I am a big fan of the Carcassonne series but had not purchased The Ark of the Covenant because I wasn't sure it was different enough from the basic game. Thanks to a recent Tanga sale, I purchased a copy and I am thankful that I did. The Ark is a delightful addition to the Carcassonne family and I find it particularly well suited for children.

Most everyone on BGG is familiar with the mechanics of Carcassonne: you draw a tile and place it on the board in a way that all sides that touch are properly connected. In other words, if a side has a road on it that side must connect to a road, city to city, etc. Roads and cities score when completed or at the end of the game if incomplete and fields score at the end of the game.

Why is The Ark of the Covenant a good game for children?: I have found that the game is a good version for children for several reasons:

1. Field scoring is greatly simplified. In the original game, fields scored based on the number of completed cities that bordered the field. (I think this is the original scoring method, it changed around a few times.) The scoring was cumbersome and difficult for many to understand. The scoring was revised and I'm still not sure there is a consensus on how to score fields. In the Ark, fields are scored at the end of the game, but you simply receive two points for each sheep that is in your field and subtract two points for each wolf. I find this much easier to explain and it is easier for the children to see and grasp. Plus there tends to be bigger fields in this game and the children can immediately see that adding a tile with sheep on it helps their score or that placing a wolf can hurt someone else's score.

2. The ark is a nice scoring mechanism. An addition to this version of Carcassonne is the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark is placed on the first completed city. Each turn, after placing a tile, in lieu of placing a meeple, a player may move the Ark up to 5 tiles. Each tile the Ark enters scores one point for any player that has a meeple on that tile. This is a nice visual scoring mechanism that children can see and it allows a player to score even if he draws a bad tile. It also allows you to score if all of your meeples are on the board and you are unable to place any.

3. The Prophet. Who doesnt't like giant sized meeples? Each player gets one prophet that can be placed once during the game in a city. If that city is completed and the person with the prophet controls the city, he scores double points. This can be a huge game shifter if a player completes a giant city. In only a few games we have seen 60+ point cities and I read a session report where someone scored a 90+ point city. Why is this helpful for children? One, it encourages them to make a large city and the children love it when they get a huge amount of points. Secondly, the adults can play cutthroat with other adults' cities while letting the children build without impediment. This can help to even up the overall scores and make the children more competitive.

The Ark of the Covenant is a worthy addition to the Carcassonne line of games and is especially well-suited for children. Recommended.