Zooloretto: Review

Zooloretto: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Drafting, Set Collection, Push Your Luck
Player Age: 8+ 

Player Count: 2 - 5 Players

Time to Play: 10 - 20 Minutes 
Game Designer: Michael Schacht

Game Artist: Annemarie van Lierop, Michael Menzel, Marianne Riem, Michael Schacht

Publisher: Rio Grande Games

Year Published: 2007

BGG Weight: 1.86

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Introduction:

Zooloretto is a drafting game where players build a zoo with different enclosures but each can only hold one type of animal. You can have multiple enclosures consisting of the same type of animal but one enclosure cannot consist of mixed animal types. On a turn, players are either loading an animal onto a delivery truck, spending money to reorganise their zoo, or ending their round by taking a delivery truck and unloading the contents into their zoo.

Be careful though, if you can't fit the animals into your zoo they will go into your barn to score you negative points at the end of the game.

Game Anatomy:

Zoo Board:

Each player has a zoo board containing four open vendor locations, a barn, and three enclosures that will hold either 4, 5 or 6 animals. Each enclosure will also have a sign attached explaining the points gained if the enclosure is complete at the end of the game, followed by the points if it is missing just one animal, and lastly, the number of coins gained once the enclosure is completed.

Expansion Board:

As part of the setup, each player will receive one expansion board face-down, or two in a two-player game. These expansion boards have an enclosure built for five animals and one vendor location. If a player wants to unlock this they need to spend three coins during the game.

Animal Tiles:

There are 88 animal tiles (11 of 8 different animals). The animal types include chimpanzee, elephant, lion, panda, zebra, kangaroo, flamingo, kangaroo and llama.

Offspring Animal Tiles:

For each animal, there are two males with a blue heart and two females with a red heart. If there is ever one female heart and one male heart animal in the same enclosure they will breed an offspring of their type. If there is no space in that enclosure for the offspring it will go into the barn instead. If you wanted to breed again you would need a different pair of female and male heart animals.

Vendors:

There are four vendor types, each with three tiles. If a vendor is placed next to an enclosure it will score that enclosure at the end of the game. If it doesn't score by normal means of fully/nearly completing it, instead, a vendor will score one point for each animal in the enclosure. Vendors will also score two points for each vendor played, and two points multiplied by the amount of different types of vendors used.

Hay Bales:

Hay bales are used in a two-player game to reduce the amount of open tile locations on each truck.

Money:

Money (coins) will be used throughout the game as an action. The money allows you to expand your zoo, move your animals/vendors and even clean out your barn or buy an animal from another player's barn.

Trucks:

There will be trucks in the centre of the table equal to the amount of players. In a two-player game, however, there will be three trucks. These trucks will display the selected tiles, each holding a maximum of three tiles.

Setup:

- Based on the player count, remove animal types and their offspring. At 2 players remove three types, 3 players remove two, 4 players remove one and 5 players remove none.
- Place the remaining offspring within reach.
- Shuffle the vendor, money and animal tiles together.
- Remove 15 to the side and place the timer token on top.
- Place the remaining tiles facedown in multiple piles.
- Place trucks equal to the player count in the middle of the table (three trucks if playing with two players).

Player Setup:

Give each player the following;

- A main board.
- An expansion board flipped face-down, two for a two-player game.
- Two coins.

How to Play:

The game will last several rounds until the timer on the last stack of tiles has been removed. When this occurs it will signal the last round. A round consists of multiple turns until each player has selected a truck. Players can finish their rounds on different turns, the final player being able to make multiple turns in a row until they choose a truck. On a turn you can either; add a tile to a delivery truck, perform a money action, or take a truck and end your round.

Place a tile on truck:

The active player will reveal a tile from any pile and choose which open space on any truck that the tile will be placed on.

Perform a money action:

There are three action options a player can spend their money on; remodel, purchase/discard a tile, and expand. 

Remodel:

Remodelling costs one coin and there are several ways in which you can remodel. These include moving one vendor or animal from your barn into an available location. With a remodel action you may also swap an entire type of animal from the barn/enclosure with an animal type from another enclosure.

Purchase or Discard a Tile:

You can spend two coins to either buy one animal from an opponent's barn or remove one animal from your barn.

Expand:

You can expand your zoo by purchasing the expansion land for three coins.

Take a Truck:

This action will end your round so be careful when you choose to do it, if you wait too long you may miss out on what you seek. This action allows you to take a truck of your choice and then unload all of the contained tiles into your zoo. If you cannot place an animal they will have to go to your barn.

Last Round:

Each round will end after all players have taken a truck. At any point in the game when players have started drawing from the pile with the timer token it will signify that the players are in the last round.

Scoring:

At the end of the game, multiple scoring opportunities will be added together:

- Scoring from completed and nearly completed enclosures.

- Scoring from vendors as explained in the vendor section.
- Lose two points for each vendor in your barn and animal type in your barn.

Final Thoughts:

- Interesting push your luck/drafting mechanic.
- Well balanced two-player mode.
- Great family weight game. 

There are a fair few games about creating zoos now released. The part I like about Zooloretto is that it isn't as involved as some of those games. The core focus is how you push your luck in the way you draft the tiles into the trucks. If you wait too long to take a truck it could gain an animal that doesn’t work for you at all. Zooloretto is a very nice family weight game of building your zoo and if more complexity is needed more modules can be added through expansion (which I will be looking into) as this game is staying in my collection. 

Click...feed the addiction: 

Rio Grande Games

Zooloretto on BGG
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