Maharaja Rules Summary
TERMS
Maharaja: A great raja; a Hindu prince or
king in India ranking above a raja
Board: City x 7, Starting City x 1, Village x
30, Governor track on the right border
Build Palaces on the 7 sties if available
In each Village, 2 Houses may be built (In
2P game, only 1 House may be built)
In Cities, unlimited no. of Houses can be
built
A players Architect may only pass through
a Village if it contains at least one House. If
the players Architect travels through a
Village where only other players own
houses, they must pay them for passage
Architect: 5 colors, 1 each
Maharaja: x 1
Action disc: 5 colors, 1 each
Palaces: 5 colors, 7 each
Houses: 5 colors, 20 each
Governor markers x 7
Character cards x 7
No. on the Character cards determine the
order of the individual player turns. Also
break a tie when scoring takes place in a
city. Lower a no. = higher it ranks
1. Mogul: Moves first and is the best card if a
tie has to be broken during scoring
2. Trader: Always receive 1 Gold piece in each
of their player turns
3. Sadhu: Outer Palaces are worth 2 points
during scoring instead of 1
4. Wandering Monk: The travel costs of the
player and his Architect are paid by the
bank, so they travel for free
5. Builder: Builds or moves 1 additional House
for free. Can build / move a free House
regardless of what his chosen actions are. It
is simply a free action that can be used on
every turn
6. Artisan: Pays only 9 instead of 12 gold
pieces to build a Palace
7. Yogi: Use only in advanced game
The use of character abilities / special
actions is never mandatory
Coin x 60: $5 and $1
Then the second-lowest Character card
place a house in any Village, and so on, till
each players have placed House x 4 in
Village
Give each player 6 additional Houses
afterwards
No more than 2 Houses may be built in 1
Village. With 2P, only 1 house may be built
in a village
A player can have 2 Houses in a Village.
Travelers passing there must pay 1 gold per
House.
---------------------------------------------------------
PLAY

1 Game turn: 5 phases

Action chit: x 7 (1) Move Maharaja

(2) Move Governor
(3) Select Actions on Action disc
(4) Reveal and execute actions
--------------------------------------------------------- (5) Scoring in the city with Maharaja
SETUP
(1) Move Maharaja
Place Maharaja on the Starting City Place into the city whose Governor is at the
Character card 1 - 6 placed next to the board bottom of the Governor track
Use Yogi (Character card #7) only in
advanced game (2) Move Governor
Shuffle Governor pieces x 7 and randomly After placing the Maharaja, the Governor
placed face up on the Governor track (the 7 piece is put above the topmost Governor on
spaces between the upward arrow and 1 the Governor track
Chit and Yogi are not used in the basic game
(3) Select Actions on action disc
Give each player: Use each arrow to select 1 action
Action disc x 1 May select the same action twice
Summary card x 1
Architect x 1, place on the Starting City Actions:
Palace x 7 of matched color (a) Gold
House x 4 of matched color (b) House
Money: $1 x 10, $5 x 1 (Hidden) (c) 2 Houses
Select 1 Character card. Youngest player (d) Move a house
begins (e) Quarry
(f) Palace
Starting player (g) Palace / House
The player with the lowest no. Character (h) Governor Track Order
card (i) Character cards
Place House x 1 in Village

