Game: Ark

Thread: Re: Ark microbadges now available

MANN — 2008-08-05T06:09:51+00:00

Love it!
Now I should gather some GG...

Thread: Re: Shy animals

lordunborn — 2008-04-27T16:32:21+00:00

Thanks that was what I was thinking after looking at images here on the geek but didn't know for sure.

Thread: Re: Shy animals

drbsgold — 2008-04-27T15:44:46+00:00

Shy animal rules are only dealt with according to placement.
Once they are in the cabin, their shyness is not relevant to anything else.

Thread: Re: Shy animals

flapjackmachine — 2008-04-27T15:15:14+00:00

Rulebook Page 8, Shy Animals paragraph, quote: "However, a shy animal will not leave a cabin when carnivores show up later." Note the only restriction on playing carnivores, that is they must be lighter than the other animals in the cabin (page 7, Carnivore paragraph). So as long as the carnivore is lighter than the shy animal the carnivore can be placed in the same cabin.

Reading the rulebook always helps. I've got the Rio Grande English edition, maybe the other editions have unclear rules.

Thread: Shy animals

lordunborn — 2008-04-27T14:04:16+00:00

Lets say I have a Shy animal in a cabin can I play a Carnivore on top of that shy animal if the carnivore meets the weight restriction. Say a Zebra is in a cabin can a weight 1 carnivore be placed on top of it.

I guess what I am asking is does the shy animal placement rule effect the placement of the carnivore or just when you place the shy animal???

Thanks

Thread: Re: 2P variant. I never played the Pig.

Bola! — 2008-04-26T01:47:03+00:00

We like 2-player Ark too, and we play with a very similar modification we call the "Shem variant."

(a) 3 action disks per player.

(b) Shorten the deck by 10 cards and give them secretly to Shem, Noah's eldest son.

(c) Score Shem's cards one per turn, beginning at the end of the third turn. Shem's cards are scored but not played to the ark. This is quite similar to your scoring 2 cards per rain card -- just slightly more incremental. Starting the scoring at the end of the third (or fourth or fifth) seems to leave few or no cards in Shem's hand at the turn of the fifth rain card, and we like that slight uncertainty.

On occasion we've forgotten to score Shem's card after our turn, and that's fine. It merely adds a tiny bit to the uncertainty.

(d) The final tally is as per the normal rules. Thankfully Shem has never won.

Thread: 2P variant. I never played the Pig.

jgrundy — 2008-04-20T08:24:44+00:00

My wife and I have played uncountable games of Ark two player. We've tried a number of variants and many seem to work fine.

The Setup

This variant, we play with a dummy player ( ) and 3 starting gold each. The dummy player ("Fred") gets ten face down cards. Two are revealed and tallied for Fred with each rain card, but Fred doesn't play into the Ark. Maybe the two at the end seems out of whack vs players revealing one secret Pet each, but the "live players" do get to keep playing after the last rain card (but not after our Pets are revealed) so it works fine.

Some Notes

There's more resistance to opening a new cabin with 2P. I lose a point AND you gain a point, so I'd better hope it's worthwhile.

Similarly, you tend to feel more directly adversarial about your majorities. But if I make a play which makes me equal with my opponent I gain four points over them, and if we were equal and I make a play to take the advantage I get another four points over them. Turnaround is everything here. (Since you don't expect "Fred" to challenge for the win if you gain a turnaround on Fred you only get two points against your opponent.)

The Game

There were a few unusual events in this game.

We started with two cold cabins and two hot. Since only 12/55 cards are pure Cold cards, starting with two of them only happens in about 17% of games.

In the early part of the game there's always a bit of jostling between us for who is going to open the first cabin. We tend to play the starting four cabins to full or nearly full, and then wait for a play that seems worth giving two points to the opponent to open a cabin.

Usually we both draft cards a couple of times first to gain flexibility and direction, but this time after my opening draft of a Snail (Size 0 Slow Herbivore) She immediately played one of her two initial cards... a slow Oym. When I followed this with a Supply card we'd already tilted the Ark all the way to one side, prompting a brief scrabble to draft some size zero animals to keep our options open.

A COMPLETE oversight on my part meant I didn't draft the Fox! when it came up and She snatched it up with glee. (She'd turned the replacement card face down on her previous turn, and neither of us faced it up before her next turn. My bad.)

On my fourth turn I completely emptied my hand. This is VERY uncommon for me, especially in the first half of the game, since it lets your opponent plan multiple uninterrupted plays in a sequence. In this instance, it left three vacancies across two cabins, but both had started with supplies. This meant only Carnivores could be played until someone opened a cabin. Plus I'd already taken my "fair share" of the opening four spots and was likely to get one more. Combined, this gave me an early advantage.

Yet I ended up perhaps squandering that advantage in another unusual move. After She'd played the Tyrannosuarous on one side and the Fox! on the other (leaving only one vacant and unusable spot in a cabin) we spent two turns each drafting cards before I opened two cabins at once! I played two shy animals, the second being the Snake which is also a Carnivore, which gave me a solid Shy lead and would leave upcoming Shy placements difficult. Of course... it also gave Her two extra coins for a four point turnaround back in her favour. Would it be worth it?

(Nope. Oh well.)

In the following turns she played her four animals, including opening a cabin, and I played two, with her playing a Chimp and me a Brontosaurous, before we hit the halfway mark and the first signs of rain started to fall.

"Fred" (the dummy hand) showed an Elephant (heavy) and some Supplies.

