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How to Play

The Isle of Cats

1-4 players 60-90 min 7.6 Board Game Geek Rating

Players compete as rescuers on The Isle of Cats, drafting cards to explore while fitting uniquely-shaped cat tiles onto their boats like puzzle pieces. You'll collect treasures, befriend Oshax, and gather lessons that provide personal scoring opportunities. Victory comes from maximizing points through completed lessons, efficient boat-filling, and keeping cat families grouped together across five rounds.

Published 2019

The Isle of Cats

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Follow base game setup
Use normal setup for 5 and 6 players with the following additions
2
Place Oshax tiles
Place 10 Oshax tiles below the common treasure instead of the standard 8
3
Prepare events bag
Place all event tiles into the blue events bag within reach of the 7th player
4
Draw first event
The 7th player draws one event tile at random and chooses to place it face-up or face-down
5
Prepare beasts bag
Place all beast tiles into the red beast bag within reach of the 7th player
6
Fill the fields
Place 26 cats total (13 per field) for 7-player games
7
Assign 7th player boat
The 7th player receives a random boat of different nature than the majority of other players
8
No cat figure
The 7th player does not receive a cat figure and has no figure on the island for turn order
9
Add lesson modules
Use 7 Lesson modules instead of 5 when playing with 7 players
10
Add discovery cards
No additional discovery cards for the 7th player except for 2 additional lesson modules

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Determine player order
The 7th player has no place in usual player order but will always be last and is never affected by player order changes
2
Resolve events before filling fields
Resolve the event under Vesh's boat first, then resolve any events above Vesh's boat from bottom to top
3
Collect point rewards
If an event tile rewards points, immediately take that many point tokens from supply and place them next to your boat (publicly visible)
4
Rescue beasts
Players may use baskets to rescue beasts during the rescue phase following normal cat rescue rules
5
7th player green cards
Speed value is forfeited; the 7th player always remains last regardless of speed played
6
Draw events after placing beasts
If any beast tiles were placed, draw 2 event tiles, discard one, and place the other face-down on the next day of the day tracker
7
Rare finds phase
The 7th player may pay 4 fish after playing any Oshax card to place it face-up next to their boat instead of discarding
8
Empty the fields
Any unrescued beasts flee and return to the box unless a player pays 2 fish to keep one beast in the field
9
Keep cards ability
The 7th player may pay 2 fish at end of Empty Fields to give one card to any other player, who must give a card in return
10
Replenish discovery cards
If the discovery card pile runs out, the 7th player chooses to add 21 cards from either the top or bottom of the discard pile

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Score Royal Rats normally
Use normal rules for event tiles regarding Royal Rats scoring
2
Score semi-permanent tokens
Use normal rules for semi-permanent token scoring from event tiles
3
Point tokens are public
All point tokens earned from events must be visible to all players next to each player's boat

watch & Learn

Let the pros teach you with these top videos.

BIG BOX LA ISLA DE LOS GATOS | Abriendo | UNBOXING

BIG BOX LA ISLA DE LOS GATOS | Abriendo | UNBOXING

Unboxing

Hablemos de ISLA DE GATOS sin Zetas

Hablemos de ISLA DE GATOS sin Zetas

Review

MORE VIDEOS

FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

PDF RULEBOOK

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