The Ark of the Covenant cover
2003BGG rank #2,713

The Ark of the Covenant

by Ursula Stephan, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede · Diehl Medien

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Players2–5
Time30m
ComplexityLight
Age8+

About the game

What is The Ark of the Covenant?

A game based on Carcassonne, Ark of the Covenant has players vie for control of cities, roads, flocks, and temples by using the tiles to create the dynamic play area and by placing followers on the tiles. New features compared to Carcassonne include oases along roads which award 1 additional point to that road for each oasis, a one-time use "prophet" for each player which doubles the value of a completed city for that player, a simplified field scoring with each sheep in the field adding 2 points and each wolf subtracting 2 points, and a new scoring mechanism for temples. Additionally, players can forgo the placement of a follower on the board to move the Ark around the tiles and award 1 point to the owner of each follower it passes. Players alternate adding tiles to the board to build cities and orads and score followers. The game ends when the last land tile is played. The player with the most points wins.

How it plays

Mechanics

Area Majority / InfluenceTile Placement

On the shelf

Categories

AncientReligiousTerritory Building

Questions players ask

Questions to bring to BoardGameBrain

  • How do setup and the first turn work in The Ark of the Covenant?
  • When does scoring happen and what ends the game?
  • How should the table resolve an unusual timing or rules interaction?