Through the Desert: Bazaar
Allplay · Board game · 2024Objective of the Game
In Through the Desert: Bazaar, you play as rival nomads offering treasures to whoever can best fulfill their desires. You'll be forming valuable trade routes from desert bazaars to far-off villages. The game ends, and points are scored, based on fulfilling rival nomad desires, claiming bazaar tokens, and collecting special watering hole tokens.
Preparation (Setup)
- Place any 2 rival nomad cards faceup near the board. You may pick them or deal randomly. Note that the river nomad can only be used with the river map, and the mountain range nomad can only be used with the mountains map.
- Shuffle the djinn deck and place it facedown next to the board.
- Sort the bazaar tokens into 3 stacks: a 5-point token on the bottom, a 10-point token in the middle, and a 15-point token on top. Place 1 stack on each bazaar hex on the map (marked with a
). - Before placing watering hole tokens, remove 7 each of the 1-point, 2-point, and 3-point tokens (21 total) and shuffle in the special tokens to replace them. Then place as normal.
Gameplay
Consult the manual for details about this section.
Actions and How to Play
Connecting to Oases and Djinns
If you connect 1 or more caravans to an oasis marker during your turn, then at the end of your turn, you must reveal the top card on the djinn deck. Read aloud the djinn’s new rule and place it faceup next to the deck (covering the previous djinn, if there is one). The faceup rule applies to all players until a new djinn is revealed. When the djinn deck is empty, reshuffle all but the last faceup card to make a new facedown deck. Once the first djinn is drawn, there will always be a single active djinn for the rest of the game. If a djinn’s rule requires you to place a camel of a specific color, but you can’t legally do so, you may ignore it.
Bazaars
When one of your caravans connects a bazaar to a village, claim the top tile on the stack and keep it facedown to add to your total during scoring. A caravan is connected to a bazaar or village if it either is placed next to or encloses it (just like an oasis). Hexes next to villages are marked with a 
icon. Each caravan can claim one tile from each bazaar for each village it connects to. If 2 different caravans connect the same bazaar and village, they can both claim a tile. Leaders can’t be placed on or next to a bazaar (but can be placed next to a village). Camels can’t be placed on a hex that has bazaar tokens left. If a hex runs out of bazaar tokens, it becomes an empty hex, and a camel can be placed there (or it can be enclosed to score 1 point).
Special Watering Holes
Special tokens can be claimed like other watering hole tokens, but are kept faceup in front of whoever claims them.
- Extra Camel: This token may be discarded on your turn to place 1 extra camel of any color. This token may be used immediately when claimed. Only 1 may be used each turn. Unused tokens score 0 points at game end.
- Trade Good: At game end, score 10 points for every 2 tokens you have. Single tokens score 0 points.
Playing with Special Watering Holes Expansion
The Special Watering Holes expansion contains extra camel tokens that allow the player to place an additional camel on their turn. This Extra Camel placement completely ignores all djinn card rules, being placed in addition to the other camels placed on the player’s turn.
Fim de Jogo e Pontuação
At the end of the game, each rival nomad card is awarded to the player who best fulfilled it. Each card is worth 10 points. If 2 or more players tie for a card, they each get a 5-point token instead.
Bazaar tokens claimed by caravans are added to your total during scoring.
Special Watering Hole tokens are scored as follows:
- Extra Camel tokens that are unused score 0 points at game end.
- Trade Good tokens score 10 points for every 2 tokens you have. Single tokens score 0 points.
Dicas para Vencer
Consult the manual for details about this section.
