In the year XII of his reign, the king Akhenaton organized a sumptuous celebration for his wife NEFERTITI in honor of their wedding anniversary.

He ordered members of the Egyptian nobility to find rare and precious gifts throughout the various markets of Egypt.

Components

• 1 gameboard with four markets
• 4 Reserve tiles
• 16 Servant pawns and 4 counter pawns
• 30 coin tokens (Deben)
• 12 Royal Seal tokens
• 46 Gift cards: 8 senets
• 1 Akhenaton card
• 13 Characters cards
• 2 six-sided dice
• 1 "Market Closed" tile
• 1 ankh memory token
• 1 double-sided Markets and Characters rules sheet
• Rulebook

Object of the Game

The players represent Egyptian nobles who, eager to earn important political positions through royal appointment, send their servants out to collect gifts that will be presented to Akhenaton.

The pharaoh will award prestige points based on the gifts' originality. The player who earns the mostprestige wins.

Setup

1. Place the gameboard in the center of the table.

2. For your first game, place the 4 Reserves as shown below 1. The animal symbols (cat, jackal, crocodile, ibis) help you identify which Reserve is associated with which market. With experienced players, place each Reserve tile randomly on the left or right stall of its market.

3. Place one Deben (a silver coin) on each Reserve 2. Place the "Market Closed" tile on the visible stall of Louqsor 3. Thus, the entire market is closed at the beginning of the game.

4. Sort the different character cards, by type, face up, to the side of the board 4. With 3 Players: remove 1 Character card "scribe +2".

5. Each player takes 4 Servant pawns as well as the score counter of the color of their choice. Place the counters on the 0 square of the prestige path 5. At any given moment, the total prestige of a player is shown by their position on the path.

6. Shuffle the Gift cards to form a draw pile. Draw 4 Gift cards without revealing them and reshuffle them with the Akhenaton card. Then, place these 5 cards on the bottom of the draw pile 6. With 3 Players: first place the 8 senet cards back in the box.

7. Draw and place 4 Gift cards face up above each open market. Place the first card on the upper row with a Royal Seal on it 7 and the 3 other cards on the lower row 8. Place the remaining Royal Seals to the side of the gameboard.

8. Each player rolls the two dice, and the player rolling the highest total plays first. Turn order continues clockwise around the table. The first player takes 8 Deben, the second and third 9, and the last 10. With 3 Players: the first player takes 9 Deben, the others 10.

Game Elements

Gift Cards

Players purchase these Gifts at the markets, and they are worth prestige points during the final scoring. Each Gift card has the following information:

For example, if only one player possesses gold works during a scoring, each gold work is worth 14 prestige points. If three or four players hold gold works, each gold work is worth only 7 prestige points.

The Markets (on the Gameboard)

The markets are where players can buy Gifts. Each market has two different stalls (one on the left and one on the right), with different bid values and closing conditions; only one stall is open at a time with the other stall being covered by the market Reserve.

Each market has the following information:

In the example, the market closes and the Gifts can be purchased as soon as the combined bids of the servants reach a total of 17or more.

Game Play

The players take turns clockwise. During their turn, a player may play a Character card, then must place one of their Servant pawns on a "bid square" in one of the three open markets.

1. Play a Character (optional)

• By spending a Royal Seal acquired during a previous game turn, the player may recruit one of the character cards still available next to the gameboard. The spent Seal is placed next to the gameboard.

• The player immediately uses the power on the character card, then removes it from the game. The player may spend only one Royal Seal (and hence play only one character card) per turn.
  
  The description of the characters and their powers is found on the Characters sheet.

  
  
  

2. Place a Servant (mandatory)

• The player places one and only one of their Servants on a empty bid square on one of the three open market stalls (only one servant may be placed in each square). It is not possible to place a Servant in the market that is currently closed.

• If the player is the first to place a pawn on an empty open market, they earn a Deben, and take it from that market's Reserve (if no money is available, the player earns nothing).

  If the player places their Servant on a bid square bearing the symbol , the player immediately earns a Deben and takes it from the market's Reserve, if possible.

