presentation

Istanbul Brief & Siegel

Messages -> Secrets -> Rubies

Merchants and their assistants buy, transport and deliver goods in the Bazaar and buy rubies with their profits. In your turn you execute four phases: 1) Movement - 1 or 2 steps plus placing or collecting assistant; 2) Encounter with other merchants, pay Lira; 3) Action for Merchant with assistant: Take goods, expand wheelbarrow, change Mail indicator, bonus cards, collect assistants, get money, sell goods, free family member, deliver to Sultan, take Mosque tile, buy ruby; 4) Encounter with opposing family members, Governor or Smuggler for money, bonus cards or goods. If somebody has five rubies, you win at the end of the round with most rubies.

Istanbul: Letters & Seals introduces sideline business for the merchants: Deliver messages and learn secrets which you can trade for rubies in the Secret Society. Support for the daily business comes from a partner. New locations are Embassy, Kiosk, Auction House, Secret Society and Catacombs; new turn options are use partner instead of merchant, he moves one location, vertically or horizontally, and works alone. Bonuses or tiles meant for the merchant do not apply to the partner. Letters at locations with your own pieces are turned over, they are delivered and yield seals. A courier delivers a letter for 2 Lira or for a letter. Letters with a total of 3 or 4 seals give you a bonus turn.

Letters & Seals offers a lot more options to acquire rubies and takes the heat and pressure out of the race for certain locations; the variant “Great Bazaar” combines Letters & Seals with the Mocha & Baksheesh, the first expansion, and the core game for a very intense and challenging game experience.

Players: 2-5

Age: 10+

Time: 60+

Designer: Rüdiger Dorn

Artist: Andreas Resch, Hans-Georg Schneider

Price: ca. 20 Euro

Publisher: Pegasus Spiele 2016

Web: www.pegasus.de

Genre: Worker placement, collect, swap

Users: With friends

Special: Many players

Version: multi

Rules: de en + fr it nl

In-game text: no

Comments:

Works well together with the core game or in combination with core game and Mocha & Baksheesh in the “Great Bazaar” version

More difficult than the core game

Seals as new mechanism and ability

Masterly expansion

Compares to:

Istanbul, Istanbul Mocha & Baksheesh

Other editions:

Alderac (en), Asterion (it), Matagot (fr), White Goblin (nl)

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0