Through the Desert Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Setup
Playing the Game
Occupying Water Holes
Linking Oases
Enclosing Areas
Game End and Final Scoring
Running Out of Scoring Markers
Credits

Components

Game Board: The game board depicts a desert enclosed by mountain ranges, with another mountain range in the middle. In a four- or five-player game, the entire board is used. With two or three players, the smaller section, separated by a dark line, is not used.
Pastel Camels: There are 34 plastic camels in each of five pastel colors. The camel colors are unrelated to the five player colors.
Riders: There are six plastic riders in each of five player colors. These riders will be placed on camels to show which player controls which caravans.
Gray Camels: There are five gray plastic camels. A rider of each player color will be placed on a gray camel to remind everyone which color belongs to which player.
Oases: These 5 plastic palm trees are used to indicate oases in the desert. Players gain points for linking their caravans to oases.
Water Hole Markers: There are 15 each of one, two, and three-point water hole markers. These represent small water holes in the desert. When a player places a camel on a space containing a water hole, he claims that water hole marker.
Oasis Scoring Markers: One of these 20 five-point markers is claimed by a player each time he places one of his camels adjacent to an oasis.
Area Scoring Markers: These 10 ten-point markers are claimed during final scoring as players tally up how much of the desert they have enclosed.
Caravan Scoring Markers: The five 10-point caravan scoring markers in the pastel camel colors are each awarded at the end of the game to the player with the largest caravan of that color. The five-point caravan markers are awarded to players in the case of a tie.

Note: Each player uses riders of one distinct player color. This color is different from the camel colors. The color of the riders helps players determine who controls what caravans on the board.

Setup

The youngest player is nominated as the starting player. Play always begins with that player and continues clockwise.
Each player receives a) six riders in one player color, b) one camel in each of the five camel colors and c) one gray camel.
The players now seat one rider on each of their six camels (the five pastel camels and the one gray camel). The five pastel camels with riders are referred to as caravan leaders. The gray camels with riders are player markers, and are placed in front of each player to indicate that player's color.

Exception: In a five-player game, each player removes a Caravan Leader, each with a different camel color, so that each player has only four caravan leaders instead of five.
All remaining camels are separated by color and placed in five camel piles close to the game board.

Exception: In a two-player game, remove ten camels from each camel pile. In a three-player game, remove five camels from each camel pile.
Place the five plastic palm trees arbitrarily on any of the seven palm tree spaces on the board. Note that in two or three player games, there are only 6 available palm tree spaces in the play area.
Next, shuffle the water hole markers and place them randomly face-up on each space of the board marked with a blue dot. Water holes are also placed on the unoccupied palm tree spaces.

In two- or three-player games, surplus water holes are not used and are placed back in the box.
Place the remaining counters in a convenient area close to the board.

Playing the Game

To begin the game, players will first place their caravan leaders as described under Placing Caravan Leaders. Once that is done, the main portion of the game begins, with the players developing their caravans by placing camels as described under Caravan Development and Placing Camels.

Placing Caravan Leaders

In clockwise order, beginning with the starting player, each player places one of his caravan leaders on an empty space of the board. A caravan leader may not be placed in any of the following spaces:

Spaces containing a water hole, an oasis or another caravan leader.
Any space that is adjacent to an oasis or another caravan leader (including leaders controlled by the same player).

In addition, for the first round of leader placement only, no player may place a caravan leader riding a camel of the same color as a leader already placed by another player.

Play continues clockwise with each player placing one caravan leader on the board until all players have placed all of their caravan leaders. Once that is done, the game begins in earnest.

Hint: The careful placement of your caravan leaders is especially vital to your success in the game. Therefore, in your first game, attempt to distribute your leaders evenly over the board, in areas away from other caravan leaders.

Caravan Development

Once caravan leaders have been placed, the main portion of the game begins. Beginning with the starting player and continuing clockwise, each player in turn chooses and places two rider-less camels, one at a time, on the board. Each player will in this way build continuous chains of camels of the same color, with each such "caravan" linking to a player's caravan leader riding a camel of that color.

Example: The green player decides to develop his yellow caravan on his first turn, so he takes two yellow camels from the yellow camel pile and places them, one at a time, next to the yellow camel with the green rider, forming a continuous line.

Each player attempts to develop their caravans in order to score points. Points are scored by placing camels on water holes, next to oases, enclosing areas and by having the largest caravan of a particular color. The game ends when the last camel in one of the five camel piles is played.

Placing Camels

On his turn, a player must take a total of two camels from the camel piles and place each of them, one at a time, on any empty space, or on a space containing a water hole. The two camels may be of the same color or of two different colors.

Exception: In the first camel-placing round of the game, the first two players may only place one camel each. In a two-player game, this only applies to the first player.

When placing camels, players must obey the following rules:

A camel must be placed adjacent to a camel of the same color belonging to that player (and thus placed adjacent to a continuous group of identically colored camels linking to the caravan leader of the player's color). Thus, a purple camel must be placed next to a purple camel of that player's caravan. This means that each player controls only one caravan of each camel color.
A camel cannot be placed next to another camel of the same color that belongs to another player's caravan.
Camels may be placed next to camels of a different color no matter who they belong to.

