens of that colour up two spaces and flip over card after use.
Oxidation, Fermentation: Change tea tokens into the other tea tokens shown and move new tea tokens up one space.
4x Crates: If a tea token is in the space adjacent to a matching crate tea token, that tea token immediately moves onto the crate card. Crates are worth points as shown if full at the end of the game. If only one crate on the card is full at the end of the game, that crate still scores points, but the other does not.
6x Blooming Tea: Players receive points at the end of game based on the total number of blooming tea cards they have on their plantation board, as shown on the bottom of the card (ie. having 3 cards scores 6 points in total, not 6 points per card).
Kombucha, Matcha Teas: Move up tea tokens of both colours up one space.

Palace Board (immediate action)

Merchants may place a tea worker of any value onto an available space in the palace to move tea plantation cards, reactivate cards, or collect the 1st player coin. Palace actions occur immediately and tea workers may not displace each other.

Move any tea plantation card to any available slot around the merchant's tea plantation board.
Swap any two existing tea plantation cards on the merchant's tea plantation board.
Take the 1st player coin, guaranteeing the merchant is 1st player next year.
Flip all flipped over cards faceup in the merchant's tea plantation board.

Both actions have room for 4 tea workers. Only one tea worker may use these spaces.

Harbour Board (end of year action)

On the Harbour Board, Merchants may place tea workers on ship cards to reserve them at the end of the year (see "End of Year" section.)

Two-to-four tea workers with sequential values are required to reserve a ship card.
Merchants may displace tea workers on a ship card by placing either a longer sequence (ie. placing three tea workers to displace two tea workers) or a sequence with a higher tea worker value (eg. having a 5-6 sequence displaces a 4-5 sequence).
When a higher tea worker sequence is placed, the displaced merchant may respond by adding tea worker(s) to their sequence to regain control of the ship contract.
Merchants may respond to each other until one cannot or chooses not to. Displaced workers must then be moved to another ship. If no ships are legally available to be reserved with the displaced tea workers, they are returned to that merchant's supply. (Printed as "must then moved" in the source.)
While displacement happens immediately, the harbour board resolves at the end of the year.

Example: The Blue Merchant reserves the "Challenger" ship card by placing a sequence of dice on the card.

Example: The Red Merchant displaces Blue Merchant's tea workers by placing a higher value sequence of tea workers.

Example: The Blue Merchant can regain control of the "Challenger" ship contract by immediately placing another tea worker in their sequence. Likewise, the Red Merchant may respond by adding dice. This continues until one player opts to reserve a different ship card. (Printed as "regain regain" in the source.)

Ship Cards

When ship cards are taken at the end of the year, they are placed in one of the 3 slots above the merchant's tea plantation board.
When tea tokens reach the top space of the board (the dock), they are loaded immediately onto matching ships, or remain on the dock until a matching ship arrives.
When fulfilled, ship cards immediately set sail and are placed to the side of the tea plantation board in a scoring area, and tea tokens are returned to the supply.
Merchants may move tea tokens between different matching ships, but if a ship can be fulfilled at any point during gameplay it immediately sets sail.
Multiple ships can be fulfilled at the same time, and if given a choice between two ships, merchants may choose what ship is fulfilled.
Junks receive all colours of tea tokens. If there are enough tea tokens available on unfulfilled ships or the dock, the junk ship must be fulfilled.
Merchants cannot wait to fulfill a higher value ship if they have enough tea tokens to fulfill a tea clipper or junk ship.

Example: The Red Merchant uses the Matcha Teas plantation card to move a green and white tea token to the top of the board. The green token is immediately loaded onto the "Ariel," and the white token is loaded immediately onto the "Challenger."

Example: The Red Merchant receives the "Challenger" at the the end of the year, receiving the yellow and white tokens that were already bumped up by the First Flush card, which flips over after activation. (Printed as "the the" in the source.)

Ship card flavour (Sir Lancelot): The Sir Lancelot won The Great Tea Race in 1867 and 1869; established a new record for fastest between China and London in 1869, and was lost in the Bay of Bengal, 1 October 1895. Learn more about all the clipper ships with our free companion app or on our website!

Production Board (end of year action)

Merchants may place tea workers on the production board to create tea token movement (5, 3, or 2 spaces) on their tea plantation board, resolved at the end of the year.

Two-to-four tea workers with the same value are required to reserve tea token movement.
The highest value tea worker set is placed highest on the production board while lower value tea worker sets are moved underneath higher sets.
The number of tea workers in a set trumps the value shown. Merchants may add tea workers of the same value to one of their sets as their turn, while additional sets beyond 3 are immediately returned to their merchant's supply to be used that year.
If two identical tea worker sets exist, the set first played takes the higher position.

Example: The Blue Merchant adds two five-value dice to the board, bumping the Red Merchant's dice down the middle row.

Example: The Red Merchant adds one more single-value dice, regaining the top row, and later adds a set of two four-value dice to claim the bottom row.

End of Year

Once both merchants have placed all of their tea workers, the year ends. One merchant may run out of tea workers before the other, allowing the other merchant to take continuous turns placing their remaining workers.

