The Triumph of the Ark
Noah comes in a small metal box that can fit in your pocket, with a beautifully embossed cover design. Inside this tiny tin is a board that, when assembled, will also serve as the scoring track.
The goal is to help Noah pick up the animals before the flood. The animals are on cards that display various useful tidbits, such as the type of animal (snail or lion, panda or donkey, for instance), the gender, the animal’s weight (from zero to ten), ability if applicable, and finally the sorrow of the patriarch if the animal is lost.
Five cards are placed on the various arks, with the Noah pawn sitting on one of them. Each player gets eight cards, and the game begins.
Animal Tetris
Each player, on his turn, must place an animal on the space with Noah. Of course, we can’t just play however we want. That would just be bedlam.
For starters, one boat can only accommodate animals of the same sex, unless they follow the old grade-school rules of boy-girl-boy-girl. Thus the second card on each ark will be the deciding factor as to which animal cards can be played.
To make matters more interesting, each boat has a maximum weight, and cannot exceed 21. As each animal has a predetermined weight, an animal cannot land on an ark which would cause it to exceed capacity.
So what happens when a player can’t play an animal without breaking the rules? Noah, the religious patriarch, becomes angry at the player’s incompetence and tells him to start boarding again. The player must take all the cards on the ark and add them to his hand.
Noah is easy to learn, with a great theme and design that combines luck and clever tactics. It’s no wonder the game works, when it comes from the brilliant minds of Cathala and Maublanc, the geniuses behind Mr. Jack, Dicetown and Cyclades. Noah is another real gem – don’t miss the boat!
For more info see the full article on the Asmodee Website
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