Sahwari Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • A. Play Area
  • B. Clan dashboards and camels
• Game Turn
• 1. Move
• 2. Collect
  • A. Finding an Artifact
  • B. Recruiting
  • C. Rallying a Caravan
• 3. Move the Guild
• 4. Activate Abilities (optional, at any time)
• 5. End of the Turn
• Ability Icons
• End of the Game
• Clan Abilities
• Solo Mode
  • Setup
  • Player Turn
  • Guildmaster's Turn
  • Guildmaster Abilities
  • End of the Game (Solo)
• 3-Player Variant
  • Setup
  • Game Turn
  • Abilities
• Player Aid
• Credits

Components

• 19 double-sided tokens (camel side / ability side)
• 8 Small caravan tokens (yellow)
• 11 Guarded caravan tokens (blue)
• 30 Artifact cubes
• 11 Strategy tokens (Lock side / Attack side)
• 36 Recruit cards
• 4 Player Aid cards
• 12 Recruit pawns
• 25 double-sided tiles (Resources side / Desert or Oasis side)
• 6 Clan dashboards
• 1 First player card
• 1 rulebook
• 1 short story (Travel log from Kaël, the Merchant)
• 6 Player camels (1 purple, 1 orange, 2 yellow, 2 green)
• 4 Guild (red) camels
• 8 Lock tokens (2 purple, 2 orange, 2 yellow, 2 green)

Solo mode: 1 dashboard and 11 Guildmaster cards

Setup

A. Play Area

1. Place the Guild tile in the center of the table, on the relevant side according to the number of players: 1/2 side up (for 1-2 players) or 3/4 side up.
2. Shuffle the other tiles and place them randomly, Resources side up, to form the play area. It should be a 5×5 tiles square, with the Guild in the center of it.
3. Shuffle all 36 Recruit cards into a deck. Place it face down besides the grid: this is the Recruitment area. Reveal the top 4 cards of the deck.
4. Shuffle the Small caravan tokens and the Guarded caravan tokens separately, camel side up. For each tile, place all matching resources on the full white shapes (Recruit pawns, Artifact cubes, and caravans, both small and guarded). Remove both remaining caravan tokens, without revealing them.
5. Place an extra Artifact cube on each of the tiles in each corner of the play area.
6. Create a supply with all remaining Artifact cubes and all Strategy tokens.

B. Clan dashboards and camels

7. Choose a first player and give them the First Player card. Each player, starting with the last and going towards the first, chooses a Clan dashboard and places it in front of them: this is their Clan area. Each clan has a unique ability (see Clan Abilities).
8. Place an Artifact cube from the supply on the leftmost space of your storage.
9. Each player takes a Player Aid card, the camel(s) and the Lock tokens of a color of their choosing.
10. Set up camels according to player count:

• 2 players: Each player places a Guild camel on a different free 1 tile. Then each place one of your 2 camels on a free tile, until you both have placed both of your camels.
• 3 players: Each player places a Guild camel on a different free 1 tile. Then each player places their camel on a free tile.
• 4 players: Add an extra Artifact cube on each 1 tile. The last player takes 2 Guild camels and places them on 2 free different 1 tiles. Then, in turn order, each player places their camel on a free tile.

Whatever the player count, 6 camels will always be in the play area. The unused camels are removed.

A tile is considered free if no camel is on it, or if it is the Guild tile or an Oasis tile.

You are now ready to play! A game plays clockwise, starting with the first player. Each player plays their turn until a game end trigger is met (see End of the Game).

Game Turn

A game turn is made of four mandatory steps (Move, Collect, Move the Guild, End of the Turn), and one optional step (Activate Abilities).

1. Move — Move one of your camels.
2. Collect — Take a resource where your camel has moved to.
3. Move the Guild — Move a Guild camel.
4. (Optional) Activate Abilities — Activate any available effect you have.
5. End of the Turn — Flip emptied tiles, then fill up the Recruitment area.

