Zoo Vadis Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Zoo Vadis, a negotiation game published by Bitewing Games. In Zoo Vadis, you are competing to be the start attraction at the zoo.

Let’s say you’re, oh I don’t know, an Armadillo. You live in a zoo, and therefore, your deepest desire is to become the zoo’s star attraction. Surely every animal in the zoo dreams of being the most gawked at living thing in any cage in the complex, right? So what else is there to do but to politick and position your way to the top, wheeling, dealing, and betraying until you’re sitting pretty in the place of honor, a steady march to the top of the zoo hierarchy.

If this doesn’t make much sense to you, don’t worry, it doesn’t for me either, but that certainly doesn’t stop Zoo Vadis—the reboot of Reiner Knizia’s somewhat obscure classic Quo Vadis?—from being an absolute masterpiece. I’ll get to my gripes about the nonsensical nature of the zoo animal retheme of Knizia’s game about politics and intrigue in ancient Republican Rome, but first, let’s dive into this fantastic 3-7 player negotiation game from Bitewings Games.

In Zoo Vadis, each player controls a faction of animals, all vying for prestige and the chance to be displayed in the Star Exhibit. Each animal faction has an asymmetric power as well (more on that shortly). While traveling through the minor exhibits, on their way to reach the Star Exhibit at the top of the board, animals pick up laurel tokens, which act as both victory points and currency. Once all the spots in the Star Exhibit are filled, the game ends, and the player who has the most points AND at least one animal in the Star Exhibit wins the game. Animal factions that did not make it to the Star Exhibit are not eligible to win (oh, Reiner, you and your wacky win conditions!). On your turn, you can take one of four actions:

Add an animal to the zoo: You may add a new animal token to the start of the track if there is an open spot to fill.

The game is deceptively simple, that is literally 90% of it. But what