Cost:$35.00 From:Hands im Gluck Players: 3-5 Playing Time: 45 minutes Type of game: Family Strategy Complexity: 4 Skill level: 8 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 2.1, Fall 1993
European reviews of Quo Vadis? suggested that this is a game you'll either love or hate. I've played the game many times now with over a dozen different people , and all of them are in the former category.
Quo Vadis? is superficially a game based on the machinations of the Roman senate, but is really just an abstract strategy game with a Roman theme grafted on. Don't let the theme prejudice you one way or the other, because it really has no bearing on the game itself.
The game board depicts a network of "committees"-- rooms, really. Each committee can accommodate one, three, or five members. Hallways link the committees on the bottom of the board to the committees above them, eventually winding up at the Senate at the top of the board. The object of the game is to collect "laurels" by advancing your politicians upwards through the hierarchy of committees toward the Senate.
The hallways above the three- and five-person committees have special spaces for "laurels"-- circular tokens worth two to five points. At the start of the game, a randomly drawn laurel token is placed on each laurel space. Each player has eight pieces, or politicians, all of which begin the game off the board. Players can do one of three things on each turn. The most common move near the start of the game is to place a politician on a vacant space in one of the committees at the bottom of the board. The second option is to move a politician out of a committee to a vacant space in the committee above it.
To do so, a politician needs a majority of votes from that committee-- two votes in a three-person committee, or three votes in a five-person one. Therefore, nobody can leave a committee until more than half of its spaces are occupied. When you leave one of these committees, you also get to keep the laurel token you pass over on your way. A new one is randomly chosen to replace it on the board. A politician can always leave a one-person committee as long as there's a vacant space in the committee above it. These committees are easier to leave, but you don't collect any laurels for doing so.
Each politician in a committee can cast one vote. Obviously, if more than half of the spaces in a committee are occupied by your own politicians, getting enough votes to advance one of them is a snap. Otherwise, you'll have to gain the votes of other politicians. When another player's politician votes for you, that player earns a one-laurel reward if you're bid for promotion succeeds. Sometimes, that reward is enough to secure a vote. More frequently, however, other players won't give you their votes quite so easily. You'll be forced to bargain. This might take the form of a pledge of your vote the next time your opponent needs it, or perhaps a "cash" bribe of additional laurels from your pocket. Absolutely anything is legitimate. But... if you can fulfill your end of the bargain before the end of your next turn, you must. If you can't, you're no longer obligated to do so. This means that long-term deals are risky, especially in the fickle world of politics. And although you're free to break your promises after that one turn, you'll surely make a political enemy by doing so. And you may need his support later on...
If you can't or don't want to bring a politician onto the board or advance one up the hierarchy, there is a third option available: moving Caesar. Caesar can be moved from his current position (he starts just below the Senate) to any laurel space on the board (covering up that space's laurel token). Anybody in a committee immediately below Caesar can promote herself to the one directly above him without a vote-- even if she's the sole occupant of the committee being left. But because Caesar covers the laurel token, you don't pick up any laurels when you leave.
And what's the goal of all this skullduggery? When all five positions in the Senate are filled, the player with the most laurels wins... provided that player has at least one politician in the Senate. That's a mighty important proviso which puts the game's nuances into perspective. You can move up toward the Senate quickly via Caesar or the one-person committees, but you get no laurels for doing so. You want to collect as many laurels as possible, but you also need to get a politician into the Senate or else your laurels are irrelevant. The first time I played, I was well on my way to winning when I realized that I was in danger of being locked out of the Senate. I was forced to make a lousy deal that got me into the Senate but cost me the game.
The game's equipment is well-produced, if abstract. The board is nicely evocative of a Roman piazza. The pastel-colored politicians are sturdy plastic figurines reminiscent of an Oscar statuette without any arms. The Caesar and laurel tokens are on thick cardboard and are easy to punch out without tearing them.
The luck factor in Quo Vadis? is fairly small-- the value of laurel tokens placed on the board is the only element determined by chance. Everything else is governed by the decisions of the players. As a result, your decisions carry a lot of weight and can greatly affect the direction of the game. There's no shortage of strategies to consider. Although you get no laurels for passing through a one-person committee, it's often advantageous to park yourself in one, effectively blocking other politicans from leaving the committee below. This also gives you an extra bargaining chip with the players you're blocking-- you can agree to move your blocker in exchange for votes or laurels. Don't be too quick to give away your votes for free, even though you get a reward laurel from the bank for doing so. Always try to squeeze something extra out of your opponent in exchange for your vote. He'll undoubtedly do the same to you, and that one extra concession could give you the game.
The advantages of moving Caesar to help you leave a committee are obvious. Less readily apparent are the defensive possibilities Caesar offers. If someone is about to leave a committee on his next turn and pick up a four or five laurel token, moving Caesar onto that token prevents your opponent from getting it. The game can hinge on just one or two laurels, so a move such as this can be extremely important.
One of the nicest things about the game is that it is self-balancing. A player might have a majority in a committee, but as soon as he promotes a politician from it the balance of power in that committee shifts. A player with three of five seats in a committee must sacrifice his majority to move on. Very nicely designed.
You might think that a game like this would ultimately settle into stalemate, with players refusing to make deals with each other and movement becoming stymied. In practice, however, this doesn't happen. Someone is always willing to make a deal, perhaps out of fear that if he doesn't, someone else will. Deals do tend to get more expensive as politicans near the Senate or where five-laurel tokens are concerned, but they never seem to dry up completely. The result is a game where power and standing are constantly in flux, which makes for lots of fun and excitement.
Quo Vadis? generally moves quickly, but it can get temporarily bogged down in negotiations. If this becomes a problem, setting a time limit on each turn is a simple and fair solution. Quo Vadis? should appeal to the family game crowd, assuming the wheeling and dealing isn't a problem in your group, as well as the serious gaming crowd. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.