Al Rashid Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Objectives
• Game Contents
• Setting Up the Game
• Playing the Game
  • The Placement Phase
  • The Resolution Phase
    • Resolving a Land
    • Resolving a Palace
  • End of Turn Phase
  • End of Game
• Palace Action Appendix
  • Palace of the Intrigue Guild
  • Palace of the Military Guild
  • Palace of the Lore Guild
  • Palace of the Trade Guild
  • Palace of the Politics Guild
  • Al-Rashid's Palace

Game Objectives

Al-Rashid is a board game that simulates much of the trade, battle, and political intrigue that marked the times of Harun al-Rashid. Each player represents a powerful family vying for the favor of al-Rashid.

Players will try to earn as many Prestige Points as possible over the course of the game. Prestige Points are earned by gaining titles, joining guilds, and increasing the size of your family. To do these things, players will need to acquire various types of wares, trade them with local merchants, hire land and sea-faring mercenaries, and visit the various palaces in al-Rashid's city. The player who accumulates the most Prestige Points at the end of the game has successfully gained the favor of Harun al-Rashid and is victorious!

Game Contents

• 48 individually-numbered "title" tiles – eight rectangular tiles in each of six different colors: black, red, purple, blue, cyan, and green.
• 16 "Credit Note" tokens
• 14 "Dishonor" tokens
• 20 white "silk" ware pieces
• 25 orange "spice" ware pieces
• 30 purple "pottery" ware pieces
• 30 gray "metals" ware pieces
• 35 brown "wood" ware pieces
• 5 sets of 13 family pawn tokens – three "Pashas", four "Merchants", and six "Sages" – in each of 5 player colors
• 5 wooden turn order markers – one in each of 5 player colors
• 1 black, wooden, game turn marker
• 3 black, set-up "Crisis" tiles
• 8 white, in-game "Crisis" tiles
• 32 red "Land Mercenary" tiles
• 32 blue "Sea Mercenary" tiles
• 1 game board
• This rulebook

Setting Up the Game

1. Place the board in the middle of table so that all players can reach it.
2. Each of the seven lands on the map has beneath it a number of spaces shaped as the various wares; place the correspondingly shaped ware in each such space on the map and form a bank to the side of the board with the wares that remain left over.
3. Place a credit note tile in each of the four lands which have a credit note symbol depicted alongside.
4. Place the game turn marker on the first space in the turn track on the board.
5. Shuffle the land and sea mercenary tiles separately and form a draw pool of each alongside the board.
6. Give to each a player one set of colored family tokens. Each player takes one pasha (largest pawn), one merchant (medium pawn), and one sage (small pawn) and puts them in front of him/her and places the remaining pawns in a personal pool to the side to be used later during the game.
7. Place title tiles onto the title tile spaces in each palace as follows:
   • In a 2-3 player game place in any order:
     • Intrigue Guild, one each of tile #s C001-C004.
     • Military Guild, one each of tile #s C005-C008.
     • Lore Guild, one each of tile #s C009-C012.
     • Trade Guild, one each of tile #s C013-C016.
     • Politics Guild, tiles C017-C024.
     • Al-Rashid's Court, tiles C025-C032.
   • In a 4 or 5 player game, follow the same setup as above, repeating steps i-iv such that all tiles are being used in the game including the duplicates of tile #s C001-C016.
8. Randomly determine the play order and mark it by placing a colored disc of each player in the appropriate spot on the play order track on the board.
9. Distribute starting wares to each player in play order according to this list:
   1. First player: Hardwood, Pottery, Metal.
   2. Second player: Hardwood x 2, Pottery, Metal.
   3. Third player: Hardwood x 3, Pottery, Metal.
   4. Fourth player: Hardwood x 2, Pottery x 2, Metal.
   5. Fifth player: Hardwood, Pottery, Metal, Spice.
10. Randomly select one of the three setup crisis tiles and place one sea mercenary tile in each of the lands listed underneath the sea mercenary icon on the tile, then place one land mercenary tile in each of the lands listed underneath the land mercenary icon. Return all setup crisis tiles to the box: they will not be used again during the game.
11. Shuffle the white, in-game crisis tiles. Without looking at the front of the tiles, randomly select four and put them in a face-down stack beside the game board; then return the rest to the box as they will not be used in this game.
12. In play order, each player randomly draws and keeps one mercenary tile from either the land or sea mercenary tile pools beside the game board.

