Game: Constantinopolis

Thread: Would someone please upload a full cover shot?

blindspot — 2008-12-02T17:07:57+00:00

It would be helpful.

Thanks.

Thread: Re: Preorders possible?

carthaginian — 2008-10-01T18:40:01+00:00

~~I was told it wouldn't make essen...~~

found it : release date : Nuremberg '09
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2688855#2688855

Thread: Re: Preorders possible?

samur — 2008-10-01T18:31:17+00:00

Also, I'd like to know that

Thread: Re: Any news / release date ?

Dominex — 2008-09-30T17:19:52+00:00

I confirm the release for Nuernberg 2009.

Thread: Re: Any news / release date ?

Gekki — 2008-09-29T10:57:35+00:00

Author told me release date will be feb 2009 in nurnberg..

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greenleaf — 2008-09-29T10:05:09+00:00

The ultimate prototype

Thread: Preorders possible?

Anaesthetic — 2008-09-15T07:43:02+00:00

Where/how/when can I preorder this game for Essen08?

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

Constantinople — 2008-09-05T22:05:15+00:00

I am disappointed, the map of CONSTANTINOPLE is not even close to reality!

Thread: Rules?

tryytty — 2008-09-05T19:06:00+00:00

Is there plans to publish rules before Essen?

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

Zzzzz — 2008-08-25T14:46:08+00:00

First I will say that with my limited play of the game, I may not be able to accurately assess the game. But with that stated

Depth
On the surface Constantinopolis emits a grander sense of depth, as compared to that of PR. Though similar in nature, build, produce goods, ship goods, there seem to be something more with respect to building and producing goods. Though at the same time the turn order and the role selection as contained in PR, seems to set the two apart (though I am not yet sure if the lack of the role selection is good or bad).

Strategy
After multiple plays I am sure some decent options for strategy will reveal themselves, but for my initial trial it seemed very mechanical and process driven. Since everyone was new to the game, we just seemed to step through the motions and surely the learning curve influence the initial abilities of players to attempt any strategic thought process.

Interaction
Outside the minor interaction of the turn order (and a few of the turn order benefits) the interaction between players might be lacking. There is no real sense of *take that* or *screw your buddy* involved in the game. Of course hopefully after a few plays there might be a way to plan out a strategic *screw you*. And the more I think about it, the more I think about my desire to have more of a role selection or even more turn order interaction as contained in PR (not sure why but it just seemed like there was somehting missing from the interaction).

Repeat Play
Constantinopolis might not offer much of a repeat play experience for some players. Of course I hope to be proven wrong on this and will surely give the game a few more plays before I deem this statement true. As I mentioned above it seemed like the players were just stepping through a very specific list of 7 phases, and I am still not sure how the game will keep players attention after multiple plays.

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

nexttothemoon — 2008-08-23T23:58:25+00:00

Thanks for the insights on the game David. I've been watching the progress on this game for a few months and it looks like it could be an interesting "medium/heavy Euro" style game. It seems to be getting generally favorable responses so far from the few that have played it.

In terms of depth and strategy where would you roughly say this game compares to something like Puerto Rico, Caylus, Goa etc?

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

Zzzzz — 2008-08-20T18:36:53+00:00

mcfer wrote:
Hmmm, so late? Ok, I thought that what you played in Indy was pretty much the "Release Candidate". But now seems more like it's still in Beta phase

Thanks for that info too!

Maybe it was the *Release Candidate*, but judging from the board, tiles, etc it was definitely a prototype version of the game we were playing. And I did ask the *when will it be out* question to which there was not specific answer, though I did ask about *in time for the holidays?* to which the answer was *not likely*.

Of course you never know what is really going to happen until it happens, so maybe FF will give us an early holiday present!?!

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

Zzzzz — 2008-08-20T18:31:48+00:00

smtudor wrote:
Thanks a bunch for the intel! Have some GG

Thank you!

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

mcfer — 2008-08-20T15:35:58+00:00

Hmmm, so late? Ok, I thought that what you played in Indy was pretty much the "Release Candidate". But now seems more like it's still in Beta phase

Thanks for that info too!

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

Zzzzz — 2008-08-20T15:32:30+00:00

My guess is that they might have a demo going on, but as far as I know it is slated to be released at the holiday-beginning of the year time frame. Though again this could always change. The demo at GenCON had graphics of prototype quality (even some of the Italian information was leveraged), new graphics are supposedly in progress, most likely some minor design changes. Once that is done you will have the normal 3-5 months of printing/production/shipping/etc. So my guess is that we might see this mid 1st quarter, early 2nd quarter of 2009.

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

mcfer — 2008-08-20T15:13:48+00:00

Thanks again! Let's see if they have available for Essen.

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

Zzzzz — 2008-08-20T15:09:31+00:00

mcfer wrote:
Thanks for the details. So David, what's your general impression of the game itself? Flow of game, mechanics, interaction, victory conditions, etc.