  A player may earn both bonuses with the placement of a single Servant (arriving first on an empty market and placing a pawn on a square with the symbol awards up to two Deben if available in the corresponding Reserve).

• The player's turn ends and the opponent to the left plays next.

One player may have several Servants in the same open market.

If the player no longer has any Servants available, they choose one market that already contains at least one of their Servants; that market is immediately declared closed.

This action replaces the placement of a Servant.

Market Closing

If, after placing a Servant, the closing conditions of a market arefulfilled, the market is immediately closed. (See the Markets sheet for details of the closing conditions for each market).

The players may now resolve the bids made by each Servant in order to buy the Gift cards.

Each Servant's bid corresponds to the value of the square where they stand. The Servants with higher bids are resolved before those with lower ones.

1. For the servant who made the highest bid

The player who owns the Servant must pay as many Deben as the value of the win- ning bid. The player places the coins in the Reserve of this market: these coins are added to any Deben that might already be present in the Reserve.

The player now takes:

• Either two Gift cards of their choice from those that don't bear the Royal Seal. (meaning two of the three Gifts in the lower row).

• Or the Gift card on the upper row as well as the Royal Seal placed on it.

If this player doesn't have enough money, he or she pays nothing, but out of shame, must discard a Gift card previously acquired (this card is removed from the game). If the player has no Gifts, the turn is simply passed. Nevertheless the following servant is not considered as the highest bidder.

In any case, the player removes their Servant pawn.

Special Bid Squares:

(only for the player whose Servant made the highest bid)

"Single Card" symbol: The player may take only one Gift card (either with or without a Royal Seal).

"Extra Card" symbol: The player takes one of the 3 Gift cards without a Royal Seal as an extra card after buying the normal one or two Gift cards.

2. For each other servant

In descending order of bids, each player with a Servant in this market chooses one of the following two actions:

• Either purchase one Gift card from all those remaining in the market. (This includes the Gift on the upper row as well as the Royal Seal, if this Gift hasn't been taken yet). The player must pay a sum equal to the Servant's bid to the market Reserve.

• Or take half of the Deben (rounding up) in the market Reserve (if the Reserve has no money, the player may simply pass).

In any case, the player then removes the Servant from the market.

At any time, a player may exchange 1 Gold Deben for 2 Silver Deben.

Throughout the game, each player must keep their Deben and their Gift cards visible.

3. Once all Servants have been removed from the market, the market is closed

• Slide the Reserve tile onto the stall just played (revealing its other stall), then place the "Market Closed" tile on this market's other stall (this stall will be accessible when this market reopens).

• Any Gift cards not purchased stay in place. They will be available again once the market reopens.

4. Prepare the previously closed market (from which the "Market Closed" tile has just been removed) for new business

• Move any Gift cards in this market. Fill the upper row with the card farthest to the left in the lower row (if necessary), then slide any remaining cards to the left of the lower row.

• Then draw as many Gift cards as needed to fill the market with four Gift cards.

• Finally, place a Royal Seal on the Gift card in the upper row, if one is not already present. If no Royal Seals are available, skip this step.

• The game continues with the player to the left of the player who closed the market now taking their turn.

As a memory aid, the ankh shaped pawn may be taken by the player who causes the closing of a market.

Once the market is settled, the player to the left of the one holding the ankh takes the next turn.

If the Akhenaton card is drawn while placing Gift cards in a market, this market is permanently closed (turn its Reserve at an angle to indicate this).

No other market will reopen for the rest ofthe game. Continue to place Servants until the final two markets are closed.

Once these two markets are closed, proceed to the final scoring to finish the game.

End of the Game

Once the Akhenaton card is revealed and all of the markets are closed, the game ends. The players now present their Gifts to Akhenaton.

• Each Gift is worth a number of prestige points, with the value depending on the number of players possessing that type of Gift.

  Consult the table printed on the bottom of each Gift card: the upper part of the table indicates the number of players possessing that type of Gift, the number below indicates the number of corresponding points.

• Each player also scores 1 point for every two Deben that they possess and 3 points for each Royal Seal they didn't use.

The winner is the player having accumulated the most prestige points.

In the event of a tie, the tie is broken by the player having kept the most Deben, who is declared the winner.

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