Istanbul

Get ready for the hustle and bustle of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, where merchants and their assistants rush through narrow alleys in pursuit of prosperity! In Istanbul, your goal is to be the first to collect a specific number of rubies. You command a merchant and four assistants across a modular board of 16 locations, each offering a unique action. The trick? To perform an action, you need to move your merchant and an assistant to that location, leaving the assistant behind to handle the details. If you need them again, your merchant will have to return to pick them up. This means careful planning is crucial to avoid being left without assistants and, consequently, unable to do anything! On each turn, you move your merchant and their retinue one or two spaces, decide whether to drop off or pick up an assistant, and then execute the location's action. If you encounter other merchants or important figures, you might even gain a small extra action. The available actions are varied and essential to your strategy: you can pay to increase your wheelbarrow capacity (which starts with limited space for only two goods), fill it with specific goods, acquire special abilities that are easier to get the earlier you claim them, buy rubies or trade goods for them, and sell combinations of goods to earn the money needed for all your ventures. The race for rubies is intense! The game ends when a merchant accumulates five rubies in their wheelbarrow. The round is completed, and if that player is the only one to reach the goal, they win immediately. Otherwise, money in hand serves as the tie-breaker. It's a true dance of logistics and strategy in the heart of the bazaar!