In Chai; you will step into the shoes of a tea merchant; combining tea flavours to make a perfect blend. Specializing in either rooibos; green; oolong; black or white tea; you will buy and collect ingredients to fulfill your customers’ orders.
As a tea merchant; each turn you will do one of the following:
Visit the Market – The player immediately receives a gold coin and selects a tea flavour tile (mint; jasmine; lemon; ginger; berries; and lavender); adding to their tea box. If the flavour tile is touching tiles of the same type these tiles are also taken. Payment (gold; silver; or a copper coin) is placed in the money pouch corresponding to the furthest-right column the tiles were in. Players cannot have more than 12 flavour tiles in their tea box at any time. Select Additives – Tea additive cards (milk; sugar; honey; vanilla; and chai spices) are also needed to complete most orders. A player may conduct two actions in the additive area: selecting all of the additive cards of one type (with new cards drawn after the first action); resetting the visible cards; or drawing a card from the additive deck. Players cannot have more than 6 additive cards in their tea box at any time. Reserve a Customer – A player may also reserve a customer card from the customer pool from the visible cards or draw deck. If drawing a visible card; a new card is immediately drawn faceup into the customer pool to replace the card taken. A player cannot have more than 3 unfulfilled customer cards at any time in their tea box. If a player has more than 3 cards; a card is discarded and placed faceup in the customer pool with a copper coin from the money pouch placed on top. At the end of each turn; a player may complete a tea order from one customer card in their hand or visible in the customer pool. A base tea token; tea flavours and additives shown on the card are needed ingredients; and placed in an empty tea cup. The player flips over a tip and receives a coin bonus; moving the thermometer round tracker up one notch if all cups are filled.
The game ends when five rounds of cups have been fulfilled. When the final order is completed; other players complete their last turn so that each player has played the same number of turns. To score; players add up their victory points from fulfilled customer orders; and add their leftover money to this total. In 3-5 player games; additional points are awarded to the player(s) who fulfilled the most orders and most diverse tea recipes. Award ties are friendly with each winner receiving 5 points.
The player with the most victory points (from customer orders; money; and awards) wins the game as best tea merchant! In the case of a tie; the person with the least number of fulfilled customer cards wins. If still tied; the person with the least amount of money wins. If that does not break a tie; the victory is shared.
