{"id":13855,"date":"2023-11-28T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/?p=13855"},"modified":"2023-11-23T15:17:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T13:17:51","slug":"all-cats-aboard-meow-a-tile-placement-game-for-cat-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/all-cats-aboard-meow-a-tile-placement-game-for-cat-people\/","title":{"rendered":"All cats aboard meow! A tile-placement game for cat people"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Isle of Cats <\/em>is great for the fans of board games and cats. I would classify it as an entry level strategy game because there are some factors of luck involved, however a good amount of thinking and planning is required.\u00a0 The main idea of the game is to lure cats from the isle with fish to your ship before the baddies that want to destroy everything arrive. There\u2019s a storyline that includes some information about you, citizen of Squall\u2019s End<\/strong>, about the enemy, Vesh Darkhand<\/strong>, and the cats of five different breeds. Game-wise the story is a secondhand aspect, but it is always nice to have some lore.<\/p>\n

The game runs with cards, fish, and baskets. At the beginning you choose a ship by lot, setup the items and the island, which shows the players\u2019 turns as well as the duration of the game and prizes \u2013 needed number of fish \u2013 of the cats.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The island board shows turns, the duration, and the fish prizes of the cats.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a round summary on your ship board. There are five rounds that all include the following five steps: fishing, exploring, reading lessons, rescuing cats and collecting rare finds. This is partly a card game, and the cards are coded with colors. (Don\u2019t worry if you are colorblind, the developer has thought about that.) First you take twenty fish. Then you draft seven cards, choose 1-7 from the drafted cards and pay them with the fish you have. Remember to save some fish for the cats!<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The ship board has a round summary to keep you on track.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are blue lesson<\/strong> cards, purple anytime<\/strong> cards, green rescue<\/strong> cards and yellow treasure<\/strong> cards for you to choose from. Lesson cards, public or private, are the goals you set either for yourself or for all players, and these are supposed to be played during the read lessons phase. Anytime cards can be played, well, anytime, and they contribute to your game in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n

\"Different<\/a>
Every card has an explanation on it. The visible cards in this picture are two lesson cards and an anytime card.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are cats on both sides of the island board. They cost either three or five fish and you also need baskets to catch them. You have one permanent basket, and you\u2019ll get more from the rescue cards. You pay the prize, discard the basket and choose a cat, which you will then place on your ship.<\/p>\n

Scoring is presented on the ship boards as well. In addition to your goals (lessons) there are different rooms on the ship which you should try to fill up, because less cats and treasures means less happiness, thus less points. The ship also has rats that are not appreciated. Cats of the same color form cat families and are scored accordingly, meaning that, for example, three blue cats equal eight points and so on.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Scoring is presented on the ship board.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Confused much? The Isle of Cats<\/em> is difficult to explain yet easy to learn after a couple of rounds. The thread of the game is to fill your ship with cats and to achieve goals that are explained in the cards you have drafted. Cards and cats are the mentioned factors of luck, and they can ruin the goals you have set to yourself. However, you will always get new cards and new cats, so it is just a matter of your determination and problem-solving capability to overcome those situations.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The box lid has a cat setup: “If you have a pet cat, you should place it here while playing”, yet Nano was not amused.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’d like to identify as a strategy board game player although I don\u2019t have the patience to sit down and plan my movements for hours. This game is probably the closest one to hardcore strategy games without being one, and that is the reason I really like this game. The Isle of Cats<\/em> requires planning, management skills, and a tad of luck, so if those are your forte, the game is for you too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Basic information:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designer<\/strong>: Frank West
\nPublishers<\/strong>: The City of Games
\nRelease<\/strong> date<\/strong>: 2019
\nNumber of players<\/strong>: 1\u2013<\/strong>4 players (6 with the Late Arrivals expansion)
\nPlaying time<\/strong>: 60\u2013<\/strong>90 minutes
\nAges<\/strong>: 8+<\/p>\n

Photos<\/strong>: The Isle of cats <\/em>(Frank West 2019), taken by the author<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fantasy #cats await you! The Isle of Cats is a #draft tile-placement game in which you use cards, fish, and baskets to save cats from the evil conquerors. This moderately #strategic game is easy to learn, yet it requires planning in different ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":13915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[373,194,263],"class_list":["post-13855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-board-games","tag-review","tag-strategy","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13855"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14121,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13855\/revisions\/14121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}