Oasis Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Preparation
• Playing the Game
• Placement Rules for Oasis, Steppe and Stony Plains Tiles
• Placement Rules for the Camel Path
• Game End
• Credits

Game Components

• Score Track
• Camel Path
• Oasis Bonus Tiles
• Oasis Area - Example of where initial Oasis tiles must be placed
• Steppe Bonus Tiles
• Stony Plains Bonus Tiles
• Steppe Area - Example of where initial Steppe tiles must be placed
• Game Board
• 88 Tiles: 34 Oasis tiles, 34 Steppe tiles, 20 Stony Plains tiles
• 100 Wooden Camels: 20 each in red, blue, green, yellow and orange
• 54 Playing Cards:
  • 4 Camel Cards showing 2 Camels
  • 4 Camel Cards showing 3 Camels
  • 8 Oasis cards showing two Oasis tiles
  • 8 Steppe cards showing two Steppe tiles
  • 8 Stony Plains cards showing one Stony Plain tile
  • 1 Commodity card showing two Commodity scoring markers
  • 4 Commodity cards showing one Commodity scoring marker
  • 5 Water Well cards showing one Water Well scoring marker
  • 4 Horse cards showing one Horse scoring marker
  • 1 Horse card showing two Horse scoring markers
  • 4 Ovoos cards showing two Ovoos scoring markers
  • 3 Draw Three cards
• 62 Scoring Markers: 14 Commodities, 12 Water Wells, 16 Horses, 20 Ovoos
• 20 Wooden Control Markers: 4 each in red, blue, green, yellow and orange
• 5 Priority Counters: #1 = Noble, #2 = Aristocrat, #3 = Merchant, #4 = monk, #5 = Herder
• 1 Instructional Booklet

Preparation

Place the board in the middle of the table.

Give each player one set of 4 Control Markers and the matching set of 20 Camels.

Separate the Oasis, Steppe and Stony Plains tiles and place them in piles by the side of the board. Separate the Commodity, Water Wells, Horses and Ovoos scoring markers and place them in separate piles by the board.

Turn the Priority Counters face down, mix them thoroughly and give one to each player. Each player then turns his Priority Counter face up. If there are three players, only the 1-3 Counters are used. If there are four players, only the 1-4 Counters are used and if there are five players, all Counters are used.

Shuffle the cards and deal 5 to each player. Players should not look at their cards: they should form them into one face-down stack which becomes their Offer Stack. The remaining cards form the Deck, which should be placed near the game board.

Playing the Game

The game is played in rounds. Each round is played as follows:

1. Starting with the player who has the #1 Priority Counter and proceeding numerically (#1 is first, then #2, followed by #3 and so on), each player must make an Offer of 1 to 3 cards.

   a. To make an Offer, the player turns over the top card of his Offer Stack and places it face up on the table in front of him. If he wishes to make this single card his Offer, he says he is done and then draws 2 cards from the Deck. The drawn cards are then added to the bottom of his Offer Stack.

   b. If the player wants to increase his Offer, he turns another card face up from his Offer Stack and places it next to the first card. If he now wishes to make these two cards his Offer, he says he is done and then draws 1 card from the Deck and places it on the bottom of his Offer Stack.

   c. If the player still wants to increase his Offer, he turns 1 more card face up from his Offer Stack and places it next to the first two cards. He is now finished with his turn, as the maximum allowable offer is 3 cards. He does not draw any additional cards from the Offer Deck.

   Important: Players must not add the cards to the top of their stack!

   Note: A player may never leave himself in a position where he has no cards. If a player has exactly three cards, he may only make an offer of 1 or 2 cards. He may not make a 3-card offer as this would leave him with no cards to play during the next round.

   Note: If the Draw Deck is depleted, shuffle the Discard Pile to create a new Draw Deck.

