Istanbul: The Dice Game – How to Play

Istanbul is a very in depth game that can turn off potential players early on with the many nuances and things to consider when trying to figure out the best path to victory. While Istanbul is a fantastic experience, the worker placement actions do put it out of reach for some gamers. Enter Istanbul: The Dice Game, a streamlined version of the original that plays relatively quickly, and is easy to teach.

The goal of the game is to obtain 6 gems from the central board – the first player to collect six gems – or a different number depending on the number of players – is the winner. Gems can be acquired in a variety of ways. Let’s setup the board, and begin a turn.

Setup

Lay the central board in the middle of the table within reach of all players, and fill up the various circles on the board with gems, depending on the number of players. Along the bottom of the board, shuffle and stack the mosque cards – thick square cardboard pieces – and lay out six, face up. Set the smaller deck of cards, the commodity tokens, and the lira (money) to the side, accessible to all players. Each player starts with a specific amount of lira and crystal, depending on which player they are. And now we are ready to play!

On Your Turn

On their turn, players turn, income is the first phase of the game. Players will look at their mosque cards they have acquired, and see if anything should be added to their commodity pool, their money pile, or their pool of dice. When that is complete, players role the number of dice allotted to them – 5 plus any extra from mosque tiles – and decide how they want to use their dice.

There are various icons on the dice, each of which pairs with an action in the game, whether that be a specific commodity, a mosque tile, cards form the deck, or coins from the lira pile. Crystals can be used to re-roll as many dice as you like – multiple crystals can be used during your turn. After players are satisfied with their dice roll, they can perform two actions, which can be found on the reference sheet each player is given.

When performing an action, you choose all the dice of that specific action and perform the associated action. For example, if you choose to get two lira from a dice roll, but realize you have 3 symbols showing, you would collect 6 lira, for one action.

When selecting cards, you will pick up as many cards as there are dice shown, but only one card can be kept. Being able to pick up more cards, however, allows you to have a greater chance at something truly exceptional.

As players perform actions, they will collect resources and abilities that will allow them to begin collecting gems from the middle of the table. Gems can be collected by having 5 mosque tiles in front of a player (once per game), by turning in a set number of commodity tokens, matching the current number on the board, turning in lira equal to the number showing on the board, etc.

As more gems leave the middle of the table, the remaining gems become harder to obtain. While a gem can initially be purchased for 10 lira, by the time a few have been bought, that price might rise to 15 lira per gem.

Once a player has collected his final gem, the game ends and that player wins. And that is how you play Istanbul Dice!