Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup for 4 Players
• Player Setup
• About The Rules
  • Introduction
• A Game Turn
• The Board
• Actions
  • How is an action carried out?
• 1. Books
  • 1. Place your dice on 1 of the 4 available action spaces.
  • 2. Choose 1 of the available offers.
  • 3. Take the goods and add them to your player board.
• 2. Khan′s Favor
  • Special Rules
• 3. Guild Seals
  • What do guild seals do?
• 4. Travel
  • Resolving the Travel action
    • 1. Place your dice.
    • 2. Pay the action space costs.
    • 3. Pay the travel costs.
    • 4. Move your figure and place 1 trading post.
    • Additional Rules
    • Outpost Bonus
      • Special Rules
• 5. Contracts
  • Additional Rules
    • Special Rules
• 6. Special Cities
  • What does this get you?
• 7. City Cards
• Bonus Actions
  • Bonus Actions
    • 1. Complete 1 contract
    • 2. Improve 1 guild seal
    • 3. Money Bag
    • 4. Reroll 1 die
    • 5. Change 1 die result by 1
    • 6. Take 1 black die
    • Additional Rules
• Clarifications
  • Using an occupied action space
  • Black Dice
  • Compensation for Low Die Rolls
  • Jade The Special Good
• The First Player
• End of Game and Final Scoring
  • End of Game
  • Final Scoring
  • Tiebreakers
• Playing with 2 or 3 players
  • 3 Players
  • 2 Players
• A Game Round
  • Start of a New Round
    • 1. Retrieve all dice
    • 2. Place new offer tiles
    • 3. Award city and character bonuses
    • 4. Add new city cards to the action area
    • 5. Roll all dice, resolving compensation if necessary
  • Game Round
• Supplement
  • Icons
    • Goods, Camels, Coins, and Points
    • Other Icons
    • City Bonus Marker
    • City Cards
  • Shields
    • The Shield Track
  • Goal Cards
  • Characters
    • Möngke Khan
    • De Wu
    • Abha Basu
    • Mailin and Tian Chin
    • Filippo Vitello
    • Isabella Donati
    • Gantulga Od
  • Black Dice Variant
  • Combining Games

Contents

• 1 Game board
• 1 First player marker (hourglass)
• 4 Player boards
• 7 City bonus markers
• 7 Character tiles
• 10 Outpost bonus tiles
• 16 Guild seals
• 18 Offer tiles
• 49 Contracts (42 red and 7 blue)
• 68 Coins (40×1, 18×5, 10×10)
• 4 50/100 point cards
• 14 Goal cards
• 25 City cards
• 18 Gold bars (14 small and 4 large)
• 18 Silk bundles (14 small and 4 large)
• 19 Pepper bags (14 small and 5 large)
• 26 Jade pieces
• 26 Camels (20 small and 6 large)
• 12 Figures (3 each in blue, yellow, green, and red)
• 26 Dice (5 each in blue, yellow, green, and red, along with 6 black)
• 44 Trading posts (11 each in blue, yellow, green, and red)
• 4 Player aids
• 1 Rulebook and 1 supplement

Setup for 4 Players

1. Place the game board within easy reach of all players. Place the 50/100 point cards next to the “50” space on the score track.

2. Shuffle the 14 goal cards facedown and place them next to the board.

3. Place the coins (68 coins in denominations of 1, 5, and 10) next to the board to form a supply. Coins are not component-limited; use a substitute if they run out.

4. Place the goods (gold, silk, pepper, and jade) and camels next to the board to form a supply. Goods are not component-limited; use a substitute if they run out.

   Note: 1 large good or camel represents 3 of that good or camel.

5. Randomly place 1 city bonus marker on each of the 6 cities with city bonus spaces. Return the unused city bonus marker to the box.

6. Randomly place 1 outpost bonus tile onto each city with a outpost bonus tile space.

7. Shuffle the 25 city cards facedown. Place 1 card faceup on each of the 6 city card spaces next to cities. Place 2 more cards faceup on the city card spaces in the action area of the board. Place the remaining city cards next to the board as a facedown deck.

8. Shuffle the 7 starting contracts and set them aside. Shuffle the remaining 42 contracts. Place 1 contract faceup on each city contract space. Place the remaining contracts facedown next to the board.

