1
Place city bonus markers
Position the city bonus markers on the board according to standard rules
2
Place outpost bonus tiles
Distribute outpost bonus tiles to their designated locations
3
Place city cards
Set up city cards in their appropriate positions
4
Place contracts on cities
Put contracts on the dedicated cities
5
Prepare offer tiles
Shuffle offer tiles separately, randomly remove one of each type, make 3 face-up piles and place the first offer tile of each type on the corresponding market
6
Set up guild seals
Make 4 stacks with the guild seals
7
Place black dice
Put 4 black dice on the board
8
Place gold market die
Put one neutral die of value 5 on one of the two spaces of the gold market
9
Place special city dice
Put a neutral die on each of the three special cities
10
Place Kahn's favor dice
Put two neutral dice of value 1 on the first two spaces of the Kahn's favor
11
Position player figures
Place a figure for each player in Beijing and a figure on space 50 of the score track
12
Determine first player
Randomly select a player to be the first player
13
Give Automa components
Provide the Automa with 5 dice, 11 trading posts, and 1 Smart Mat
14
Place trip slide
Randomly choose 1 trip slide and place it under the playmat so "BEIJING" and "READY TO START" are visible
15
Add coins to playmat
Place 1 coin of value 10 on spaces A-B-C-D of the playmat
16
Place starting contract
Put 1 starting contract face up on space E of the playmat
17
Prepare automa deck
Shuffle the 8 automa cards and place them in the dedicated space on the playmat
18
Select Automa character
Choose a character and difficulty level (L1/L2/L3), then place the corresponding Skill card on the playmat
19
Set up Trading Post card
Check the top right symbol on the Skill card, take the corresponding Trading Post card, and place 11 Trading Posts in the appropriate slots
20
Take player components
Receive 1 player board, 5 dice, and 11 trading posts
21
Take starting contract
Draw 1 starting contract
22
Collect starting resources
Take 3 camels and 8 coins
23
Choose goal card
Draw 3 goal cards and keep one
24
Select character
Draw three character tiles and choose one (cannot choose the Automa's character)
