Game Objective: Become a Legendary Ruler of the Ganges!

Welcome to India of the Mughal Empire, where prosperity and glory intertwine! In Rajas of the Ganges, you and your friends take on the roles of rajas and ranis, competing to transform your provinces into magnificent and rich lands. Your objective is simple yet challenging: balance the growth of your glory and your wealth in such a way that your indicators meet (or surpass!) on the scoring tracks that run in opposite directions around the board. The first to achieve this feat has a great chance of becoming the most legendary leader of the nation!

Setup: Building Your Empire

Let's set up the table to start building your legacy!

1. Starting Player: The player who rolls the lowest total value on the dice starts. In case of a tie, whoever ate Indian food most recently wins! The starting player places the starting player elephant on their Kali statue and their wealth marker on space 3 of the wealth track. The other players, in clockwise order, place their wealth markers on spaces 4, 5, and so on.
2. Game Board: Place the game board in the center of the table, with the correct side for the number of players (2 or 3-4) facing up. In 3-player games, cover the indicated spaces with the exclusion tokens.
3. Dice: Arrange the 48 dice next to the board as a general supply.
4. Province Tiles: Organize the 64 province tiles by color and then by the symbols on their backs (snake, cow, tiger), forming 12 stacks. Shuffle each stack separately and leave them face up, visible to everyone, next to the board.
5. White Production Tokens: Shuffle the 8 white production tokens and place them face down as a stack on the temple on the board.
6. Player Components: Each player chooses a color and takes:
   • 1 province board
   • 1 Kali statue
   • 6 workers
   • 1 boat
   • 5 cubes (4 improvement and 1 karma)
   • 1 wealth marker
   • 1 glory marker
   • 1 bonus token (for the wealth track)
7. Initial Component Placement:
   • Place your Kali statue and province board in front of you.
   • Place 3 of your workers under your Kali statue.
   • Place the other 3 workers in the appropriate spaces: one on space 15 of the glory track, one on space 20 of the wealth track, and one on the river bridge.
   • Position your boat on the starting space of the river.
   • Place your karma cube on level 1 of the karma path.
   • Place 1 improvement cube in the left column (level 2) of each "Building Improvement" scroll on the game board.
   • Place your glory marker on space "0" of the glory track.
   • Place your bonus token for the wealth track, with the river side facing up, on the first bonus space (space 12) of the wealth track.
   • Each player takes one die of each color (4 dice in total), rolls them, and places them, with the result facing up, on one of the empty arms of their Kali statue.

The Game Turn: Build, Trade, and Advance!

The game unfolds over several rounds, and each round has several phases. On your turn, you will:

1. Place a worker: Choose one of the four main areas of the board to send one of your active workers.
2. Pay costs (if necessary): Some actions require you to pay wealth and/or dice.
   • Paying with Wealth: Move your wealth marker backward on the wealth track. If it's at 0, you have no more wealth to spend.
   • Paying with Dice: Return the indicated dice to the supply.
   • Gaining Dice: Whenever you take a die from the general supply, roll it immediately and add it to your personal supply (on your Kali statue). Remember: you can have a maximum of 10 dice in the basic game.
3. Perform the action: Execute the action corresponding to the area where you placed your worker.

This continues until no one else can place a worker. Then, everyone takes their workers back, and a new round begins!

Main Action Areas:

I. Building Action (Quarry)

Want to expand your province? Send a worker to the quarry! You will pay 1 to 4 wealth (moving your wealth marker backward) and, in return, you can acquire one of the 12 visible province tiles. Each tile has a color and a minimum value of dice required. Return dice of the corresponding color with a total value equal to or greater than that indicated on the tile.