9. Place the 7 character tiles faceup next to the board.

10. Sort the 18 offer tiles into 3 piles by number; each offer tile is numbered “I,” “II,” or “III.” Shuffle the 3 piles separately, then randomly return 1 tile from each to the box. Place the 3 piles faceup next to the board, then take the top offer tile from each pile and place them faceup on their corresponding locations on the board.

11. Sort the 16 guild seals by type into 4 piles and place them next to the board, with the basic sides faceup.

12. Place the 6 black dice on the board space showing black dice. The die faces do not matter.

13. The player who most recently returned from a journey is the first player and takes the first player marker.

Player Setup

1. Choose a color. Take the player board of that color and place it in front of you.

2. Take the 5 dice in your color, roll them, and place them on your player board.

3. Take the 11 trading posts in your color and place 1 on each space with a trading post in the top-left corner of your board.

4. Draw 1 starting contract and place it faceup on one of the two active contract spaces on your player board.

5. Place 1 figure in your color on Beijing. Then place another figure in your color on space “50” of the score track. Set the third figure aside; you will need this figure only if your character is Mailin and Tian Chin.

6. Take 3 camels and place them on your player board, then take 8 coins and place them in front of you.

7. Draw 3 goal cards. Keep them facedown in front of you for now.

8. Shuffle the 7 character tiles, then reveal a number of characters equal to the number of players plus 1.

   Starting with the last player and continuing in reverse clockwise order, each player chooses 1 character and places it faceup in front of them. Return the unused characters to the box. Individual character abilities are described in the supplement.

9. Look at the 3 facedown goal cards in front of you and choose 1 to keep, returning the other 2 to the box. The goal cards are described in the supplement.

10. Take a player aid and place it in front of you.

About The Rules

If you are already familiar with The Voyages of Marco Polo, then you can skip some sections of this rulebook, which are the same as the corresponding rules in the original game. Be sure to read any rules marked with the gold seal; the rules and actions described in these sections are either changed or completely new.

Introduction

The voyages of Marco Polo continue in this epic follow-up to The Voyages of Marco Polo. After traveling to Beijing, your travels now take you back to the west in the service of the Khan, sending you to the farthest reaches of his empire in search of wealth and fame. The journey will present unique challenges, with new and different actions, new scoring rules, and a new good: rare and valuable Chinese jade. Familiar elements such as completing contracts to gain rewards and visiting cities to gain bonuses remain from the original game.

Each round, players roll their dice and place them on action spaces on the board in order to resolve the corresponding action. Players take turns in clockwise order, continuing until all players have used all of their dice, at which point the round ends. The game continues for 5 rounds, after which players resolve final scoring.

A Game Turn

During your turn, you must choose 1 or more dice from your player board and place it on the action space of your choice on the board. You can place your dice on either an empty brown space, an empty blue space, or an occupied blue space (you cannot place dice on a brown space that already has dice on it). You immediately resolve the corresponding action.

Before or after your normal action, you may also resolve 1 or more bonus actions. See the player aid for a summary of bonus actions.

As long as you have any dice left, you must choose and resolve an action. Once you are out of dice, you automatically pass all remaining turns this round. After you take your turn, the player to your left takes their turn, with play continuing clockwise until all players have used all of their dice, at which point the round ends.

The Board

There are 7 actions you can resolve:

1. Books
2. Khan's Favor
3. Guild Seals
4. Travel
5. Contracts
6. Special Cities
7. City Cards

Additionally, there are 6 Bonus Actions you can resolve, either before or after resolving your normal action:

• Complete 1 contract
• Improve 1 guild seal
• Money bag
• Reroll 1 die
• Change 1 die result by 1
• Take 1 black die

Actions

Keep the following in mind when resolving actions:

• You use only your own dice, not other players’ dice.
• You must use as many dice as are shown on the action space you want to use.
• You can place your dice on either unoccupied spaces or occupied blue spaces, not occupied brown spaces.
• In order to use an occupied blue space, you must pay coins, as detailed under “Additional Points”. You cannot use an occupied brown space.
• Each player color (blue, yellow, green, red) can be used on each action space only once each round.
• After placing your dice, immediately resolve the corresponding action.
• The lowest-numbered die you place on an action space determines how many times you can resolve the corresponding action, or how much you get from that action.
• If you could resolve an action multiple times, you can choose to resolve it fewer times than the maximum allowed, but you must always resolve the action at least once.

