Pax Pamir: Second Edition
Pax Pamir: Second Edition Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
The Map. The map consists of six regions. There is no limit to the number of pieces that can be placed on a specific region or border; pieces belonging to different players and coalitions can occupy the same region or border. The map is bordered by a victory point track and spaces to mark the favored suit.
Coalition Blocks (36). Each of the three coalitions has twelve blocks in its color. A block placed in a region is an army (placed upright); a block on a border is a road (set on its side). Coalition blocks only help players currently loyal to that coalition — even if you helped raise an army, your soldiers will not follow you if you change loyalty.
Cylinders (55). Each player has eleven cylinders in their color. The gold-design cylinder tracks victory points. A cylinder placed in a region is a tribe; a cylinder on a card in a player's court is a spy. Cylinders will always be on your side, even if you change loyalty.
Money Supply (36). 36 coins, each worth a single rupee. There is no hard limit. Rupees represent political capital — largely a zero-sum resource.
Other Pieces. Ruler tokens, player boards, loyalty dials, and the favored suit marker.
Cards (142). Three types: event cards (16), court cards (100), and Wakhan cards (24 AI and 2 aid).
- Event cards have two effects: the bottom effect triggers if purchased by a player; the top effect triggers if automatically discarded during cleanup. Four event cards are special Dominance Checks that determine when and how victory points are awarded.
- Court cards are the vast majority. Their anatomy includes a suit and rank, card-based action(s), and (for some) a region, impact icons, prize, and a special ability.
Setup
- Starting Favored Suit: Place the favored suit marker on the space next to the political suit.
- Build the Draw Deck: (1) Separate the court cards and event cards. (2) Shuffle the court cards and create six face-down piles, each of five cards plus one card per player (remaining court cards are unused). (3) Remove the four Dominance Check cards and place one in each of the four rightmost piles. (4) Shuffle the remaining event cards; place two in the second pile from the left and one in each of the remaining four piles to its right (six event cards unused). (5) Separately shuffle each of the six piles, then stack them so that the four piles containing Dominance Checks are on the bottom. Do not shuffle the combined deck.
- Create the Market: An array of 12 face-up cards in a grid of two rows and six columns. Fill each column (top row first), starting leftmost, drawing from the draw deck. Place the draw deck to the right of the market.
- Take Player Pieces: Give each player eleven cylinders, one loyalty dial, a player board, and four rupees. Place one cylinder from each player on the zero space of the victory point track, and the rest on their player board.
- Bank and Coalition Blocks: Place the remaining coins and the coalition blocks near the play area.
- Starting Loyalty: Starting with a random player and clockwise, each player adjusts their loyalty dial to their chosen loyalty. The last player to choose takes the first turn.
Key Terms and Concepts
The Four Suits
Cards are divided into four suits, each a mode of power:
- Economic: controls the flow of rupees and the movement of pieces; protects wealth from taxation.
- Military: commands armies and helps secure a coalition's dominance.
- Political: consolidates power and controls which cards can be played.
- Intelligence: grants diplomatic flexibility and the ability to compromise enemies.
The Favored Suit. One suit is always favored. This suit determines which cards take bonus actions and may make cards more expensive. The favored suit changes when certain cards are played.
Your Court
Each player is associated with a single row of cards called a court, which grows and shrinks over the game. Cards in a court cannot be freely rearranged. During cleanup, discard court cards so you have no more than three plus the sum of purple stars on cards in your court.
Your Hand
During cleanup, discard hand cards so you have no more than two plus the sum of blue stars on cards in your court.
Rank and Privilege
Each court card has a rank from one to three stars. Rank determines the strength of some actions, and a card's rank is added to your total stars in a specific suit. Each sum of stars in a suit expands a privilege:
- Economic Stars prevent your rupees from being taxed.
- Military Stars serve as a final score tie-breaker.
- Political Stars enable you to maintain a larger court.
- Intelligence Stars allow you to hold more cards in your hand.
Loyalty and Influence
Players are always loyal to one of three coalitions: British (pink), Russian (yellow), or Afghan (green). Your loyalty determines the color of coalition blocks you place. Your total influence is the sum of one plus the number of patriots in your court, the number of your prizes, and the number of your gifts.
To change loyalty, you must gain an influence point associated with a different coalition (by playing patriots or by betraying cards with prizes). Whenever you change loyalty, first return your gifts to your supply and discard any prizes and patriots you had accumulated, then adjust your loyalty dial.
Ruling a Region
Each of the six regions is associated with a ruler token. If a player rules a region, they take the associated ruler token. To take a ruler token, you must have at least one tribe and a plurality of ruling pieces (more than all others individually). Tribes and loyal armies are ruling pieces. If there is a tie, no player rules the region. (Enemy armies can prevent you from taking a ruler token even with no enemy tribes.) Ruling a region grants the build action, special taxing privileges, and the ability to extract bribes from players who want to play cards associated with that region.
General Rules
- Negotiation: Players may discuss and coordinate, but deals are non-binding. Cards may never be transferred between players. Money transfers only when sanctioned by the rules (taxation, bribes, playing cards).