Playing the Game

Now that you have set-up the game, you are ready to begin the fight for the favor of Al-Rashid! The game plays over five turns with each turn consisting of three, separate phases: The Placement Phase, The Resolution Phase, and the End of Turn Phase.

The Placement Phase occurs over a series of rounds, in each of which players – in play order – will deploy one of their family members to either a palace or a land on the game board. This will continue for a number of rounds until all players have deployed all of their existing family members to the board.

Once the Placement Phase has concluded, the Resolution Phase will begin. During the Resolution Phase players will – in play order – select one palace or land that has family members deployed to it and resolve that location on the board. The most dominant players at a palace location that is being resolved will be able to execute two of several possible actions at each palace space, including buying a title tile granting the purchasing player special abilities and/or Prestige Points. The most dominant players at a land location being resolved will collect the wares that the land provides – but a player might have to stave off a brutal attack from mercenaries stalking the area before they can take the wares from the land! Players will continue resolving palaces and lands on the board one at a time until all locations occupied on the board by one or more family members have been resolved.

Once the Resolution Phase has ended, the players will prepare for the next turn in the End of Turn Phase.

Now that you have a general idea of how a turn flows, let's get into the detail of how the game works!

The Placement Phase

Now that you are familiar with the basic concepts in the game, we can look at the details of how the phases of a turn work, starting here with the Placement Phase. As you already know, this is the part of each turn in which you will get to deploy your family members to the palaces and lands.

The Placement Phase is broken down into two simple steps, each of which is carried out in play order.

Step 1: Activate Title Tile abilities. As players visit the various palaces in the city, they will have the opportunity to purchase Title Tiles during the Resolution Phase. Many of these tiles grant its owners a special ability. Any special ability granted by a title owned by a player that is triggered "at the beginning of the Placement Phase" must be activated in this step or it is forfeited for that turn.

Step 2: Deploy family members. This is the meat of the Placement Phase and occurs over several rounds. For each round, in play order, players will take turns deploying one family member to any palace or land – even one a player had already placed a family member in on a previous round – subject to three restrictions:

1. When a player deploys his first family member in a particular palace or land, that family member must be placed in the leftmost, unoccupied space in that palace or land.
2. Players may place an unlimited number of Sages in any single palace or land, but may only place either one Pasha or one Merchant in any single palace or land. (Players should be able to stack all of their family member pawns placed in a single palace or location, rearranging them if necessary.)
3. A player's first family member deployed to Al-Rashid's palace must be a Pasha.

You will repeat step 2 until all players have deployed all of their available family members. Keep in mind that as the game goes on, some players will have more or less family members than others and therefore some players will be finished before others are. Once all family members have been deployed, the Placement Phase will end and you will move onto the Resolution Phase.

The Resolution Phase

You just spent some time going around the table taking turns placing your family members out in the different spaces on the board. Your game board is covered with them. In Al-Rashid, this is where the fight begins!

In the Resolution Phase, you will be fighting for influence and control of the various lands and palaces. You will be vying against the other players and in many cases against the hordes of merciless mercenaries traversing the lands waiting to waylay your family members. To do this, players will take turns completing actions in turn order.

On a player's turn, the player may activate one title tile he or she owns and must select and resolve one palace or land that contains one or more players' family members – which need not be the active player's own family members. If a player is choosing to activate one of his or her title tiles on a turn, it may be done before or after resolving a palace or land.

Palaces and lands are resolved in a series of steps. The first step in resolving both a Palace and a Land is to check for dominance, so let's start by discussing what that entails.

