The Game With 2 Or 3 Players

When playing with 2 or 3 players, apply the following changes:

Only use a number of black dice equal to the number of players + 1. As such, with 3 players, there will be 4 black dice, and with 2 players, 3 black dice

3 Players

At the beginning of the game, place one die (on 1) from an unused player color on the first space of the "Khan's Favor" action.

Important: This die will stay in place for the whole game! Do not remove it from the board.

2 Players

At the beginning of the game, place two dice (each on 1) from an unused player color on the first two spaces of the "Khan's Favor" action. Additionally, place one die (here, the value is unimportant) on the "Take 5 coins" action space.

Important: These dice will stay in place for the whole game! Do not remove them from the board.

The Expert Variant

There are a few small changes to the game in the expert variant. All of the regular rules remain in effect. You can choose one or more of the following distribution methods. However, if you choose to include them one after the other, proceed in the order described below.

Distribution Of City Bonuses

Randomly distribute the city bonuses across the small cities. Ignore the letters A - F while placing the bonus markers.

Distribution Of Characters

During setup, randomly shuffle the 8 different characters. (There are 3 copies of the "Mercator ex Tabriz" in the game). Shuffle in the version you need, according to the number of players. Next, reveal as many character cards as there are players taking part plus 1.

The last player in turn order (the player to the right of the start player) chooses a character first, placing it in front of him or herself. The players then continue by each taking one character card in reverse turn order. Return the remaining character to the box. The individual characters are summarized on the supplement.

Distribution Of Goal Cards

Deal each player 4 Goal cards, facedown, at the start of the game. Each player secretly chooses 2 of them to keep, returning the rest of them to the game box.

The game then begins as usual.

Continue Reading