Review - Ark & Noah (2012)

As the old biblical story goes, Noah gather two of each animal and put them on the ark, but what if there was not enough room? In this game you must work together to get the ark in good enough shape for the voyage while also adding pairs of animals. Did we make it? was the ark secure? was it a three hour tour? Sorry wrong ship...

Originally shown under the name Diluvium – is a game of strategy in which players must not only compete for points, but must also work together to build and load the Ark. Everyone shares the task of saving the animals, but in the end there can be only one winner!

In the game, the players are Noah and his sons, and they must find the animal couples and load them on the Ark before the Flood starts. In each round, they will choose which action they will take: Searching for Animals; Collecting Wood, Food or Pitch; Building Corrals in their color; or Loading Animals on the Ark. This choice also determines the round order for the next turn. Players score points by loading animals in the right corrals, possibly in the player's color. Thus, in each round there is a strategical phase (choose action) and a tactical phase (execute action).

 It was on this day that Yaffet (me)  and Noe (Tyler) were in charge of the endeavor of securing and filling the ark. We decide on our actions as we get read to start round one. Ty picks to choose the animals and  in his almost predictable fashion at this point draws both koalas. The whole bag is full of animals. This is a highly unlikely outcome. unless your my son, then it's just another day.

After that we both really wanted to make sure the ark was secured with the wood it needed so we did not take animals for three rounds, which in retrospect seems rude to the animals.


I was working on an area big enough to fit my elephants in and Tyler squashed that idea by splitting my holding area right down the middle. I no longer had the spaces to bring them. As it turned out that move was a little more than half way into the game and it proved to be my downfall. Ty was ahead for good at this point as we filled the ark best we could, brought up the anchor and set sail for land.

Dad:
"It was interesting to work separately and together at the same time. Also i enjoyed the worker placement actions in the game. There was only one spot where your opponent did not also benefit when you picked one. It helped me focus more on what i needed and not worry too much about falling behind in other areas."
3/5

Tyler:
"I don't generally like games that have a co-op mechanic in them but i did like that you had to build the wood around the ark. The art was good and there were a lot of animals to choose from."
2.5/5