Constantinople (Not Istanbul) was the weapon of choice on Thur night thanks to one of the Tue night crew and a damn fine game it was too, but before that there had to be a warm-up, Incan Gold. Some gamers forget to mentally stretch beforehand and this can lead to confusion and general malaise in the game proper. Take my advice, always warm up with a simple game beforehand to get the ol’ brain spinning up to playing speed. Right Incan gold. Boy of Boy It really is a weak game. Even as a filler it just raises it’s head above Letter of Marque 🙂
With our resident archaeologist all present we figured he’d take an early lead and as he explained one of the biggest issues with working on road projects just like Incan gold are the ever present dangers of zombies, giant spiders and rockfalls. We had always figured this to be the case however it was great to hear it from a professional and everyone nodded sagely and muttered ‘damn zombies’ before starting.
Well it ran for a few turns and someone won. can I be more specific? sure it was one of the lads who won and it happened before now. Enough of that it was time for Constantinople and I won’t be stopped
The first thing you notice about Constantinople is the spelling and the fact that it’s not actually CALLED Constantinople. This in my opinion is clever but let’s not dwell on this.
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31483/constantinopolis
Constantinopolis as they insist on calling it is Puerto Rico for grown ups. Don’t get me wrong I love Puerto Rico, it’s been good to me and mine but this is better and that’s damn close to burning heretic talk.
(the Mars bar was a prop and not a part of the game per se)
Being a Fantasy Flight there are many many fine pieces to it and the built quality if very nice indeed. It’s a semi solo game with a certain amount of cock blockery but the real skill is in managing your resources and scoring points and this is where it’s fun. Every point is hard won and there’s a lot of tension from start to finish where you every so slowly edge past your opponent (Drax, always Drax). Since this was our first game a lot of the strategy was lost on us but that didn’t matter, the game is a joy to play and I’m eager to play it again.
I have to say we’ve been having quite the run of good games and this is just another example with classic written all over it.
The game itself? oh it’s standard fair, you gains resources, stick em on ships and try and ship them, scoring points as you go but several routes all of the valid can help you on your quest. There’s a lovely flow to the game, for me it reminded me of Puerto Rico certainly but also through the ages and one or two others I can’t put my finger on. This is a damn fine game, it’s also fiver player not bad thing at all.
Definitely gets two thumbs from me
Huzzah!
More of that Next Thur
Victor Gannon Games 
Leave a Reply