Istanbul

2014 · Economic

Istanbul

Players guide a merchant and a team of assistants through a bustling bazaar, moving them one or two spaces each turn across 16 locations. At each location, the merchant can leave or pick up an assistant and then take the location’s specific action, such as loading goods into a limited-capacity wheelbarrow, selling combinations of goods for money, buying or trading for rubies, or acquiring special abilities. Movement and assistant placement create a planning puzzle: leaving assistants enables actions but can strand resources, so players balance positioning with efficient routes. The game ends when a player collects the target number of rubies; ties are resolved by remaining money.

Players
2–5 best 4
Playing time
40–60 min
Age
10+
Complexity
2.6 / 5
6.1 on Ludoyafrom $32.08ArabianDice RollingModular BoardGrid Movement

Where to buy it

Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.

Compare all prices in Ludoya

On Ludoya's tables

Full stats in Ludoya
622
Plays logged
533
Players
51m 8s
Average play
126
In collections
24
On wishlists

6.1/10

from 91 Ludoya reviews

  • Garfield4.0

    #54 Last played with 5 players and got blocked everytime. With 3 players it was ok. But it gets repetitive very quick. If you're out of luck in dice rolling, you will lose. And don't think too much about your move, it's not a very strategic game. The one that thought the most last play ended up last place... [c] Theme: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Little to none --> Gameplay: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Repetitive --> Interaction: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Almost no interaction --> Artwork: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Nothing special --> Luck: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Dice rolling is pretty important --> Strategy: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Little --> Components: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Thick tiles and nice gems, but everything else is nothing special --> Play duration: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Repetetive and therefore could be too long --> Easy to teach: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Pretty easy --> Setup time: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Ok --> No downtime: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Plays very fast. But if someone is thinking too much it's getting strenuous --> [/c]

  • Brutal9.0

    Very elegant and straight forward worker placement game. Love it.

  • Mestremuten6.0

    Rating: 3/5 Production value: 3/4 Is the game in my collection/Love to have?: 0/1

Read the reviews and rate it

Rules questions

Opens Ludoya's rules assistant, which reads this game's rulebook.

Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.