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Kashgar: Merchants Of The Silk Road box art
2013 Ranked #1,572

Kashgar: Merchants Of The Silk Road

Silk Road trading game where merchants manage three caravans to acquire spices and fulfill opportunities. Cards cycle through each caravan in turn, so every purchase and sale reshapes the sequence of choices to come.

Strategy Games Card Game Economic Action Queue Contracts

Players

2-4

Play time

Not listed

Age

12+

Complexity

2.24/5

Rating

7.07

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.8/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

In Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße, the players trade different spices that are coming over the silk road from Asia to Europe. Each player has control over three caravans.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

In Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße, the players trade different spices that are coming over the silk road from Asia to Europe. Each player has control over three caravans. In the beginning, each caravan consists of three cards that are spread out vertically so that the top part of each card is visible; each card stands for a caravan member with different abilities. On their turn, a player performs only one action, choosing one of the cards on top of the three families and executing one action shown on that card. Then the card is put at the back of its caravan. To use the same caravan member again, a player must first use all the other cards on top of that caravan row. These actions can influence the player's stock of spice, gold and mules. To keep track of that stock, each player has their own board with wooden markers that are moved accordingly. Actions can also bring new members to the caravans and can enable the player to fulfill one of four delivery request cards from the middle of the table. Finally, there are actions that mix things up a bit, such as by getting rid of a caravan member or even influencing other players' caravans. The game ends when one player has earned 25 points by collecting character cards and fulfilling delivery request cards. The core mechanism of Kashgar could be called "open deck-building". The game plays quickly with little downtime. After having learned the different actions of the cards, players can start trying out different strategies and combinations of caravan members, caravan sizes, etc.

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–4
Best with
2–4
Play time
45 min
Age
12+
Complexity
2.2/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
Gerhard Hecht

Artists

1
Franz Vohwinkel

Publishers

1
KOSMOS

Linked items

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