Istanbul

There’s hustle and bustle at Istanbul’s grand bazaar as merchants and their assistants rush through the narrow alleys in their attempt to be more successful than their competitors. Everything must be well organized: wheelbarrows must be filled with goods at the warehouses, then swiftly transported by the assistants to various destinations. Your goal? Be the first merchant to collect a certain number of rubies.

In Istanbul, you lead a group of one merchant and four assistants through 16 locations in the bazaar. At each such location, you can carry out a specific action. The challenge, though, is that to take an action, you must move your merchant and an assistant there, then leave the assistant behind (to handle all the details while you focus on larger matters). If you want to use that assistant again later, your merchant must return to that location to pick him up. Thus, you must plan ahead carefully to avoid being left with no assistants and thus unable to do anything…

When a merchant has collected five rubies in his wheelbarrow, players complete that round, then the game ends. If this player is the only one who’s reached this goal, he wins immediately; otherwise ties are broken by money in hand.

Box Contains:

25 Place tiles (double-sided; one side in English and the other in Arabic)

6 Wheelbarrows

18 Wheelbarrrow extensions

16 Mosque tiles

12 Demand tiles

8 Tavern tiles

1 Baksheesh tile

1 Barrier tile

24 Kiosk tiles

36 Letter tiles

5 Overview Tiles

1 First Player Marker

1 “Caravan Leader” Tile

12 Gold Coins

24 Silver Coins

36 Copper coins

72 Bonus cards

20 Guild cards

5 Merchants

25 Assistants

5 Family Members

5 Companions

20 Good Indicators

4 Mail Indicators

30 Bags of Coffee

1 Barrier

1 Governor

1 Smuggler

1 Coffee Trader

1 Courier

2 Six-Sided Dice

42 Rubies

28 Stickers

1 English Rulebook

1 Arabic Rulebook

Info

Language: English and Arabic

Age: 10+

No Players: 2 – 5

Game Time: 40 – 60 min