Merchants of Dunhuang

About this board game

Merchants of Dunhuang is a 2–4 player board game of trading and influence, with games lasting about 35 minutes. Set in Dunhuang, a major transit point on the Great Silk Road, it places you among merchants seeking prestige while caravans bring spices, silk, jewels, and gold through the city.

To begin, eight character tiles are placed on the table. Each tile is double-sided, offering 16 possible characters in total, and every character has a different skill. Goods cards are valued from 1 to 10, with one card valued at 1 and ten cards valued at 10.

On your turn, move the camel from the current character tile to the next tile. You may pay coins to move farther, then take the goods card on the tile. Add it to your shop in front of you or place it in your warehouse, represented by your hand.

• Move the camel around the character tiles, paying coins to travel farther.
• Collect a goods card for your shop or warehouse.
• Use the current character’s skill or collect three coins.
• Build shop majorities to claim the corresponding majority tokens.

Your goods in the shop determine whether you can take each majority token, creating a contest for control of the available goods. The game can end when the deck is empty: each majority token is then worth 1 victory point, while having the majority of a good in your warehouse earns points equal to that good’s value.

There is also an immediate victory condition. If a player has four different goods in their warehouse and has collected four majority tokens, that player wins at once. With its shifting character skills, valuable goods, and competing end conditions, Merchants of Dunhuang turns Silk Road commerce into a focused merchant rivalry.