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Yunnan

Historical Background
Over 1000 years ago, tea farmers of the Chinese Province of Yunnan started to deliver their highly requested Pu'er tea to India and the faraway Tibet. They used horses to get past the arduous paths through the Himalaya. The so-called "Ancient Tea-Horse Road" existed until the 60s pf the 20th century.

Game Idea
Each player leads a team of 3 to 7 tea traders selling tea in the Provinces during the Travel phase over the course of about 7 rounds. Starting at Pu'er, your tea traders will travel to the Provinces using the Tea-Horse Road. The greater the distance they travel, the greater you income will be. Initially, you want to invest your income in progress; towards the end of the game, you will mainly focus on victory points.
Progress is bid on during the Auction phase that is preceding the Travel phase. You take turns to place one of your traders on the game board. If you bid too low, you may be overbid. At the end of the auction phase, you pay your bid and gain the corresponding progresses. You can get more traders, increase the number of Borders you may cross when travelling, use Horses to get to faraway Provinces that your not access before, increase your Influence and build Structures. Greater Influence allows you to displace other Traders, but the may catch the attention of the Province inspector.
However, you can please him if you invite him to one of your Tea houses. You can also go the Bank to enhance your liquidity. Traders that you want to earn money by selling tea either stay in the Provinces or are placed in the Market of Pu'er.
At the end of the game, the player with the highest-yielding and most advanced trading empire will have gained the most victory points wins the game, Good timing and skillful bidding as well as a cleverly established trade network are key to this. Only if you calculate really tough, go against the proper opponents and react to the actions of the other players swiftly and adequately, you will win this game which uses no elements of chance.