A walk through the Turkish market in search of rubies – a review of the game Istanbul Big Box

Istanbul, well-known in the board game world, winner of the prestigious Kennerspiel des Jahres award, was released in the Big Box version six years after its premiere. In addition to the basic version, the box also includes two add-ons – Mokka and Bakshish as well as Letters and Seals . For those who have not had the opportunity to get acquainted with this title before, it will be a good opportunity to reach for it and get the whole set right away.

I will tell you right away that I also belong to this group. I knew there was a game like this and more or less what category it belongs to, but I didn’t play it until the Istanbul Big Box came to my table . I was afraid of mixing up components from individual add-ons, but my doubts were quickly dispelled. The elements are well marked and during the preparation for the first game, I easily completed and put away two add-ons to start getting to know the game from the base itself.

What is this all about?

In the game, we play the role of merchants who, together with their helpers, will move around the bazaar. It is made up of sixteen tiles, the arrangement of which can be random or as proposed in the manual. They require preparation according to the rules described above – in the indicated places you need to place mosque tokens, rubies, cart extensions, postage markers, progress tokens and the mayor and smuggler pieces. Place a pile of bonus cards, dice and coins next to the board. Each player receives a cart on which he places four cubes of his color on the gray spaces, a family member whom he places on the Police Station space, a merchant disc and four helper discs, which land as a stack on the Fountain space and coins, depending on the order of the players. .

A player’s turn consists of up to four steps. First, move your disc stack with the merchant on top one or two spaces. If the target tile does not already have a helper of its color, leave it there. If there is, put a pile on it, adding one disk to it and taking it on a further journey. If a lone merchant goes to a location where he has no assistant and no more disks to leave behind, he cannot take the action. The exception is the Fountains field, which “summons” helper disks scattered around the bazaar and allows you to create a full stack. The second step is to pay 2 lira to each player whose merchant is on the end tile, but this step does not occur every turn. Then we perform the action from the end point of our movement, as long as we have left or collected a helper from there. If there is a member of another family on the tile, the mayor or a smuggler, then our fourth step will be to collect 3 lire and send someone else’s pawn to the field of the Police Station, picking and paying for a bonus card or getting and paying for one good.

The goods are presented on the trolley and each time we acquire an item, we move the marker to the right, and when we spend it – to the left. Below are the ruby ​​slots, and they are our main focus in the game. Collecting five (or six in a two-player game) ends the game. You can get them, among others for the maximum expansion of the cart or the acquisition of mosque tokens.

Mocha and Bakszysz

The first expansion pack expands the bazaar with another four locations. We also get new bonus cards and the coffee merchant pawn, which we place on the tile in the same way as the mayor and smuggler. From the new character, in the fourth step of your turn, you can buy coffee (another type of good in the game) and download the appropriate marker. Prepare the new tiles with the corresponding components, and place some of them next to the board, as described in the preparation for the game.

A significant change is the option to completely skip your move and play a guild card instead. They can mess up a lot on the board, because it is difficult to predict the action that the opponents are going to take. Previously, their movement was limited by the reach of the merchant. The new guild cards introduce more unpredictable actions, making the game even more fierce and the race for rubies accelerating. Especially that with this expansion, the requirement to get six rubies applies regardless of the number of players.

The add-on also allows you to limit the mobility of other players. Thanks to the blockade marker, we can close the passage between the two locations. Everyone except the owner of the blockade must walk around. This adds a bit of negative interaction and sharpens the atmosphere above the board.

Letters and Seals

The second addition also extends the bazaar by four locations, although we get five new tiles. This time, a courier joins the mayor and the smuggler, thanks to whom we can receive a letter. Each player gets an associate he can move around in place of the merchant. He does not need helpers and can only move one space. Lists with place names are new. They are considered delivered (turned face down) if our merchant, family member or partner is in the indicated location. At the end of your move, you may discard letters with three or more seals to make a second turn. This expansion also increases the amount of rubies required to win to six.

Kiosk tokens are also introduced into the game, which are another way to get goods, coins, expand the cart, and move pawns. You don’t have to use them, but they are generally useful and you should consider your choice. One of the new tiles also introduces an auction for bonus cards, and in some cases it also allows you to get rich.

From a small bazaar to a large bazaar

First, it’s time to evaluate the basic version of the game. I was very positively surprised by how well the individual actions are related to each other. An interesting solution is to limit traffic by leaving behind and collecting helpers back. We need not only rethink the plan to get goods, bonus cards and coins, which will lead us to the goal, which is rubies. You should also take a look at the layout of the tiles and the discs left behind so as not to stray too far from the nearest one. This may result in an unnecessary loss of actions, because despite the movement of the merchant, we will not be able to use the action offered by the location.

Istanbulis EuroGame and, as befits a good representative of this genre, it does not offer atmospheric gameplay. In this case, it is a plus for me, because walking around the Turkish capital, visiting mosques, exchanging goods and collecting rubies do not draw me to the board. The more so because I did not like the game graphically. She’s not ugly, but a bit bland. However, the workmanship is at a very high level. Very thick tiles and wooden markers give hope that the components will withstand many future games intact. The only thing that didn’t impress me was the stickers, which differ a bit from the other elements. Pawns in other shapes or hollow markings that will not be damaged would work better, which cannot be said about stickers. I also expected a better molding that could be used for all components. Unfortunately, we only have four compartments. It doesn’t look great, but the manual will tell you how to divide the pieces and place them in the box so that you can easily reach for the individual accessories and the base.