The halfway tally

[c]TYPE ME SHE FRED
Shy: 2 1
Useful: 1 1
Heavy: 3.5 2 1
Slow: 1 2
Supply: 1 1
GOLD: 2 6[/c] (Remember that Fox! ?)

Part II

I like to have a Slow animal as a pet, unless I have a clear lead or have given up on them, basically because it saves a turn. (Shhh. Don't tell my wife.) But I had none in hand and there were none face up. I reckon my Heavy animal lead is pretty easily defended, and otherwise she's got a fair bit of catching up to do... but her hefty purse is a bit of a worry.

So I drafted a Supply card, planning to shore up that lead while I still have the chance, and drew a second Supply too from the deck. (Ooops.) Just one more draft of cards each later and the second Rain card turned up. The scotch mist became a drizzle, and it was time to tuck away our favourite pets.

I chose a Shy pet, since I didn't have a Slow one.

"Fred" turned up a Cat (Useful) and a Chameleon (Slow).

My wife opened a cabin to put out some Supplies, putting the three of us at one each on the tally. After she took her card for opening a cabin, the replacement turnup was the Skunk which of course I drafted without hesitation. She played a Spider to pick up a Shy tally, making us equal there too.

My plan now was to drop out another Supplies to shore up a lead there, and do another turn using the Skunk to rebalance the Ark so I could put out something else Useful. As things stood, I didn't have the options and the cards on offer weren't much use. So a Drafting turn was needed.

Out of a Giraffe (Size 3 Heavy Herbivore), a Sheep (Size 1 Useful Herbivore), or a Pig (Size 2 Useful Omnivore), I almost drafted the Giraffe to keep my wife from getting it but instead drafted the Pig.

Normally, I hate the Pig... it's hard to put out since it eats almost anything. (It's a pig, after all.) But it seemed likely I would be opening a cabin soon, and opening a cabin with a Pig is a cruel move.

My wife drafted the Giraffe as expected, looking to have a chance to catch my Heavy Animal lead. She drew her second card and turned up the replacement... and Bloop! Bloop! Bloop! all three remaining Rain cards came out!

(Honestly, I'd seeded those Rain cards at intervals and shuffled thoroughly.)

So much for any "plans" I had

Entering the endgame - tally

"Fred" showed his remaining six cards.

[c]TYPE ME SHE FRED
Shy: 2 2 1
Useful: 1 2 3
Heavy: 3.5 2 2
Slow: 1 1.5 3
Supply: 1 1 1
GOLD: 3 5[/c]

She'd taken the lead.

Endgame

There can be a lot of leverage in just two extra gold. Many's the time one of us has had several plays to make, but is temporarily blocked. Extra gold lets you do something neutral but stay in the play.

The situation was not looking good. As well as the extra gold she had the tally advantage, which was a reflection of my hand overstuffed with Supplies, plus a couple of Slow and Shy animals... all wasted. While Her hand was fairly lean.

And it'd be up to me to pay first if I want to stay in the game.

I drove out the Chimp for the half point so I could put it in the Supply box... taking us from equal to me having an unbreakable 10 vs 4 in Supplies.

She opened a cabin to play the Sabretooth. A smooth move which gives her one Heavy animal and cabins on either side of the Ark where she can play the Giraffe next turn to take the Heavy lead.

Hoping to stall, I opened another cabin and put the size zero Chicken in it, equalizing the Useful animal tally but also leaving the Ark perfectly balanced so she can't play the Giraffe.

But alas she was holding the Hedgehog (Useful and special) so she could play that onto the Sabretooth. Now I had no play to rebalance the Ark and all I could do is use my last coin to play a Donkey and equalize Useful animals again, leaving her to flip the lead in Heavy.

And with me out of coin, she took one final play to put out a Dog (Useful). D'oh!

Final Scores

Both Pets were Shy, so we remained equal leaders in Shy animals.

[c]
TYPE ME SHE FRED
Shy: 8 8 2
Useful: 4 10 4
Heavy: 6 10 2
Slow: 2 6 10
Supply: 10 4 4
GOLD: 0 1

TOTAL: 30 39 22[/c]

And I never played the Pig! If I'd drafted the Giraffe instead as per my first instinct, She couldn't have taken the lead in Heavy and would have won by only a single point.

Thread: Ark microbadges now available

jgrundy — 2008-04-17T16:15:29+00:00

[inlineimg]http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/microbadges/mb_ark1.gi...[/inlineimg] [inlineimg]http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/microbadges/mb_ark2.gi...[/inlineimg] [inlineimg]http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/microbadges/mb_ark3.gi...[/inlineimg] (Buy one)

Thread: One Girl's Opinion: Ark

Rusty567 — 2008-02-24T07:56:27+00:00

A while back, I wrote a review for the Ark "Extra Mix" Expansion (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/191326), promising to follow it up with a review of the base game. A dozen games later, this is that review. To avoid repeated use of the phrase “animal/provisions”, I’ll use the term “species” as a general term to refer to the cards featuring animals, fictional animals, corn or vegetables.

Overview
As noted in Joe Grundy’s 10-Word Review (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/145706), the first word most people use to describe Ark is “cute”. Illustrated by Doris Matthäus of “Doris and Frank” (also known for Frank’s Zoo and Primordial Soup), the artwork is beautifully done and, well, cute.

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Each card features one species of animal, “animal” or provision, and the premise of the game is that the players collectively load as many different species as possible onto Noah’s ark by playing these cards into “cabins” (which each hold a maximum of three cards). Of course, players aren’t allowed to put two different species in the same cabin if one would eat the other – no corn in with the elephant and no small lizards in with the fox!

