How to Play Ra

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Ra is an auction game by the inimitable Reiner Knizia and moves surprisingly swiftly. Anyone looking for a light but strategic game they can pick up and play need look no further.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Ra board game
2 to 4 opponents

Step1

Place all the tiles in the bag and shake them up, as this is the bag everyone will be drawing from. Give each player a pair of #5 scoring pieces, and the 3 or 4 suns indicated in the guide. For three players, the breakup is:2,5,8,133,6,9,124,7,10,11

Step2

The first player takes her turn. A turn consists of exactly one of the following 3 actions:1) Pull a random tile from the bag and add it to the rows of tiles on the board up for auction. If this adds the 8th tile to the auction board, the next player may not choose this option. If this tile is a Ra tile, go to step 3.2) Spend a God tile to take any one face-up tile currently up for auction and add it to your winnings.3) Call Ra and start a bidding round.

Step3

When a player calls Ra (or flips a Ra tile), the player to his left begins a single round of bidding on the lot of auction tiles currently available. That player has the option of bidding one of her sun tiles, or passing. Each player gets only one chance to bid. If nobody else bids, the player who called Ra must bid. Whoever played the highest Sun tile wins all tiles up for auction, and places his used sun tile in the center of the table to become part of the next auction lot.

Step4

Won sun tiles are set aside face down. When all players have no more face-up sun tiles with which to bid, the epoch ends, a round of scoring occurs. The player with the most Pharaoh tiles gains five points, and the fewest loses two points. Land tiles score a point each as long as the player also owns a flood tile. Players with no civilization tiles lose five points, while having a variety gains you five or ten points. Monument tiles score only at the end of the third and final epoch.

Step5

Whoever has the most points, wins!

Tips & Warnings

Ra is a very fast game and easy to learn, perfect for teaching people who can't understand complex auction strategy games.
Be sure you start with the correct allotment of sun bidding pieces for each player.