Gamehelptheisleofcats

Rounds

The Isle of Cats is played over 5 days (rounds). On each day the cats will venture into the fields on the island and you have until nightfall to attempt to rescue them through 5 phases of play.

1. Fishing

Each player gains 20 fish.

2. Explore

Each player is dealt 7 discovery cards, they choose and keep 2, passing the remaining cards to the player to their left. They repeat this process 4 times, but the last time they will only keep 1 card.

You will then look at your 7 cards to decide which to add to your hand. The cost is in the top left corner of every card, and if you wish to keep a card, it must be paid for in fish.

You can keep as many cards as you like!

3. Read Lessons

Every Lesson card you keep must be placed on the table. Public Lesson cards are placed face up for all players to see. These are objectives that anyone can achieve.

Lesson cards are personal objectives and are placed faced down. The quantity of private Lesson cards is public knowledge, but the contents of private Lesson cards is kept secret. Private Lesson cards allow you to score extra points at the end of the game.

4. Rescue Cats

Now players take turns to rescue cats. Each cat requires a basket and a number of fish. Keep going around the table until everyone has run out of baskets, fish, or passes.

When you rescue a cat, you must immediately place it on your boat, the first cat can go anywhere, but after that every cat must touch at least 1 previously played tile.

You will need to find a balance between how many cards you keep in the Explore phase, and how many cats you wish to rescue in the Rescue phase.

5. Rare Finds

Finally, players will take turns to play Oshax and Treasure cards. Treasures offer smaller pieces to fill those tricky areas, and the Oshax are friendly cats that can act as any colour, they just want to have a friend!

Scoring

After 5 days, you will earn points for completed lesson cards, rare treasures and families of cats (groups of touching cats of the same colour) on your boat.

However, you will lose points for each room on your boat which isn’t filled and any rats which haven’t been eaten!

The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the game!

Boats

Each player has their own boat containing 7 rooms, 19 rats and 5 coloured treasure maps. This is where you will be placing every cat you rescue and any treasure you find.

Rooms

Every square on your boat is part of a room. You can identify rooms by the walls surrounding them. Six of the seven rooms can also be identified by the icons located in the corner of the squares.

Click the Room overlay button to display larger, coloured icons for easier identification.

Location	Colour	Icon	Size	Type
Stern	Yellow	Parrot	18 squares	Captain
Bow	Magenta	Parrot	4	Captain
Port	Purple	Crescent Moon & Star	11	Bedroom
Starboard	Green	Crescent Moon & Star	11	Bedroom
Amidships	White	Apple core	18	Mess/Galley
Fore	Taupe	Grain	20	Storage