1. Move

Before a move: If you have a camel outside of the game area after it has been blocked, you must place it either on the Guild tile in the center of the play area or on an Oasis tile of your choice.

Move. Make your move, following these 3 rules:

A. Direction: A camel always moves in a single, orthogonal direction, never takes into account free Desert tiles, and must stop on the next free Resources tile. Stopping on the Guild tile is not mandatory.

B. Optional stops: A camel may decide to move through the Guild tile or an Oasis tile in its trajectory, as those tiles are always free — multiple players may stand on them.

C. Blocked: Moving into or through Resource tiles or Desert tiles that have camels on them is not possible, except if it is the Guild tile, or an Oasis tile, or the moving camel is the same color as the camel moved through.

The Guild tile and the Oasis tiles are the only tiles that can hold more than one camel — even from your opponents. No move is blocked by camels being on these tiles.

Unable to move? If none of your camels can move, you are blocked. You cannot proceed to the Collect step. Instead:

• Remove one of your blocked camels from the play area and place it besides your Clan dashboard.
• Proceed to the Move the Guild, Activate Abilities, and End of the Turn steps, as usual.

2. Collect

You must take one (and only one!) available resource from the tile you moved your camel into.

A. Finding an Artifact

Whenever you take an Artifact cube, choose one of two options:

• Either place it in your storage, on the leftmost empty space. (Example 1)
• Or place it on an empty Artifact space on your Recruit cards, and trigger all the effects adjacent to that space. (Example 2)

If you do not have any space for an Artifact cube, whether in your storage or on Artifact spaces, discard any gained cubes.

Storage abilities. If an Artifact cube is placed above one of the storage ability icons, you may activate its effect. Activate it this turn or any other turn, as long as the Artifact cube is there, by placing one of your 2 Lock tokens. Each of these abilities can be activated only once per game.

Example 1 — Aurore collects an Artifact cube and places it in her storage. She now has 2 influence points. As she plays the Diplomat, her maximum storage is 4 (square) spaces. The last space (circle) is never treated as an empty space.

Aurore has placed her second Artifact cube. Now the storage ability tied to it can be accessed. She triggers it immediately and uses Spying. She places one of her 2 Lock tokens on the space to indicate she has used this ability.

Example 2 — Florent collects an Artifact cube and places it on an Artifact space that was free. It is complete with one half being on his Clan dashboard, and the other being on a Recruit card. Placing the cube there immediately activates both adjacent Spying abilities.

B. Recruiting

Take a Recruit pawn, then:

1. Place it on the leftmost space of the Recruit track on your Clan dashboard.
2. Take one of the 4 cards in the Recruitment area and place it at either edge of your clan. A clan is made up of the Clan dashboard and all Recruit cards connected to it (even via other Recruits). Create connections in the same color, if possible. This allows you to create Artifact spaces you can use to trigger the abilities adjacent to them.
3. You may, if you wish, immediately move Artifact cubes from your storage to empty Artifact spaces you created. Immediately trigger, in the order of your choosing, all the abilities adjacent to the activated Artifact space.

This happens once per game and per space. An Artifact cube placed on one such space cannot be used for the remainder of the game. You may activate Artifact spaces in any order. You must apply both their effects (or forgo these effects, if applicable) before activating other Artifact spaces.

Clan Ability cards. These 6 Recruit cards allow, if they are activated on both sides, an ability akin to a clan leader's (see Clan Abilities). You may have more than one, meaning you can choose a card with the same ability as your clan leader.

Example — Arnaud adds a green card to his Clan area. He creates a new empty Artifact space, and chooses to activate it immediately by placing an Artifact cube from his storage. Doing so, he activates the Rally ability, and the Clan ability, as both sides of it are activated by an Artifact cube.

C. Rallying a Caravan

Whenever you take a Caravan token, you may:

• Either apply its ability this turn; keep it Ability side up near your Clan area.
• Or keep it Camel side up near your Clan area. You will be able to activate it in a future turn.