If there are no appropriate cabins for the species you wish to play, you can always spend a coin to build a new one – assuming you’ve got any coins. You start the game with three or four coins, and the only way to get more is to force the player immediately after you to open new cabins (or to load the fox onto the ark). Since any leftover coins are worth points at the end of the game, you don’t want to spend them *too* freely – but if you never spend them, you may lose out on points for loading species onto the ark. It’s a balancing act.

Thus, the theme is nicely integrated into both the gameplay and the final scoring – and the focus is on filling up the ark with as many species as possible so, if the tangential reference to Noah would bother you, it’s easy to ignore. I’ve certainly never felt like this was a remotely religious game. It’s just a light 45-minute filler with cute animals that’s been a real hit with my mother, sister and me.

Bits and Pieces
Ark comes in a box that's small, but still larger than it needs to be (think Bohnanza size box).

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Inside the box, you get a nicely illustrated black-and-white rulebook printed on plain paper, a thick yellow disc for tracking how well balanced the ark is, many thinner orange discs to use as coins and small wooden dinos in five colours (the same dinos as Trias uses - but red, yellow, green, blue and black). There are extra coins and dinos but you'll never run out anyway (unless you add the expansion), so it's probably not really worth sorting out the "extras" from the official entitlement of 17 dinos per player.

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The meat of the game is the cards. There are 54 cards featuring animals, "animals" and provisions. There are also 5 scoring cards, 5 rain cards and an Ark card.

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Everything's bright and colourful, and all of the illustrations are great. This game definitely has "curb appeal"!

How to Play

Set-Up
To set up the game, four cabins are started, two on each side of the ark. The animals used to start these cabins are drawn randomly from the deck; however any animals of weight 0, 3 or 4 are discarded then shuffled back in once set-up is complete. This ensures that the ark doesn't start off tipped over!

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Once this has been done, each player is dealt two starting cards and three cards are turned face up to draw from. The remaining cards are split in half and four rain cards are shuffled into one half. The last rain card goes on top of this stack of cards - then the rain-card-free half goes on top to finish the draw deck. The rain cards are important because the endgame starts when the last one is drawn (and each player gets to pick a "pet" - a hidden card that they get to score at the end of the game - when the second rain card is drawn).

Scoring
Ark is a cross between a card game and an area majority game. There are five general categories of species, each represented by a scoring card. They are Provisions, Slow Animals, Heavy Animals, Shy Animals and Useful Animals:

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Notice that each scoring card shows the number of cards fitting the category.

Every time you load a species onto the ark, you add one of your pieces to the scoring card for the appropriate category. At the end of the game, you score 10 points for having the most pieces on a scoring card, 6 points for second most and 2 points for third most. Ties are handled by sharing the appropriate points. e.g. Two players tied for most pieces on the “Useful Animals” card will get 8 points each, sharing the points for first and second. The next player gets the 2 points for third. So, you need to keep an eye on how you’re scoring in each of the five categories. If you’re winning the “Shy Animals” category by a mile, it may not be worth it for you to load more shy animals onto the ark.

The only other way to get points is for your leftover coins, each of which is worth 1 point at the end of the game.

Play
The actual sequence of play is dead simple. You have two choices:
1. Pick up two cards (one face-up and one from the top of the draw deck).
2. Play one or two cards onto the ark. (Slow animals and provisions require a whole turn to get loaded into their cabin. The other animals move faster, so you can load two of them on in a turn.) After placing a card, place one of your pieces on the appropriate scoring card.

There are a few general restrictions on which cards you can load onto the ark:
1. Only three cards per cabin.
2. You can’t play both cards into the same cabin on your turn.
3. No card can be played into a cabin containing another species that it will eat or that will eat it.
4. Each cabin can have its thermostat turned to HOT or COLD. This is determined by the cards already in the cabin. So, you can't put the giraffe (yellow background = HOT) in with the walrus (blue background = COLD). Some animals don't care about temperature; they have striped backgrounds.
5. You can’t overload one side of the ark; it’ll tip over. This is tracked using a yellow disc on an “Ark card”. The ark is divided into two halves, and neither may ever weigh more than 2 weight units more than the other side. So, if an animal of weight 2 is added to the left side of the ark, the yellow disc moves 2 spots left on the Ark card. If this would cause it to move off the side of the card, the card placement is not allowed.
6. You can’t place a “Shy Animal” in any cabin containing a carnivore or adjacent to a cabin containing a carnivore. Carnivores are scary!
7. If there's no space in any existing cabin for your card, you can pay a coin to start a new one. As the game progresses, this will be necessary:

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Some cards have exclamation points on them, giving them special abilities (which may involve breaking some of the above rules). Mostly, these abilities make sense - hedgehogs are too prickly to be eaten, skunks are stinky so can chase other animals out of the cabin.

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The expansion comes with a rules summary card which lists these special abilities; it would have been a nice addition to the base game.

Endgame
Once the fifth rain card has been drawn, the endgame begins. Players can no longer draw cards to add to their hands, but they take turns being able to place one card at a time. There is now a price on placing cards. In addition to following all the regular rules (including paying the player to your right if you open a new cabin), you must also pay "the bank" a coin for every card you place. Since each placement is now costing you a point, it had better pay back at least a point! Once you pass, you're out - no waiting for opponents to open cabins for you! Once everyone has passed, everyone flips over the "pet" card they reserved when the second rain card was played and scores for it. Add up everyone's points and you're ready to declare a winner.

