Die Baumeister des Königs (The Ark of The Covenant)
Die Baumeister des Königs is a Carcassonne clone designed by original Carcassonne-designer Klaus-Jürgen Wrede. Interestingly, this German-type game has first been published in the United States under the title The Ark of The Covenant by Inspiration Games. This game is very closely related to the original Carcassonne game but not an extension. It's stand-alone and comes with tiles in different design and a slightly altered - religious - game theme. Die Baumeister des Königs is settled during the times of King Solomon, a famous figure in the Old Testament. The players are members of King Solomon's staff and have to build cities and roads - does this already sound familiar? In addition to this, the players have to promote sheep farming and transport the ark of the covenant. Prophets need to be placed on the cities to encourage repentance and adherence to the Ten Commandments.
Gamplay
Now, what's different compared to the original Carcassonne?
- The first new feature includes oases along some road tiles wich award one additional point to that road for each oasis.
- Secondly, a prophet can be played (only once by each player) which doubles the value of a completed city for that player.
- The third novelty changes the way points can be scored on willows: followers score two points for each sheep on that willow. Any wolf on that same willow subtracts two points. We have seen a similar feature in Carcassone: Hunters and Gatherers.
- The monasteries from the original game are replaced by temples. The temples do not require nine tiles around them (as in the original) but only four. Since this is a religously inspired game, these tiles have to shape a cross and score seven points.
- 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.
This makes an interesting new variation on the well-known theme.The religious touch is almost neglectable. Of course it is not the revolution of the gaming industry. But I had not expected that anyway.
Design and Theme
The game design is lovely. I like the yellowish colored tiles and the religious theme. It really fits the new concepts well, especially the ark is a nice new game element. It is probably among the few Christian game with real top quality components. I strongly believe this game must have been a lot of fun to design for Klaus-Jürgen Wrede who is also a teacher of religion in Germany. The rulebook contains background information on the Ark of the Covenant, King Salomon's Temple and the Prophets.
Another interesting detail is the rule about who starts the game:
The player who last read a portion of the Bible will be the starting player
It's my personal believe that this rule should be added to the list of best Start Player Rules on BoardGameGeek or on Startspieler.
Another interesting observation is that the letter "B" is printed on the back of the cards (while the original Carcassonne contained a "C"). The American edition features an "A" instead. I guess the designers did not want to be accused of little variation in this new installation of Carcassonne.
Of course, the game play between Carcassonne and this clone is more or less the same. It is easy to learn this game when you already know the original. So, is it worth buying? Well, don't buy it, if you dislike the original. If you are a true Carcassonne-fan you will probably own it already. For all the others: it IS a good game, even it's "yet another clone"...