New York Zoo

Product Information

But the excellent craftsmanship doesn’t end with the components. A game is more than the sum of its constituent parts. I’ve experienced many games that look fantastic that are fantastically awful to play and I’m glad that New York Zoo isn’t one of them. And, let’s be honest, it’s Uwe Rosenberg. With the exception of a single dud (cough Hengist! cough), he always delivers. In New York Zoo, the players take on the roles of developers as they work to construct animal parks and fill them with various animals and Attractions. Each player begins the game with an empty zoo board and a couple of animals. On their turn, they will either choose from a selection of polyomino tiles to add to their boards as animal Enclosures or choose from a selection of animals to add to their boards in an effort to fill their already existing Enclosures. For a regular Joe or Jane like me, zoos are pretty much the only place we can see exotic animals live and up close. However morally questionable they are (the animals are held in captivity after all), they are also a valuable asset in animal research in preservation. As you progress around the board, breeding will be activated for animal types. If at that point you have two or more of one type of animal in the same enclosure, they breed! You may take one more of that animal and place it in the same enclosure! Take an enclosure piece, from the top of that spaces pile, and place it into your zoo. Enclosures can be placed anywhere on your board as long as the piece doesn’t overlap another or hang off the end of your play area. Once placed they cannot be moved. There is a further consideration. You can only play an enclosure onto your board if you can put an animal into it, so you will need one in 1 of your houses. Or you can move an animal from another enclosure, as long as you don’t empty that enclosure.

New York Zoo | Play Board Games

Of course, zoos made their way into gaming. Working at a zoo is a dream job for many, after all. And games allow you to focus on the fun parts of it, rather than the mundane everyday routines and long hours. But in games, it’s about planning your zoo layout, building pens, taking care of animals and visitors, and making money.In my first game, I became hyper focused on setting up an animal breeding factory. It made me feel exceedingly clever watching my Enclosure tiles fill up each time a breeding occurred, but that level of focus ultimately lost me the game. It’s very easy to get so caught up in the excitement of watching your board fill up with animals that you lose sight of the end goal: filling up your board with tiles. But ignoring animal breeding entirely is also not the way to go. You must have animals to place Enclosures, so you’re forced to maintain a healthy balance between filling up your board and filling up your Enclosures. Uwe Rosenberg is a master at putting his players into these kinds of positions. In Patchwork, for instance, instead of balancing breeding versus expansion, you’re juggling buttons and time. Other games, like A Feast For Odin, have you trying to keep even more plates spinning. In A Feast For Odin you’re having to deal with feeding people, acquiring points, and filling in your board to avoid negative points. This is usually the part where I would dive right in talking about the artwork and components, but there’s one glaring thing about New York Zoo that really bugs me that I want to talk about first: the theme. To place a tile into your zoo board, you must also have an animal to place into that enclosure. This can either be from the three holding enclosures on the top left of your board, or you may relocate an animal from another enclosure, so long as you don’t leave an enclosure empty.

New York Zoo Review - Tabletop Gaming

Full disclosure: I am an Uwe Rosenberg nerd. As of this writing I own 38 distinct titles by him. So take that as a confession that I tend to view his creations through rose-tinted glasses. When I find out that Uwe is releasing a new game, I get excited and very rarely am I let down once I finally get my hands on it. So, bear that in mind as you read my thoughts on New York Zoo. For some, there’s going to be a game they love here – a puzzle of abstraction with a theme that doesn’t matter. For us, it was just the shrug of an unimpressed kangaroo.If you ever wanted to experience zoo management to its fullest, your best bet was video games. That was until Ark Nova came around in late 2021. You’re in charge of several aspects of zoo management, in particular:

New York Zoo Review | Board Games - Zatu Games UK

While the appeal (how attractive it is) of your zoo directly influences your earnings and victory points, the bulk of the latter will be earned by doing precious conservation projects. Your mission is not just to manage your zoo to make the most money, but to help preserve and thrive endangered species. It is possible that adding one (or both) of these animals to your Enclosure tiles might cause those tiles to become full. To avoid duplication, I’ll talk about what to do when this happens in the next section. Breeding

The aim of New York Zoo is not to score points, nor is it to breed animals. The winner is simply the first player to completely fill their zoo board with tiles. Of course players are dragged one way and another by the options and possibilities. One minute players will be focused on the end goal of filling their board and all of a sudden they will be distracted by breeding animals, thanks to the bonuses.