General Impressions
As noted above, we really enjoy this game. The play itself is straightforward enough; however, there are enough exceptions to the rule to keep me happy (though they might frustrate some casual gamers - we keep the rulebook open to the "special animals" page as that's where most questions arise) and most of them make sense in terms of the animal theme. (The ones that don't generally give you a bit of a giggle. Do I really think that a pig's going to eat a polar bear? Not so much...)

The only really fiddly part of this game is keeping track of balancing the ark. Assign that job to the person most likely to be good at it, and nobody else needs to worry about it. In my house, it's my sister's job because I'm *way* too forgetful! I'd feel totally comfortable introducing the game to younger players as long as there was one player capable of tracking ark balance. The box says "aged 8 and up" and I believe it.

Most of your decisions will be tactical. Since you're picking up half your cards "blind" and you'll want to place most of the cards in your hand, it's impossible to be too strategic. "Save your money if possible" and "Place shy animals while you still can" are two strategies that everyone will be following.

I prefer tactical games anyway. Where can I place my shy animals? What kinds of animals should I pick up? Should I put a large herbivore or provisions in with the small carnivore? Should I leave the ark perfectly balanced so that my opponent can't place that large animal they just picked up? Should I bother to place my fourth slow animal when I'm currently leading in them? Where can I best place this carnivore to mess up everyone else's plans to place shy animals? ("but I was just looking for a home for my poor shy carnivore - you all know how hard those are to place!")

To be honest, Ark just isn't a game I win very often. There's a lot of luck, but I'm also just not very good at area majority games. Still, I enjoy it every time - even when I lose horribly. Partly, that's because it doesn't feel like an area majority game; every turn feels more like solving a puzzle - and I like puzzles! Also, it's a game that's very conducive to socializing and very visually appealing. I give Ark an A simply because, while it's not rocket science, it's FUN! And also cute.

Thread: Re: Rain Cards, Choosing a Pet

NightRider — 2008-02-07T00:50:23+00:00

For choosing a pet, Frank (one of the game designers) agrees that if you don't have a suitable card when the 2nd rain card comes up you can't have a pet. Ie Selecting a pet is a one-time option, so you should plan ahead.

See http://duf.spieleck.de/pipermail/duf-talk/2007q1/000063.html for the German explanation of this.

Image

Darasu — 2008-01-02T04:05:21+00:00

Side of Ark's box depicting tiger, pig, and other finely illustrated animals.

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Rusty567 — 2008-01-01T07:36:59+00:00

The Bow Card is used to keep track of which way the ark is tipping.

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Rusty567 — 2008-01-01T07:27:14+00:00

The five scoring cards show the five categories of animal/provision cards and how many there are of each.

Thread: Re: Shy animals & Omnivores

drbsgold — 2007-12-21T15:35:42+00:00

As newuser Slunks put it...."The game rules aren’t necessarily complicated as they are complex."

I think figuring out the flow of the game is part of the fun...but thats just me, I love complex.

Thread: Re: Shy animals & Omnivores

Liggur — 2007-12-21T12:41:56+00:00

drbsgold wrote:
Shy animals are not afraid of omnivores.
Pg. 8 of the rule book:

"Diagonal cabins are not a problem, nor do they have problems with omnivores."

Who could be afraid of a little omnivore...like a bear, fer instance?

Good question tho.

Good. That was how I was playing it. It was my wife who was objecting....mainly because it was my omnivore that was placed that might have stopped someone elses shy animal.

I like the game, I can "see" how it all works, but it can get tricky sometimes when it comes to actually placing your animal. More plays should help.

Thread: Re: Getting the Hang of It - An Ark Session Report

drbsgold — 2007-12-21T03:16:25+00:00

Slunks wrote:
The game rules aren’t necessarily complicated as they are complex:

Bravo...well said.

Thread: Re: End game questions

drbsgold — 2007-12-21T03:03:50+00:00

jgrundy wrote:
When in doubt, ask the designer:

Yay for Joe!
(and Frank)

Thread: Re: Shy animals & Omnivores

drbsgold — 2007-12-21T02:48:47+00:00

Shy animals are not afraid of omnivores.
Pg. 8 of the rule book:

"Diagonal cabins are not a problem, nor do they have problems with omnivores."

Who could be afraid of a little omnivore...like a bear, fer instance?

Good question tho.

Thread: Shy animals & Omnivores

Liggur — 2007-12-21T02:27:58+00:00

Do Omnivores count as Carnivores in regards to placing shy animals?

The rules say that omnivores use the same rules for carnivores as herbivores.

Then in the Shy animals section that follows, it only refers to the placement with carnivores.

Am I to assume that as omnivores have already been classified has having both characteristics when placing the animal, they retain it when placing shy animals?

Thread: Re: What would Noah do? Play on a bigger table.

Slunks — 2007-12-20T14:14:26+00:00

NigelStrong wrote:
Thanks for pointing that out. We had been playing it correctly, I just got a little over zealous in my review and put it down wrong. I have corrected it now. Thank you.

NS

I can back this up and say that, if I remember correctly, we were indeed playing the right way. But other than that, the review was okay itself, and that's fine for me and anyone else who wants a decent amount of information on how to play and a solid point of view.

Image

NigelStrong — 2007-12-20T02:39:00+00:00

Ark - Even Mom enjoys playing this one!

Thread: Re: What would Noah do? Play on a bigger table.

NigelStrong — 2007-12-19T14:14:48+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out. We had been playing it correctly, I just got a little over zealous in my review and put it down wrong. I have corrected it now. Thank you.