The abilities of the Caravan tokens can be each used once per game. As soon as you activate a Caravan token, leave it face up to show it has been used up. There are 2 kinds of Caravan tokens:

• The Small Caravan tokens have minor abilities, but they are always positive.
• The Guarded Caravan tokens have stronger abilities, but can be negative.

You may find the list of all Caravan tokens at the back of this rulebook. Their abilities are explained on the Ability Icons and Player Aid pages of this rulebook.

3. Move the Guild

Move a Guild camel of your choosing. Move it as it were a player camel. You may decide to have the Guild camel stop on a free Desert on its path.

You also may trigger attacks from Guild camels.

4. Activate Abilities (optional, at any time)

A player may, at any time during their turn before the End of the turn phase, activate abilities in their possession. You may use Artifact spaces, storage abilities, your Recruit track and your Caravan tokens in any order of your choosing. However, you must apply their effects (or forgo these effects, if applicable) before activating other effects or abilities.

• Caravan and Strategy tokens (Attack side):

  • A. Reveal one of your Caravan tokens and activate its ability.
  • B. Discard one of your Strategy tokens and trigger an attack.

• Storage abilities — see Finding an Artifact above.

• Recruit track — Remove Recruit pawns from the Recruit track of your clan board to activate the chosen ability. Used Recruit pawns are placed on empty Recruit spaces of the Guild tile. If you are unable to place them there, they are removed from the game instead.

  • Remove 1 Recruit pawn to trigger a Spying ability or to refresh the Recruitment area (discard all available cards, and place 4 new cards from the deck).
  • Discard 2 Recruit pawns to trigger a Sandstorm ability, or to take an Artifact cube in the supply.

  Example — Fabien activates the sandstorm ability. This costs him 2 Recruit pawns. As a Recruit space is empty on the Guild tile, he places his first pawn there. As there is no more space on that tile, the second one is placed back in the supply.

• Artifact space — Activate an Artifact space of a Recruit card: place an Artifact cube from your storage, or a cube you made by using the Recruit track, on an empty Artifact space, and trigger both abilities adjacent to the placed cube.

5. End of the Turn

1. If any tile has no resources left on it, flip it on its Desert or Oasis side (except for the Guild tile). Any camels on that tile remain on it after it flips.
2. If there are less than four cards in the Recruitment area, reveal cards to complete it. If the deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile into a new deck.

Ability Icons

Clan dashboards, Caravan tokens and cards

• Gain X Influence points — at the end of the game.
• Lose X Influence points — at the end of the game.
• Recruitment — Take one of the 4 available cards in the Recruitment area.
• Spying — Peek at the other side of a Caravan token in the play area or in another player's Clan area.
• Artifact — Take an Artifact cube from the supply.
• Theft — Collect a Resource on a tile that is orthogonally adjacent to any Guild camel, even if that tile has a camel in it.
• Sandstorm — Move one of the 6 camels to any free tile (the Guild tile and Oasis tiles are always free). That camel does not collect resources there. Designer's tip: Combined with a move, this ability allows you to collect resources on a lot of tiles. It can also move an annoying opponent or put them in a tough spot.
• Refresh the Recruitment area — Discard all cards in that area and reveal 4 from the deck.
• Rally — Take a Caravan token of your choice, anywhere on the board, even if the token is on a tile that has a camel in it.
• Attack — Trigger an attack from your camel's tile, or from any Guild camel:
  • A. Either an opponent's camel (or Guild) on an adjacent tile: the targeted player discards an Artifact cube of their storage. If their storage is empty, the attacker chooses an Artifact cube from one of the attacked player's Artifact spaces. It is replaced by a Strategy token, Lock side up. The abilities of that locked space are no longer active, and cannot be activated for the remainder of the game. The discarded Artifact cube is placed on an empty Artifact space on the Guild tile. If you are unable to place it there, place it back in the supply instead. The attacker must move, if possible, the attacked camel to a free orthogonal adjacent space (including the Guild tile/Oasis and Deserts). Designer's tip: Try not to be out of Artifact cubes in your storage. Otherwise, if you are attacked, you'll pay a very steep price!
  • B. Or a Caravan token adjacent to your tile or on your tile. The Caravan token is removed from the game, face down.

