If you’re ready to up your Gameschool Game, Instanbul (an economic strategy board game) is a great choice!
Visit the beautiful, bustling, Grand Bazaar in the city full of architecture, spices, fabric, warehouses, mosques, and more.
The first player to collect 5 rubies wins. To have a chance, merchants must be quick. The first rubies to be purchased are the least expensive.
The board is made up of a 16 card grid of marketplace tiles. The positioning of the tiles changes every game, so every game is a new experience.
Player take turns moving their Merchant around the board 1-2 spaces at a time with an entourage of assistants. Merchants must leave an assistant at each shop location in order to perform that shop’s action to gain resources, coins, cards, or rubies.
Actions include:
- increase your wheelbarrow capacity
- acquire goods or special abilities
- buy rubies
- sell goods for money
Merchants can’t perform any actions without the help of their assistants, so after leaving them all around the marketplace, merchants have to go back around and collect them before they can resume trading, buying, and selling.
If a player wants to travel through or stop at a shop that is occupied by another merchant, the active player must pay the merchant in the shop 2 coins. This works for and against you, which makes the game very interesting!
The first player to buy 5 rubies wins! Yahoo!
This game is full of setbacks and successes, and is a great lesson in Opportunity Cost. Every strategy and move comes at the cost of a different strategy and move, one that might be better depending on what the other merchants do. It’s a game full of give and take, frustration and exhilaration, and just good old-fashioned fun.
Istanbul has a whole list of possible Gameschool subjects – economics, Middle eastern culture/geography, math (as always!), and many more! It’s a great way to spend an hour or so during the school day or in the evening for some family fun time.
The design is beautiful and the theme really makes me extra sad I can’t travel the world anytime soon…what I wouldn’t give to buy myself some exotic spices, luxurious fabric, or brightly painted pottery. Aaaah, Istanbul calls to me!!! Oh well, the game will have to do for now… :)
Thanks to Alderac Entertainment for sharing this game with us!
