Sobek: 2 Players

Introduction

Construction is underway on a temple dedicated to Sobek. A huge market has emerged nearby, supplied by the continuous flow of feluccas and pirogues along the Nile. Both your Guild of Merchants and your opponent’s Guild are determined to take advantage of this unbelievable opportunity. The God Sobek could well tip the scales by offering his favors to the least corrupt merchant.

Components Overview

• 1 large Market board
• 10 Starting tiles (grey back)
• 45 Goods tiles (black back)
• 10 Character tiles (red back)
• 13 Pirogue tokens
• 1 Deben bag and 13 Deben tokens
• 2 small Corruption boards
• 1 Ankh pawn
• 2 different player aids
• 2 Score tokens

The Goods Tiles

There are 6 types of Goods, plus the Sobek Statues which are wild.

• 6x Ivory
• 7x Ebony
• 7x Marble
• 11x Wheat
• 10x Fish
• 9x Livestock
• 5x Statues

• Within each type, some tiles feature Scarabs, others don’t. In a given type, all tiles with Scarabs have the same number of them.
• The brown marks on the borders of the tiles indicate the direction in which to orient the Ankh Pawn when it takes that tile’s place.

The Character Tiles

• Each Character belongs to a Goods type, shown by its color and by an icon in the top-left.
• Each Character provides a special ability, explained in detail on one of the player aids.
• Characters are recognizable by their red backs.

Setup Steps

1. Place the Market board in the center of the table.
2. Shuffle the 10 Starting tiles, face down. Both players receive 2, that they keep in their hand without revealing them. Take 4 of the remaining Starting tiles and place them face up on the 4 central squares of the Market board. Put the last 2 remaining Starting tiles into the box without looking at them.
3. Then, shuffle the 45 Goods tiles and the 10 Character tiles together to form a face down pile.
4. Use this draw pile to fill the Market as indicated on the next page, the only difference being that you have already filled the 4 central squares with Starting tiles.
5. Shuffle the 13 Pirogue tokens and place one face down on each of the 5 dedicated spots on the left of the board. Set the other tokens aside without looking at them.
6. Place the Deben tokens in their bag, shake it, and place the bag next to the game board.
7. Each player takes a Corruption board and places it in front of them.
8. Randomly determine the first player and give them the Ankh pawn. The game is now ready to begin.

Keep the 2 player aids within reach. The score track will only be used during the final score calculation step.

Filling the Market

When you have to fill the Market during setup or throughout the game, use tiles taken from the draw pile to fill the empty squares on the Market board in the following order:

1. Start with the square with the icon and fill the 4 central squares in clockwise order.
2. Now do the same with the orange ring. Begin on the square with the symbol.
3. Repeat the process with the outer ring, beginning on the square with the symbol.

• Goods tiles are always placed face up, whereas Character tiles are placed face down.
• All tiles must be oriented in the same way as the board itself (i.e. the top of each tile must be pointing toward the top of the board).
• Reminder: during game setup, you must use Starting tiles to fill the 4 central squares.

Overview and Goal of the Game

Your goal is to amass more wealth at the market than your opponent. To that end, collect goods and call on influential characters to make the most profitable sales. Limit your corruption so that the God Sobek may tilt the balance in your favor.

Both players take alternating game turns until one triggers the end of the game and final score calculation.

On their turn, a player can either:

• Take one Goods or Character tile from the board,
• Sell a set of Goods, or
• Play one of the Characters in their hand.

Selling sets of Goods tiles and earning Deben tokens give players points. At the end of the game, whoever has the most points wins.

Start of the Game

The player who received the Ankh pawn starts the game. They choose a tile from among the 4 placed in the center of the board and add it to their hand. They then replace the tile they just took with the Ankh pawn, orienting it according to the direction marks on that tile.

It is now the opponent’s turn to play. From now on, each turn plays as indicated below.

On a Player’s Turn

On your turn, you must perform one of three possible actions:

1. Take a tile from the Market
2. Sell a set of tiles
3. Play a Character

1. Take a Tile from the Market

When taking a tile from the Market, follow these 4 steps:

1. You can take any tile of your choice in the row, column or diagonal line that the Ankh pawn’s orientation indicates.
2. Move the Ankh pawn to replace the chosen tile. Orient it as shown by the marks on the sides of that tile.
3. Add the chosen tile to your hand.
4. Remove all the tiles that the Ankh pawn passed over when moving this turn, if any, from the board. Place these tiles face down on your Corruption board.

Example: Tim can choose the A, B, C or D tile.

• If he chooses A or B, he takes no Corruption.
• If he takes C, then he must add B to his Corruption board.
• If he takes D, then he must add B and C to his Corruption board.

He chooses C and places the Ankh pawn according to the marks on the sides. He then takes this tile in hand. With this action, he passes over the Livestock tile, which forces him to take it as Corruption: he places it face down on his Corruption board.

Clarifications:

• There is no limit to the number of tiles a player can have in hand.
• Players keep the Goods and Character tiles in their hands secret.
• Players can always look at the hidden faces of the tiles on their own Corruption board, but not those on their opponent’s board.

About Corruption

Corruption is key to the game. It can be tempting to accept a little corruption to access the most attractive tiles, but this can cost you victory at the end of the game when the least corrupted player will earn Deben tokens.