How is an action carried out?

1. Place your dice on an available action space.
2. Pay coins if the space is already occupied.
3. Resolve the action

1. Books

There are 3 books on the game board, with action spaces that allow you to take goods, camels, and coins.

Sequence:

1. Place your dice on 1 of the 4 available action spaces.
2. Choose 1 of the available offers.
3. Take the goods and add them to your player board.

1. Place your dice on 1 of the 4 available action spaces.

The first 2 books have 1 action space each. The third book has 2 separate action spaces.

Place your dice, keeping the following in mind:

• You can place any die value on the first action space.
• You must place at least a 3-value die on the second action space.
• You must place at least a 5-value die on the third action space.

The third book’s action spaces are separate. If you placed a die on one of that book’s action spaces earlier in the round, you can still place another die onto the second action space later in the round.

2. Choose 1 of the available offers.

Each round, the offers on the books change. Each action space gives you a choice of 4 different offers, from which you must choose 1. The top 2 offers do not cost anything to take, while the bottom 2 cost either 1 or 2 jade.

3. Take the goods and add them to your player board.

Take everything shown on your chosen offer from the supply, placing the goods and camels on your player board and placing the coins in front of you.

2. Khan′s Favor

Place exactly 1 die on the Khan’s Favor action space, then take 4 coins and 2 camels from the supply.

Special Rules

The first player each round to seek the Khan’s favor places their die on the leftmost Khan’s Favor action space and takes the reward. The next player who wants to use this action must place their die on the next space to the right, and must place a die showing a value equal to or greater than the last die place on the action space.

There are only 4 spaces on the Khan’s Favor. Once all 4 spaces are full, this action cannot be used again this round. Each player color can be used only once each round here.

3. Guild Seals

There are 4 different types of guild seals, each of which have specific benefits. To take a guild seal, place exactly 2 dice on the Guild Seals action space. As always, the lower-value die determines which guild seal you can take. Take 1 guild seal and place it in front of you, with the brown basic side faceup. Then, take a one-time jade bonus, depending on the seal you took.

If your lowest die is at least a...
...1, you can take the farmer’s guild seal.
...2, you can take the spicer’s guild seal and 1 jade.
...3, you can take the tailor’s guild seal and 2 jade.
...4, you can take the jeweler’s guild seal and 3 jade.

You can only have 1 of each guild seal.

You can improve your guild seals during the game as a bonus action during your turn. See Bonus Actions.

What do guild seals do?

There are 4 benefits to having a seal:

• Some routes on the game board can be traveled only if you have the matching guild seal. See Travel.
• Each improved guild seal provides a bonus, both immediately after being improved and at the start of each round (shown by this icon: !).
• The Special Cities provide an additional bonus for improved guild seals.
• Some goal cards require improved guild seals, and will score you points during final scoring.

4. Travel

The Travel action lets you move your figure on the board. The Travel action has 3 separate action spaces. Because these actions are separate, even if you have already used 1 of them this round, you can still use the other two with dice of your color later in the same round. Based on the space used, place 1, 2, or 3 dice.

Resolving the Travel action

1. Place your dice.
2. Pay the action space costs.
3. Pay the travel costs.
4. Move your figure and place 1 trading post.

1. Place your dice.

Depending on the action space you chose, you must place a different number of dice. Each action space shows the maximum number of locations you can move. The lowest-value die you place determines how many locations you can move, even if the action space would allow for more.

You can always move fewer locations than you are allowed to, but you must always move at least 1 space.

2. Pay the action space costs.

If you chose the lower Travel action space, you must pay 2 coins to move 1 location.

3. Pay the travel costs.

You must pay the travel costs for your movement. Each route between locations on the board shows the necessary travel costs to move along it. Costs can include camels, coins, and/ or jade, which you pay to the supply. You must pay the entire cost to travel on a route before doing or receiving anything else.

Some routes show guild seals. You need to have the matching guild seal in order to move along that route, but you do not spend the guild seal to do so; you only need to have it. It does not matter if the guild seal has been improved.

