Corteo

About this board game

Corteo is a 1979 city simulation for 2–8 players, with games lasting about 120 minutes. It recreates a huge demonstration moving through a city as opposing sides struggle over important locations, from embassies and the TV Station to the government palace, court, prison, and fashionable shops.

The game uses a finely illustrated city map with a printed hex grid to govern traditional movement and combat. A humorous “Yellow Pages” booklet helps players locate the best places to score points around the city, while the streets and squares feature amusing names.

One side controls the Demonstration, with many slow units supported by faster and more dangerous forces, including anarchists and Marxist-Leninists. The opposing Power player commands policemen and Carabinieri, backed by heavy vehicles—some equipped to shoot gas—as well as a few less capable city council policemen.

• A detailed city map with a hex-based movement and combat system
• Distinct Demonstration and Power forces with contrasting capabilities
• Several scenarios, including the radically different “Black Out” variant

In “Black Out,” up to six players move through the darkened city to sack it, while up to two players attempt to stop them using policemen and Carabinieri. The two law-enforcement players can even fight over goods seized from the pillagers—but only during a dark turn, when they can pretend not to recognize each other.

Corteo was the first board game published by C.UnS.A., created by Massimo Casa, Giulio De Petra, Alvaro Lojacono, Piergiorgio Maoloni, and Sergio Zoffoli. Mondadori Giochi released a second edition in 1980 with a heavier map and counters, but without the “Black Out” variant.