NS

Thread: Getting the Hang of It - An Ark Session Report

Slunks — 2007-12-19T06:10:08+00:00

Ark was the cleanup game of the night, following after Inn-Fighting, Winner’s Circle, and Bang. But it had an interesting effect on us that left an exhilarating “must play again next night” feeling. The game rules aren’t necessarily complicated as they are complex: The simple object of the game is to score the most points by the end of the game. To accumulate points, you place animals on Noah’s ark and depending on what type of animal it is (shy, heavy, slow or useful), you place a marker onto the related point card. Everybody will be doing this, so you’ll see a variety of different animals being placed on the ark, therefore you’ll be contending with others on those point cards. The game ends when the fifth rain card is drawn from the deck, which is randomly shuffled into the deck. The one with the most markers on each individual point card receives ten points, while second obtains six and third gets two. It’s an interesting way of keeping the game exciting, as everyone is out to one-up each other—quite similar to El Grande, although with a completely different style.

There is also one other point card to compete for, which happens to be the provisions card. While it works nearly the exact same as placing animals, the graphic shows food instead. Surprisingly, that’s only how the scoring works, as we’re just starting to grasp the seam of the baseball. Placing animals on the ark is an entirely different inning. You start the game with two cards in your hands, and each turn you have either of two choices: Play or pick. Playing allows you to place cards onto the ark, while picking allows you to choose one of the three cards that remain face-up throughout the game and then pick the top card from the face down deck, thus gaining two cards. To place, your animal or provision must slip through a wall of rules that prevent your card from being used. Not to mention that you must pay attention to the weight of both animal and provision being placed on the ark, as they add weight to the side that you place them on—port or starboard. Too much weight on one side will only allow you to place on the opposite, so you’ll be virtually rocking the ark back and forth as you place more animals upon it.

We played with a total of five people, Ark’s maximum player limit. Three of us were familiar with the rules, while two have never played before. The rules, as our first time, took approximately fifteen minutes to explain. But once we were underway, everyone easily understood the basic concept within a couple of turns. Being my second time, I went in with a hair more logic than my group-mates; however this didn’t lead to any sort of victory. My plan was to stay steady by evenly placing animals on the ark to stay competitive for points, while saving cards for game’s bonus round which happens after the game ends. When the fifth rain card is drawn, everyone is allowed to keep placing animals onto the ark, but you no longer draw cards. If you pass your turn, you’re out for the rest of the game at this point. This plan wound up leaving me last place, which I found to be interesting. I didn’t play enough animals in certain categories to keep even a second place lead on four of the five point cards leaving me to score a total of two points on four, and six on one.

The owner of the house wound up winning the game by just a few points, carefully treading the lead on one of the smarter playing newbies. It seemed he wasn’t so much worried about the end game as I was. Considering he was throwing many animals onto the boat, leading nearly each category at best, and only co-leading at worst. However, the game before, he seemed to use my plan of saving for the end, which lead to his domination of our very first game, ending with nearly double the points we had. Looking back, it seems as if there is some unknown strategy to walk in with Because of this, it gives off that feeling where you need to come back and play until you find it. Ark thus far has been fun by the nights end, although it’s admittedly been a little rough each time we’ve started. The game’s pace is decent at forty-five minutes, and nothing seems threadbare here. When I personally get my hands on the game a couple more times, I will give a full review including more details on rules, how exactly turn of play works and more general info.

Stay tuned.

Thread: Re: What would Noah do? Play on a bigger table.

GaryP — 2007-12-18T18:35:56+00:00

Decent review, but it looks like you are making one common mistake while playing.

Some of the creatures are shy and will not only not go into a cabin with a carnivore or omnivore they won't even go into a cabin that is adjacent to them.
Shy creatures are only scared of carnivores, not omnivores. Shyness does not prevent a creature from being placed in the same or an adjacent cabin to an omnivore.

Thread: What would Noah do? Play on a bigger table.

NigelStrong — 2007-12-18T17:04:16+00:00

Ark is a neat game which once you get the mechanics down will provide a thought provoking enhancement to any game night. The hardest thing to process is the way animals can go onto the boat. Once you figure that the carnivores can't go into the same cabin as each other, the omnivores won't go in with the carnivores and the herbavores won't go in with either the omnivores and carnivores you might think you have it down. Wait just a minute. Some of the creatures are shy and will not only not go into a cabin with a carnivore, they won't even go into a cabin that is adjacent to them. But wait there is more. with the addition of creatures with special abilities. Only a few but enought to make it interesting. Did I mention that some like it hot and won't go into a cold cabin and vice versa? There are some that can handle either. This adds a high level of strategy to the game. The first time you play you will probably want to just put as many animals on the ark as possible. As you keep playing you will want to put certain types of animals on the boat and keep other people from putting animals on.

This game has no dice. This puts the strategy squarely in your hands not in a couple of lucky dice rolls. There are five categories of cards to put onto the ark to score points. The scoring is done at the end of the game. The Categories are Shy, Heavy, Usefull, Provisions and Slow. When you put an animal or provision onto the Ark you place one of your colored creatures onto the scoring card. Whomever has the most of their creatures on the card at the end will received 10 pts, 6pts for 2nd and 2 for 3rd. So keeping a close eye on these cards will tell you where you want to concentrate your efforts. With a 3 player game you will want to win 3 cards. With 4 or more you will want to win at least 2. The Slow and provision ones are the hardest to place for they take an entire turn to load them up.