4. Move your figure and place 1 trading post.

You move from location to location, moving through cities and oases. You cannot stop between two locations. If your travel action ends in a city in which you don’t already have a trading post, you must place a trading post there. Each city has room for 4 trading posts, 1 for each player.

• If your travel action ends in an oasis, nothing happens.
• If you place a trading post in a city with a bonus marker, you immediately receive the bonus shown (see the supplement for symbols.) Leave the bonus marker on the city. At the beginning of each future round, you will receive the bonus again.
• If you place a trading post in a city with a card, starting on your next turn, you can use a die to use the actions on any city cards located there The card remains on the city.
• If you place a trading post in a city with contracts, you may immediately take 1 of the 2 contracts available there, placing it on your player board. At the end of your turn, replace the contract you took with a new one from the facedown pile.
• If you place a trading post in a special city (Baghdad, Balkh, and Hormuz), you immediately receive the bonus shown (see the supplement.) Leave the tile on the special city. At the start of each round, you receive that bonus again. Additionally, starting during your next turn, you can use that city’s action.

Kashgar Special Rule: Kashgar, in the top-left of the game board, has both a city bonus marker and a city card. If you place a trading post in Kashgar, you immediately receive the bonus, and can use the city card there during your next turn.

If you chose the upper travel action space (requiring 3 dice), at the end of your movement, you can place 1 additional trading post in a city you moved through this turn, but you receive bonuses from placing trading posts only at the end of your movement.

Additional Rules

• When placing trading posts, start with the one in the top-left corner of your player board and continue going down and to the right. Unless you used the upper travel action space, you do not place any trading posts in cities you moved through during your turn, only the city you end on.
• When you place your ninth or tenth trading post, immediately score 5 points each. When you place your eleventh trading post, immediately score 10 points.
• You can move back and forth, and you can end your movement in the same space multiple times, but you can never have more than 1 trading post on any location.
• The Travel action determines the first player for the next round.

Outpost Bonus

If you are the first player to place a trading post in a city with an outpost bonus, you immediately receive that bonus. Take the bonus shown from the supply, then remove the outpost bonus tile from the city, returning it to the box.

Special Rules

• All players start the game in Beijing. If your figure moves back to Beijing, you do not place a trading post on Beijing.
• If you have placed all of your trading posts and must place another one, you must move an existing trading post from its current location to the new location.

5. Contracts

To take contracts, you must have at least 1 trading post in a city with contracts. Place 1 die of any value on the Contracts action space. You can then take 1 or 2 contracts from any cities in which you have trading posts. You can take both contracts from 1 city, or 1 each from 2 different cities. Place the contracts you took on active contract spaces on your player board.

After taking contracts, take 3 coins from the supply.

Additional Rules

• There is space on your player board for 2 active contracts. When you take new contracts, if you do not have space for the new contracts, you must discard existing contracts until you have space for them, placing normal contracts on the bottom of the contract pile and returning starting contracts to the box.
• You must complete a contract to get any reward from it.
• At the end of each turn, refill all empty spaces in contract cities by drawing contracts from the pile and placing them faceup on the board. All contract spaces on the board should be full at the start of each player’s turn.

Special Rules

• You cannot take a contract from the board and immediately discard it to the bottom of the contract pile. You must place new contracts on your player board.

6. Special Cities

There are 3 special cities on the board: Baghdad, Balkh, and Hormuz, which have both city bonus markers and their own action spaces. To use these action spaces, you must have a trading post in that city.

Special cities have 2 brown action spaces, each requiring 1 die. Both spaces are part of a single, larger space. To use the action, place 1 die on 1 of the action spaces. Dice of each player color can be present only once in the larger overall space. Since you cannot have more than 1 die on a special city, you must use a black die to use the action a second time.

What does this get you?

• First, take the reward shown form the supply. You always take the same reward, regardless of die value.
• Second, if you have an improved guild seal of the corresponding type, you also immediately gain the bonus shown on the seal. The die value determines whether you get the guild seal bonus once or twice, as shown on the space.

7. City Cards

Some cities have city cards on them. To use a city card, you must have a trading post in the corresponding city. You must then place 1 die on the city card’s action space to resolve that action. See the supplement for details on individual city actions. For most cards, the die value determines how many times the action can be resolved.

