Dominations: Silk Road
Dominations: Silk Road Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 40 Trade Route tiles
- 1 The Grand Bazaar monument card
- 1 The Grand Bazaar monument tile
- 5 The Grand Bazaar monument level cards
- 3 Dynasty cards (compatible with the Dynasties expansion)
- 4 Omen cards (compatible with the Hegemon expansion)
- 1 Hegemon tile (compatible with the Hegemon expansion)
- 3 Province tiles and 3 Province cards (compatible with the Provinces expansion)
- 24 craft cards
The cards in this expansion are identified by a special icon printed on them; the icon is an image in the source and is not reproduced here.
Principles
In Silk Road you connect your cities to form great trade routes, which become more profitable as they grow.
During the build phase of their turn, each player may, in addition to the usual build action, choose to build a Trade Route in one of their cities.
This connects the city to an existing Trade Route, and its owner scores points based on the route's length.
The brand-new craft cards in this expansion let you earn even more Victory Points and resources!
Turning your cities into commercial hubs can be very lucrative, as long as wealth flows your way…
Setup
Perform these steps after step 5 of the Setup phase in the base rulebook:
- Place the 40 Trade Route tiles on the table, accessible to all players.
- Place the 24 craft cards into the matching craft card decks, and put the decks in the correct card holders.
- Add The Grand Bazaar monument card to the other monument cards. Alternatively, you may replace a monument chosen by a randomly designated player with The Grand Bazaar: shuffle the other monument cards, draw one, and that is the monument you replace with The Grand Bazaar.
Then finish setting up the game according to the normal rules.
Playing with Silk Road
In the build phase of a player's turn, alongside building/upgrading a city or building a monument level, a player may also build a Trade Route.
The player may choose a city they control, then pay 3 Knowledge in that city's Domain. If they do, they may place a Trade Route tile on that city.
The Trade Route tile may face any direction, as long as its endpoints touch two edges of the land tile on which the city stands.
If a neighbouring land tile already has a Trade Route, and the new route can connect to it, then it must connect to it.
A Trade Route may be placed on any of your cities, regardless of whether other cities are nearby or not.
Looping Trade Routes
Trade Routes may be looped together, if the player wishes.
You may connect a Trade Route to the Cradle of Humanity tile or to a monument, but you may not pass through it (except for The Grand Bazaar).
Trade Routes
When a city is connected by a Trade Route, its owner immediately gains Victory Points equal to the number of cities on that Trade Route (regardless of who controls those cities).
Furthermore, cities connected through a Trade Route produce leftover Knowledge (instead of the city's Domain) when they are activated by the placement of a tile.
The Grand Bazaar
The normal monument rules apply to this monument, except that it must be placed as part of a Trade Route.
When you place The Grand Bazaar, you immediately score points for the Trade Route as described above. The monument counts as two cities for this scoring. The card text reads "this Monument counts as 2 cities". The Hungarian rulebook says it counts as "two Trade Routes" ("két kereskedelmi útvonalnak"); this has been transcribed as printed in the card text, and the worked example below (3 cities + 2 = 5 points) matches the card. Both Trade Routes at the Grand Bazaar are scored together, not separately.
Example: Kayla places The Grand Bazaar so that it connects to a Trade Route containing 3 cities. Because The Grand Bazaar counts as two cities, Kayla scores 5 points (3 + 2) before continuing her turn.
Grand Bazaar Level Cards
The Grand Bazaar has five monument levels. The level card text is shown below as printed on the card illustrations in the rulebook. The printed numerals on the level cards are not explained in the rulebook and are not transcribed here.
- Level I (1/5): You gain 3. All other players gain 2.
- Level II (2/5): You immediately gain 3. All players may convert their Knowledge Domains at a rate of 1:1.
- Level III (3/5): You gain 5. All other players gain 3.
- Level IV (4/5): You may immediately spend up to 1 from each Domain. Gain 1 for each Knowledge spent.
- Level V (5/5): You immediately gain 1 for each of your Level in the Commercial Network of this Monument.
Craft Cards
The 24 craft cards are added to their matching craft card decks during setup.
The rulebook illustrates six craft cards; their printed text is transcribed below. The printed numerals and symbols on the cards are not explained in the rulebook. Icons that are not legible in the source are marked [icon].
Artistic Residencies
Cities that are part of a Trade Network cost you 2 less Knowledge to upgrade.
Pack Animals
Trade Routes cost you 1 less Knowledge to construct.
Road Network
Whenever you build a Trade Route, gain 1 [icon].
Pilgrimages
You may construct Trade Routes on your [icon] for free.
Milestones
You may immediately build a Trade Route.
Caravansery
Whenever you build a Trade Route, gain 1 [icon].
The rulebook does not reproduce the text of the remaining 18 craft cards; they are not transcribed here.
Hegemon, Dynasties and Provinces Content
This expansion also contains 3 new provinces for the Provinces expansion, 1 Hegemon tile and 4 Omen cards compatible with the Hegemon expansion, and 3 Dynasty cards compatible with the Dynasties expansion. If you play Silk Road together with any of the other expansions, add these components to the rest of the content as well!
Note: The Hegemon tile belongs to the "City" supply. It rewards the player who controls the most cities connected to Trade Routes. Note that a city with a Trade Route tile does not count as part of a Trade Route. At least two cities must be connected to each other for them to count toward this objective.