There are 2 ways to play this game. One is to just load as many animals onto the boat as possible and go for having each cabin filled, this being the way you play with the kids. Everyone has fun, scores points and feels like they accomplished something. The second one is to control what animals go onto the boat, control as many cards as you can and dominiate the other Noah's little helpers. This is the way you play with your game night buddies.

This game will have you feeling like a rules lawyer at first until everyone has a firm grasp on the mechanics. This doesn't take to long and after 3 or 4 rounds most should have it down. Then of course there is the rain and thats why you are building the Ark in the first place. Nothing really changes with the mechanics it just reminds you that the flood is coming and that you need to get your animals onto the Ark. Basically the first half of the game is just posturing for when the rain comes. When the first rain cloud comes out you want to get your animals on the boat. When the 5th and last rain cloud burst there are no more animals to collect you can just put on the boat what you have. That is if you have enough turn tokens to do so. You get these when the person in front of you opens a new cabin. It's nice to make sure you have a bunch of these at the end of the game. That way you will be the only one that can load animals and sway the scoring in your favor on the five scoring cards.

I might make this game sound a bit intense but that is the way that I play. We all have our strategies and preference of how to play. I play to win. I don't care if its a game of War or Monopoly. I want to win. I am super competitive. I like this game. I thank my Secret Santa for getting it for me and look forward to playing many session of it. If my opinion of the game changes I will let you know.

As to the part about the bigger table. We spent most of the second half of the first game sliding down cards to make room for new cabins. Give yourself plenty of room.

An improvement I would make to the game - I would add some type of cheat sheet for players to have in front of them that #1 describes what each special animal card does and most important #2 is have a description of how each animal interact with each other animal and how they have to be loaded. I will see if I can come up with something myself and if it works I will post it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Hopefully you will get the game and one day we can beat the rain together.

Thread: Endgame "pay to the back" misprint... should be "bank"

jgrundy — 2007-12-17T11:37:33+00:00

When in doubt, ask the designer:
I wrote:
There has been discussion on Board Game Geek as to the meaning (in the English version of the rules) of the rules for endgame:

6.2 Game end:
...
"When a player *plays*, he pays an action disc to the back and adds an animal to the ark."

Unfortunately this "pay to the back" isn't very clear. Can we get an *official* comment... if you want to play a card during the end game, who/where/what receives your action disc in payment?

Frank Nestel wrote:
Hello Joe,

Thank you for asking! Unfortunately I've been missing the discussion on
BGG. However the problem looks more like a typo to me: I should write
"to the bank", i.e. when you play in the endgame, your disc for playing
goes out of the game. However the other disc in case of opening a cabin
still go to the righthand neighbour.

Hope this makes it clear,
Frank

Thread: Re: End game questions

jgrundy — 2007-12-17T11:35:52+00:00

Thread: Re: End game questions

NigelStrong — 2007-12-17T03:41:35+00:00

It never mentions the bank anywhere in the rules. It does talk alot about having things removed from the game and supply stock. I would have to lean towards it being more of a rule that is not fully explained. That indeed you would pay an action disk to the person behind you. I imagine that would change too if that person had passes already. I have only played this game one time. It took a while to get the mechanics down but the three of us seemed to get it towards the end.

NS

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marauder — 2007-11-10T20:26:15+00:00

shot of the german edition box

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boneroller — 2007-10-25T18:22:39+00:00

Ark Critter Pieces in the Four Player Colors

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boneroller — 2007-10-25T18:21:39+00:00

Ark Action and Incline Game Pieces

Thread: Re: End game questions

Lemming — 2007-10-10T18:51:01+00:00

It's a misprint in the rules. It should say:

"pay one token to the bank."

Thread: Re: End game questions

jgrundy — 2007-10-09T02:07:52+00:00

I'm pretty certain, having played a fair bit of Ark, that during the endgame you pay the bank. Paying to the player behind you to play one card is too unbalanced and would very rarely be worth it.

Pay for opening a cabin in the usual way, ie even if the player has passed you still pay them.

Thread: Re: End game questions

atholbrose — 2007-10-09T01:03:23+00:00

We play that you put a chip out of the game to play a card in the endgame, and if you open a new cabin you pay to your right whether that person has passed or not. (Not that we really play Ark all that much, to my considerable chagrin.)

Thread: End game questions

referee — 2007-10-08T22:43:10+00:00

Hi. The rulebook says that in end game (after the fifth rain card has been drawn) you have to pay one token to the back. I see two interpretations of this. a) to the back, as in backwards, ie to the right as it's been happening during the game for opening new cabins. b) it is a typo and it means to the bank, ie out of the game. For now, the former seems the one that is right, but what do you guys think?

Also, if it is indeed to the back, or if it's my turn and I open a new cabin, and the player at my right has passed, do I pay to him, or do I skip to the next player to my right that has not passed yet?

And if I indeed skip him, then what happens if I am the last player to pass? Can I open (or play if the token is indeed passed to the back) for free?

Thread: Re: any chance (change) to make it a 2-player afair?

Bola! — 2007-10-07T01:17:10+00:00

We've played four 2-player games.

In all but the first play, we used 3 action disks. I think that actually does put a noticeable limit opening cabins. It feels right. In the last play, we used a version of jgrundy's suggestions.

We did the following:
(a) 3 action disks per player
(b) Shortened the deck by 10 cards and gave them secretly to Dirk. Oh hey, not Dirk. How about one of Noah's sons? A little googling suggests Shem. After all, everything always goes to the eldest son!
(c) Scored Shem's cards one per turn, beginning at the end of the third turn. The idea was to give incrementally increasing knowledge of Shem's score as we went along, rather than complete information at some particular time, and ensure that Shem's cards were all scored a little before the 5th rain card was turned. It seemed to work out about right, but perhaps we could have waited a turn or two to start scoring his cards. We considered scoring Shem's hand in full at the turn of the first rain card, but I think the incremental scoring was the right choice.