City cards can be used only once per round. Once a player has occupied a city card space with a die, no one else can use that action until the start of the next round.

There are 2 additional city cards in the action area of the game board. There are 2 differences between these cards and normal city cards:

• The two cards change at the start of each round.
• These actions are not tied to any one city, so you can use them from the beginning of the game, without requiring any trading posts.

Bonus Actions

During your turn, you can resolve 1 or more bonus actions before or after your normal action (not during your action). Bonus actions are summarized on your player aid.

Bonus Actions

1. Complete 1 contract
2. Improve 1 guild seal
3. Money bag
4. Reroll 1 die
5. Change 1 die result by 1
6. Take 1 black die

1. Complete 1 contract

Each contract has 2 sections: the left side of the contract shows the camels and goods necessary to complete the contract, while the right side shows the reward you will receive for doing so. See the supplement for a summary of the icons.

• You can only complete contracts on the active contract spaces of your player board.
• To complete a contract, you must have the required camels and goods on your player board. Pay all of the required camels and goods shown on the left side of the contract by returning them to the supply.
• You immediately receive all of the rewards shown on the right side of the contract. You will always receive points and another reward for completing a contract.
• Place the completed contract facedown in the completed contracts space on your player board.

2. Improve 1 guild seal

To improve a guild seal, you must pay the costs shown next to the Checkmark symbol (not anything shown in red below). When you improve a guild seal, flip it over from the brown basic side to show the improved red side with the ! bonus icon. You immediately receive the bonus shown, and receive that bonus again at the start of each subsequent round.

3. Money Bag

Place exactly 1 die onto the money bag on the game board. Take either 3 coins, 2 camels, or 1 jade from the general supply.

• There are no additional costs for this bonus action, even if other dice are already on the money bag.
• The value of the die used for this bonus action does not matter. You always get either 3 coins, 2 camels, or 1 jade.
• As long as you have dice left, you can use the Money Bag bonus action multiple times, using multiple dice in your player color.
• If you use the Money Bag action before your normal action, and still have dice left over, you must also resolve a normal action.

4. Reroll 1 die

You can pay 1 camel to reroll 1 of your dice once.

5. Change 1 die result by 1

You can pay 2 camels to change 1 of your die results up or down by 1. You cannot change a 6 to a 1, or vice versa.

6. Take 1 black die

You can pay 3 camels to take 1 black die from the supply on the game board. Immediately roll it and add it to the remaining dice on your player board. You can do this bonus action only once each turn. However, you can take additional black dice during the same turn as a reward from some contracts.

Return all black dice to the game board at the end of each round.

Additional Rules

• You can resolve the same bonus action multiple times each turn (except for taking black dice). You must pay for each bonus action separately.
• You cannot resolve a bonus action during your normal action.
• You can change the values of your black dice using bonus actions.

Clarifications

Using an occupied action space

Blue action spaces can be occupied by multiple players and multiple dice. Brown action spaces can be occupied only by 1 player and 1 die each round.

• If you want to use an occupied blue action space, you must pay to do so. You must pay a number of coins equal to the die value of the lowest-value die you are using to resolve that action. The number and value of dice already present do not matter; all that matters is the value of your dice.
• Place your dice on top of any dice already present on a blue action space. This is particularly important for the Travel action spaces, to make it easy to tell who used the action last.

Black Dice

• Black dice do not count as any player color (blue, yellow, green, red). You can used black dice to use an action space again after using dice of your own color on it earlier in the round.
• You can combine black dice with your own color, but when doing so you must follow the rule of only using dice of your color once per action space.
• You can use as many black dice on a blue action space as you choose.

Compensation for Low Die Rolls

After rolling dice at the start of a round, if the sum total of all your dice values is less than 15, you receive compensation in the form of coins or camels. You can take 1 coin or 1 camel for each point of difference between your total and 15. You can take any combination of coins and camels.

Jade The Special Good

Jade is a good like pepper, gold, and silk. You need it for contracts, city cards, and travel costs. However, jade can also count as 1 coin or 1 camel. Whenever you need to pay coins and/or camels, you can pay some or all of the cost with jade.

