Overview

In Pax Pamir, each player assumes the role of a nineteenth-century Afghan leader attempting to forge a new state after the collapse of the Durrani Empire. Western histories often call this period “The Great Game” because of the role played by the Europeans who attempted to use Central Asia as a theater for their own rivalries

To win the game, have the most victory points after the final Dominance Check is resolved, or have a lead of at least 4 points after any Dominance Check is resolved.

If players are tied for victory points after the final Dominance Check, the player with the most red stars in their court among the tied players wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the most rupees among the tied players wins. If there is still a tie, whoever can cook the best chopan kebab wins.

Starting Loyalty

During setup, starting with a random player, each player chooses their starting loyalty. (See "Loyalty and Influence" below.)

After the last player has chosen their starting loyalty, that player will take the first turn. The game is now ready to play.

Turn

On your turn, you may take 0-2 actions (plus any free bonus actions) then perform Cleanup.

The three action types are: Purchase, Play, and Card Action:

Impact Symbols

A Camel has you place a road coalition block on a border of the card's region

A Jezail has you place an army coalition block on the card's region

A Weighing Scales gives you 2 Rupees and reminds you that the card is Leveraged (see "Cards")

A Cylinder on Card has you place a Spy Cylinder on a matching region card in any player's court

A Crown has you place a Tribe Cylinder on the card's region

All the Suits have you to change the Favoured Suit

Card Actions

There are 6 main action types cards may provide

Cleanup

Check you aren't over Hand or Court Limit

If there are any Event cards in the left-most spot in the Market, discard them and resolve their Impact Event for all Players

If there were any rupees on these cards, they stay lingering in the empty spaces

Move all Market cards to the left, which allows cards to scoop up rupees in empty spaces even if they already had rupees of their own

Draw new Market cards into the now-empty rightmost spots in the Market

If one of the new cards was a Dominance, check to see if it's the only Dominance

If there is another Dominance, complete a Dominance Check, discard all Dominance cards, and draw new cards to fill the spaces

Dominance Check

To be successful, a single coalition must have the most blocks in play and four more than any other coalition.

If unsuccessful, the player with the most cylinders in play scores 3 points and the player with second most scores 1 point.

If successful, players in the winning coalition each score points based on how much influence they have. The player with the most scores 5, then 3, then 1. After which, remove all coalition blocks.

The fourth and final dominance check awards double points for every player involved.

In the case of a tie, tied players add up the victory points for the tied places and then divide that number by the number of tied players (rounding down). For example, in a dominance check where there is a winning coalition, if two players both have the second most amount of loyalty, they would each get 2 points (3 + 1 divided by 2).

Court & Hand Limits

During your turn, your court can contain any number of cards

However, at end of turn, your court can only have 3 + purple stars quantity of cards, any excess must be discarded

Likewise, your hand can contain any number of cards during the turn

However, at end of turn, your hand can only have 2 + blue stars quantity of cards, any excess must be discarded

Stars

★ Economic Stars reduce taxation

★ Military Stars provide a tie-breaker for end game

★ Political Stars increase size of Court

★ Intelligence Stars increase size of Hand

Loyalty and Influence

Each player is always loyal to one of the three coalitions, British, Russian, and Afghan. This affects which cards you may want to play into your court. Consider carefully if and when you want to change loyalty, to take advantage of the game state and earn the most victory points.

Your loyalty is important in gaining victory points from Dominance Checks. If you are loyal to the Dominant Coalition when a Dominance Check is resolved, you are eligible to score victory points depending on your amount of influence compared to other players of the same loyalty. (You'll want to be loyal to the right coalition at the right time, which may require changing loyalties during the game.)

You change loyalty whenever you play a Patriot, or gain a prize, of a different loyalty. The loyalty of a Patriot is determined by the colour and symbol on the banner containing the card's name, or at the bottom of the card when gaining it as a prize. You may reject a prize in order to maintain your current loyalty. When you change loyalty, you lose all patriots, gifts, and prizes you currently have, before gaining the new patriot or prize which caused you to change.

Your influence to your coalition is calculated as 1, plus the number of patriots, prizes, and gifts you have. If you have the most influence in the Dominant Coalition when a Dominance Check is resolved, you will score the most points. (See "Dominance Check" above.)

Ruling a Region

To rule a region, you must have one tribe there and more ruling pieces than any other

Once a ruler, you have the following bonuses

• You may take the Build action

• You have Tax Privilege

• You can Extract Bribes

Overthrow Rule

If you lose your last tribe in a region, all Political cards you own from that region must be immediately discarded

Likewise, if you lose your last Political card from a region, you must immediately remove all of your tribes from that region

Cards

Cards may have multiple actions on them, but only one of these actions may be taken per turn

If you need to discard a card with a spy, this is returned to its owner

If you need to discard a card with the Leveraged icon, either two rupees or 1 card per rupee owed must be discarded too

If you lose the last tribe in a region, all political cards associated with that region are also discarded

If you lose the last political card associated with a region, all tribes in that region are also discarded

Suits

There are four suits in the game, and one suit is always shown as favoured, starting with Political (purple) but this will change throughout the game

Whichever suit is currently the Favoured Suit allow those cards to take a single action without counting against the turn's two-action limit

If Military is Favoured, purchasing cost of cards is doubled whilst Favoured

Game End

After a Dominance Check, if a player is at least 4 points ahead of everyone else, that player immediately wins

After the fourth Dominance Check card is resolved, the player with the most points wins

If there's a tie, the tie-breakers are: first, most Military stars, second most rupees, third cook a Chopan Kebab and the players vote on who cooked the best meal