We'll definitely play this variant again.

My wife has of course won every game, and at least I didn't lose to Shem this last time.

Thread: Re: Ark - So What's Not To Like?

jgrundy — 2007-09-23T09:49:53+00:00

Twinge wrote:
jgrundy wrote:
If your hand only offers a couple of options, it's time to draft! Thankfully you only draft one card at a time, so there aren't the

Forget to finish your sentence? thanks

Thread: Re: Ark - So What's Not To Like?

Twinge — 2007-09-23T08:57:36+00:00

jgrundy wrote:
If your hand only offers a couple of options, it's time to draft! Thankfully you only draft one card at a time, so there aren't the

Forget to finish your sentence?

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

yangtze2000 — 2007-09-08T19:20:07+00:00

lol

Thread: Double Deck Ark

mark_biggar — 2007-09-08T15:08:27+00:00

My group was slightly disappointed that animals in this game didn't come "two by two", so we came up with the following rules for Double Deck Ark. All rules are the same with the following exceptions

To allow for more animals Noah has decided to build the Ark with a wider beam so the bow tilt card has seven spaces instead of five.

Each cabin can hold 4 cards. But big animals (weights 3 & 4) take up 1.5 cards spaces each.

Shuffle the two decks together. Use 7 rains cards shuffled into the bottom half of the deck and choose pets after the third rain card.

Stock up the first six cabins (three each side) instead of four at the start.

Deal each player three cards and flip up 4 cards for the drafting pool just like in the expansion instructions.

When a player takes a turn drawing cards he takes one face up, one from the draw pile and a third from either his choice. Only replace face up cards after all cards are taken.

Each pair of like animals are considered mates. Note Pitcher Plants from the expansion deck are plants and do not have mates. Snowmen don't have mates either.

When a player takes a turn to play cards he plays the usual 1-2 cards but can play a mated pair as if it were a single card (even two slow mated animals). Such a pair of cards must be played to the same cabin. Score for each card played.

Mates must be played to the same or adjacent cabins.

Shy animals are not scared of their mates and may be added to the same cabin as their mate ignoring the usual restrictions on the placement of shy animals.

Carnivores and Omnivores will not eat their mates and they can thus share the same cabin. They still must each weight less then all other animals (other then their mate) in the cabin.

A Pair of small mates (weights 0 OR 1) cuddle and only take up one card slot in a cabin.

You can't split up a mated pair in the same cabin with a drive out action.

If you play a big (weight 3 or 4) animal to a cabin where its mate already is, it can drive out an animal of weight 2, 3 or 4 to make room, but only scores for itself not the driven out animal.

You may play a mated pair as your pet or if you draw the mate for your already chosen pet you may add it face down with your pet. At the end of the game if a pair of pets are not mates, they are illegal and do not score.

--

These rules have worked fairly well the couple of time we've tried them.

Thread: Re: We keep forgetting, when you open a new cabin...

mark_biggar — 2007-09-05T22:19:00+00:00

If you can play a second card after opening a room can it be the card you just picked up for opening the room? OR do all picks for opening rooms happen at teh end of your turn?

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

mark_biggar — 2007-09-05T22:15:16+00:00

The main missed thing is that it's a provision that scares shy animals.

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

SkiBoy — 2007-08-21T08:50:36+00:00

byll wrote:
So we were right at Manorcon then Don? You might have had more players on you side of the ark if the Pauls had turned up.

Byll - makes you feel good that we were able to match the logic and mental abilities of a 7 year old doesn't it!!

Anyway I'm playing Ark again tonight - hopefully such agruments will be prevented now that agreement has been reached!

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

yangtze2000 — 2007-08-05T12:54:47+00:00

Indeed!

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

byll — 2007-08-05T11:56:13+00:00

So we were right at Manorcon then Don? You might have had more players on you side of the ark if the Pauls had turned up.

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

yangtze2000 — 2007-07-24T21:34:17+00:00

Thanks for that clarification. An official answer to end the arguments - hurrah!

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

atholbrose — 2007-07-24T20:46:01+00:00

Okay, I did the only thing that seemed to make sense to me -- I asked on the Doris and Frank mailing list. Frank Nestel answered, and you are right; a larger carnivore isn't interested in eating the carnivorous plants so they can co-exist, but a smaller or same-size carnivore would be eaten.

Frank Nestel wrote:
well, there is a bit of an overlap between "provisions" and "carnivorous", that is right. But just go back, to what happens, which other carnivore would eat a plant? Imagine a T-Rex grazing? Another carnivors can go to the carnivorous plant unless it is so small, that it gets eaten by it.
I more than happily accede the point. Now, if I could only get any of my regular game groups to play Ark, expansion or no...

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

yangtze2000 — 2007-07-24T18:41:39+00:00

Here we have the problem. The Seven Year Old is absolutely right, but so too is RN. TSYO has logic and realism on her side, but RN is playing by the rules. I suppose this is something that just needs to be clarified before you start play. Otherwise you may have a ten minute argument, like we did at Manorcon at the weekend. Luckily we're all good friends!

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

jgrundy — 2007-07-24T18:41:02+00:00

A Carnivorous Plant and the Sabre Tooth Tiger are indeed both lighter than all the other Animals if they share a cabin.