The First Player

Whenever a player uses the Travel action, the first player for the next round can change. If you use a Travel action space that is higher than or equal to any previously-used Travel action spaces, you become the first player for the next round. If you are the new first player, take the hourglass to indicate this. If no one travels during a round, the first player does not change.

End of Game and Final Scoring

End of Game

The game ends after 5 rounds have been completed. The number of offer tiles remaining shows how many rounds are left. The final round of the game will have the last offer tiles on the board.

Final Scoring

During final scoring, you score points for the following:

• For each improved guild seal shown on your goal card that you have acquired, score the indicated points.
• For each different shield on cities with your trading posts, score points as shown on the track. All of your +1 shields are counted here as well.
• For every 2 goods (pepper, silk, gold, and jade) you have, score 1 point. Camels are not goods.
• For every 10 coins you have, score 1 point.
• The player(s) who completed the most contracts score 8 points. The player(s) who completed the second-most contracts score 4 points. (Exception: In a 2-player game, second place is not awarded for contracts.)

The player with the most points wins the game!

Tiebreakers

In the event of a tie, the tied player with the most camels wins the game. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Playing with 2 or 3 players

3 Players

During setup, use only 5 black dice, returning the remaining die to the box. Additionally, place 1 die in an unused player color showing a value of 1 on the first space of the Khan’s Favor action. This die remains there for the entire game.

2 Players

During setup, use only 4 black dice, returning the remaining dice to the box. Additionally, place dice in unused player colors onto the following spaces:

• 2 dice (both showing a value of 1) on the first 2 spaces of the Khan’s Favor action.
• 1 die of value 1 on 1 action space in each special city (Baghdad, Balkh, and Hormuz)
• 1 die of value 5 onto the lower blue action space of the third offer tile of the Books action.

These dice remain there for the entire game.

During final scoring, do not award second-place points for the most completed contracts.

A Game Round

Start of a New Round

At the start of each round:

1. Retrieve all dice
2. Place new offer tiles
3. Award city and character bonuses
4. Add new city cards to the action area
5. Roll all player dice, and resolve compensation if necessary

1. Retrieve all dice

Retrieve all your dice from the board and place them in front of you. Do not roll them yet. Return all black dice to the game board.

2. Place new offer tiles

Return the 3 offer tiles currently on the game board to the box. Take the topmost tiles from the offer tile piles and place them on the empty spaces. Since the offer tiles are faceup, you can always see what the offers will be next round.

3. Award city and character bonuses

All tiles with this symbol ! provide a bonus now. You receive bonuses from:

• all city bonus markers in cities where you have a trading post.
• your character.
• all of your improved guild seals.

See the Supplement for a summary of symbols and characters.

4. Add new city cards to the action area

Return the city cards from the action area to the box. Draw 2 new city cards from the deck and place them in the action area.

5. Roll all dice, resolving compensation if necessary

All players roll their dice simultaneously. If you roll less than 15, you receive compensation in the form of camels and/ or coins. Place the rolled dice on your player board. After all players have rolled their dice, the new round begins.

Game Round

Players take turns in clockwise order starting with the first player, and continue until all players are out of dice.

An individual turn:

1. Resolve bonus actions (optional)

   You can choose to resolve bonus actions before your normal action. You can resolve as many as you want.

2. Resolve 1 normal action (mandatory)

   Choose 1 normal action and place the necessary dice on the board to resolve it. Resolve the action immediately.

3. Resolve bonus actions (optional)

   You can choose to resolve bonus actions after your normal action. You can resolve as many as you want.

Supplement

Icons

The icons on different components are explained here. Icons always have the same meaning throughout the game.

Goods, Camels, Coins, and Points

Yin and Yang - This symbol identifies components from In the Service of the Khan.

Gold, Silk, Pepper, Jade, Camel - These icons represent 1 gold, 1 silk, 1 pepper, 1 jade, or 1 camel. Note that you can always pay with jade instead of coins or camels.

1 Gold/Pepper/Silk, 6 Gold/Pepper/Silk, 2≠ Gold/Pepper/Silk - Slashes indicated that you can choose from the goods shown (gold, pepper, or silk). If this symbol ≠ is present in a cost or reward, the goods you pay or take must be different from each other.

X Coin, X VP - These icons represent coins and points.

