Each player selects a color, places all the palaces of that color before him on the table, and his scoring marker on the zero space of the scoring track. In the rare case that a player uses all of his palaces, he should continue the game with additional palaces of an unused color. Set up the 2 black figures. Move the number 1 province tile to the space provided in court of the Grand Moguls. The starting player begins the first visit.
Play continues in clockwise order around the table.
When a player withdraws, the visit is over for him and he may take no further turns in the current province. When all players have withdrawn, the visit ends and the next begins. When a player chooses to play 1 or 2 cards, he must first play exactly one colored card from his hand face up on the table. In all subsequent turns during a visit, the colored cards a player plays must be the same color as the first card he played in the visit. In addition to the one colored card, a player may also play either one white card or one special card.