Players: 3-5
Time: 30-45 minutes
Difficulty: 2 (of 10)
The Components
Quo Vadis? comes with:
- 1 game board
- 40 senators
- 65 laurel tokens
- 1 caesar token
- 7 special tokens
- 1 rulebook
Game Board: A four-panel gameboard that hierarchically depicts the committees of ancient Rome. Each committee has a specific number of seats, and there are clear paths leading up toward the Senate. The board is nicely illustrated in Roman-looking tiles, though the first time I played I was sad that the committees were unnamed; it seemed like a missed opportunity to give the game some color.
Senators: 40 large plastic sticks used as pawns. The rules says they're shaped like "clusters of acanthus leaves", used in Corinthian columns. Whatever; they're kind of weird. But they're large and good-looking nonetheless. There are 8 each in the 5 player colors (eggshell white, cyan, black, crimson, and light gray)
Tokens: The tokens are all printed on medium-weight circular cardboard tokens. The die-cutting is so-so, as is usually the case with American productions. 62 of the tokens depicts a laurel with a number from I to V; 3 are blank; 1 shows Caesar; and 7 more show various icons used in an advanced game. They're all attractive and appropriate.
Rulebook: An 8-page black & white rulebook with some pictures and with fun period information in sidebars. Plus a one-page set of advanced rules. Nothing too fancy here.
Overall, the quality of the components is fairly average. However, everything is easy to use, and the tall plastic pawns look quite good on the period-appropriate gameboard. I've thus let Quo Vadis? eke in an above average "4" out of "5" for Style.
The Gameplay
The object of Quo Vadis? is to gather the most laurels by rising up through the Roman committees--and helping your opponents to do the same--but if you don't end up with a seat in the Senate, all is for nothing.
Setup: The board is laid in the middle of the table. The laurels marked "I" are set nearby. The laurels marked "II", "III", "IV", and "V" are shuffled and laid on the board face-up in laurel spaces. The Caesar token is placed on one of the laurels right under the Senate.
Each player chooses a color and takes the 8 pawns in that color.
The Board. The whole game is really in the board. It depicts a set of 16 committees, each of which has 1-5 seats in it. Each committee leads upward to either one or two other committees, and each committee has either one or two paths leading into it.
Any committee with 3 or 5 seats requires an actual vote to get out (as opposed to the 1 seat committees where pawns can self-promote). These committees have laurel spaces above them, meaning that whenever you win a vote, you get a laurel (usually).
At the top of the board is the Senate which has five seats and three paths leading into it.
Order of Play: During play each turn you can take one of three actions:
- Move a pawn onto the board; or
- Move a pawn upward; or
- Move Caesar
Move a Pawn onto the Board: You enter a pawn on the board by putting him into one of the four committees that border the bottom of the board. There must be a free space in it.
Move a Pawn Upward: You advance a pawn upward by getting a majority vote in its current committee to do so. Each pawn in the committee has one vote, and you must have the vote of the majority of the seats in a committee. (For example, in a 5-space committee, you must get 3 votes, even if there are only 3 pawns in the committee currently.)
These votes can come from your own pawns, and this is a nice, cheap way to move your pawn up. In fact, you can do it automatically in 1-space committees (but these don't have laurels, and are often along longer paths). They can also come from other players. Each player that gives you needed votes gets a "I" victory laurel from the supply as a reward. In addition you can make deals to give people other things (usually laurels from your own supply, but sometimes future votes).
If you move past a laurel when you leave a committee you get to keep it. In addition, some of the "II" laurels also let you move Caesar when you take them. As before there have to be spaces in the committee you're moving into.
There's one other way to move up: if Caesar is on the laurel space above your committee, you may freely move a piece upward. However, you don't get the laurel when you do.
Move Caesar: The last thing you can do is move Caesar. This is of some limited utility because every one else gets a turn before you do, but often they won't waste a move just to hurt you (by moving Caesar again, presumably).
Ending the Game: The game continues until all five spaces in the upmost Senate are filled. At this time anyone without at least one pawn in the Senate loses. Automatically. Afterward the player with the highest total of laurels wins.
The Advanced Game: There's also an advanced game with 7 special counters that you can take during your turn. I've never actually played it, nor do I know anyone who has. Most people seem to think the game has sufficient depth as is, for its play length.
Relationships to Other Games
Quo Vadis? is a fairly pure negotiation game. It's in fact one of the negotiation game types that I find most interesting: it's zero sum with everyone starting with the exact same resources, and free choice to do whatever they want. I suppose there is a little bit of a chaos factor based on what the other players do, but overall the randomness is fairly nonexistant. You win or lose based upon your strategic and negotiating skills, and little else. (Another classic zero-sum negotiation game that you might be familiar with: Survivor.)
Like the best negotiation (and very similar trading) games, this one is defined by the fact that you must negotiate with other players. If you don't, you can rarely make a move. The Traders of Genoa is another that takes a similar tact, however Quo Vadis? is considerably shorter than that (and most other trading or negotiation games).
The fact that a "winning" player can lose if he doesn't meet a certain criteria (here, having a pawn in the Senate) is a nice touch, also found in High Society, another Reiner Knizia game.
The Game Design
Overall, Quo Vadis? is a very solid negotiation game. The first time I played it, it seemed so simple that I wasn't entirely sure of its ultimate replayability, but the second time around things clicked, and I could see that Quo Vadis? was definitely a good, replayable game.
Quo Vadis? places such emphasis on the strength and cleverness of your negotiating skills, and your ability to talk other players into giving you good deals, that it's hard to imagine something that was much more pure negotiation. On top of that, there is real strategy, as you try and figure out which paths to take to move upward, when to go for high value laurels, and when to take the easy path. There's also some neat tactics involving setting yourself up for potential moves by your opponents.
On the whole Quo Vadis? is a strong game, and its level of strategy, though not extremely deep, is still impressive for its short length. I give it a solid "4" out of "5" for Substance.
Conclusion
Quo Vadis? is a negotiation game by Reiner Knizia that always plays in an hour or less. The negotiations are simple & pure. The result is a good, short game, but also one that should generally be appealing even to more serious gamers. Recommended as a filler if you like negotiation games.