Not all family members are equally influential, so the locals in the lands and the royalty in the palaces will be persuaded to work first with the family who is represented by the most influential contingent of its members. To determine which contingent of family members is the most dominant, players need to calculate the dominance rating of their contingent present in that land or palace. To do this, add up the dominance value of each of a player's family members present in the selected palace or land according to this list:

• Sage: 1
• Merchant: 3
• Pasha: 6

The player whose contingent of family members has the highest dominance rating will act first, the player whose contingent of family members has the second highest dominance rating will act second, the player whose contingent of family members has the third highest dominance rating will act third; all other players are found to be lacking in enough influence and their family members are expelled from the palace or land and that player will not be allowed to act in that palace or land. Any such player removes from the board all of his or her family member pawns present in that palace or land and returns them to his or her personal supply. All ties are won by the player occupying the leftmost space in the palace or land among the tied players.

Now that you know the first step of resolving a land and a palace, let's spend some time discussing the details of the subsequent steps for each.

Resolving a Land

The lands are where you will be going to obtain the valuable wares that you will need to gain influence in the palaces. This is done in four steps.

Step 1: Check for dominance (discussed above).

Step 2: The first active player, as determined in step 1, turns over and reveals any mercenaries that may be present in the land, then proceeds to step 3. If there are no mercenaries present in the land, skip this step and the next and proceed directly to step 4, trade.

Step 3: There are enemy mercenaries present in the land and the active player must decide to either fight or run! If the player does not have in his or her possession any mercenary tiles matching the type of at least one of the enemy type(s) in the land, he or she must choose to run.

If the active player chooses to run, all of his or her family members are expelled from the land and sent back to his or her supply in disgrace. To signify this disgrace, the active player must take two dishonor tokens.

If the active player chooses to fight, he or she must commit to the battle from his or her own supply one or more mercenary tiles of the type(s) matching the type(s) of mercenaries present in the land. Battles between land mercenaries will happen separately from battles between sea mercenaries if both types are present in the same land.

If any land mercenaries are present, the active player compares the total strength of land mercenaries he or she committed to the battle against the total strength of the land mercenaries present. If the active player's total strength is greater than the total strength of the enemy mercenaries, discard all of the land mercenaries present. If the active player's total strength is equal to or less than the total strength of the enemy mercenaries present, the player chooses to eliminate (discard) one enemy mercenary tile for every mercenary tile committed by the player of a greater value. The player does NOT have to choose to discard the highest possible enemy mercenary token(s) present. If the player committed no tiles of a greater value than any individual enemy mercenary tile present, no enemy mercenaries are discarded and they all remain on the board.

Then, if any sea mercenary tiles are present, the active player repeats the same process described in the above paragraph for all sea mercenaries committed by the player and present in the land.

If after the battle(s) have been finished, any enemy mercenary tiles of either type remain in the land, the player has lost the battle and must withdraw all of his or her family members from the land and return them to his or her supply. Unlike a player who chose to run instead of fighting, however, the player who fought and lost returns home with his or her honor intact and receives no dishonor tokens. If after the battle(s) have been finished, there are no enemy mercenary tiles present at all, the player has defeated the enemy mercenary forces. In either case, all of the mercenary tiles committed to the battle by the player are discarded.

If the active player ran from battle or battled and lost, the player's turn immediately ends and the next active player in line as determined in step 1 becomes the new active player, beginning his or her turn at step 2. If the active player battled and defeated the enemy mercenary forces, he or she proceeds to step 4.

Step 4: The land and all of its valued wares is unobstructed by marauding mercenaries! The player returns his or her family members to his supply, taking wares with them according to the following table:

Rank	Option A	Option B	Option C
Dominant player	All wares of one type	or 3 wares of his choice	or 2 wares of his choice and 1 credit note, if available on land being resolved
2nd player	2 wares of his choice	or 1 ware of his choice, and 1 credit note, if available on land being resolved
3rd player	1 ware of his choice	or 1 credit note, if available on land being resolved
4th and 5th	nothing

After taking the wares, the next active player in line becomes the active player, beginning at the start of Step 4.

Note: If at any point in any of the steps all of the players eligible to become active as determined in step 1 have acted, the land is considered to be fully resolved and the resolution phase continues on with the next player in play order.

Resolving a Palace

Players visit the palaces to trade their valuable wares for various services, titles, and favors. These rewards will aid the players in their quest to gain the prestige needed to gain the ultimate favor of Al-Rashid. To resolve a palace players will follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Check for dominance.

