Pax Pamir: Second Edition

#55BGG8.1RATING

Updated Sep 11

1–5

PLAYERS

45–120

MINUTES

BEST WITH

3.8

HEAVY

Ask Mira about Pax Pamir: Second Edition

ERRATA1

Market refill order clarified for the third printingdesignerpublisher
RULING
The refill step of cleanup was rewritten for the third printing to remove the ambiguity about draw order. Cole's replacement paragraph reads: "Fourth, fill any empty spaces in the market by moving all cards in that market row (along with their rupees) to their leftmost position. If a card moves into a space with rupees from a previously-discarded event card, those rupees are placed on the new card taking that position. Then draw new cards to fill in any empty spaces starting with the leftmost and returning the market to its normal size, if possible. In each empty column, fill the top row first."
AUTHOR: Cole Wehrle (designer and publisher, Wehrlegig Games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(14 replies, 7 thumbs)DATE: 2021-02-12

DESIGNER CLARIFICATIONS16

No negotiation is binding, including a waived bribedesignerpublisher
CONTEXT
Players asked whether a hostage-holder could waive a bribe on the condition that the acting player use the action in a particular way, and whether an action could be "rewound" if the deal fell through.
RULING
"No negotiations are binding. When discussing the reducing/waiving the fee for a hostage action, players are welcome to make any promises they'd like, but the rules will not enforce any of those promises. In this sense, the waiving of a bribe cannot be made conditional in any enforceable way."
AUTHOR: Cole Wehrle (designer and publisher, Wehrlegig Games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(55 replies, 10 thumbs)DATE: 2020-05-09
You only ever place blocks of your current loyaltydesignerpublisher
RULING
"You only ever place blocks of your current loyalty using the play action or the build action." A multi-block build may be split across any regions you rule, but every block placed is of your own coalition.
AUTHOR: Cole Wehrle (designer and publisher, Wehrlegig Games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(11 replies, 9 thumbs)DATE: 2019-12-19
"A legal space" for Infrastructure means a region you ruledesignerpublisher
CONTEXT
The Infrastructure special ability reads "After you take the build action, place one additional block in a legal space," which players read as allowing placement anywhere on the map.
RULING
"The card text is terse because of space limitations. A legal place where you can place a block in the build action is a region you rule."
AUTHOR: Cole Wehrle (designer and publisher, Wehrlegig Games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(6 replies, 5 thumbs)DATE: 2019-01-30
A spy is "in" a location when it sits on a court card of that locationdesignerpublisher
CONTEXT
The Giljee Nobles card (#43) reads "At start of turn, may place a spy on any court card without a spy in Kandahar," which reads as a map-region reference.
RULING
"A spy is 'in' a location when it is on a court card associated with that location." Card text naming a region therefore refers to court cards carrying that region, not to pieces on the map.
AUTHOR: Cole Wehrle (designer and publisher, Wehrlegig Games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(19 replies, 3 thumbs)DATE: 2019-07-05
Bodyguard protection also blocks betraying your own political cardsdesignerpublisher
CONTEXT
A player holding a Bodyguard special ability ("Your political cards cannot be targets of the betray action") asked whether they could still betray their own political card with their own spy.
RULING
No. The protection is absolute and applies to the owner as well. Cole confirmed the reading that you cannot betray your own political cards even if you want to, adding: "you'll need to get rid of those bodyguards first."
AUTHOR: Cole Wehrle (designer and publisher, Wehrlegig Games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(17 replies, 7 thumbs)DATE: 2019-07-15
No voluntary money transfer exists in the second editiondesignerpublisher
CONTEXT
The first edition allowed selling hand cards and giving money via the gift action; players asked whether a target could voluntarily ignore their tax shelter to let an opponent tax them and thereby move money.
RULING
There is no rule that allows waiving the tax shelter, and this is by design to prevent arbitrary money transfer. The only waivers in the game are a ruler waiving some or all of the bribe to play a card in their region, and a hostage-holder waiving some or all of the hostage payment. Cole confirmed this summary directly.
AUTHOR: Cole Wehrle (designer and publisher, Wehrlegig Games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(4 replies, 3 thumbs)DATE: 2018-11-20
Open or hidden hands is deliberately left to the groupdesignerpublisher
RULING
"As no cards are drawn randomly by players, this falls under the classic debate around hidden but trackable information. I'm content to leave this to the taste of each group." There is no official rule making hands public or private.
AUTHOR: Cole Wehrle (designer and publisher, Wehrlegig Games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(12 replies, 30 thumbs)DATE: 2019-06-26
Wakhan's radicalize priority and the "cheapest" tiebreakdesigner
CONTEXT
The rulebook's radicalize section does not state how specific AI-card instructions interact with the Dominance Check branch, nor whether cost or icon count is checked first.