Goods with a Deben Token

Some Goods tiles feature a Deben token icon in their upper right. As soon as you take one through the Take a tile from the Market action (and only in this way) you must choose one of the following:

• EITHER immediately discard this Goods tile to draw a Deben token from the bag, check its value, then keep it secret face down in front of you;
• OR keep this tile in your hand, as with any other tile. You will not have the opportunity to trade it for a Deben token later.

Take a Character Tile

If you take a Character tile, you can orient the Ankh pawn in the direction of your choice. However, whenever possible, you must place the pawn so that it points towards at least one available tile in the Market.

Fill the Market during Play

If you want to take a tile but there are none on the line where the Ankh pawn is pointing, you have to fill the Market before playing.

1. Remove the Ankh pawn from the board and fill the Market, as explained on page 5.
2. Then, choose one of the 4 tiles at the center of the board and take it into your hand, placing the Ankh pawn in its square, just as at the beginning of the game.

Note: you only fill the Market if you use your action to take a tile, not if you sell a set or play a Character.

Empty Draw Pile

If there are not enough remaining tiles in the draw pile to completely fill the Market, fill it as much as possible, in the usual order. If the draw pile is already empty at the beginning of a player’s turn and there is no tile available along the line of the Ankh pawn, taking a tile from the Market is no longer a possible action.

2. Sell a Set of Tiles

On your turn, you can spend your action selling a set of tiles to earn points from these Goods at the end of the game.

• Reveal at least 3 tiles of the same type from your hand and place them face up in front of you. These tiles may feature Scarabs (or not) and you can sell a set with no Scarabs at all if you want to.
• Characters can be included in a set if they feature the icon of the good that is being sold. A Character used this way has no ability and cannot be played later for its ability.
• You do not have to sell all the tiles from your hand that could be sold together, as long as you sell a set of at least 3 tiles.
• If you sell a set of Goods of the same type as a set you sold earlier, add it to this set to expand it. You still have to reveal at least 3 new tiles to do so.
• When you sell a set of a type you haven’t sold before, it must contain at least one Goods tile. However, when expanding one, you may do so by selling a set made entirely of Sobek Statues.

Sobek Statues

Sobek Statues are wild, and can thus be included to any set. The Character with the Sobek Statue icon can also be used as a wild, just like a Statue.

Pirogue Tokens

Each time you sell a set, you must use one of the Pirogue tokens set up at the beginning of the game, if any remain. Secretly look at the remaining tokens and immediately apply the ability of one of them. Remove it from the game and put all remaining ones back in place, face down.

Used Pirogue tokens are never replaced by new ones, the tokens set aside at the beginning of the game are only used for the Architect’s ability. If there are no more Pirogue tokens on the board when you sell a set, you simply don’t get a token.

Pirogue token abilities are explained on one of the player aids.

Note: You must apply the ability of the token that you choose, if you can. If the token ability cannot be applied, discard it anyway. This is a good way to keep your opponent from getting it.

3. Play a Character

Discard a Character tile from your hand to immediately apply its special ability. Once the ability is applied, remove the Character from the game.

Character abilities are explained on one of the player aids.

Note: you can play a Character whose ability has no effect on the game to avoid having to perform another action. However, you must apply the ability of the tile that you play, if you can.

End of the Game

The game immediately ends as soon as either of the two players has no valid action to perform on their turn. In other words:

• there are no tiles available on the line the Ankh pawn’s orientation is indicating and the draw pile is already empty. The player thus cannot choose the action Take a tile from the Market.
• the player has no valid set to Sell.
• the player has no Character that they could play.

If their opponent still has sets of at least 3 tiles in hand that they could have sold, they remove them from the game. These tiles are not added to the sets sold by this player throughout the game, and thus earn them no points. After that, each player adds all tiles they still have in hand to their Corruption.

Corruption Count

Players tally up their Corruption total:

• Each tile on the Corruption board is worth 1 point.
• Also count the value of the Pirogue tokens that are worth Corruption.

The player with the fewest Corruption points earns 1 Deben token, plus 1 extra Deben token for each set of 3 Corruption points they have less than their opponent. They draw these tokens from the bag.

Final Scoring

Use the Score track on the back of one of the two player aids and the two score tokens (one for each player). Each token features a +50 side in case a player totals more than 50 points.

Calculate the score for each of the two players as follows:

• Each set sold throughout the game is worth as many points as there are tiles composing it, multiplied by the total number of Scarabs found on those tiles.
• The Deben tokens, and some Pirogue tokens, are worth the number of points shown on them.

The player with the most points is the winner. In case of a tie, the least corrupted player wins. If there is still a tie, the players shake hands and immediately start a new game.

Credits

Sobek: 2 Players is a game designed by Bruno Cathala & Sébastien Pauchon, illustrated by Naïade, published by Catch Up Games and distributed by Blackrock Games. Layout: Clement Milker – Translation & proofreading: Sebastien Kihm & Timothy Marcroft. June 2021 – Catch Up Games

Bruno and Seb would like to take these few lines to thank their faithful and tireless playtesters, with an extra special thanks to Marc-Antoine.

Naïade thanks: Seb and Bruno, two of my favorite game designers as a player. Illustrating one of their games is a real honor, so thanks to Catch Up Games for this opportunity. A special thanks to Seb Kihm for his composure, patience, and unique sense of humor.

Catch Up Games wants to thank Bruno, Seb and Xavier for this exciting project, and also their Shrubburo friends for their always sharp and well-trained eyes.