There's a lot of hustle and bustle in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, as merchants and their assistants rush through the small, narrow alleys in an attempt to outdo the competition. Everything has to be well-organized - carts have to be filled with goods in the warehouses, then quickly transported by assistants to their places. Your goal? Be the first merchant to collect a certain number of rubies.
In Istanbul , you lead a merchant with four assistants through 16 market locations. At each location, you can perform a specific action. The challenge, however, is that in order to perform an action, you have to move your merchant and assistant there, then leave the assistant behind (to handle the details while you focus on the serious business). If you want to use this assistant again later, your merchant has to return to the same location and pick it up. Accordingly, you have to plan everything carefully so that you don't run out of assistants and can't do anything...
In more detail - on your turn you move your merchant and his retinue of assistants one or two steps across the market, or leave an assistant at a location or collect an assistant from earlier, then take an action. If you encounter other merchants or certain people at the location, you may have a small additional action. Some of the possible actions are:
- Pay to increase the capacity of your cart, which starts with just 2 for each item
- Filling the cart with a specific item to its limit
- Access to special ability
- To buy rubies or trade goods for rubies
- Sell special combinations of goods to achieve the required amount for everything else
When a merchant has collected five rubies in his cart, the players complete that round and the game ends. If he is the only one who has achieved this goal - he wins immediately, if not - everything is determined by the money available
