The Isle of Cats - 2024 Edition

Rescue a colorful array of island felines and fit them safely aboard your rescue ship in a competitive, medium-weight strategy game that masterfully fuses card drafting mechanics with a tight, brain-teasing polyomino puzzle layout.

The Isle of Cats (2024 Edition) (designed by Frank West and published by The City of Games) serves as a beautifully refined refresh of the smash-hit polyomino animal rescue game. Moving away from highly aggressive territory control or dry abstract tile placement, this title wraps a tight resource puzzle inside a vibrant, cozy theme. The core objective is a high-stakes, five-round rescue mission: players draft specialized cards to gather fish, secure sturdy rescue baskets, and uncover ancient scrolls, all to save as many unique cats as possible and arrange them onto their player boards before the sinister Lord Vesh arrives to destroy the island.

The primary strategic hurdle lies in maximizing your structural boat space while balancing your scarce fish economy between buying powerful cards and executing cat rescues. Every round begins with an open card draft where players choose cards to build a custom hand—including immediate Anytime events, rare treasure maps, and secret Lesson Cards that grant personalized endgame scoring conditions. However, every card you keep costs fish, leaving you with less food to actually lure the cat tiles from the central island shores onto your ship. When placing your uniquely shaped cat tiles, they must be aligned in touching, single-color family groups to score points, while simultaneously managing the ship's layout to completely cover up structural rat infestations and fill isolated, score-docking cabin rooms. True tactical mastery requires planning your tile placement dimensions rounds in advance, befriending the rare, wildcard Oshax breeds, and securing high-scoring lesson synergies before the final generation phase concludes across a satisfying 60-to-90 minute session.

Game Specs at a Glance:
Age Range: 8+ Years
Publisher: The City of Games / Dire Wolf Digital
Play Time: 60-90 Minutes
Player Count: 1-4 Players
Complexity: Medium (Closed Card Drafting, Resource Economy Management, Polyomino Tile Placement, Spatial Grid Optimization, Hidden Scoring Conditions)

What's in the Box?

• 4 Asymmetric Player REscue Boat Boards
• 30 Wooden Cat Tokens
• 85 Polyomino Cat Tiles
• 6 Wildcard Oshax Cat Tiles
• 25+ Common and Rare Treasure Map Pieces
• 1 Fabric Tile Supply Draw Bag
• 150+ Discovery Deck Cards
• 1 Shared Central Island and Wilderness Supply Board
• 40+ Punch-Out Cardboard Fish Currency Markers
• 1 Scoring Ledger Pad
• 1 Standard Mode Rulebook and 1 Family Mode Rules Supplement Booklet