Step 2: The most dominant player will declare which of three actions he or she will take at the Palace (with the exception of Al-Rashid's Palace which only offers two possible actions). Players may take up to two of the following actions:

• Secure a service performed by the Palace court.
• Secure a title for your family.
• Beseech the Palace court for a favor.

If a player visits a Palace and only beseeches the Palace court for a favor, the favor will be granted but the Palace court will consider the player to be without honor and thus the player must take a dishonor token.

Step 3: The player must determine what, if any, fees must be paid in exchange for all of the actions the player has declared he or she will be taking. The specific fee for each possible action differs from Palace to Palace and is discussed later in the Palace Action Appendix of the rulebook. The fee must be paid by exchanging a sufficient number and combination of wares to equal or exceed the fee required. Players must consult the table in the upper right hand corner of the game board to determine the value of different combinations of wares. Keep in mind that the value of wares increases based on the number of different wares in each set that a player exchanges. If a player does not have sufficient wares available to pay the entire fee, the player may not take any actions at the Palace. Additionally, consider that the Palaces of the time operated using barter systems instead of currency, so no change is given to players who turn in combinations of wares that exceed the fee required.

Step 4: The player now executes each action he or she was able to pay the fee for. Each Palace's actions are unique; for specific details on each Palace's actions consult the Palace Action Appendix of the rulebook.

Step 5: The player concludes his or her activity and withdraws his contingent of family members from the Palace. Steps two through five are repeated with the next most dominant player until no players' family members are present at the palace. Keep in mind that some players' family members may have been expelled from the palace at the outset when dominance was checked!

The resolution phase continues to proceed around the table in turn order with each player choosing a land or palace with any player's family members present until no such lands or palaces exist. If at any point in the resolution phase, all of a player's family members have been removed from the board, that player's turn is skipped for the remainder of this phase and that player takes no further turns choosing a land or palace to resolve and, more importantly, may not activate any title tiles he or she may have yet to activate.

End of Turn Phase

At the end of each turn aside from the last, players must do the following:

• Refill all empty ware and credit note spaces in the lands.
• Re-activate all used titles.
• Reveal the top crisis tile from the stack, resolve it, then return it to the game box.
• Advance the turn marker one space and proceed to the next turn.

End of Game

Once the final turn has been completed, it will be time for the players to determine who has won the favor of Al-Rashid! Players calculate the amount of Prestige Points they have according to the following:

• Family Members: Every Pasha a player has in his or her personal stock is worth 3 Prestige Points, every Merchant is worth 2, and every Sage is worth 1.
• Tiles: Players calculate the amount of points each of their Title and Caliph tiles are worth and add that number to their Prestige Point total.
• Political Influence tokens: Each player adds to his or her Prestige Point total a number of points equal to the amount of political tokens he or she has, up to a maximum of five points.
• Dishonor tokens: Every player subtracts from his or her Prestige Point total 2 points for every 1 dishonor token.

Once players have calculated their scores, the player with the greatest total has gained the favor of Al-Rashid and is declared the victor! If there is a tie, the player with the highest value of wares in his or her possession among the tied players wins. If there is still a tie, then the player who is earliest in the game order among the tied players with the highest value of wares wins.

Palace Action Appendix

Palace of the Intrigue Guild

• Service: This guild sends out its spies to do the underhanded bidding of the players. This guild's service operates differently than the other guilds' services do: players who choose the service do not execute the spying actions paid for in Step 4 as normal with other actions. Instead, once all players eligible to take actions at the Palace of the Intrigue Guild have completed steps 2-4 for their other possible actions, a special resolution phase will take place during which all spying operations will occur.

  The number of spies that can be sent out depends on dominance order: the player first in dominance will get 3 spies sent out on his/her behalf, the player second in dominance will get 2 spies, and the player third in dominance will get 1 spy. The order for resolving spying operations is also based on dominance and is as follows: 1-2-3-1-2-1. If less than three players choose to do spying operations, those places are skipped in the order. For example, if only the most dominant and third most dominant player seeks this service, the order for resolving the actions would be 1-3-1-1.

• Title: The player takes the title tile he or she paid for in Step 2 of the Palace Resolution phase. The titles available at the beginning of the game are: Smuggler, Plotter, Informer, and Impostor.