Attacked example — In the Move the guild step, Florent moves a Guild camel and places it near Arnaud's camel. He can attack it, as he has a Guarded Caravan token he still hasn't activated, and it has an Attack ability! Arnaud's storage is empty. Florent can choose which Artifact cube to remove! He removes an Artifact cube that activated a Clan ability, and replaces it with a Strategy token, Lock side up. Arnaud will no longer benefit from his card's Clan ability. Eventually, he moves the attacked camel on a free adjacent space (including the Guild tile, Oases or Deserts).

Strategy tokens. These double-sided tokens have a Lock side and an Attack side.

• Lock: Those tokens are placed whenever an Artifact cube is attacked, and they lock Artifact spaces for good.
• Attack: Whenever an Artifact space on a Recruit card with an Attack icon is activated, take a Strategy token to represent you can Attack. It can be used in the optional step (Activate Abilities). The token is discarded after use.

Multiple abilities — Some Caravan tokens have multiple abilities. Apply all the abilities listed on the token.

End of the Game

The end of the game is triggered when there are only 6 tiles Resources side up (treat the Guild tile as one such tile). The game ends when all players have taken the same number of turns (the first player does not take another turn).

Each player reveals their Caravan tokens. Count Influence points:

1. of the Caravan tokens (both positive and negative),
2. of the Clan dashboard's storage (highest leftmost visible value),
3. of the Recruit track (highest leftmost visible value),
4. of activated Artifact spaces (with no Lock token),
5. bonus linked to the Clan leader ability and Recruit cards with a Clan ability (and activated on both sides).

Attention: Only count the abilities activated with an Artifact cube (not the ones blocked with a Lock cube), from used Storage abilities (covered with a Lock token), and those of the Caravan tokens. These abilities are used to tally the bonus influence of Clan abilities. Attack strategy tokens are not counted.

The player with the most influence is named Merchant Guildmaster, and wins the game.

In case of a tie, the tied player with the most Artifact cubes and Recruit pawns wins. In case of a new tie, no new Guildmaster is elected – no one wins.

Clan Abilities

Only count the abilities activated with an Artifact cube (not the ones blocked with a Lock cube). Used storage abilities are counted. Attack tokens are not counted.

• Merchant — He is famed for his talent at finding lost artifacts... and for his talent at selling them. Score 1 Influence per pair of Artifact cubes in your Clan area.
• Diplomat — Her vast network allows her to recruit the best allies. Score 1 Influence per pair of Recruit cards in your Clan area.
• Thief — Obsessed with riches, he relentlessly plunders the caravans. Score 1 Influence per pair of one Artifact cube and one Caravan token in your Clan area.
• Spy — She knows whether attacking the caravans or not is worthwhile. Score 1 Influence per pair of activated Spying abilities in your Clan area.
• Dealer — He lines his pockets with ill-gotten money – raids and trafficking are quite lucrative. Score 1 Influence per pair of one activated Attack space and one Artifact cube in your Clan area.
• Explorer — He knows the arid deserts like the back of his hand. Perform up to two Move actions (without backtracking). You collect only on the last tile you move into.

Raider (Clan Ability card) — Score 1 Influence point per pair of one Caravan token and one activated Attack token in your Clan area.

Solo Mode

Sahwari's solo mode pits you against a virtual player: the Guildmaster... and his underlings.

Play the normal rules of the game, with the following changes.

Setup

Setting up the play area and your Clan area is the same as in a standard game. The only changes for setup are:

10. Place all 4 Guild camels on the 4 "1" tiles, then place your two camels on two free tiles.
11. Place the Guildmaster dashboard near the play area. Place an Artifact cube on the 0 space of the Guildmaster's storage.
12. Shuffle the Guildmaster cards into a pile and place it near the Guildmaster dashboard, Move side up.

Difficulty mode. Choose a difficulty mode. It will have an impact on the end game scoring (see End of the Game (Solo)).