The replayability is high thanks to the board changing with each game. Tiles offer the same benefits, but hike planning is radically different. Previously adjacent locations may be separated from each other by a few moves in the next game. In addition, when planning steps, we must always take into account whether it is more profitable to go around or meet another merchant and pay him, but go the shorter path for it. There is also some randomness in the form of dice. They appear during certain actions, allowing you to obtain a certain amount of a valuable commodity.

I also like the pace of the game in the game. When it comes to acquiring goods and trading, most titles force you to tediously collect and not pay attention to other players. Thanks to more and more expensive rubies, lazily walking around the board is out of the question, because when we finally decide to buy the coveted gemstone, it may already be too expensive for us. Therefore, a walk through the bazaar should be more like a run for trinkets.

A great plus is the manual, which is well-written and the iconography used. I approached one booklet with the rules of the stand and two supplements with some apprehension, but after opening it, I knew immediately where and what information to find. Individual rules are divided into sections and extensions appear on a different background. The symbols are understandable after the first explanation and it is easy to separate individual game elements if we wanted to go back to the basic version. It’s been a long time since I didn’t have any questions or doubts after reading the manual. Others should follow the example and explain the rules at the same high level.

Both add-ons extend the board, but you can also play them simultaneously. In this case, the bazaar becomes a huge bazaar of twenty-five tiles. A lot happens after adding new actions, goods and tokens, so it’s a good idea to play the base and attachments well and then try to combine them.

The extensions are interesting, but they don’t change the main rules, which is a good move. The basic version is already a good enough title, and the extras emphasize it. I like something different about each of them. The first allows you to block the path of your opponents. It is not very bothersome, but at the same time it allows you to disturb a bit. The second, on the other hand, allows you to deliver letters, which forces you to think differently when planning traffic. It’s not only about the merchant’s reach, distance from helpers and possible tile actions, but also about being on the tiles indicated in the shipments.

Istanbul Big Box is a medium difficulty game that I recommend to advanced players, but also to those with a little less experience. It is definitely not suitable for absolute laymen, as they will get lost in the possibilities the game offers while planning. If you’ve already dealt with family titles and would like to raise the bar, this would be a good choice. The more that the difficulty level can be changed with the addition of individual add-ons. This is a big plus of the Big Box release, so I’m glad that this version hit my hands and I recommend it to those who are still hesitating. You will not regret it!

Istanbul, well-known in the board game world, winner of the prestigious Kennerspiel des Jahres award, was released in the Big Box version six years after its premiere. In addition to the basic version, the box also includes two add-ons – Mokka and Bakshish as well as Letters and Seals . For those who have not had the opportunity to get acquainted with this title before, it will be a good opportunity to reach for it and get the whole set right away.

I will tell you right away that I also belong to this group. I knew there was a game like this and more or less what category it belongs to, but I didn’t play it until the Istanbul Big Box came to my table . I was afraid of mixing up components from individual add-ons, but my doubts were quickly dispelled. The elements are well marked and during the preparation for the first game, I easily completed and put away two add-ons to start getting to know the game from the base itself.

What is this all about?

In the game, we play the role of merchants who, together with their helpers, will move around the bazaar. It is made up of sixteen tiles, the arrangement of which can be random or as proposed in the manual. They require preparation according to the rules described above – in the indicated places you need to place mosque tokens, rubies, cart extensions, postage markers, progress tokens and the mayor and smuggler pieces. Place a pile of bonus cards, dice and coins next to the board. Each player receives a cart on which he places four cubes of his color on the gray spaces, a family member whom he places on the Police Station space, a merchant disc and four helper discs, which land as a stack on the Fountain space and coins, depending on the order of the players. .

A player’s turn consists of up to four steps. First, move your disc stack with the merchant on top one or two spaces. If the target tile does not already have a helper of its color, leave it there. If there is, put a pile on it, adding one disk to it and taking it on a further journey. If a lone merchant goes to a location where he has no assistant and no more disks to leave behind, he cannot take the action. The exception is the Fountains field, which “summons” helper disks scattered around the bazaar and allows you to create a full stack. The second step is to pay 2 lira to each player whose merchant is on the end tile, but this step does not occur every turn. Then we perform the action from the end point of our movement, as long as we have left or collected a helper from there. If there is a member of another family on the tile, the mayor or a smuggler, then our fourth step will be to collect 3 lire and send someone else’s pawn to the field of the Police Station, picking and paying for a bonus card or getting and paying for one good.

The goods are presented on the trolley and each time we acquire an item, we move the marker to the right, and when we spend it – to the left. Below are the ruby ​​slots, and they are our main focus in the game. Collecting five (or six in a two-player game) ends the game. You can get them, among others for the maximum expansion of the cart or the acquisition of mosque tokens.

Mocha and Bakszysz

The first expansion pack expands the bazaar with another four locations. We also get new bonus cards and the coffee merchant pawn, which we place on the tile in the same way as the mayor and smuggler. From the new character, in the fourth step of your turn, you can buy coffee (another type of good in the game) and download the appropriate marker. Prepare the new tiles with the corresponding components, and place some of them next to the board, as described in the preparation for the game.

A significant change is the option to completely skip your move and play a guild card instead. They can mess up a lot on the board, because it is difficult to predict the action that the opponents are going to take. Previously, their movement was limited by the reach of the merchant. The new guild cards introduce more unpredictable actions, making the game even more fierce and the race for rubies accelerating. Especially that with this expansion, the requirement to get six rubies applies regardless of the number of players.

The add-on also allows you to limit the mobility of other players. Thanks to the blockade marker, we can close the passage between the two locations. Everyone except the owner of the blockade must walk around. This adds a bit of negative interaction and sharpens the atmosphere above the board.