Ark rulebook wrote:
Carnivores must be lighter than the other animals in the cabin. Even the same weight is not allowed! The effect of this is that each cabin may have, at most one carnivore or omnivore
So the rule as written specifically separates the rule from an explanatory note/clarification of the effect of that rule.

Elsewhere, the rules describe Animal cards vs Provision cards. The Carnivorous Plant is a Provision card, not an Animal card.

Also, having/not having the carnivore/herbivore symbol is not equivalent to the assertion that the thing is "an animal". The bee is an "animal", but has neither symbol. Also, the fox is "an Animal" and "a Carnivore" but is not categorised (useful/shy etc.)

All the compatability rules to Ark make complete real world hypothetical sense, even if some of the explicit sizes make the odd result here or there.

Conclusion... carnivorous plant + sabre tooth tiger? The tiger is too big to be eaten by the plant, and the tiger is not interested in eating the plant. This is neither complex, nor changing the rules as written at all.

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

yangtze2000 — 2007-07-24T18:34:56+00:00

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

atholbrose — 2007-07-24T18:27:25+00:00

Well, no other provisions are carnivores, either. I think following the rules set out for the different icons and numbers on the cards is preferable than a house rule is all. Feel free to play how you like, but if we play against each other, we'll have to hash this out further.

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

GaryP — 2007-07-24T18:10:31+00:00

atholbrose wrote:
Why not just simply follow all the rules as written? If a carnivore must be the smallest animal in a cabin (let's not quibble over the meaning of 'animal' here) and herbivores can't share cabins with provisions, then the carnivorous plant can only co-exist with other provisions. Seems pretty reasonable and straightforward.
How is this any more reasonable or straightforward than the expert ruling? You can't look to the "rules as written" when they obviously do not account for this expansion card. Your interpretation basically rules that the carnivorous plant is a "carnivorous animal provision". Fine. The young'un and I simply consider it a "carnivorous provision", since no other provisions are animals and the name strongly suggests otherwise. =) We just flip the carnivore rule to the (more logical in my mind) converse:

"No animal of equal or lesser size may be present with a carnivore."

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

atholbrose — 2007-07-24T17:46:35+00:00

Why not just simply follow all the rules as written? If a carnivore must be the smallest animal in a cabin (let's not quibble over the meaning of 'animal' here) and herbivores can't share cabins with provisions, then the carnivorous plant can only co-exist with other provisions. Seems pretty reasonable and straightforward.

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

kevinwho — 2007-07-24T17:06:18+00:00

Yes, I too, am sold. The 7-year-old has spoken!

That'll teach me to try to field a question for an expansion I haven't yet played to a a game I misread the rules to in the first place. Man, now I have to go play again!

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

GaryP — 2007-07-24T16:39:30+00:00

rynelf wrote:
According to my lovely 7 year old (the arbiter of all things Ark in our house) they'll need to be _larger_ carnivores - otherwise the Carnivorous Plant (size 1) will eat 'em. She thinks the carnivore rule is "A carnivore must be smaller than all other animals in the cabin."

So: a Carnivorous Plant and (for example) a Sabertooth would co-exist happily - the Carnivorous Plant will not eat the larger animal, and the Sabertooth will not eat the plant.
This was my interpretation, too. Methinks the child wise in her ways.

2. Treat it as a carnivore that may share a cabin with a larger carnivorous animal, and/or another ~~carnivorous~~ plant.
So, #2, except that it may be present with ANY other plants (provisions).

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

rynelf — 2007-07-24T16:17:44+00:00

Kevin wrote:
The carnivorous plant should have no problem sharing a cabin with other carnivores.

According to my lovely 7 year old (the arbiter of all things Ark in our house) they'll need to be _larger_ carnivores - otherwise the Carnivorous Plant (size 1) will eat 'em. She thinks the carnivore rule is "A carnivore must be smaller than all other animals in the cabin."

So: a Carnivorous Plant and (for example) a Sabertooth would co-exist happily - the Carnivorous Plant will not eat the larger animal, and the Sabertooth will not eat the plant.

Thread: Re: Expansion: Carnivorous Plant Trouble...

kevinwho — 2007-07-24T15:50:31+00:00

kevinwho wrote:
It states that a carnivore can only share a cabin with herbivores/omnivores if the carnivore is smaller than every herbivore/omnivore in the cabin.

I take it back!!! I've been reading everything I could find on the subject (which does not happen to include the actual rules themselves, as I do not have the game with me but....) I am convinced that I am the one who mis-read the rules. Seems that carnivores really do eat other carnivores. So, um, I guess my revised take on this is...

The carnivorous plant is a carnivore and a provision.

Since it is a provision, it may not share a cabin with any herbivores/omnivores.

Since it is a carnivore, it may not share a cabin with any other carnivores/herbivores.

So this plant cannot share a cabin with any animals.

It should have no trouble sharing a cabin with other provisions, though. In fact, it's so versatile it can share a cabin with either warm-weather or cold-weather provisions. You can't say that for the other provisions! So, the plant should be about as easy to place as any other provision. You gain flexibility as to which climate it can occupy, which kind of makes up for the flexibility you lose by not being allowed to have it in the same cabin as another carnivore.

Also, as a provision, the carnivorous plant still cannot be your pet.

Okay, I think that's my final interpretation.

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lucmoscrop — 2007-05-20T18:38:05+00:00

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Roibeard — 2007-02-28T12:40:51+00:00

Ark Rain Card

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Roibeard — 2007-02-28T12:40:25+00:00

Ark Card Back