Victory

The player with the most victory points (VP) wins the game.

Rules summary

Thank you Steven for this game help (original file is there).

Game starts, and recycles the 3 phases, setup, action, maintenance, until:

• 4 or less garden tiles are left after a maintenance phase for 3/4 players.

• 3 or less garden tiles are left after a maintenance phase for 2 players.

Setup Phase

Shuffle all Craftsmen cards and Layout as below.

• 2 players: 2 groups of three cards.
• 3 players: 3 groups of three cards.
• 4 players: 4 groups of three cards.

Players with Bankers earn Income (1 coin, 2 coins, or 2 coins & 2 VPs).

Action Phase

Passing

Place cube on Pass space; each time that player Passes afterward, he earns 1 coin.

Purchasing Workers

Recruit a Craftsman from a set; the first in a set (3 horizontal cards) costs no coins, the second cost 1 coin, and the third costs 2 coins. Turn over card to display coin upon chosen card, which signifies the cost of the next card.

Merchant: Take 1 camel into the players supply.

Engineer: Place 1 cube of a player on an irrigation marker and get 2 VPs. The cube placement must trace an unbroken path of irrigation cubes to the river.

Priest: Place 1 cube of a player into one Temple’s line of petitioners (each Temple will earn something in the Maintenance Phase). Place cube from left and shift all other cubes to the right. Cubes that drop off from the right are placed back into supply.

Farmer: Place 1 cube of a player on the left most open field space and take that Resource into Supply. If that Resource is Wine, the field is cleared and whoever had a majority of cubes in that field gets a Gardener card if one is available. If tied, the cube colour furthest to the right wins the gardener card.

Trading/Caravanning

Move the Caravan by paying at least 1 Camel token and moving as many spaces as Camels paid plus up to as many spaces as allowed by the current Caravan card.

A Caravan cannot be moved to a place where a player cannot fulfil the demands of that city.

If the Caravan moves into Babylon either 1 Resource token must be given up for 3 VPs or 2 resource tokens can be given for 6 VPs; that player also places one irrigation cube.

In some cities a player can hire Bankers and Caravaneers, as well as expand their Palace (bonus one-time VPs are added when cards are purchased). Pay the required resource to acquire these upgrade cards.

In four of the cities there are Plants available. Some Plants are better than others and cost more (i.e. 2 resource tokens instead of 1).

There are four levels to the Hanging Gardens, with level 1 Plants being able to be planted on its first level.

Level 2 Plants may also be planted in level 1 Hanging Gardens.

Gardeners can improve a Plant’s quality, allowing level 1 Plants to be planted on the Wonder’s second level or even its third; or allowing a level 2 Plant to be planted on the third level. That is, 1 or more gardener cards can be used on a plant to increases its quality.

The Hanging Gardens’ fourth level requires a level 3 plant only.

As soon as Plants are paid for, they are planted.

The player who bought the Plant gains the prizes on the Wonder’s tile.

A player who controls the irrigation around that tile (i.e. the most number of their colour cubes) scores VPs equal to the Plant’s initial level (not including spent gardener cards). If there is tie, then no VPs are given.

Neutral grey cubes are added to empty irrigation spots of adjacent planted tile areas.

Once bonuses and VPs have been award, the plant card is turned over in the caravan board to show a different plant on offer for that city/area.

Maintenance Phase

Temple Procession is controlled by the last player in the round; they place 1 cube of that players colour into one of the Temples of their choice, and 1 neutral cube into each of the other temples (i.e. 2 grey cubes total).

Temples provide benefits to 1 player in a 2 player game, or 2 players in a 3-4 player game; ties for majority are broken by whose cube is closest to the right/exit.

Award bonuses for each temple:

Ishtar 1st Gets choice of a camel token or a coin. 2nd Gets what the 1st place didn’t want.

Marduk 1st Gets 2 VPs. 2nd Gets 1 VPs.

Tammouz 1st Gets to add a clue to the resource field of their choice. 2nd Gets to swap one of their resource tokens from supply, but not for wine.

Players check goods in their Supply for resource spoilage and adjust the token number they can keep between major game rounds.

Level 0,1 Caravaneers can keep up to 2 resource tokens.

Level 2 Caravaneers can keep up to 4 resource tokens.

The Starting Player card is passed clockwise. Re-shuffle craftsmen cards; go to setup phase to complete another game round.

End Game

Game ends when the follow conditions are met for the number people playing.

2 Players: When 3 garden tiles are left or less at the end of major game round.

5 or 6 Wonder tiles gained add additional 5 VPs, 7 Wonder tiles gained, add 10 VPs.

3 Players: When 4 garden tiles are left or less at the end of major game round.

4 or 5 Wonder tiles gained add additional 5 VPs, 6 Wonder tiles gained, add 10 VPs.

4 Players: When 4 garden tiles are left or less at the end of major game round.

3 or 4 Wonder tiles gained add additional 5 VPs, 5 Wonder tiles gained, add 10 VPs.

Each player scores 1 additional VP for each resource token remaining in his stock (nothing for the camels and the coins).

Total points = Current VPs

+ Resources Token Left

+ Bonus for number of garden tiles planted.