2. The player with the #1 Priority Counter must now choose which Offer to accept. He may not choose his own Offer. Once he has decided which offer he would like to take, he passes the #1 Priority Counter to the opponent whose Offer he is accepting. This opponent places the #1 Priority face down in front of him. The player then takes all the cards included in the Offer and resolves them as follows:

   • Camels – The player places 2 or 3 of his Camels (determined by the number of Camels on the card) on the Camel Path.
   • Oasis tiles – The player takes 2 Oasis tiles and places them on the board.
   • Steppe tiles – The player takes 2 Steppe tiles and places them on the board.
   • Stony Plains tile – The player takes 1 Stony Plains tile and places it on the board.
   • Commodity scoring markers – The player takes 1 or 2 Commodity scoring markers (depending on how many Commodity scoring markers are depicted on the card) and places them face down in front of him.
   • Water Well scoring marker – The player takes 1 Water Well scoring marker and places it face down in front of him.
   • Horses scoring markers – The player takes 1 or 2 Horse scoring markers (depending on how many horses are depicted on the card) and places them face down in front of him.
   • Ovoos scoring markers – The player takes 2 Ovoos scoring markers and places them face down in front of him.
   • Draw 3 Card – The player draws 3 cards from the deck and adds them to the bottom of his Offer Stack without looking at them.

   Note: A player keeps all his scoring markers face down in front of him – this is his Scoring Pile. A player may look at his scoring markers at any time during the game. Players may not look at their opponents' scoring markers.

   If a player accepts an Offer with 2 or 3 cards, he will perform the above action for each card. The order in which the cards are resolved does not matter.

   After he has resolved each card, he discards all the cards into a Discard Pile.

3. The player with the #2 Priority Counter must now choose which of the remaining Offers to accept. He may not choose his own Offer. He passes the #2 Priority Counter to the opponent whose Offer he is accepting. This opponent places the #2 Priority Counter face down in front of him. The player then takes all the cards included in this Offer and resolves them.

4. The player with the #3 Priority Counter must now choose which of the remaining Offers to accept. He may not take his own Offer, unless his Offer is the only remaining Offer on the table (3-player game). He passes the #3 Priority Counter to the opponent whose Offer he is accepting. This opponent places the #3 Priority Counter face down in front of him. The player takes all the cards included in this player's Offer and resolves them. In a 3-player game, proceed to #7.

5. The player with the #4 Priority Counter must now choose which of the remaining Offers to accept. He may not take his own Offer, unless his Offer is the only remaining Offer on the table (4-player game). He passes the #4 Priority Counter to the opponent whose Offer he is accepting. This opponent places the #4 Priority Counter face down in front of him. The player takes all the cards included in this player's Offer and resolves them. In a 4-player game, proceed to #7.

6. The player with the #5 Priority Counter must now choose the remaining Offer, even if it is his own. He passes the #5 Priority Counter to the opponent whose Offer he is accepting. This opponent places the #5 Priority Counter face down in front of him. The player takes all cards included in this player's Offer and resolves them.

7. All players now turn their Priority Counters face up. The player with the #1 Priority Counter now receives a free action as a bonus for securing the #1 position. For his free action, he may place any one tile on the board (Oasis, Steppe, Stony Plains) or he may place one Camel on the path.

8. A new round begins by repeating numbers 1 through 7!

Placement Rules for Oasis, Steppe and Stony Plains Tiles

When a player starts a new Oasis area, he must place the first Oasis tile in any vacant space along the outside edges of the placement spaces or next to a permanent Bonus Oasis space on the board. Only the first tile in a player's Oasis section has this limitation. He then places one of his Control Markers on this tile. A player expands his Oasis area by placing additional Oasis tiles in vacant spaces adjacent to his existing Oasis tiles.

When a player starts a new Steppe area, he must place the first Steppe tile in any vacant space bordering the Camel Path or next to a permanent Bonus Steppe space on the board. Only the first tile in a player's Steppe section has this limitation. He then places one of his Control Markers on this tile. A player expands his Steppe area by placing additional Steppe tiles in vacant spaces adjacent to his existing Steppe tiles.

When a player starts a new Stony Plains area, he must place the first Stony Plains tile in any vacant space on the board or next to a permanent Bonus Stony Plains tile on the board. He then places one of his Control Markers on this tile. A player expands his Stony Plains area by placing additional Stony Plains tiles in vacant spaces adjacent to his existing Stony Plains tiles.

Note: Tiles must be placed vertically or horizontally adjacent to existing tiles of the same type. Diagonally adjacent tiles are not considered connected. (1 connected area vs. 2 separate areas.)

A player may not place a tile next to another player's area if it contains the same tile type. Also, a player may not place a tile that connects two of his areas of the same type. For example: 1) The Blue player could not place an Oasis tile next to an Oasis tile belonging to the Red player. However, he could place it diagonally adjacent. 2) If a player has two Oasis areas, he may not place an Oasis tile in a space that borders both of these Oasis areas. This would join the two areas into one large Oasis area, which is not allowed.

