Samarkand: Routes to Riches

About this board game

Samarkand: Routes to Riches is a board game for 2–5 players, with games lasting about 45 minutes. Players join wealthy merchant families through marriage, expand their trading routes, and build relationships across Samarkand.

On each turn, choose between two actions: marry into a merchant family or expand the trading route of a family you have already joined. Marriage requires paying the family’s cost, and only two players may marry into any one family.

Once married into a family, you can extend its route by paying with that family’s money. The aim is to meet families that have not been encountered before, earning trade relationship markers, while reaching goods spaces before other players to claim valuable goods tokens.

• Marry into merchant families and compete for limited places.
• Expand routes using the money of the family you joined.
• Collect trade relationship markers and goods tokens.
• Score goods cards, relationships, and remaining money at the end.

The game ends when every family has established at least one trade relationship, or when one family has established five trade relationships. Players then score their goods cards using the matching goods markers they acquired, along with their trade relationship markers and money.

With its focus on family alliances, route expansion, goods, and relationships, Samarkand: Routes to Riches presents a compact merchant-family competition. This edition was split from the Winsome Games publication Age of Scheme: Routes to Riches; altered rules, a different player count, and updated artwork mean the two games are regarded as separate entities.