Board Game Break Time: Isle of Cats

Board Game Break Time is a new feature we're bringing in, where we play board games and review them. 

Title: Isle of Cats
Publisher:  The City of Games

Release Date: 2019
Designer: Frank West

Game Mechanism: 

# of Players: 1-4    Best: 3

Ages: 8+

Play Time: 60-90 minutes 

  

Average Rating: 8.2

The Isle of Cats is a competitive, medium-weight, card-drafting, polyomino cat-placement board game for 1-4 players (6 with expansions).

You are citizens of Squalls End on a rescue mission to The Isle of Cats and must rescue as many cats as possible before the evil Lord Vesh arrives. Each cat is represented by a unique tile and belongs to a family, you must find a way to make them all fit on your boat while keeping families together.

You will also need to manage resources as you:
Explore the island (by drafting cards)
Rescue cats
Find treasures
Befriend Oshax
Study ancient lessons

Each lesson you collect will give you another personal way of scoring points, and there are 38 unique lessons available.

Complete lessons, fill your boat, and keep cat families together to score points, the winner will be the player with the most points after five rounds.

—description from the designer 

This was one of the games that Jenn really wanted us to play with her. We told her for her birthday that she gets to pick ONE game and we'll play it no matter what. 

And I have to say that I actually really enjoyed this one. I think the mechanics were great, it didn't take a super long time for each persons turn so I didn't get restless between turns. I liked the picking two cards and passing the rest, much like in Go Nuts for Donuts or Sushi Go! 

I always enjoy tetris like games and this one was a really simple, but beautifully designed version of it. 

I really enjoyed being able to have a goal such as wanting to cover every rat or you lose points, I definitely focused more on that and didn't collect my own mission cards, which I should have paid more attention to, then I might have won.

The artwork is absolutely adorable, and I feel like this is a really simple game to learn. 

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Michael and I played this game when we went to Dice Tower West and we loved it. Which I was very happy about because I first heard of this game before it was published and since has been on my 2019 most anticipated games. It technically didn't come out until 2020... it was on kickstarter in 2019. SO I had to wait a very long time to play it. It was worth the wait. I absolutely adore this game. 

So this game is all about cats and tetris shaped tiles and lots of wonderful colors. I love tile games. I love tetris and well cats are just so adorable so win win. The game play is so fun. There are two ways to play... the more advance set of rules and the family set of rules... which is great because when Michael and I play we want it to be a thinker... but when playing with Finn, we need it a little less of thinker. There is still lots to think about when playing this game. 

The game play is pretty easy to teach but more complex when playing. There are many ways to get points during the game... from the family of cats that are the same color... which need to be touching, treasure tiles on the boat, and public and private lesson cards. I have yet to play the game without getting negative points.... but that is okay.. I don't think it's possible... at least not in my world. 

The look of the game is just gorgeous. Lots of bright colors, all the cats of one color look the same however the colors are all so different, the look of each cat of one color is unique and give the cats personality which match with the description in the rule book. The game is very thematic for me and I love the story behind the game. 

This game is a real winner for us... so much fun. It has quickly risen to a game in my top ten games of all time. The game will appeal to most board gamers, new and old, family and adults and kids, for those that like light games and those that need more. I will be recommending this game to all I see. 

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What Michael Thought: 

Isles of Cats is a unique tile laying Tetris style game that involves rescuing cats and putting them on your boat. Not sure if these cats want or need to be rescued off the islands. Maybe they like being on the island, and don't want to leave. O well to bad I guess these cats are being rescued whether they like it or not. But in all seriousness, this a very good game. 

There are 2 different game plays for this game, a family version and more in depth version for gamers. I like both the family version and the more in depth play. I played the family version with Finn and really like the simplicity of just picking cats and putting them down to score points. And the more in depth version which has card drafting, set collection, hidden end points, ways to get rare treasures, and ways to get an Oshax cat that you can make a wild. The game is a really good game for each style of play. And has enough to it for repeated plays. The family style play may not enough for hard time games, but is easier for kids and families to get together and play together.

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What Finn Thought:

I really liked Isle of Cats because it has cats! 

You have to place a cat tile on a boat and you have to cover rats or you lose points! I lost a lot of points. 25 of them, and Papi won! The multi kitty was my favorite because it was so cute. I learned the game really easy and I think it took just the right amount of time to play.

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