FAQ
36 answered questions28 official
Rules questions from the BoardGameGeek forum. Answers marked Official were confirmed by Alley Cat Games or the designers.
Common mistakes
- Your action may use the skill icons of all three face-up cards. Only Boat movement needs the card you played this turn. Ruling · Rule
- A card’s goal is checked when it slides off, three turns after you play it — not when you play it. Ruling · Rule
- You sell or buy Goods only when a Boat arrives in port, not every time you move Boats. Ruling · Rule
- Only your Vizier’s location costs tuition. City tiles from a Building, a Book or a card cost none. Ruling · Rule
- Every turn all your Buildings in the Vizier’s quadrant trigger, not only the one you just built. Ruling · Rule
- At the end, Night Characters still on your board score; Day and Starting card effects are lost. Ruling · Rule
Showing 36 of 36
Does the skill for my action have to be on the card I played this turn? Official
No. Your action can use skill icons from any of the cards face up on your board, plus Students, Wild tokens, Skill tiles and Contracts. Only Boat movement is triggered by the card you played this turn.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
Can I take an action with no matching icon on my cards at all? Official
Yes, as long as you get every icon you need some other way: Skill tiles, Students, Wild tokens and so on. A Student or Wild token adds one icon to whatever you have, even zero.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
Can I spend more than one Wild token on the same action? Official
Yes, as many as you like. They are especially useful for the last, most demanding spot of each row on your board.
Source: BGG thread
When a card slides off and rewards an action, which skill icons count? Official
The three cards that were face up at the start of your turn, including the card that is sliding off. Its icons count until its effect is resolved. The card you are about to play this turn does not count yet.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
Do Boats in a port still count as "in the River area" for a card, and does the Palace count as Buildings? Official
Count your wooden pieces that are no longer on your player board: Boats for Boat cards, Houses for Building cards, Architects for Architect cards. Boats in port count. The maximum in each category is 5.
Source: BGG thread
Day card 10 (Mariam al-Astrulabi) says the Building is "added to your player board". Is it? Official
No, that part of the text is a misprint: the Building goes on the empty site you chose, as in a normal Building site action. Co-designer Fabio Lopiano confirmed it.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
Do I have to use all my Boat movement? Official
No, you may waste some. It is usually better not to: a large part of your score comes from Boats in port, and the best port slots go to whoever arrives first.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
With 3 movements, can one Boat move 1 space three times and collect three Goods? Official
No. You split your movement between your Boats, and each Boat makes all of its moves at once, gaining at most one Goods token: the one where it stops. A Boat that reaches a port gains no Goods but takes a port action. In the rulebook's example, three different Boats move.
Source: BGG thread
Can I take a port action without a Boat arriving in port? Official
No. You sell or buy Goods only when one of your Boats arrives in a port, however it got there: a card's Boat icons or a bonus movement.
Source: BGG thread
Can a Student with a Boat icon add a move to a Building's or a reward's Boat movement? Official
No. The Student's Boat icon counts like a Boat icon on your cards, and only when you count Boat icons after playing a card with a Boat. A "move a Boat" reward ignores your icons, so a Student cannot add to it. It cannot start a Boat movement either.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
Selling at a port: do I get 1 Coin if I sell no Goods?
The rulebook does not say. Players answering on BGG read the extra Coin as part of a sale, so most sell at least one Goods token to get it.
Source: BGG thread
Are Goods and Coins limited? Official
No. Use a replacement if a type runs out. As a general rule, resources are unlimited unless the rules say otherwise.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread · BGG thread
Are a Student or Patient in the next quadrant connected to my Vizier? Official
Yes, if a road joins the two spaces, even across a quadrant line. With one connected Patient and two connected Students, one of them over the line, you lose 1 Favour and pay 2 Coins.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
When a Building, a Book reward or a Day card gives me a City tile, where can it come from, and do I pay tuition around it? Official
From anywhere in the City, as long as you have the skill icons for the spot you put it on. You pay nothing for Students and Patients around that tile: tuition depends only on where your Vizier stands at step 5.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread · BGG thread
What if no tile of the type I'm owed is left in the City? Official
Then you get nothing. Each set has six tiles of each type and 22–24 tiles are always on display, so it should be very rare.
