Istanbul Assistants: Why You Can Move but Cannot Act

You reached the right shop, but Istanbul will not let you use it. Before changing your route, check your assistants and the other merchants at your destination. At an ordinary Place, you must pick up one of your own assistants already there or leave one from your travelling stack. Then you must pay any merchant encounter fees before taking the location's action.

Having no assistants under your merchant does not always leave you stuck. A return visit to one of your own assistants can give you both the location's action and an assistant for your next move. The Fountain offers a broader recovery option.

This guide covers the base-game merchant rules in Istanbul: Digital Edition. Expansion powers can change particular steps; follow the text of any card or tile you are using.

Check what happens when you arrive

Ordinary movement takes your merchant and the assistants travelling with it one or two Places, using horizontal or vertical steps. You must finish somewhere different from where you started. Only your destination gets the arrival check; moving through a Place does not collect its assistant or use its action.

Once you arrive, look for your own assistant at that Place:

• Your assistant is already there: pick it up into your merchant stack. You can continue towards the action even if you arrived with no assistants.
• Your assistant is not there, but you brought one: leave an assistant at the destination. You can continue towards the action.
• Neither is possible: your turn ends before the action or encounters. The Fountain is the base-game exception.

An opponent's assistant does not satisfy your requirement. Also, when your own assistant is already at the destination, the normal arrival procedure picks it up; you do not leave an extra assistant instead.

Three arrival cases: pick up your own assistant, leave one from your stack, or end the turn if neither is possible. Original rules diagram. The Fountain has a separate recovery action.

Your last assistant still works for this visit

Suppose you travel with one assistant and arrive at a warehouse where none of your assistants is waiting. You leave that assistant and may use the warehouse, subject to any merchant fees. You will have zero assistants travelling with you on your next move.

The problem begins if that next destination also lacks one of your assistants. You do not lose the current warehouse action merely because you used your last available helper.

Picking up an assistant also permits the action

A collection visit can be productive. If you return to a warehouse containing your assistant, you can pick it up and refill goods there. If you return to a market containing your assistant, you can pick it up and sell goods, provided you meet the current market requirements.

Here is the assistant count for a simple four-turn sequence. Assume you start with two travelling assistants, Places A and B are within normal movement range of each other, neither initially contains your assistant, and no other merchants interfere.

All four visits can include their location's action. Each action still needs its own resources and conditions. A warehouse-and-market loop, for example, must match what the market currently buys; its demand can change after a sale.

This makes an assistant left on the board useful route information. Before spending your final travelling assistant, find a later destination where a pickup will serve your plan. Returning to a useful Place can be more efficient than abandoning the route just to gather everyone at the Fountain.

Other merchants can stop you before you earn money

After the assistant step, you must pay 2 Lira to each other merchant at the destination before using the Place. If you cannot or will not pay, your turn ends. The Fountain waives these payments.

Check for merchant pieces, not every disc on the tile. An opponent's lone assistant does not charge the merchant fee. Neutral merchants, when present under the game's rules, also require payment; their fee goes to the supply.

Two examples show why the order matters:

Post Office with 1 Lira. Another merchant is there. Even if the Post Office would give you money, you cannot collect that income first and pay the 2-Lira fee afterwards. Solve the fee before entering the action step. A suitable money Bonus card can help if played in time.

Wainwright with 7 Lira. A Wheelbarrow extension costs 7 Lira, but another merchant adds a 2-Lira encounter payment before the purchase. You need 9 Lira for that visit to buy the extension. Arriving with exactly 7 covers the printed purchase price, not the whole visit.

The assistant step has already happened before this payment check. Budget for the entire visit before confirming movement, especially when another player has just occupied your planned destination.

Recover assistants without wasting a useful return route

Return to one of your assistants

Look for a destination containing your own assistant within reach. Picking it up can restore a travelling helper while still providing an action. Consider what that Place does for your next ruby, rather than choosing a pickup solely because it is close.

A warehouse pickup is attractive when you need its goods. A pickup at a location you cannot afford may restore the assistant but contribute little else, and other merchants can still charge you.

Use the Fountain

At the Fountain, you may return any number of your assistants to your merchant stack. You do not need to bring an assistant to use it, and other merchants there do not charge the usual encounter fee.

You can collect everyone, but you may also leave selected assistants at useful Places. Keeping one at a planned destination preserves a future pickup visit. Collecting it now means that later visit will normally need an assistant from your travelling stack instead.

Reachability still matters. The Fountain's exception does not teleport your merchant there. If it is outside normal movement range and you have no suitable movement effect, you may need an intermediate move. An ordinary destination with no usable assistant can serve as that repositioning move, but the turn ends there without its action or encounters.

Use a recovery effect you actually own

The yellow Mosque tile lets you pay 2 Lira, once on your turn, to return one of your assistants to your merchant stack. A base-game Bonus card also returns one assistant during the movement phase. Use the recovery before the missing-assistant check ends your turn.

The blue Mosque tile has a different benefit: it adds your fifth assistant to the stack when acquired. It does not recall the assistants already scattered around the board.

Before paying 2 Lira for a yellow-tile recovery, include any merchant fees and action price in the same budget. Recovering a helper will not solve a visit that you can no longer afford.

Movement cards do not automatically waive assistant rules

The Bonus card that allows you to stay at your current Place changes the movement requirement, but you still need to use an assistant again. Check whether the Place contains one to pick up or whether you have one to leave.

Likewise, the card allowing a three- or four-Place move extends your reach. It does not make an otherwise unusable destination free to activate.

Read these effects for the exact step they change. A longer move, a recovered assistant and a second location action solve different problems.

If the action still fails, check the turn in order

1. Destination: is it reachable under ordinary movement or your played effect?
2. Assistant: can you pick up your own assistant or leave one? If not, is this the Fountain or a valid special exception?
3. Merchant fees: can you pay 2 Lira per other merchant before the action?
4. Action requirements: after those payments, do you still have the money, goods or other conditions the location needs?

Skipping a location action after reaching its step still allows the later encounters. Ending the turn because you failed the assistant step or merchant payment does not. That difference matters if you were hoping to meet the Governor, trade with the Smuggler or catch another player's Family Member.

For your next turn, plan the destination and the visit after it. One available assistant, one useful pickup and enough cash for a crowded shop usually matter more than the shortest-looking path across the board.

The publisher's English rulebook gives the base-game turn order on pages 8–9, the Fountain on page 18, and Mosque tiles and Bonus cards on pages 22 and 24. It also includes expansion rules in separate sections.