Mandi rulebook

Classic Mandi

Secret bids. Six rounds. One bustling bazaar.

2–5 merchants (6–8 Grand Bazaar)6 rounds≈25 minutes

Set up the market

Play with 2–5 merchants (6–8 with Grand Bazaar); solo play adds computer opponents. Deal each merchant Haggle cards 1–5 and one Sifarish. Shuffle 35 lots: seven of each good, with 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3 crates. Reveal one more stall than merchants, but never more than five stalls in the base game: 2 merchants get 3 stalls, 3 get 4, and 4 or 5 merchants get 5 stalls (A–E). At 5 merchants there is no spare stall.

Choose in secret

Choose one stall, one available Haggle card, and optionally your once-per-game Sifarish (+2). Everyone reveals together. Sifarish is spent whenever played, even if you lose, tie, or visit a stall alone.

Resolve each stall

Alone: take the lot. Contested: the highest total (Haggle + 2 if Sifarish) takes the lot. If the top totals tie, the tied merchant with the fewest crates of that good wins; if still tied, flip a coin among only those still tied. Everyone else at the stall, including tied merchants who lose, gains 1 Mithai. Every merchant burns their played Haggle card to their visible discard, whatever the outcome. With no Haggle cards, play 0; it cannot win a contested stall. Unpicked lots are discarded.

Paid Haggle Restock

Once, after the round-6 market flips and before anyone chooses, all merchants secretly select any affordable combination of their burned Haggle cards. Haggle 1 and 2 are free; 3 costs 1 Mithai, 4 costs 2, and 5 costs 3. Pay from your own Mithai: paid tokens return to the bank and no longer score. Unrecovered cards stay burned for the rest of the game. When everyone locks, reveal each merchant’s recovered cards and Mithai paid, then start choosing. Played Sifarish never returns. Quick skips this step.

Majority per good

Each good has its own contest: only crates of that good count, so Gems crates never help your Attar majority. You need at least 3 crates of that good to qualify, and crates from any lots — collected over several rounds or one big lot — all add up over the whole game. It is not a one-time reward for your first 3 crates. Majority is decided at the end, using everyone’s crates after round 6; mid-game standings are only provisional. The most crates earns +6 and the second most +3, and one merchant can win several goods, collecting +6 in each.

Ties, Thali and Mithai

Tied merchants pool the prizes for the occupied places and divide rounded down: two merchants tied for first with 3 or more crates each split 6 + 3 = 9 and get 4 each. A lone qualifier gets +6 only, and nobody gets the +3. Merchants with one or two crates never get majority points. Four or more different goods earn +5 Thali. Each Mithai earns +1.

Win the bazaar

Score sets per good: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 crates earn 1 / 3 / 5 / 8 / 12 / 14 / 15 points; +1 per crate after 7, with no cap. Add goods sets, majorities, Thali and Mithai. Highest score wins; break ties by Mithai, then actual crate count. If still tied, share victory. All crates count for sets, majorities and tiebreaks.

Scoring explained

Final score = goods sets + majority awards + Thali + Mithai

Count all crates collected over the whole game. Score each good separately, then add the four parts below. Round scores are provisional; majorities become final after the last round (round 6, or round 4 in Quick).

1. Goods sets

For each good, count your crates and use this table. These are the total set points for that good, not points per crate.

1 crate

1points

2 crates

3points

3 crates

5points

4 crates

8points

5 crates

12points

6 crates

14points

7 crates

15points

After 7 crates, add 1 point per extra crate: 8 = 16, 9 = 17, and so on, with no cap. Add your set points across all goods.

2. Majority awards · one contest per good

Only merchants with at least 3 crates of that good qualify. The most qualifying crates earns +6; second-most earns +3. A lone qualifier earns +6 only. One or two crates still earn set points, but no majority. You can earn majority awards in several goods.

Two tied for first → +4 each: Both occupy first and second places, so pool both prizes: (6 + 3) ÷ 2 = 4.5. Round down to 4 each. The leftover 1 point is not awarded, and no separate second-place prize remains.
Three tied for first → +3 each: The same 9-point pool is split three ways: 9 ÷ 3 = 3.
Two tied for second → +1 each: The sole first-place merchant keeps +6. The second-place pair share +3: 3 ÷ 2 = 1.5, rounded down to 1 each.

With any tie, pool the prizes for the places occupied by the tied merchants, divide equally, and round down. This is separate from the fewer-crates / coin-flip rule used to win a stall.

3. Thali · +5 for variety

Collect at least one crate in four or more different goods to earn +5 once. It is still four goods in Grand Bazaar, even with seven goods in play.

4. Mithai · +1 per remaining token

Each Mithai you still have at the end earns 1 point. Tokens spent on Paid Haggle Restock are already deducted and do not score.

Worked example

You own 3 Masala, 4 Silk, 1 Chai and 1 Gems. Sets: 5 + 8 + 1 + 1 = 15. If you tie one merchant for first in Masala, earn +4; if you alone qualify in Silk, earn +6. Majority total: 10. Four different goods: +5 Thali. With 2 Mithai remaining: 15 + 10 + 5 + 2 = 32 points.

Highest total wins. If scores tie, compare Mithai, then actual crate count; if still tied, share victory. Joint family pools teammates’ crates and remaining Mithai before calculating all four parts.