Other Icons

Contract with Seal - Take the top contract from the contract pile and place it faceup on one of your empty active contract spaces. Unlike the Contracts action, if you do not have room for the new contract, you can either discard one of your existing contracts to the bottom of the discard pile, or discard the new contract you just took.

Contract - Take 1 available contract from a contract city where you have a trading post. Place that contract faceup on an active contract space. If both spaces are occupied, you must discard one of your existing contracts to the bottom of the contract pile.

Move X - Move your figure a number of locations on the board equal to the number shown here. You must pay any travel costs shown on the routes you take. Place 1 trading post if you end your movement in a city where you do not already have a trading post. If you do not use all of your movement, any excess is lost.

Dice with three dots - Your die value must be at least the number shown to use this action.

Exclamation point - The exclamation point shows a bonus that you receive at the beginning of each round. You can receive these bonuses from city bonus markers, guild seals, and some characters.

Guild Seal - There are 4 different guild seals: farmer’s, spicer’s, tailor’s, and jeweler’s guilds. These are the icons for the basic guild seals.

Guild Seal with checkmark - These are the icons for the improved guild seals.

Ship with Guild icon - These icons are shown on sea routes on the board. To travel along these routes, you must have the matching guild seal, either basic or advanced.

Trading post with arrow - This icon means that you can place 1 additional trading post after traveling, in a city you traveled through, following the normal rules for placing trading posts.

City shields - Each city on the board has a shield icon. During final scoring, you score points based on the number of city with different shields you have trading posts in.

+1 on a shield - This icon allows you to score more points for different shields during final scoring.

Black die - Take 1 black die from the supply on the game board. Roll it immediately and place it on your player board. You must use that black die during the current round. Black dice are component-limited; if there are none left on the board, you cannot take one.

City Bonus Marker

When taking bonuses, if you have a trading post in the city with this bonus marker, you can choose any other city bonus marker and take the bonus shown on that marker. You can choose a different bonus each time, and you do not need to have a trading post in the city whose bonus you choose.

City Cards

If you use a city card to move through multiple locations during a single action, you can still place only 1 trading post during that movement.

The value of the die you place determines what you receive.

The Contract with Checkmark icon counts the number of contracts you have completed. You score 1 point for each completed contract, up to a maximum equal to the value of the die you used. You do not need to pay anything.

Trading post with Checkmark icon counts the number of trading posts you have placed on the board. Similar to counting the number of contracts you have completed above, you count trading posts up to a maximum equal to the value of the die you used.

Choose a city with a city bonus with one of your trading posts. You immediately receive that city’s bonus. If you would receive multiple bonuses from this action, you must choose different bonuses each time.

Either pay 1 camel for 3 coins or 1 coin for 1 camel. If you resolve this action multiple times, you must make the same exchange each time (i.e. only trading camels for coins, or only trading coins for camels).

Either pay points for coins or coins for points. You can have negative points as a result of paying points.

You receive coins equal to twice the value of the die.

You can resolve a Guild Seals action here using only 1 die. You must pay 1 camel. The die used determines which guild seal you can take.

Shields

All cities have shields on them. There are a total of 9 different shields. Some shields appear in more than 1 city. During final scoring, you score points for each different shield in cities where you have trading posts. The more different shields, the more points you score (see the shield track on the game board).

The Shield Track

During final scoring, move your trading posts from the board to the corresponding shields along the shield track. If you have multiple trading posts in cities with the same shield, move only 1 trading post; there is no additional benefit for having multiple trading posts in cities with the same shield.

Each “1” icon you have counts as an additional different shield for final scoring.

Count the total number of trading posts you have on the shield track, then add any “+1” icons you have, and score the corresponding number of points. You can score a maximum of 43 points from the shield track, even if you have more than 13 shields.

Goal Cards

Each goal card has 4 different icons on it, a combination of guild seals and/or shields.

Guild Seals: During final scoring, for each improved guild seal shown, you score the victory points shown.

Shields: During final scoring, for each shield shown, if you have at least 1 trading post in a city with a matching shield, you receive a “+1” shield icon for shield scoring.

Characters

Characters can modify or ignore the core game rules.

Möngke Khan

You can ignore oases when traveling. When you travel, you can move past oases as if they were not there; they do not cost any movement. You must still pay the travel costs as normal. You can end your movement on an oasis if you choose.