- Component Limits: If asked to place a unit and none remain in supply, take a piece of the required shape/color from anywhere in play (excluding pieces placed this turn), converting one unit type to another if needed.
- Card Precedence: Event cards and court cards with special abilities take precedence over the rules. A court card's special ability is active as long as it remains in your court.
- Access to Actions: You always have access to purchase and play. Cards in your court provide the actions listed on them. Each card in your court can only be used for one action per turn (even if it has multiple actions).
- Discarding a Court Card: Any spies on the card are returned to their owner's supply. If the card had the leveraged icon, you must return two rupees to the supply; for each rupee you cannot return, discard one card from your hand or court. If you have no cards left, no further payment is required.
- The Overthrow Rule: If you lose your last tribe in a region, immediately discard all political cards associated with that region from your court. Likewise, if you lose the last political card in your court associated with a region, immediately remove all your tribes in that region.
Sequence of Play
Each turn, the active player performs up to two actions (bonus actions do not count against this limit). You may take one action or none. After your turn, perform cleanup, then play continues clockwise.
Cleanup
Four steps:
- If you have more court cards than three plus the sum of purple stars on cards in your court, discard court cards until within your limit.
- If you have more hand cards than two plus the sum of blue stars on cards in your court, discard hand cards until within your limit.
- Discard any event cards in the leftmost column of the market (top row first, then bottom). When an event card is discarded, all players are affected by the text or impact icon at the top of the card. (Rupees on the discarded event remain in position.)
- Fill any empty market spaces by moving all cards in that row (with their rupees) to their leftmost position, then draw new cards to fill rightmost empty spaces. If a card moves into a space with rupees from a discarded event, those rupees are placed on the new card.
Instability. If a Dominance Check card is revealed and there is already a Dominance Check in the market, immediately perform a Dominance Check, then discard both Dominance Check cards and fill the empty spaces. If the final Dominance Check was discarded this way, it counts as the final check.
Game End and Victory
A game ends two ways: (1) if, after any Dominance Check, a single player leads all others by at least four victory points, that player wins immediately; (2) after the deck's final Dominance Check is resolved, the game ends and the player with the most victory points wins. Ties are broken by most red stars in court (among tied players), then most rupees.
Core Actions
Purchase
Purchase a card from the market and add it to your hand. If it has rupees on it, you receive them with the card. The cost depends on its column: the leftmost column is free, the next costs one rupee, then two, etc. Pay by placing one rupee on each card in the same row to the left of the card you are purchasing. If required to place a rupee on a vacant market spot, pay the card in the same column in the other row. If you place a rupee on a market card for any reason, you may not purchase that card this turn.
- Event Cards never enter a player's hand and are resolved the moment they are bought. Many have a persistent effect lasting until the next Dominance Check (place below your court). Event cards that alter the general game are placed near the map.
- Purchasing when Military is Favored: the cost is doubled (place two rupees on each card to the left instead of one).
Play
Play any card from your hand to your court. First reveal it and announce its name and region. If you are the ruler of that card's region (or no one rules it), you play freely. If someone else rules it, you must pay a bribe of rupees equal to the number of the ruler's tribes in that region (any portion can be waived by the ruler). If the bribe is not paid or waived, the action is not taken.
The played card may be added to either end of your court. If the card is a patriot that does not match your loyalty, discard all your patriots and prizes, remove any gifts, and adjust your loyalty dial to match the patriot.
After a card is played, resolve each impact icon on the right side from top to bottom:
- Road: Place one coalition block of your loyalty on any border of this region (now a road).
- Army: Place one coalition block of your loyalty in this region (now an army).
- Spy: Place one of your cylinders on a card in any player's court that matches the played card's region (now a spy).
- Tribe: Place one of your cylinders in this region (now a tribe).
- Rupees: Take two rupees from the bank. This card is now leveraged (if you ever discard it, you must pay back the rupees).
- Favored Suit: Move the favored suit marker to the suit indicated.
No Stacking Limit: There is no limit to the number of pieces in any region, border, or court card.
Card-Based Actions
The rest of the actions are associated with court cards and can only be taken if you have a card in your court displaying that action. Each card can be used for one action per turn. Some actions are modified by the card's rank.
- Bonus Actions: Actions on cards matching the favored suit do not count against your two-action limit (but each card is still one action per turn).
- Action Costs: Rupees are placed on the rightmost market cards of both rows, one per card. If a slot is vacant, skip it and pay the next card. If you place a rupee on a market card, you may not purchase it this turn. Excess rupees with no cards to receive them are removed from the game.
- Hostage Actions: To hold a card hostage, a single enemy player must have more spies on it than each other player. That player can only use the card's actions if the hostage-holder is paid a bribe equal to the number of hostage-holding spies (can be waived). Special abilities (in a text box) are never held hostage.
Tax. Take rupees up to the acting card's rank from players with at least one court card associated with a region you rule, or from any market card(s) (regardless of region). You may take from several sources so long as the total does not exceed the card's rank.
