Charity Challenge Week 2 Night 3 - Istanbul Dice Game
We’ve reached the half way mark of week 2! Rachel pulled off an incredible win in Fugitive last night to bring the week to a 1-1 tie, but I intend to bring it this week. If you’re interested in donating to our Extra Life campaign please visit our campaign page to donate or learn more about our efforts to raise money for Toronto’s sick kids hospital!
Let’s break this tie!
The Choice
We’ve had a busy few days so tonight I had to pick a game that would play fairly quickly. So I need a game that plays quick but plays to my euro game strengths. Let’s do Istanbul the Dice Game!
The Game
Istanbul the Dice game is the dice version of a very popular game, Istanbul. If you follow along this campaign for game ideas (I know some of you do!) let me say this right up front: If you play anywhere between 2 to 4 players on a regular basis YOU MUST OWN THIS GAME. Istanbul the Dice Game is a race game where you roll five dice every turn and then take two actions from those dice. You use the dice to take goods tiles, to draw cards or to earn money. These resources are spent ultimately on Rubies – the first player to 6 rubies wins. The game also features Mosque tiles that give you resources every turn. But in order to get these resources you need to slow down your pursuit of rubies – will your opponent take advantage of you playing a bit slow? It’s a brilliant balancing act.
If you’d like to learn more about Istanbul the Dice Game check out this video from Zee Garcia.
The Result
Rachel got the first Ruby. I caught up. Rachel got the second Ruby. I caught up. We went back and fourth for the first few rubies, but ultimately the game came down to engine building. I managed to get a few Mosque tiles up and while Rachel kept pulling ahead in the race I managed to set myself up for a great late game with my engine. In the end it was too much for Rachel. I won by probably 2 turns, so it was fairly tight but in the end my various bonuses won the day!
That gets me up on the week 2-1 and I hope whatever Rachel throws at me tomorrow is something I can tackle to lock up my first week.