Arche Noah
Arche Noah Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 40 Animal cards (10 Animals each with worth 1, 2, 3 and 4)
- 1 start player card
- 50 purple chips
- 12 green chips
Preparation
Each player receives 12 purple and 3 green chips. These chips remain visible in front of the players for the whole game. Additional chips are returned to the box.
Note: In the game with 5 Players each player receives 10 purple and 2 green chips.
The animal cards are shuffled face down and each player is dealt 1 card. Players secretly look at this card and place it face down in front of them. This will be the start of their animal collection.
Note: With 3 Players, all cards of one type of animal are removed before play. With 2 players, remove two animals.
Paper and pencil are needed to note points. Give the oldest player the start player card.
Example: Layout for 3 players. A draw pile is placed in the middle of the table. Each of the three players (Jule, Emilie and Paul) has their own face-down card in front of them, their purple and green chips, and the start player card is given to the oldest player.
Game Play
The game is played through twice. Each play-through consists of several rounds where cards are revealed and distributed to players. If you bid more purple chips, you can take a card first.
When the draw pile is exhausted, the play-through ends and the players receive points for animal cards and unused chips.
Lay Out Cards
At the beginning of each round, cards are placed face up on the table equal to the number of players.
Player Bids and Distribution of Cards
Beginning with the start player and proceeding clockwise, each player makes an open bid of purple chips. (0 is a valid bid). The bid chips are pushed towards the middle of the table.
Once each player has made a bid, the face-up animal cards are distributed. The highest-bidding player must take one card, the other players follow in decreasing order of bids. Ties of equal bids are broken with start player, or player nearest clockwise to start player going first.
Example: 3 cards are lying on the table. Emilie bids 1 chip, Jule follows with 2 and Paul bids 2 chips. Paul is high bidder so chooses first, followed by Emilie (starting player) and finally Jule.
Each player places their new card face down on their stack. Players may not examine their cards until scoring.
All bid chips are returned to the supply. They are no longer available to players in this play-through.
Note: With 2 players, only the player with the higher bid returns their chips to the supply. The other player takes their chips back.
Use of Green Chips
When it is a player's turn to pick up a card from the centre of the table, they may discard one green chip in order to pick up either 0 or 2 of the face-up cards.
Note: Use of green chips may cause a player to have no card to pick up on their turn or for there to be extra cards left over. Left-over cards are set aside, they are not used in this play-through. A player who has no card to take still pays their bid chips.
Example: Jule has the highest bid in this round and takes a card first. She pays a green chip and takes 2 cards. Paul goes next and takes the remaining card and Emilie goes empty-handed. All bid chips are returned to the supply.
At the end of the round, the start player card is passed to the left, cards are laid out face up matching the number of players and bidding begins again.
End of the First Play-Through and Scoring
The first play-through ends when the last card from the draw pile is distributed to players (or discarded). All players now score their collected cards and leftover purple chips.
For each pair of the same animals, the player receives their printed value as positive points. Animals which cannot be placed in a pair count their printed value as negative points. A player who collects all four cards of one animal receives 3 bonus points.
Players with leftover purple chips receive one point for each two chips. Single purple chips receive no points and green chips are not scored in the first play-through.
Example: Jule receives 26 points which are recorded for her on paper. The scoring example shows the following values: 10 + 3 points (bonus) for one set of four cards, 5 points, 5 points, 6 points, -1 point, -4 points, and 2 points for leftover purple chips.
Second Play-Through
For the second play-through players fill up their purple chips to the same number they started the game with. Players do not receive more green chips. All animal cards used in the first round are shuffled and one is dealt secretly to each player.
The game sequence continues identically to the first play-through. As before, players receive positive and negative points for animal cards and points for unused pairs of purple chips. In the second round, players also receive 1 point for each unused green chip.
The points from the second play-through are added to the points from the first.
Game End
The game ends after scoring the second round and the player with the most points wins. In the case of ties, there are several winners.