Actions and the Round

Play a multi-use card, combine its colour action, and carry out one of six actions.

Turn structure

Play one action card into the leftmost open slot, choosing its upper or lower half. Take that half’s main action and colour action in either order; if the main action cannot be done, take only the colour action. In odd rounds, draw one action card if any remain. Cards, bonus cards and sack cards count toward a five-card hand limit at turn end; special cards do not. Bonus and sack cards may be played at any time during your turn, and you may use only part of a card’s effect. Used or discarded sack cards go to the bottom of their deck; bonus cards leave the game.

Colour actions and special tracks

Choose a face-up bonus card of the matching colour, move one step on that colour’s special-card track, or take a sack card. Bonus cards can be played immediately or saved. A sack card can be played now, held, or discarded unused for 1 VP. Each colour track has three levels of matching special cards. When you reach a marked level, either take the face-up card for 1 VP and 1 coin or search that level’s unrevealed cards, shuffle them and take one without the bonus; then reveal the next-level top card. Yellow, white and blue tracks allow level I on all three, level II on only two, and level III on only one; pink has no such restriction. Yellow cards replace a starting action card. Pink cards score at game end and give an earlier-taken bonus: in rounds 1–2, 2 coins and 3 VP; in rounds 3–4, 1 coin and 1 VP; none in rounds 5–6.

Workshop construction

Pay 1 coin and 1 stone, choose one of the three face-up workshops of a level, then choose its side and orientation. Place it corner-to-corner with at least one of your existing workshops, leaving spaces between tiles for gardens. Level I workshops are available from the start. Level II workshops enter at the start of round 3 and require at least two merchant tokens on your player board. A Level II tile’s front provides its depicted immediate reward before you choose which side to place. Refill the offer from the same level if possible.

Provisions

Take one available face-up bonus card, move one step on any coloured special-card track, or draw a sack card. Resolve this action just like a colour action; it may be combined with the card’s own colour action.

Production

Activate two different workshop tiles, one production room on each. Each reversed workshop with the extra-production symbol adds one activation. Activations from this action must use different workshops; a separate card or tile effect that grants one extra room may use a workshop already activated. Place goods and resources gained by production in the warehouse on your player board. Workshop rooms can grant goods, resources, coins, points or camels, as pictured.

Garden construction

Pay 1 stone for a small garden or 1 coin and 1 stone for a large garden. Place it orthogonally in your workshop area so it touches a workshop or garden tile and fills a garden square. Choose a permitted orientation. When placing a garden, collect the connected green workshop bonuses that the new tile completes or connects; a later workshop does not trigger bonuses on a garden already placed. Complete a square with either one large and one small garden or three small tiles. Each completed square advances the garden reward track: first, one colour-track step; second, one step and 2 VP; third, two steps and 3 VP; fourth, two steps and 4 VP; fifth and each later square, 5 VP. Two complete squares are also a prerequisite for water tanks.

Canal construction

Pay the cost printed on a canal tile and place it on any empty water-network space, keeping its cost corner at upper left. Vertically adjacent tiles must connect; horizontally adjacent tiles need not. Take the space reward and any canal bonus tile there, using or discarding it for its one-time effect. When a new tile is placed next to a water source cube, move that cube onto the new tile to activate it for the next Rain phase. A water-tank tile may be placed only after you have completed two garden squares and established a trading base. The supply has two tank tiles.

Trading

Move your caravan along at least one road segment, paying one coin per segment travelled; you may return to your starting city and trade there. A round trip through Resafa costs only the toll for the road segment below Resafa. At Resafa, load matching goods or resources from your warehouse, then continue to trade; the caravan may carry only one type at once, up to its capacity. At the destination, buy or sell one type shown on that city’s trading tile, but not both. Bought items load onto the camel; goods/resources produced by other means stay in the Resafa warehouse. Apply a trade’s one-time golden bonus once, not per item, then flip the trading tile. You may establish one trading base in that city if you have not already: pay 1 stone and 1 coin, choose an available box and take its reward. The box grants a square or scarab merchant token, which you place in the leftmost eligible scoring-row space. A designer ruling confirms a trading base can be built without buying or selling, but it still follows the trade action’s movement requirement.

End of a round

After everyone has played three cards, remove remaining bonus cards and refill the four-colour display with three level I cards each. Pass the starting-player tile left and advance the round. At the end of rounds 2 and 4, collect all action cards, take yellow replacement cards into hand first, then shuffle and draw to three cards. Flip played cards face down after the odd rounds. Rain phases happen after rounds 2, 4 and 6.