General Impression: A great game. Though I will caveat that with my lurking concern about repeat plays. Not sure how fun this will be after 3 or 4 plays. Hopefully I am wrong, and I still enjoyed it enough that I will surely buy it once available.

Flow of game: Very nice, even though it was a learning process for all of us who played. The action/phases seemed reasonable, straight forward and fun. Since players where involved in each phase, it never felt like you had *down time*. With that said, I could see this annoying some people since it might be to mechanically and cookie cutter step by step approach. As such it might be boring of even feel limiting to some.

Interaction: The turn order phase was a nice touch to force player interaction, though being novices at the game we never really forced the bidding component of the game. I think in 5 rounds we did it once, maybe twice and usually it only involved 2 players. With additional playing I am sure this turn order would become more prominent.

Another aspect which influence a little player interaction was the *bonus* benefits associated with the turn order position. For example the 5tg position in turn order allowed that player the right to *steal* a building purchase away from an opponent. So in you wanted to buy the last remaining gold production tile (for example), the 5th player could *steal* it away from you, given they had the money to do so.

Victory Conditions: Sadly I do not recall the victory conditions entirely, but what I do remember is that this was just a whom had the most VP at the end of X rounds of play. The rounds of play were based on the market cards (which in our game had 5 total cards, thse markter cards switch once a round). For some reason I think there was other factors that we did not reach because of our shortened game. But in the end the victory condition was to be the player with the most VP.

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

mcfer — 2008-08-20T13:39:39+00:00

Thanks for the details. So David, what's your general impression of the game itself? Flow of game, mechanics, interaction, victory conditions, etc.

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

smtudor — 2008-08-20T12:38:05+00:00

Thanks a bunch for the intel! Have some GG

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

Zzzzz — 2008-08-20T03:54:00+00:00

I forgot to mention there is also another option to build a house type of item, that would allow you to either draw extra contract card (if the house is unused) or to use a house to hold or keep a contract you had acquired during the contract phase. So in this case you might have drawn a nice contract card that you figured you could ship the next turn, maybe because you did not have room on your ship(s) this turn, as such you could keep the contract around until next turn.

Oops I also forgot to mention information about the contract cards. You acquire these, the resources you produced could fulfill these, since shipped the contracts would yield a VP/Money payouts.

Sorry I should have taken some notes at GenCON! If I did you might have some useful information and not a rambling idiot!

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

Zzzzz — 2008-08-20T03:49:22+00:00

To start I will reference this picture http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/361760?size=original as I comment on items.

As far as I know I can talk about the game since I was never asked to keep the information private. And I will say that my random statements might be potentially wrong but hopefully it will at least provide some useful information for those interested. Just remember this is still in prototype phase so things might change it, and of course my memory after playing like 40 games at GenCON might not be the best resource right now!

First the name under FF is supposedly going to be *Constantinople* (you can look at the right side of the large image, below the player with the National Geographic shirt, next to his arm), you will see the *ople* ending of the text. Of course this could always change but Constantinople is what they used on that table imaging and some other info.

Each round contains a set of phased actions that involve all players in turn order. On the board is a reminder of the phases of each turn (the scroll like image in the right side of the board). Basically all players step through (i believe 7 phases):
1) Select/Bid obtain turn order
2) Ship any pending contracts
3) Produce products
4) Build (buy tiles)
5) Acquire/select contracts to fulfill
6) sorry cannot remember this phase
7) Trade in sets 3 (not sure if there are options for less than or more than 3) resources based on the market card to obtain VP rewards.

Once this was done, the market card was changed and the next set of phases/actions occurred.

Turn order
Players can force a bidding phase during selection of turn order. So if you look at the image the area at the top (near the game box) it contains a section of the board for player turn order. This location contains 5 locations that contain *special* benefits based on the position in turn order. If you wish to *move* yourself to a different location (for example the middle or 3rd position gives the player an automatic money payment each turn of 4), you can say I want to be move to that location in turn order and starting bidding for it at a cost of 1. The current player in that position will need to either outbid you to keep it, you can bid again so on until a bid is resolved. Winner stays and pays the bid cost. The winner of the bid will stay in the current turn order location, while the loser can either default to the other players previous position (even if the previous player is the loser). Or the loser can opt to challenge another turn order location, bid etc etc. Until all players have taken the turn to position themselves in a turn order location.

In the case of the bidding it might also be useful to note that the winner will place their bidding payment for that location on that location. Any other players that might desire that location during the turn order phase will need to beat the current bid to gain control of the location. So if you previously won it for a cost of 5. Another player would have to bid 6 to take it from you. This seemed like a great idea since it gave you a sense of investment that was not just thrown away in the case of every player desiring your turn order position.

Each player also has a player board (similar to PR), on this location you collect the various tiles available for sale. If you look at the main board there are red, green, yellow, purple and grey bordered tiles.