• Favor: A player may seek the favor of the Caliph and obtain the favor of any other guild for 1 coin.

Palace of the Military Guild

• Service: The guild provides the players with mercenaries to aid them in future battles. If the player who is first in domination takes this service he or she will draw any three mercenary tiles in any combination of sea and/or land. If the player who is second in domination he or she may draw two mercenary tiles in the same manner. If the player who is third in domination takes this service he or she may draw any one mercenary tile.
• Title: The player takes the title tile he or she paid for in Step 2 of the Palace Resolution phase. The titles available at the beginning of the game are: Strategist, Recruiter, Raider, and Negotiator.
• Favor: A player may seek the favor of the General of the Military Guild and trades any one ware for one mercenary tile. This favor costs nothing.

Palace of the Lore Guild

• Service: This guild teaches a family about its culture. Players who obtain this service may add one more sage from their pool of extra family member pawns that was set aside during the game's setup, if any remain. If the player who is first in domination takes this service he or she must pay the guild five gold coins worth of wares. The player second in domination would pay the guild seven while the player third in domination would pay the guild nine.
• Title: The player takes the title tile he or she paid for in Step 2 of the Palace Resolution phase. The titles available at the beginning of the game are: Lore Master, Enchanter, Diplomat, and Banker.
• Favor: The player may seek the favor of the Court Savant and purchase a Credit Note for two coins.

Palace of the Trade Guild

• Service: This guild teaches a family the art of trade and negotiation. Players who obtain this service may add one more merchant from their pool of extra family member pawns that was set aside during the game's setup, if any remain. If the player who is first in domination takes this service he or she must pay the guild eight gold coins worth of wares. The player second in domination would pay the guild ten while the player third in domination would pay the guild twelve.
• Title: The player takes the title tile he or she paid for in Step 2 of the Palace Resolution phase. The titles available at the beginning of the game are: Trader, Hardwood Importer, Pottery Importer, and Metal Importer.
• Favor: The player may seek the favor of the Visir and may exchange any single ware from his or her personal supply with any other single ware available in the bank. This favor costs nothing.

Palace of the Politics Guild

• Service: This guild teaches a family about politics and the art of rhetoric. Players who obtain this service may add one more pasha from their pool of extra family member pawns that was set aside during the game's setup, if any remain. If the player who is first in domination takes this service he or she must pay the guild eleven gold coins worth of wares. The player second in domination would pay the guild thirteen while the player third in domination would pay the guild fifteen.
• Title: The player takes the title tile he or she paid for in Step 2 of the Palace Resolution phase. The titles available at the beginning of the game are: Aide to the Qadi, Steward of the City, Warehouse Keeper, Favorite's Maiden, Weapon Master, Dean of the Academy, Economist, and Counselor to the Caliph.
• Favor: A player may seek the favor of the Qadi and take one political influence token in exchange for a payment of 1 coin.

Al-Rashid's Palace

Al-Rashid's Palace operates slightly differently from the other palaces. At this Palace, a player must ask for Al-Rashid's benevolence and then may obtain a Caliph Title.

• Ask for Al-Rashid's benevolence. The player chooses and takes any ware from the bank.
• Obtain a Caliph Title tile. The player takes the title tile he or she paid for in Step 2 of the Palace Resolution phase. The titles available at the beginning of the game are: Treasurer, Agha, Silk Monopolist, Spice Monopolist, Astrologist, Law Expert, Quartermaster, and Alchemist.

Important note: in the unlikely event that a player has no Pasha in this Palace at the moment it is resolved, that player's entire delegation is excommunicated from the Palace and the player must take 2 dishonor tokens.

Al-Rashid's Palace also has an additional, unique effect. After all eligible players have executed the appropriate steps in the palace resolution phase, Al-Rashid bestows his grace upon the players who brought the three most dominant contingents of their family by changing the play order beginning with the next resolution phase round. Once the current resolution round has concluded, the play order is changed such that the most dominant player from this palace becomes first, the second most dominant player from this palace becomes second, and the third most dominant player from this palace becomes third. The other players' order is shifted to maintain the pre-existing relative order between them.

Note: players may note this impending change by placing extra pawns on the track just below the play order track.