- Tax Shelter: The total gold stars in your court is the amount of rupees you can shelter. Only rupees held in excess of your Tax Shelter are vulnerable.
Gift. Place one of your cylinders on an empty gift space on your loyalty dial. Each gift counts as one influence point in your current coalition. The cost equals the marked price of the gift (2, 4, or 6). Gifts are lost whenever you change loyalty.
Build. Place up to three armies and/or roads among regions you rule (roads on any adjacent borders). The cost is two rupees per unit placed.
Move. For each rank of the acting card, move one loyal army or spy. The same unit can be moved multiple times, or moves split across several units. To move an army to an adjacent region, there must be a road matching the moving army's loyalty on the border crossed. Spies move along cards in players' courts (clockwise or counter-clockwise), as if a single continuous track.
Betray. Discard one card where you have a spy (including in your own court). Spies on the betrayed card return to their owners. This action always costs two. After discarding, you may accept it as a prize (tucked behind your loyalty dial). If the prize is different from your current loyalty, first remove all gifts, prizes, and patriots matching your previous loyalty and rotate your loyalty dial to match the prize.
Battle. Start a battle in a single region or on a court card. At the site, remove any combination of tribes, spies, roads, or armies equal to the acting card's rank. Restrictions: you cannot remove more units than you have armies or spies in that battle; you cannot remove armies or roads of your loyalty; you cannot remove tribes belonging to players who share your loyalty (but their spies may be removed).
Dominance Checks
Dominance Check event cards are resolved when purchased or when triggered during cleanup. When resolved, if a single coalition has the most blocks in play and at least four more than all other coalitions (uncombined), the check is successful; otherwise unsuccessful.
Unsuccessful Check. Players score points based on cylinders in play (a cylinder is in play if not on a player board):
- Most cylinders in play scores three victory points.
- Second most scores one victory point.
Successful Check. Players loyal to the Dominant Coalition score based on their influence points:
- Most influence scores five victory points.
- Second most scores three.
- Third most scores one. After awarding points, remove all coalition blocks from the board.
Ties: add up the victory points for the tied places and divide by the number of tied players (rounding down).
Early End. If, after scoring, the leading player has at least four more victory points than the next highest player, the game ends and that player wins.
Final Dominance Check. Any points earned during the final Dominance Check are doubled (before any tie-splitting).
Playing with Wakhan (Automated Opponent)
Wakhan can be faced by one or two human players (not cooperative; only one player or Wakhan can win).
Setup: Include Wakhan when determining deck size. Shuffle the 24 AI cards face down. Wakhan uses a spare set of cylinders and places her gifts on her aid card (no loyalty dial). Place Wakhan's pieces to the right of the last player to choose loyalty; Wakhan takes the first turn.
General Rules: Wakhan pays all costs (including bribes) like a regular player. If a Special Ability says she "may" do something, she always will. Wakhan is effectively loyal to all coalitions and can hold prizes and patriots of different coalitions, but always assumes a single pragmatic loyalty — the leftmost loyalty on the AI card not shared by any other player (used for the blocks she places/moves/battles with, not for ruling regions; for ruling, count her tribes and only the most numerous armies of a single coalition). If Wakhan needs to choose a suit, she selects the current favored suit. When choosing a card, she picks the highest card priority: opponent's card > matches favored suit > patriot of the dominant coalition > has a prize matching the dominant coalition > other patriot > leveraged > highest ranking > (low) highest numbered card.
Wakhan's Turn: Draw an AI card and place it face up in a discard pile to the right of the draw deck. Use this face-up card and the back of the card now on top of the draw deck to make decisions. Wakhan performs two actions from the central Actions section of the drawn AI card (top down, repeating as needed). Actions with cards in the favored suit are bonus actions. After two actions (or no valid choices), Wakhan takes any available bonus actions from unused court cards (leftmost first).
- Wakhan's Ambition: If Wakhan can purchase the Dominance Check and score the most victory points and/or win, she does that regardless of the AI card.
Wakhan's Core Action — Radicalize: She purchases one card from the market and attempts to play it immediately (a single action). She follows specific instructions, or the Dominance-Check logic, or otherwise uses the red arrow (which market row) and black arrow (which column, 0–5) on the back of the top draw-deck card. After purchasing, she plays the card if she can afford the bribe (else discards). She plays to the left of her court if the red arrow points to top, else the right. When resolving impact icons: spies go on the highest priority cards in the played region where she doesn't have the most spies; roads on consecutive borders following region priority; blocks always placed by pragmatic loyalty.
Wakhan's Card-Based Actions follow the same restrictions as players, using the highest priority card that can legally take the action, with default behaviors for Gift, Build, Betray, Battle, Tax, and Move as listed on the AI card.
Cleanup: Discard from Wakhan's court in this priority: non-political cards first, then non-patriots, then non-leveraged, then cards with the most player spies over Wakhan's, fewest spies, lowest rank, not matching the favored suit, then lowest card number.
Dominance Checks and Victory: Wakhan claims VPs and victory like a regular player, and (being loyal to all coalitions) is always in the running.