Question:
What does it mean that a river area lies in a particular state?
Answer:
Nothing. River areas are effectively neutral.
Question:
In the settlement phase, can I buy one piece of land each turn,
or only one piece of land in the entire phase?
Answer:
You may buy land multiple times in a phase, but at most one
piece per turn. That is: on your turn, you may either
sell&buy or bid for primogeniture. You may buy
only one piece of land, and sell as many as you want.
Then, it's the next player's turn. In your next turn,
you may again sell&buy or bid for primogeniture,
and so on, until everyone passes.
So it's just as in 1830,
except that there's no yellow/orange/whatever color zone
where you can buy more than one share in the same turn.
Question:
How many selling actions are allowed in one turn? Is it possible
to force the price down by more than three boxes, using multiple
selling actions?
Answer:
You can sell as many batches as you want. The maximum decrease
in price holds for each action, not for each turn.
For example, if you
want to sell five hill areas, you may do that in one selling
action: that will make the price of hills drop by three steps
(the maximum decrease per action). Alternatively, you may sell
the lands in two actions, for example, first sell three of them,
then sell the remaining two. In that case, you get the current
sale price for the first three lands sold, then the price drops
by three steps, you get the new price for the remaining two
lands, and then the price drops by two more steps. Thus the
price will have dropped by five steps in total.
Question:
Is it true that digging crews can build canals everywhere on the board?
Answer:
Yes, that is right. They may even build canals in other states' territory.
Question:
Where should/may a reservoir on a river area with a confluence
be placed?
Answer:
Always downstream of the confluence.
Question:
Is it possible for a pump to irrigate a piece of land that
contains another pump?
Answer:
No. If a pump brings water to a field containing another pump,
the latter will irrigate the field (if it is owned by a player).
Question:
Is it possible to pump water across a tile without irrigating
it?
Answer:
Yes, that is possible. For example, if there is a canal from
tile A to tile B and from tile B to tile C, with a 2-pump on
tile A, then the pump can bring water to tile C without
irrigating tile B. Tile B does not need to be owned by a player;
only if you want to irrigate tile B, it must have an owner.
Question:
What happens to the money you pay for an independent nation
in the beginning of the game?
Answer:
That goes into the bank (except for the money paid for the
First Akkadians).
Question:
What are you allowed to do with the land of independent nations,
before they are assimilated or traded in?
Answer:
Nothing at all. You are not allowed to build pumps or dig canals
there, and you are not allowed to buy the land, even if
you own the independent nation containing the land. Selling the
land is allowed (however, since buying is not allowed, this
is only relevant for the First Akkadians' land).
Question:
Does possession of an independent nation counts towards
land ownership in a state? For example, if I have got
Eridu, while all other tiles in Sumer are owned by other
players, am I entitled to a 1/11 share of the harvest?
Answer:
No. Owning an independent nation and owning the land is
not the same thing, and in fact, you can own
either the nation or the land, but not both.
As long as the independent nation is controlled by a player,
nobody owns its land.
The only exception is the First Akkadians' territory.
These fields can be owned by a player, while the First
Akkadians as an independent nation are owned by a player
as well.
Question:
What happens to the independent nations that are traded in
for their special abilities?
Answer:
They are gone for the rest of the game.
Question:
Can an independent nation which has been assimilated be
sold again?
Answer:
Yes, but it can only be sold to another state, not to a player.
Question:
What happens if you exchange Der for a forest land? Does
the state containing the forest land get any money for
this? Or does it assimilate Der?
Answer:
No money goes into the state treasury. Der disappears.
The state is not compensated in any way.
Question:
Is it allowed to trade in Der for a forest city instead
of a normal forest land?
Answer:
Yes.
Question:
Eridu may dig only after it has been assimilated by a state, right?
Answer:
No! Eridu can always dig canals! If Eridu has been assimilated by
a state, the king of that state decides where Eridu will dig.
If Eridu has not been assimilated yet, the player owning Eridu
decides where to dig.
Question:
Do you have to trade in Eridu if you use it to dig a canal, or can
you use it every round again?
Answer:
Eridu can be used again each round: it does not need to be traded in.
Question:
Suppose I am king of a state and I also have Eridu. Is this state
still required to hire a digging crew, when it becomes active?
Answer:
Yes. You can avoid this only by having the state assimilate Eridu.
This is possible only in the third era.
See also the next question
Question:
Suppose Akkad becomes active in the third era. In its first turn, it
does not hire a digging crew, but assimilates Eridu instead.
Do the First Akkadians disappear?
Answer:
No, they do not disappear. The First Akkadians do not
disappear until Akkad hires a real digging crew (or the
fourth era starts). Note that this construction is
possible only in the third era. In each other era,
Eridu cannot be assimilated, and Akkad would need to
hire a normal digging crew.