After moving, you receive a bonus for each oasis you moved past or ended on, once per oasis for each movement. For each different oasis, you score 3 victory points and receive either 2 coins or 1 camel.

Example: You want to travel from Xian through Fuzhou to Jaipur. Normally this would require you to move 4 locations and cost 8 coins and 4 camels. Möngke Khan can ignore the 2 oases, so you only need to move 2 locations. Travel costs remain the same. After paying 8 coins and 4 camels, you receive a bonus for the 2 different oases you moved through: you score 6 points and receive either 4 coins, 2 camels, or 2 coins and 1 camel.

De Wu

You can use the Guild Seals action using only 1 die instead of 2.

You receive 1 jade whenever you improve a guild seal.

During final scoring you receive 1 free “+1” shield icon.

Example: You place 1 die with a value of 3 on the Guild Seals action space. If there are already dice there, you pay the 3 coins as normal and then take any guild seal except the jeweler’s guild, which requires a value of 4 or higher. You may also receive jade, depending on the seal you take, but do not receive jade from De Wu’s ability.

Abha Basu

At the beginning of each round, you receive 2 coins.

When you complete a contract, you receive 1 jade.

Whenever you receive jade from any source, you score 1 point for each jade you received.

Mailin and Tian Chin

You start the game with an additional 3 coins and a second figure on the board. Both figures start in Beijing. Whenever you move multiple spaces, you can split the movement between both figures. Before moving, you must pay the combined travel and additional costs for both figures.

At the start of each round, choose 1 bonus you would receive. You receive that bonus twice this round.

Filippo Vitello

After any other player receives a bonus from an outpost bonus tile, you take that outpost bonus tile and place it in front of you. Place any outpost bonus tiles you claim in front of you as well. As a bonus action during your turn, you can choose an outpost bonus tile in front of you, receive that bonus, then return that tile to the box.

Example: Red is the first player to travel to Kashgar and receives an outpost bonus of 2 gold. You take the tile and keep it in front of you. During one of your future turns, as a bonus action, you can gain that outpost bonus of 2 gold as well, then return the tile to the box.

Isabella Donati

You receive a bonus each time you roll a die (including black dice):

• For each 1 or 6 you roll, you receive 2 coins.
• For each 2 or 5 you roll, you score 1 point.
• For each 3 or 4 you roll, you receive 1 camel.

When rolling your dice at the beginning of each round, if you roll doubles, you can choose to claim the normal bonuses from the 2 dice separately, or claim a single doubles bonus (you cannot get a doubles bonus from black dice):

• Double 1s or 6s: 1 jade
• Double 2s or 5s: 1 silk
• Double 3s or 4s: 1 gold

Example: At the beginning of the round, you roll 1, 2, 4, 4, 6. You receive 2 coins and score 1 point. You can choose to use the double 4s for either 1 gold or 2 camels.

Gantulga Od

You can use only the lower Travel action space; you cannot use the other two action spaces. You do not pay camels or coins for travel costs. You still pay jade or have guild seals as normal. You still pay 2 coins to use the lower Travel action space as normal.

If you move multiple locations using other bonuses or actions, you do not pay camel or coin travel costs for that movement.

Example: You want to travel from Pagan to Kabul. You must pay 1 jade. You do not need to pay the 2 camels and 6 coins.

Black Dice Variant

In this optional variant, roll all black dice at the beginning of each round. If you take or receive a black die during the round, you must choose a die from the board and take it, keeping that die’s value. You can reroll black dice using bonus actions as normal.

If you are playing as Isabella Donati, when you take a black die, you immediately receive the bonus corresponding to the value of the die you took.

Combining Games

Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan is a standalone game and is not designed with compatibility with other games in mind. You can choose to mix and match elements from other The Voyages of Marco Polo games. The elements that combine best with In the Service of the Khan are:

• Individual characters from the original The Voyages of Marco Polo
• The New Characters mini expansion
• Companions from The Voyages of Marco Polo: Agents of Venice

Game balance may vary when playing with these options.

You can integrate the Venice board from Agents of Venice, allowing you to play with 5 players, but this is not recommended.

Due to the entirely new game board, The Secret Paths mini expansion is not compatible with this game.