• Recruit (easy)
• Merc (normal)
• Clan Leader (hard)

You are now ready to play! You start the game. Take your turn, then the Guildmaster plays their turn, and so on until the endgame condition is met.

Player Turn

Do not take the Move the guild step of the turn. Your turn only has 3 steps: Move, Collect, End of the turn, and the optional phase Activate Abilities.

Player abilities. The only ability that changes in the solo mode is:

• Theft — Collect a Resource on a tile that is orthogonally adjacent to any of your camels, even if that tile has a camel in it.

Guildmaster's Turn

The Guildmaster's turn is different from the player's. It is made of 2 steps:

1. Guild Action
2. End of the Turn

1. Guild Action. Flip the first card of the Guildmaster deck and place it on the right of it, on its Action side.

Then, if the Guildmaster (left deck) is empty, shuffle the discard pile (right deck) without shuffling in the card you just flipped, and put it back at the left of the newly flipped card, Move side up.

The sides of the cards indicate up to 2 action types the Guildmaster takes:

• A. Collect — The Guildmaster moves to a resource and collects it.
• B. Block — Move a Guild camel on a tile adjacent to your camel to block its movement. To be activated, the block action requires a Guild camel icon near the Priority icon on the Action.

These actions are resolved in reading order, A then B, starting with the Move card.

A. Pick-up order. On the Move card: from the starting tile and following the arrow, take the closest Guild camel. Prioritize taking a camel that does not already block a Player camel's move.

From the starting tile, move the Guild camel in the shown direction until it reaches the first matching resource (it can be the starting tile itself) shown on the Action card. The Guildmaster picks up this resource.

If the Guild camel is unable to collect resources, follow the priority on the Action card and take another available resource instead: Artifact cube → Card → Small caravan → Guarded caravan → Artifact cube, and so on.

Example — After he has played his first turn, Fabien now proceeds to the Guildmaster's turn and flips a card. First he refreshes the Recruitment area (extra ability). Then he follows the path shown by the arrow. The first camel he meets does not move, as it already blocks one of Fabien's camels. The next camel will be the one moving. The Action card shows the Guildmaster is looking for a Recruit pawn. By following the arrow, Fabien determines that tile will be the camel's destination.

The Guildmaster places their camel here, collects the Recruit pawn, and chooses a card from the Recruitment area (see Priority, below). This card is collected face down. As they had an Artifact cube in their storage, they activate the card.

B. Patrol order (Block). On the Move card: from the starting tile and following the arrow, take the furthest Guild camel. Prioritize taking a camel that does not already block a Player camel's move.

On that card, following the path of the arrow, check which camel is targeted by a block, depending on its position on the priority (1 or 2. This number can be found at the center of the priority diagram.)

Place the Guild camel on the highest priority free tile (Resource or Desert tile) that is adjacent to the targeted camel, so that it blocks a possible move.

If you cannot place the Guild camel on an adjacent tile or if that position does not allow you to block the player (for instance with the Guild tiles or the Oases), apply the effect on the player's other camel. The action is not carried out if blocking a camel proves impossible.

In the solo mode, Guild camels are never blocked. They move over any obstacles, and do not obey normal move restrictions. They can even be placed on a Desert tile!

Example — The Guildmaster now takes their block order, as there is a Guild camel icon on the second card. Fabien uses the arrow to spot the Guild camel that moves. The camel that is targeted by the block is the one shown by the "1" on the path of the arrow. The card also shows the priority for blocking is on a specific tile. The camel goes there.

Extra abilities. Some Guildmaster cards have an extra ability. This ability is activated in addition to other abilities. This extra ability does not entail moving a Guild camel.