A player can place a tile of one type next to another player's area, or another of his own areas, that contains a different type of tile.

As long as tiles are available, when a player accepts an Offer, he must place each tile shown on all of the Offer cards.

Whenever a player starts a new area, if he has any Control Markers which are not already on the board, he must place one of these Control Markers on the first tile of this new area.

A player may start all of the same type of areas (all Oasis sections, for example), two areas of one type and one area each of the other two types or any other combination.

If a player starts a fifth area (because he wants to or he is forced to), he may abandon an area and move one of his Control Markers on the board to this new area. However, he is never forced to move a Control Marker off of an area. (Example: Blue abandons his Steppe area to control the Stony Plains area.)

Note: A player can always start a new area when he places a tile.

Areas without a Control Marker on them are available to be incorporated by an area belonging to any player. If, by expanding his area, a player places a tile next to the same type of uncontrolled tile or area, this uncontrolled tile or area is then incorporated into the player's area. This includes the permanent Bonus tile spaces printed on the board. A player may not claim an uncontrolled tile or area just by moving or placing one of his Control Markers on it - he must place a new tile next to this tile or area to take control. (Example: Green receives a Steppe placement card, places the tile next to the abandoned Steppe area and takes control.)

Placement Rules for the Camel Path

When a player receives a Camel Card as part of an Offer, he must place Camels of his color on the Camel Path. If he has a Camel Card showing two camels, he places two Camels and if he has a Camel Card showing three, he places three Camels.

A player may place a Camel in any vacant space on the Camel Path. He is never required to place new Camels next to his existing Camels. A player may have any number of areas of Camels on the Camel Path during the game.

A player can place his Camels next to Camels belonging to other players without restrictions.

Tiles on spaces adjacent to the Camel Path do not restrict the placement of Camels in any way. (There are no restrictions on Camel placement.)

If a player has placed all of his Camels on the board and he receives another Camel Card, he can remove any of his Camels from the board and then place them in other spaces or he can just ignore the card.

Note: Only Camels can be placed on the Camel Path – tiles are not allowed.

Game End

The game ends at the end of any Round when any one of the following situations occur:

1. The last tile of any of the three types has been placed on the board (Stony Plains, Oasis, Steppe).
2. A player takes an Offer that includes at least one unplayable tile.

Now, each player places one of his Camels or Control Markers of his color on the "0" space of the score track. As you score each type of area, move your Camel or Control Marker around the score track.

Each player scores points as follows:

1. Camel Scoring – Each player establishes what is his largest section of the Camel Path (the largest section of contiguous Camels – diagonally placed camels are not considered contiguous). He then multiplies the number of his Commodity scoring markers by the number of Camels in his largest section. If a player does not have any Commodity scoring markers, he scores zero points regardless of the number of Camels in his largest section. A player may never score for more than one of his sections of the Camel Path. (Example: Blue has two areas of contiguous Camels. The largest area contains 6 Camels. He then multiplies that by his 3 Commodity scoring markers and receives 18 points on the Score Track.)

2. Oasis Scoring – Each player multiplies the number of his Water Well scoring markers by the number of Oasis tiles in all sections controlled by his Control Markers. If a player does not have any Water Well scoring markers, he scores zero points.

3. Steppe Scoring – Each player multiplies the number of his Horse scoring markers by the number of Steppe tiles in all sections controlled by his Control Markers. If a player does not have any Horse scoring markers, he scores zero points.

4. Stony Plains Scoring – Each player multiplies the number of his Ovoos scoring markers by the number of Stony Plains tiles in all sections controlled by his Control Markers. If a player does not have any Stone scoring markers, he scores zero points.

Scoring Example: A player with 9 Oasis tiles × 5 Water Wells = 45 points; 8 Stony Plains tiles × 4 Ovoos = 32 points; 7 Steppe tiles × 7 Horses = 49 points.

The player with the most points at the end of the scoring round is the winner! Ties are broken by the person who ended the game with the lowest number on his Priority Counter.

Credits

Game Design: Alan R. Moon and Aaron Weissblum

Illustration: Franz Vohwinkel

English Rules Development: Alan R. Moon, Aaron Weissblum, Alvin Madden, Matt Molen, Guido Teuber, Jürgen Valentiner-Branth and Jeremy Young

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©2004 Uberplay Entertainment LLC