RULING
"Specific radicalize instructions are always followed if they can be. If there are no specific instructions do the 'Otherwise' unless there is a Dominance Check and then follow that logic; default back to the 'otherwise' instructions if you can't do that either." Icon count is checked before cost: "She's looking for the most impact icons, and if two or more cards have the most impact icons then she will choose the cheapest from amongst them." Worked example: card A has 3 icons at cost 5, card B has 3 icons at cost 4, card C has 2 icons at cost 3 — she purchases card B.
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(28 replies)DATE: 2019-06-26
For Wakhan, "the most" can legitimately be zerodesigner
RULING
Zero is a valid value for a "most" comparison — "she would buy to net zero rupees if that's the most she could get." Leverage is included when working out which card nets the most rupees: "All money is temporary as it can be spent or lost at any time." Separately, Wakhan skips an action only when it has no valid target at all: "she won't tax a player who has no money as they are not a valid target; and she won't tax the market if there is no money in the market." An action that nets her zero or even a loss is still taken if a valid target exists.
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(29 replies, 4 thumbs)DATE: 2019-08-13
Cards that reach Wakhan's hand are replayed immediatelydesigner
CONTEXT
Wakhan has no hand, so events such as "Other Persuasive Means" that pass cards to her have no defined resolution in the rulebook.
RULING
"Any time Wakhan ends up with cards in her 'hand', immediately replay them one by one in a random order back to her tableaux, acting out the Impact Icons as they are played, as per the Radicalize action."
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(11 replies, 11 thumbs)DATE: 2019-06-25
Which armies count toward Wakhan's ruling piecesdesigner
CONTEXT
The second-printing rule counts Wakhan's tribes plus "only the most numerous Armies of a single coalition in that region." Players asked whether a coalition that a human player is loyal to is included in that count.
RULING
Include it — "because they are also loyal to Wakhan." In practice: if you are loyal to the largest army in a region, you need more tribes than Wakhan to rule it; if you are not, Wakhan rules with a single tribe.
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(9 replies, 7 thumbs)DATE: 2022-01-18
Wakhan's battle targets one player, and never neutral blocksdesigner
CONTEXT
As written, the battle rule appears to let Wakhan remove armies and roads belonging to no player.
RULING
A Wakhan battle action targets a player and only that player's tribes plus the armies and roads sharing that player's loyalty — "It was meant to be only Armies and Roads which share a loyalty with the targeted player." Blocks of a coalition no player is loyal to are not legal targets. Within a multi-rank battle she removes tribes across all legitimate targets before moving on to armies, then roads.
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(11 replies, 3 thumbs)DATE: 2019-09-09
Wakhan's prizes and patriots count only for their own coalitiondesigner
CONTEXT
Wakhan's gifts count as influence in all three coalitions, so players asked whether her prizes do too.
RULING
"A PRIZE (and PATRIOT) is only influential for the coalition it is for." Only gifts are coalition-agnostic for Wakhan.
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(6 replies)DATE: 2022-01-28
Wakhan buys from column 0 when nothing improves her positiondesigner
CONTEXT
A Dominance Check sits in the market, a coalition is dominant, but no purchasable card carries the icons the Dominance Check branch asks for.
RULING
She radicalizes a card where "the most" equals zero rather than falling through to the "Otherwise" flow: "she will only spend money to get her closer to significant dominant position." An event card in column 0 is the preferred pick, because event cards are numbered 101 and above and therefore win the highest-card-number tiebreak against any court card.
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(7 replies, 5 thumbs)DATE: 2025-02-21
Piece shortages for Wakhan are resolved by the playerdesigner
CONTEXT
The component limit override rule tells you to take a piece from elsewhere in play, but does not say which piece Wakhan takes.
RULING
"There is no rule to determine which to take, so if a cylinder must be placed you can decide whether to sacrifice a tribe or a spy for Wakhan; if a block must be placed, you can decide" which block. A deterministic priority was playtested and deliberately cut because the added overhead was not worth what it added to the game.
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(8 replies, 9 thumbs)DATE: 2019-06-15
Wakhan's spy discard priority is a difference, not a raw countdesigner
CONTEXT
The cleanup discard priority "cards with the most player spies more than Wakhan spies" can be read as a raw count of enemy spies or as a difference.
RULING
It is a difference. A card holding one player spy and one Wakhan spy scores zero, and so ties with a card holding no spies at all — "Zero difference and zero difference means equal priority."
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(4 replies, 4 thumbs)DATE: 2020-09-20

