How to Play

Pax Pamir: Second Edition

1-5 players 45-120 min 8.1 Board Game Geek Rating

Afghan leaders navigate 19th-century power struggles, building courts of cards representing military units and political influence. Players form shifting coalitions while manipulating foreign empires for personal gain. Victory points are awarded during Dominance Checks based on either coalition loyalty or individual power. The game ends when someone leads by four points or after four checks.

Published 2019

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Establish coalitions

Three coalitions exist in the game: British, Russian, and Afghan

Prepare the market

Arrange cards in rows to form the market where players will purchase cards

Set initial hand limit

Players start with a hand limit of 2 cards plus total blue stars in their court

Set initial court limit

Players start with a court limit of 3 cards plus total purple stars in their court

Place coalition blocks

Armies and roads for each coalition are placed in the supply tray

Distribute player cylinders

Each player receives cylinders on their player board for tribes and spies

Set starting loyalty

Each player begins with a position on their loyalty dial

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Take two actions

Perform up to 2 actions per turn, and you may perform the same action type twice

Use free actions

Actions on cards matching the favoured suit symbol do not count against your two-action limit

Purchase a card

Place 1 rupee on each card to the left of chosen card (2 rupees each if military suit is favoured), then take the card and any rupees on it to your hand

Play a card

Add a card from your hand to the left or right of your court

Place armies

White armies go in the specified region matching your loyalty; coloured armies force a loyalty change if different

Place roads

Place on borders of specified region matching your loyalty, leading to any adjacent region

Collect leverage

Take 2 rupees from the bank when playing a card with scales

Change preferred suit

Change the favoured suit symbol to match the card's symbol

Place spies

Take a cylinder from your board and place on any card with the same region name

Place tribes

Take a cylinder and place in the region matching the card's name

Rule a region

Control requires at least one tribe plus the most ruling pieces (your tribes + loyal armies) compared to other players

Tax

Take rupees from any market cards, or from players with court cards matching regions you rule (protected by their yellow stars)

Give gifts

Place a cylinder on any space on your loyalty dial, paying the indicated rupee cost to the market from the right

Build

Must rule a region; build up to 3 armies/roads in any ruled region at 2 rupees each

Move

Number of moves equals card rank; move one loyal army or spy per move along your roads

Move spies

Move one space left or right as if all courts form a circle

Betray

Pay 2 rupees to discard a card where you have a spy; all other spies return to owners

Battle with armies

Each of your armies destroys one enemy army/road/tribe of different loyalty, limited by card rank

Battle with spies

Each spy destroys one enemy spy on a court card, limited by card rank

Pay hostage bribes

Pay rupees equal to enemy spies if an opponent has more spies on your card than you do

Apply overthrow rule

Losing your last tribe in a region forces you to discard all political cards for that region; losing your last political card for a region removes all your tribes there

Clean up

Discard down to court limit and hand limit; pay 2 rupees to bag when discarding leverage cards or pay penalty; spies on discarded cards return to player boards

Trigger event cards

Event cards in the leftmost column trigger their top effect, then are discarded and market refills

Winning

How to claim victory.

Trigger dominance check

Occurs when any player buys a dominance card, when it reaches leftmost column, or when a second dominance card enters the market

Determine dominance

A coalition is dominant if it has 4 or more blocks on the map than any other coalition

Score with dominance

Players loyal to the dominant coalition count influence (gifts + prizes + patriots + dial symbol); most influence scores 5 VP, second scores 3 VP, third scores 1 VP

Score without dominance

Count cylinders each player has in play; most cylinders scores 3 VP, second most scores 1 VP

Handle ties

Sum tied point values and divide by number of tied players, rounded down

Remove pieces after dominance

If there was dominance, remove all armies and roads from the map

Check instant victory

If the first-place player leads by 4 or more VP after scoring, they win immediately

Double final scoring

The 4th dominance card doubles all points scored

Break final ties

Player with most red stars in court wins ties; if still tied, player with most rupees wins