The red bordered tiles contain the resources that can produce on your production phase. You buy these and your also buy them based on a *ranking*. The rankings are levels A, B, C and D (if I recall correctly). You cannot purchase a B without previously purchasing an A, nor a C without a B, and so on (though for some reason I think we might have purchased Ds without a C, but maybe that was just a learning mistake). Though there are a few other rules I dont remember about this also, since the number of each red tile factored into what you could or could not purchase.

Green tiles can be purchased anytime, they are limited (so not all players can have one of each), and give some type of bonus, during production, such as reduced cost or some such benefit.

Yellow/Gold tiles, I do not recall off hand. But I think it was just another higher level of production. Involve a gold production resource...

Purple tiles where more of a high cost, end game VP investment. There were two levels to these tiles, and not sure I remember correctly or not, but you had to purchase the 1st tier prior to the 2nd tier.

Grey tiles where these *wall* tiles and only available to a specific turn order position.

Next to the gold tiles are market/trade cards. There was a pile of theses and the current market changed each round. The market tile would change the value for converting your resources into money, or cost to purchase a needed resource. This was nice since you could see what the market was *going to be*, so you could take that into account for planning your future shipments. This market card also contained a special set trade in, which would allow you to trade in a set of 3 resource, or one type for some VP.

When in the Acquire/select contract phase you would select 2 cards (though this is one of the benefits of one of the turn orders to obtain 3 more, for a total of 5 contract cards, and also one of the green tile bonus options). You would select contracts card, keep the ones you could fulfill and discard the rest.

To ship a contract you had to have a ship, you start with a small ship which could ship up to two resources at one time. This might be fine for smaller contract, which would contain 1 or 2 resources, but to fulfill larger contracts of 3+ or even multiple contracts with 1 or 2, you need more room to ship, so there is an option in the build phase that would allow you to buy more and bigger ships.

I mentioned above the grey tiles, though no real information about them. Basically this tile was special in that you could only buy them based on being located in a specific turn order position. They walls helped in some end game scoring, though I am not sure I fully understood this option since it was my first time playing. But the jist of it was you wanted to build a wall, players would have to bid and obtain this turn order, but of course you have to weight the benefit (which I cannot recall right now).

Once the market cards had been used, in our short game I believe it was 5 market cards, so that turned into 5 rounds, scoring occurred.

Well there you have it, my horrible brain dump! Hopefully someone finds at least a little useful information!

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

smtudor — 2008-08-19T19:50:23+00:00

Zzzzz wrote:
I played it at GenCon and I wish I could have purchased it at the convention!

Great to hear! This is one game I'm watching pretty closely.

Zzzzz wrote:
The game plays very well, offers a ton of choices, and though it seems to draw comparisons to PR, I think that saying that is misleading.

What mechanics were in play? Can you tell us any more?

Thread: Re: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

Zzzzz — 2008-08-19T19:06:21+00:00

I played it at GenCon and I wish I could have purchased it at the convention!

The game plays very well, offers a ton of choices, and though it seems to draw comparisons to PR, I think that saying that is misleading.

Thread: so did anyone play this at Gencon?

jerkules — 2008-08-18T14:38:59+00:00

Just wondering. And if so, care to share any more info (if allowed)?

Thanks.

Image

Grey Dragon — 2008-08-16T02:46:20+00:00

GenCon Indy 08 Demo

Thread: Re: Any news / release date ?

jerkules — 2008-08-15T14:56:15+00:00

I didn't realize this would be a Fantasy Flight game. Guess we'll see it in 2009 then.....

Thread: Re: Any news / release date ?

Apparatus — 2008-08-15T14:17:54+00:00

They had a full working demo of the game at the FFG booth at GenCon. They played a full game with you if you sat down with them.

Thread: Re: Any news / release date ?

JoelH — 2008-07-08T18:21:59+00:00

is there a chance to see the Game in Essen 2008??

Please!

Thread: Re: Any news / release date ?

MataDorPL — 2008-06-25T12:57:48+00:00

Game looks very promising. I'd love to hear more about rules and see some more pictures. Definitly I'll keep an eye on this one.

Thread: Re: Any news / release date ?

nexttothemoon — 2008-06-20T07:19:12+00:00

Certainly looks interesting. It would be nice to see some more pics and an idea of the rules/gameplay.

Thread: Re: Any news / release date ?

Dominex — 2008-04-28T09:48:42+00:00

Constantinopolis will have released for Essen 2008.

I believe that soon it will be possible to see some images.

Giancarlo

Thread: Re: Any news / release date ?

fellonmyhead — 2008-04-17T11:12:04+00:00

I'd be interested in finding out what's happening with this game too.

Thread: Any news / release date ?

gugi — 2008-03-23T17:16:01+00:00

The game was announced as a Nuernberg-realease here and appears on the spielbox-list, but neither could I find more pictures nor a preview of the game.

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Dominex — 2007-10-31T10:03:05+00:00

Draft of the ships

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Mondoron — 2007-08-26T23:36:27+00:00

board close-up

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Mondoron — 2007-08-26T23:35:34+00:00

Giancarlo Fioretti

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Mondoron — 2007-08-26T23:34:50+00:00

board layout