Source: BGG thread
Must I put a City tile on the leftmost free spot of its row?
No. Any spot of the matching colour whose skill requirement you meet, as for Houses and Architects.
Source: BGG thread
What if my Vizier has no legal location in the next quadrant? Official
Skip that quadrant and move on to the next one. The co-designer never saw it happen in testing: an empty Building site only needs Bricks, which nearly every card has.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
Can I build two Buildings of the same level?
No. You always build the lowest level you have not built yet, so you build at most one of each level, five in all.
Source: BGG thread
When do my Buildings trigger? Official
Every turn, all your Buildings in the quadrant where your Vizier takes its action trigger once, before or after the action, however and whenever they were built. A Building you place in another quadrant through a reward waits until your Vizier visits that quadrant.
Source: BGG thread
Do level 5 Buildings count for the Buildings Scoring tile? Official
Yes, all five Buildings count.
Source: BGG thread
A player board bonus gives me a Palace action. Is it a full Palace action? Official
Yes. It works like stopping at a Palace site: any piece you can pay for, with an Architect. The bonus from the last spot of a row also lets you ignore one Bricks requirement.
Source: BGG thread
At 1–2 players, what are the three neutral Architects for? Official
As soon as three pieces of one type (Foundations, Walls or Minarets) are built, the fourth is built automatically and a neutral Architect goes on its slot, as a reminder that it is taken.
Source: BGG thread
At 1–2 players, which of the two port slots marked 2 gets the neutral Boat?
The one closest to the river, as the rulebook says. Players answering read it as the slot without a printed bonus.
Source: BGG thread
How much Favour can I spend with one bonus action?
You can start a Spend Favour bonus action only while your marker is above the starting space. A single action may take you below it, for example 2 Favour for a Goods token from the first space. Players answering read each Coin as a separate action, so from the first space you get only 1 Coin.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
At the bottom of the Favour track I can't pay 2 Students. Do I take 2 Shame tokens or 4? Official
Four: each unpaid Coin costs 2 Favour, and each Favour you cannot lose becomes a Shame token. Keep a Step token or two to skip a crowded quadrant instead.
Source: BGG thread
Can a Library token go on a lower Wisdom section?
No. Your second, third, fourth and fifth Books each place a Library token in the matching section of the Wisdom area.
Source: BGG thread
At the end, do the three cards still on my board score? Official
Night Characters on your board score if you meet their requirement. Effects that only trigger when a card slides off, as on Day and Starting cards, are lost.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
The Bot board's Palace spaces don't match the rulebook's list. Which is right? Official
Follow the board. It hardly matters: the Bot only blocks a reward, and the rewards are about equal.
Source: BGG thread
Passing the Black Gate: do I really choose between Extoll Virtue and Seek Charity? Official
Not really. Each lap you should have contributed a new tile by the time you pass the gate. If you did, mark it with a Player marker and gain Favour. If you didn't, lose Favour for the fullest column. If you have already contributed all four tiles, nothing happens.
Source: BGG thread
Can a level 5 Building be made public? Official
No, level 5 Buildings are always owned by a player.
Source: BGG thread
With two players tied for the most Civic tiles, who loses Favour with Seek Charity?
Only the player passing the gate makes the check; a tied column counts as "the most".
Source: BGG thread
Are Contracts reshuffled when a stack runs out?
No. A spent Contract goes back to the box, so once a stack is empty that port has no more Contracts.
Source: BGG thread
Must I place a Player marker when I pass the Golden Gate? Official
Yes. The 0 space is always open, and it makes each card leave after a few laps.
Source: BGG thread · BGG thread
When is the Objective card checked: before or after my Vizier's action? Official
As soon as your Vizier crosses the gate, even with Step tokens: after the card that slid off this turn has resolved, before the Vizier's action.
Source: BGG thread
Who keeps a discarded Objective card? Official
The player whose marker is on its 5-point space, whenever they placed it. Taking the card is how you remember those 5 points. If nobody is on that space, the card goes back to the box.
Source: BGG thread
Is the Objective card's "gain a Boat" reward free? Official
Yes, no Coins needed, but the river's starting space must be free of your Boats.
Source: BGG thread