• Building Your Province: The new tile must connect to an existing road, maintaining a connection to your residence. You can orient the tile as you wish. Once placed, the tile cannot be relocated.
• Special Productions: If you connect your residence to a special production in the corner of your province board, you gain the benefit immediately (after scoring for the tile).
• Immediate Gains:
  • Market Stalls: Tiles with market stalls (silk, tea, or spices) give wealth immediately.
  • Buildings: Tiles with buildings (temple, palace, or mill) give 2, 3, or 4 glory points per building, depending on the improvement level of that building (indicated by your improvement cubes).
• Building Improvements: You can upgrade your buildings to gain more glory. This can be done at the palace, in some river spaces, or by crossing bonuses on the scoring tracks or connecting special productions. Move your improvement cube to the right in the corresponding row. Remember: improvements only count for buildings added after the improvement!

II. Market Action (Market Stalls)

Time to generate income! Send a worker to the market to collect wealth from the stalls in your province.

• Various Goods: Score exactly one stall of each type of good (silk, tea, spices) that you have in your province. In 3-4 player games, you can only use this space once per round.
• Goods of One Type: Return any die. Score up to a maximum of market stalls of one type of good corresponding to the value of the die.

III. Palace Actions

Visit the Grand Mughal's palace to obtain various benefits, some free, others with a die cost.

• The Lookout (Free): Take 2 wealth and may re-roll as many dice as you wish from your Kali statue.
• The Terrace (Free): Take 1 die of the indicated color from the supply, roll it, and add it to your Kali statue.
• The Balconies (Cost: 1 specific colored die): Give 1 die of a specific color and take 2 dice of a different color, rolling them and adding them to your Kali statue.
• The Chambers (Cost: 1 die of any color with exact number):
  • Grand Mughal (Die 1): Gain 2 glory points and become the starting player for the next round.
  • Dancer (Die 2): Take 2 dice from the supply, buy a face-down white production token, gain the production from the token (1 die, 3 wealth, 1 improvement, or 1 karma), and discard the token.
  • Yogi (Die 3): Gain 2 karma and 1 die of your choice.
  • Raja Man Singh (Die 4): Make an improvement to a building of your choice and gain 3 wealth.
  • Builder (Die 5): Cover any tile in your province with another tile from the supply. The new tile must be more expensive than the old one, and you pay the difference in dice of the new tile's color.
  • Portuguese (Die 6): Advance exactly 6 empty spaces on the river and obtain the indicated benefits.

IV. River Action (Port)

Sail the Ganges to reach lucrative spaces! Send a worker to the port, pay wealth (if not the first worker), and return a die of value 1, 2, or 3. Advance your boat up to the number of empty spaces corresponding to the die's value. You immediately gain the benefits of the space where your boat stops.

• River Benefits: May include dice, karma, wealth, palace actions, building improvements, glory points, market scores, and more!
• Karma: You can use karma at any time on your turn, when returning a die, to flip it to its opposite side (e.g., 1 becomes 6, 2 becomes 5). Each use of karma moves your karma cube one level down.
• New Workers: Advance on the glory track (space 15), wealth track (space 20), or cross the bridge on the river to activate additional workers. As soon as you activate your second inactive worker, you remove an additional worker from the game.
• Bonuses on Scoring Tracks: Upon reaching or crossing specific spaces on the glory and wealth tracks, you gain immediate bonuses such as improvements, increased karma, boat movement, or additional dice.

End of Game and Scoring: Who is the True Raja?

The game ends as soon as a player manages to make their glory marker and their wealth marker meet or surpass each other on the tracks. The current round is completed, giving all other players one last chance to act.

After the final round, it is checked who won. If two or more players have their markers surpassing each other, the player with the greatest difference in glory points between their wealth marker and their glory marker wins. In case of a tie in the difference, the first player to make the markers surpass each other is the winner.

Tips for Winning: Be a Wise Ruler!

1. Balance is Key: Remember, the goal is to make your glory and wealth markers meet. Don't focus on just one! If you have too much wealth but little glory (or vice versa), it will be difficult to achieve victory.
2. Don't Underestimate Workers: Having more workers means more actions per round. Prioritize reaching the spaces on the scoring tracks and the river that grant additional workers to gain a strategic advantage.
3. Dice and Karma Management: Your dice are your most versatile resources. Plan your actions to always have the necessary dice. Karma is a powerful resource for manipulating dice results, so use it wisely to ensure you can perform the most important actions when you need to.