(a) Gold
Receive $2 from the bank
(b) House
Build 1 house in a Village or a City. Cost =
$1. May only build a house in a City where
your Architect is present
(c) 2 Houses
Build 2 Houses, 1 in a City and the other in
a Village or a City
Each house cost $1. May only build a House
in a City where your Architect is present
(d) Move a House
May move 1 of your house from a Village
or City to another Village or City. Cost = 0.
May only place this House in a City where
your Architect is present
(e) Quarry
Receive 2 Houses from the Bank and place
to own pool
(f) Palace
Build 1 Palace. Cost = $12. May only build
Palace in City where your Architect is
present
(g) Palace / House
Build 1 Palace in any City for $12 and 1
House for $1 in any Village or City. May
only build a Palace or a House in a city
where your Architect is present
Architect does not have to be present in a
Village where he wants to build a House
Only 7 Palaces may be built in any 1 City
The no. of Houses in Cities is not restricted
Each Palace cost $12 whether it is the
Central palace or not
Not allowed to build both Houses in
Villages
Action can be split e.g. Build 1 House then
exchange Character then Build a Palace
(h) Governor Track Order
Change the order of Governors on the
Governor track
May take any Governor pieces and move it
2 boxes down
The Governor pieces that are overtaken are
pushed 1 box up on the Governor track
When changing the Governor track order, it
is possible that there will be vacant boxes
(i) Character cards
Exchange Character card with another
player or from the Bank
The action cannot be prevented by other
players
It is possible that the original game turn
order will be changed by exchanging a
character card
A player conducting his player turn is
always allowed to complete it
A player who has already completed his
player turn does not get another one in the
same game round
Among the players who have not conducted
a player turn yet, the player with the lowest
ranking character card automatically is the
next player
Action can be split e.g. Build 1 House then
exchange Character then Build a Palace
(4) Reveal and execute actions
Begin with the lowest no. Character
A player reveal the actions only when it is
his turn. Players do not reveal the actions at
the same time
Conduct both actions in any order
 May mix parts of actions freely. But you
must execute all parts to avoid the other
players getting 2 gold each
Then the player with the second lowest
Character perform the 2 actions, till all
players have conducted their actions
In a turn, a player may move his Architect
around in addition
A player may renounce a part of an action,
the whole action or even both actions. In
that case, all other players immediately
receive $2 from the bank!
A player can execute half of an action, then
half of his other selected action before
completing his first action
Moving Architect
Moving an Architect is a free action
May move Architect any time during a turn
Cost
Traveling through Villages where the
player has at least 1 house is free
Pay $1 for EACH House in Village to
the owners otherwise
A players architect may only pass through a
Village if it contains at least one House. If
the players architect travels through a
village where only other players own
houses, they must pay them for passage
The architect may not pause in a Village as
an action is taken and may not end his
movement in a Village
(5) Scoring in the city with Maharaja
The players Architect does not have to be
in the City to receive money
How much money a player receives depends
on the Points he score in a City:
Architect: 1 point
House: 1 point
Outer Palace: 1 point
Central Palace: 3 points
The player with the most points gets the
left-most no. of money shown on the rule
summary cards
In case of tie, the lower number on their
character cards breaks it and that player gets
the higher amount
No. of players Money
2 $10 - $5
3 $11 - $7 - $3
4 $12 - $9 - $6 - $3
5 $13 - $10 - $7 - $4 - $1
If only 1 player scores points in a City, he
receives $5 in addition
---------------------------------------------------------
END
The game ends AFTER SCORING in a game
turn when:
A player has built their 7th Palace OR
A Governors is placed in Box 10 on the
Governor track
---------------------------------------------------------
WIN
Winner = player who has built the most
Palaces
Tie: the one with the most money
Still tie: Ranking of their character
---------------------------------------------------------
NOTES
Variants:
1) Shorter playing time variant
2) Advanced Version 1
3) Advanced Version 2
1) Shorter playing time variant
Player only receive Palaces x 6
The max no. of game turn = 8
2) Advanced Version 1
Yogi and Action chits are added
Function of Yogi:
Receive 1 Action chit during his turn
May use immediately or in later turn,
even if the player does not have Yogi
Function of Action chits
Allows a player a third action during
his player turn
Select an action from the ones on the
action disc
 Simply declares and conduct it
EXCEPT the action Character card
may not be selected with this
additional action
Only 1 Action chit per player turn
may be used
After use, the Action chit is returned
to the bank
When playing with less than 5P, at the start
of the game, place 1 Outer Palace of each
unused color in each City
Before the start of the game, the Character
cards are auctioned off
The youngest player bids 0,1 or more
money for the right of first choice of a
character card
Clockwise, players overbid or pass
Bidders who pass drop out
The last and highest bidder pays the
bank and chooses a character
The process is repeated among the
remaining players, until only 1 player
is left
He gets a character for free
If a player bids 0 and all other players
pass, he also gets the character for free
Each Character has a home city which
shows his image
The player who has the corresponding
character of a scoring city gets an
additional point even if he scores no
further points
owner of that card has to give him that
card and receives a card in exchange.
If the player conducting his player
turn has several character cards, he
may select the card that he gives in
return
The player conducting his player turn
can only entice away a card if he has
less character cards than the targeted
player. That player chooses a
character and gives it to the enticing
player. He does not receive a character
in return. The enticing player has no
say in which character he gets
The lowest numbered character card of each
player determines the order of the player
turns. The player with the lowest character
card is the first player, followed by the
player with the second-lowest card
Each player has only one player turn
If there is a tie during scoring, the player
with the lowest ranking character card
breaks the tie and gets more money
---------------------------------------------------------

3) Advanced Version 2
A player may have more than 1 character
card
A player holding several character cards
may use the special powers of all of these
characters
A player selecting Character card on his
action disc chooses and receives a character
from the bank. He does not return one
If there are no characters left in the bank,
the player with the action character card
may exchange a character with another
player or entice one away from him
The player conducting his player turn
names another character card. The