Example: In the diagram, the green player has decided to place two yellow camels this turn. He may place the first camel in any space marked with an "X", giving him a choice of nine spaces. He cannot place it on the "!" spaces, since that would be next to another yellow camel controlled by the blue player. He decides to place the first camel to the right of the "3" water hole, and then places his second camel below that in order to link his yellow caravan to the oasis.

Occupying Water Holes

When a player places a camel on a space with a water hole marker (worth 1, 2 or 3 points) he claims the water hole marker and places it face-down in front of him.

Linking Oases

When a player places a camel onto one of the six spaces adjacent to an oasis (palm tree), he claims an oasis scoring chip (worth 5 points) and places it in front of him.

If a player places another camel of the same caravan adjacent to the same oasis, he does not claim another oasis scoring marker. Each caravan can only score one oasis marker per oasis. However, a player may reach several different oases with one caravan, or one oasis with several different caravans, receiving one oasis scoring marker for each of them.
Multiple players can link their caravans to the same oasis (even caravans of the same color, provided that the camel placement rules are obeyed), each of them receiving an oasis scoring marker.

Example: The red player can no longer link his green caravan to the oasis, since that would violate the rule about placing camels next to other camels of the same color controlled by another player. However, he can still link his purple caravan to the oasis.

Hint: Watch your opponents' caravans carefully, or else you might be cut off from linking to an oasis! Always remember that you cannot extend your caravan onto a space that is adjacent to another caravan of the same color.

Enclosing Areas

When a player places a camel in such a way that he encloses an area consisting of one or more spaces with a single caravan, he takes possession of that area. The following rules apply:

The player must place camels of one color in such a way that, with the assistance of the edge of the board or the mountain range in the middle, they form an uninterrupted chain completely enclosing an area. Note that it is possible to enclose an area without the help of the edge of the board or the mountain range. In this case, the caravan itself must completely surround the area in question.
It is not possible to enclose an area using caravans of different colors.
An enclosed area may not contain any other camels (no matter who they belong to).

When a player takes possession of an area:

If the enclosed area contains any water holes, the player immediately claims them and places them face-down in front of him. He does not have to occupy these spaces with his camels.
If the enclosed area contains one or more oases which have not yet been linked to by the enclosing caravan, the player immediately receives one (5-point) oasis scoring chip for each such oasis. He does not have to link his caravan to the enclosed oases.

Once an area has been enclosed, no player (not even the player who enclosed the area) may place camels herein. The area is totally closed off from further play.

Example: The area in the diagram is not yet enclosed. It is surrounded by two different caravans belonging to the blue player. Blue places two purple camels, enclosing the area with the help of the edge of the board. He takes the two water holes and one oasis scoring chip.

Hint: By enclosing areas you can score large numbers of points. First, by taking water holes and oasis chips, and then later by scoring area points. Always try to prevent your opponents from enclosing large and valuable areas.

Game End and Final Scoring

The game ends at the end of a player's turn when the last camel of a single color has been placed on the board. Then, final scoring takes place. Here are the possible ways for players to score points:

Largest Caravans: For each camel color, determine which player has the largest caravan of that color (that is, the caravan containing the greatest number of camels in that color). This player claims the 10-point caravan scoring chip for that color. If two or more players are tied for largest caravan in a color, each of them receives a five-point caravan scoring chip. The 10-point caravan scoring chip for that color is not awarded in this case.

Hint: Always ensure that you have the most camels in one or even two colors. A caravan does not have to be especially large to win the 10 point caravan chip—just bigger than any of your opponents' caravans!
Enclosed Areas: Next, the value of each player's enclosed areas is determined. A player scores 1 point for every space within an enclosed area (but not for an oasis space). In the example, the blue player receives 13 points. These points are paid out with the help of 10-point area chips, change being made from other markers such as water holes.
Oases and Water holes: A player receives 5 points for every Oasis marker, and the number of points indicated on every water hole marker he has claimed throughout the game.

Once this final scoring is complete, each player totals his combined points. The player with the highest total wins. In the case of a tie, the win is shared.

Running Out of Scoring Markers

Players can always use the various markers to make change if necessary. Players always collect points for their camel placements, even if the appropriate markers have run out. So, even if all of the oasis markers have been used, players can still link to oases and score 5 points each time they do so, simply use other available markers to award the 5 points.

Credits

Designer: Reiner Knizia

English Rules by: Reiner Knizia, Kevin Jacklin, Kevin Wilson, and Christian T. Petersen

Published by: Fantasy Flight Games under license from KOSMOS Spiele Galerie

Cover Art: John Gravato

Graphic Design by: Scott Nicely, Brian Schomburg

New Component Art: Brian Schomburg

Editing: Greg Benage, Christian T. Petersen, Kevin Wilson

Publisher: Christian T. Petersen

The author would like to thank the many playtesters of the game. Special thanks go to Martin Higham, Ross Inglis, Kevin Jacklin and Chris Lawson.