Quo Vadis Review

While reviewing some of the games from my collection, I decided to replay Quo Vadis and then do a review of it while it was fresh in my mind.

Quo Vadis is a fast-paced political game in which you are trying to get the most points by getting your potential senators into higher ranking positions and by helping your opponents get their pawns promoted (when it is to your advantage). On each turn you are able to move a pawn onto the board, move a pawn up to a higher rank (assuming that you can get the majority of the votes from his current position), or move the Caesar (which allows you to get promoted without having enough votes). The two ways that you can score victory points are by 1) getting your pawn promoted from a 3 or 5 member committee (you get the number of victory points shown on the path that is crossed) or 2) lending votes to another player's pawn so that it can get promoted (here you get 1 point per needed vote). If you are unable to move any of your pawns, then you are able to move the Caesar - he allows you to get promoted without the correct number of votes, but does not provide any reward for doing so. You must also be careful not to just be a "yes man", because at the end of the game, if you have not gotten any of your pawns promoted to be a Senator, then you lose - no matter how many points you have earned.

The first thing that I like about Quo Vadis is the political aspect of the game. It is very important to know when to allow other player's pawns to be promoted (and gain your victory points) and when it is important to prevent this. In addition, it can be just as profitable to be the swing vote in a committee as it is to get your own pawns promoted.

The next thing that I like about Quo Vadis is the depth level. The game is strategic enough to make for an engaging game but is simple enough to introduce new players easily. A normal game of Quo Vadis should only take about 30-45 minutes, which makes it very manageable to play in most gaming situations.

The main con with Quo Vadis is that I think it would be difficult to find enjoyable people to play it with. Because of the depth level of the rules, the real strategy in the game involves interacting with (manipulating) your opponents. Whereas this is fun, it is often hard to find the type of individuals that make a game like this enjoyable.

In addition to finding the correct group of players to play this game, I am also unsure of how replayable it is.  I believe that it could be replayed several times, but overall the game will play pretty similarly each time through, and this prevents it from really being on the top rung of the board game world.

Overall, I give Quo Vadis a 8.0/10. This is a simple yet engaging game that I enjoy playing. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you have the opportunity - and the more players, the better I think it should work.