RESOLVE THE HARBOUR BOARD: Merchants take reserved ships from the harbour and place them in one of the 3 available slots above the dock. If reserving from the ship card deck, the merchant looks at the top-three cards, reserves one, and returns the other two to the top of the deck in whichever order. If a merchant reserves a fourth ship card, one is immediately discarded. Place the discarded ship on the bottom of the ship card deck, and return any tea tokens on it to the dock.

When fulfilled, ship cards immediately set sail.
RESOLVE THE PRODUCTION BOARD: Merchants' tea workers receive tea token movement (5, 3, or 2) based on their position on the production board. Movement is used on the tea plantation board to move any tea token to an adjacent space with a matching tea token icon. Tea tokens can be moved multiple times in this manner, and moved in any order. Tea tokens that reach the dock are immediately loaded onto ships if possible.
CHECK SHIP GOAL: After the harbour and production boards have been resolved, if a merchant has fulfilled enough ships to reach the end of game goal as determined in setup, move to endgame scoring.
RESTOCK FOR NEXT YEAR: If the ship goal has not been reached, tea workers return to merchants. Restock the market by discarding the card of the lowest value die to the bottom of the deck, and slide remaining market cards to the lowest value slots. Replenish empty market and harbour slots with new cards. Play continues with the merchant holding the 1st player coin starting a new year.

End of Game

The game ends after the year a merchant has fulfilled 3-5 ships as determined in set up. Merchants total their score by adding the number of victory points from the following:

Tea Plantation Cards (faceup and facedown)
Fulfilled Ships
Merchants using side A receive a victory point for each tea plantation card and fulfilled or unfilled ship that has the same tea type shown as their merchant card.

The merchant with the most victory points wins the game as best tea merchant! In the case of a tie, the person with the least number of tea plantation cards wins. If still tied, the person with the most amount of completed tea clippers wins. If that does not break a tie, the victory is shared.

Example Scoring

Ship goal: 3 (4) 5

Category	Points
Tea Plantation Cards: 4 (3 cards)	4
Fulfilled Crates: 2 (1 crate)	2
Blooming Tea: 6 (3 cards)	6
Fulfilled Ships: 28 (4 ships)	28
Merchant Card Side A: 4 (4 cards)	4
Total	44

Download our free Steeped Games Companion App to keep score or print the scorekeeper from our website www.steepedgames.com!

A Bit of History

The Great Tea Races

Cutty Sark card: One of the last tea clippers built, and one of only three surviving composite clipper ships. Currently a museum ship in Greenwich, London.

Since Chinese Emperor Shennong's discovery of tea in 2737 BCE, tea has been enjoyed worldwide. Originally traded from China along the Tea Horse Road to Tibet and Bengal via Myanmar, and later the Tea Camel Road to Russia, tea eventually reached Europe by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Britain began to import tea in the late seventeenth century, though high prices and a regulated Chinese market prevented the drink from being easily accessible. After the Opium Wars forcibly opened Chinese markets, demand for tea in Britain skyrocketed.

A premium was paid to the first arriving ship of each season, as Londoners craved the novel import, and longer times at sea were thought to spoil the tea's flavour and fragrance. This led to the Great Tea Races: informal competitions between rival captains of tea clippers—the fastest sailing ships ever made. These enterprising skippers raced over 14,000 miles to claim prestige and be rewarded for delivering cargo holds full of tea.

Fiery Cross card: First to London in 1861, 1862, 1863, and 1865; Fourth in 1866.

Interest peaked the most in 1866, when the Taeping won by a mere 28 minutes over the Ariel. Both captains split the winnings and although this race marked the end of the premium for arriving first, clippers continued to race until 1872, when the Thermopylae defeated the Cutty Sark.

Historians attribute the decline of the tea clippers in 1869 with the opening of the Suez Canal and the efficiency of contemporary steamships. Many tea clippers were either repurposed, scuttled or scraped, but the romantic image of these majestic sailing vessels cutting through the water, holds full of tea, continue to capture imaginations for generations.

The Boston Tea Party

Tea was enjoyed across British colonies, though it was highly taxed. These high taxes, and the accompanying policy of taxation without representation, led dissatisfied American colonists to refuse the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver's ability to unload their cargo when they arrived in Boston in December of 1773. A group later sneaked aboard the ships at night and dumped the tea off of Griffin's Wharf on December 16, 1773, known as the "Boston Tea Party," a precursor to the American Revolution.

Solo Mode

Setup

Place the AI solo year cards facedown in numerical order, or shuffle for a more challenging game. The AI does not get a plantation board, and the human is the starting player. Choose the ship goal, and setup is otherwise normal. The AI always uses side A of the Merchant Card.

Gameplay

Harvest Phase occurs normally for human while the AI receives nothing.
Roll the AI's tea workers after your own, and flip over the next solo card.
Alternate turns, with the AI completing actions sequentially on the card as follows on the boards until it runs out of dice:
- Market: Highest value die is placed in the highest available slot. Take the top card of the deck when placing a 6, or if no other legal market space. If the AI cannot complete an action elsewhere, dice are always used in the market.
- Harbour: Place longest possible sequence of highest value dice on the highest value ship. If multiple choices, place dice on a ship of the AI tea merchant type; if not, human decides. The AI will not fight human for ships.
- First Player Marker: The AI places its lowest value die on this location. When the AI is first player, move the tea assistant one space.
- Production: The AI places the largest possible set of highest value.
Game ends after the ship goal is completed. Score normally with regular tiebreakers.