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 kept must be placed face down on the table. Lesson cards are personal objectives allowing you to score extra points at the end of the game.
4. Rescue Cats
Now players take it in 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 stage, and how many cats you wish to rescue in the rescue phase.
5. Rare finds
Finally, players will take it in 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!