Q&A3

Can you deliberately discard past your court limit?designercommunity high-engagement
QUESTION
When cleanup forces you to discard court cards because you are over your limit, may you keep discarding past that limit on purpose?
ANSWER
No. Discard cards one at a time and stop the moment you are within your limit. You can, however, indirectly force further discards by choosing to discard a political card, since that lowers your court limit — and losing your last political card for a region also removes your tribes there.
AUTHOR: ricky2002 (Richard Wilkins, designer of Wakhan)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(13 replies, 15 thumbs)DATE: 2022-03-15
Does the tax shelter reduce each tax, or set a floor?community high-engagement
QUESTION
If an opponent takes several tax actions in one turn, does the tax shelter reduce each one, or is it a single allowance that gets used up?
ANSWER
It is a floor on your treasury, not a discount and not a budget. Each tax action can only take rupees you hold in excess of your total gold stars, and the stars are never spent or used up — an opponent with unlimited tax actions can drain you down to your shelter and no further.
AUTHOR: mfwesqSOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(18 replies, 10 thumbs)DATE: 2019-07-08
Can a ruler refuse a bribe to block a card from being played?community high-engagement
QUESTION
A player must bribe the ruler of a region to play a card there. Can the ruler simply refuse the payment and thereby stop the card from being played?
ANSWER
No. The ruler may accept the bribe or waive any portion of it, but refusing is not an option. The bribe is blocked only when the acting player cannot or will not pay: in that case the card stays in hand, play continues as if the action had never been taken, and the acting player does not lose the action.
AUTHOR: GAFBlizzardSOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(16 replies, 2 thumbs)DATE: 2019-02-04

EDGE CASES1

Nationalism, moving tribes, and the Overthrow ruledesignerpublisher
SITUATION
The Nationalism event lets a player move and battle with tribes as if they were armies. A player moves every tribe out of a region where they hold a political card.
RULING
Overthrow triggers — moving your last tribe out counts as losing it, and the political cards for that region are discarded. Tribes that move into a region where you hold no political card survive and can establish rulership there, but they remain bound to the Overthrow rule going forward: if you later lose your last political card for the region they now occupy, those tribes are removed.
AUTHOR: Cole Wehrle (designer and publisher, Wehrlegig Games)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(10 replies, 7 thumbs)DATE: 2019-04-03

Last researched: 2026-08-10

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An opponent's settlement blocks your road network — your road cannot be built through or past an occupied intersection.

◆ Catan — Roads & Building, p. 7

At the end of each round, the player with the most of the goal trait scores points equal to their amount; the player with the second most scores fewer.

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Null cards deal 0 damage regardless of base value or any bonuses applied.

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