I just got Middle Kingdom, and I had a few uncertainties about the rules. (Apologies if a couple of these questions seem a little pedantic, but I just want to be certain I understand...)

1) Are goal cards taken instantaneously upon claiming dynasty cards? For example, in a 2-player game, say each player has 1 Warlord already, and player A bids 7 and player B bids 6. Say there are 2 Warlords available to be claimed at this point, and both players, in order, claim 1 of them, giving them 2 Warlords apiece. Does A get the Emperor as soon as he claims his 2nd Warlord, or do neither get it?

2) If two (or more) players' 2-card stacks are exactly tied, the rules say they draw a (random?) card from the dynasty deck. Does that mean *instead of* claiming one of the face-up dynasty cards? If there are not "enough cards for all" remaining in the deck, then *none* of tied players get to draw, correct?

3) Is the Celestial Dragon necessarily assigned *every* turn after the 4th goal card becomes owned (assuming any ties can be broken)?

4) If you own the Market and assign a Merchant to a non-Merchant pile, does that Merchant still count as 2 cards of the appropriate type even if you subsequently lose the Market? Or do your Merchants all have to revert back to being normal Merchants if you lose the Market (which then might possibly return the Market to you)?

Thanks for any help!

I'll try to answer:



*******Yes they are taken instantaneously. So A gets it as soon as he has two warlords.



*******Yes, instead of claiming. If there are none to draw then none get a card.



****Yes



*******Yes they still count.

Zev Shlasinger, President
Z-Man Games, Inc.
www.zmangames.com

Zev's answers are all correct.

Note that the Merchant cards in other piles count as those cards only for determining "most" of that type; during the final scoring, Merchants in a player's farming stack do not count as actual Farmers, etc.