2. End of Turn. Perform the same End of the turn step as the one in the 2-4 players mode.

Guildmaster Abilities

• Small Caravan — Recruit: The Guildmaster takes the token without revealing it. Merc / Clan leader: Immediately reveal the token. The Guildmaster applies its effect, if possible.
• Guarded Caravan — The Guildmaster takes the token without revealing it.
• Artifact — Place the Artifact cube on a Recruit card with no Artifact cube, and with no Lock token on it. If you are unable to, place it in the Guildmaster's storage. If there is no available space for the cube, place it in an empty space in the Guild tile. If you are unable to do so, discard that cube.
• Attack — The Guildmaster attacks you, wherever their camels and yours are. You lose one Artifact cube. If your storage is empty, target the Artifact space that will penalize you the most (meaning the one who loses you the most potential Influence points). If you hesitate, follow the priority as shown here. Place a Strategy token on that space, Lock side up.
• Refresh the Recruitment Area — Discard all cards in that area and reveal 4 from the deck.
• Sandstorm — The sandstorm allows the Guildmaster to play another turn after the end of their current turn.
• Spying — Recruit: No effect. Merc / Clan leader: Each Spying icon is worth 1 Influence point at the end of the game.
• Recruitment — Move the collected Recruit pawn near the Guildmaster dashboard. Then take one of the 4 available cards in the Recruitment area, following the priority below. Place the recruited card face down near the Guildmaster dashboard and, if possible, place an artifact cube from the Guildmaster's storage on that card. Each card with an Artifact cube is treated as activated. A card with no Artifact cube is treated as inactive.

Priority (used when the Guildmaster must choose a Recruit card, or which Artifact space to penalize):

1. Card with the most Influence points
2. Card with a clan ability
3. Card with a Recruitment icon

Always apply what is most harmful for the player's final Influence score.

End of the Game (Solo)

The game end condition and the scoring for the player are identical to the 2-4 players game mode.

For the Guildmaster, apply the base scoring as shown below, and add the extra scoring, depending on the chosen difficulty mode. The Guildmaster scores...

Base scoring:

1. 2 Influence points for each of their activated Recruit cards with an Artifact cube.
2. 1 Influence point for each of their Guarded caravan tokens.
3. as many Influence points as shown on the first visible space in their storage.

Extra scoring — Recruit (easy):

4. 1 Influence point per pair of Small caravan tokens.
5. 1 Influence point per pair of Recruit tokens.

Extra scoring — Merc (normal):

4. 1 Influence point per pair of Recruit tokens.
5. 1 Influence point per Spying Icon on their Small caravan tokens.
6. Influence points printed on their Small caravan tokens.

Extra scoring — Clan Leader (hard):

4. 1 Influence point per Recruit pawn they collected.
5. 1 Influence point per Spying icon on their Small caravan tokens.
6. Influence points printed on their Small caravan tokens.

Add your influence points and compare your final score to the Guildmaster's. The highest score wins the game.

In case of a tie, the Guildmaster wins the game.

3-Player Variant

— Designer's favorite —

In this variant, each player has 2 identical color camels (one of the players will take 2 red camels). In this variant, there is no guild.

Play the normal rules of the game, with the following changes.

Setup

Setting up the play area and setting up your clan area is done the same way as in a standard 3-players game. The only change for setup is:

10. Variant 3 players: Take 2 camels each. Each player places one of their camels, in turn order, on a free tile.

Game Turn

Do not take the Move the guild step of the turn. Your turn only has 3 steps (Move, Collect, End of the Turn) and the optional step (Activate Abilities).

Abilities

The only changed ability for this 3-player variant is:

• Theft — Collect a resource on a tile that is orthogonally adjacent to one of your camels, even if that tile has a camel in it.

Player Aid

The Player Aid cards summarize the Game Turn steps (Move, Collect, Move the Guild, Activate Abilities, End of the Turn) and the full list of Caravan Tokens Abilities, camel side and ability side, for quick reference during play — see Ability Icons above for what each icon means.

Credits

• Game designer: Arnaud Chabloz
• Art: Miguel Coimbra
• Development: Florent Mortier, Fabien Edmond, Arnaud Chabloz
• Layout: Auraïa Studio, Florent Mortier
• Rulebook layout: Arnaud Chabloz
• Translation: Mathieu Rivero
• Publisher: JOODINI Éditions