If you’ve ever been to the Big Apple then you may have been lucky enough to discover the gem of New York Zoo in the southeast corner of Central Park. Thanks to Capstone Games and designer Uwe Rosenburg, we now have a gem of a board game where the magic of the zoo can come to life time & time again.
New York Zoo is an abstract puzzle game where you are competing to collect tiles, breed animals and ultimately become the first player to complete your zoo.
To set up, place the main game board in the middle of the table and the polyomino tiles in random piles of 3, based upon their shade of green (darkest to lightest) as dictated by the spaces on the board. The attraction tiles are placed near the board, along with the tray of the gorgeously wooden crafted animals. Players take a zoo board game mat (specific to the number of players) and then collect their two starting animals that are pictured on their mat.
Players take turns to to move the elegant elephant meeple around New York Zoo, choosing to plod on between 1-4 spaces. The options of where the elephant stops depends upon players either wishing to take the top tile of a space to add to their zoo board or whether to acquire two animals to place on tiles already in their zoo, which are now considered animal enclosures.
A tile may be placed anywhere in your zoo, as long as you have an animal available to put in that enclosure. Only one breed of animal can be in each enclosure and animals can hop over into other enclosures (as long as the one they leave is not left empty.) However, the tiles cannot be moved once placed, but don’t panic if you have a little space that seems impossible to fill as the attraction tiles are specifically for that purpose.
Whether it be flamingos, meerkats, artic foxes, kangaroos, or our personal favourite - the penguins, these cute little wooden creatures really add a touch of class to the game and you will be delighted to fill the enclosures in your zoo with them.
Players will need to work out their strategy for collecting the right shape tile or deciding which animals to gather ready for when the elephant passes the breeding spaces. If two or more of the breeding animal are in an enclosure at this time you can add another one. Once you have a full house, maybe a flamboyance of flamingos or a mob of meerkats, the enclosure is emptied of the animals and a bonus attraction tile is claimed for your zoo board. Be quick off the mark though as the attraction tiles come in different sizes so you will want to be first in the pecking order to give you an advantage over your opponents in order to win the race of completing your zoo!
You could happily while away the hours strolling around New York Zoo in Central Park and with no two games the same, along with a beat the clock solo mode, you can bring a bit of animal magic to your games table and while the hours away playing New York Zoo at home.
Click here to Buy New York Zoo
