Isle of Cats

Having played the “roll n write” on holiday Toby(4) was desperate to play some of the normal version today while Jack was off getting school uniform sorted and we were also baby (Henry(1)) free.

So game 32 of the “Bailey family sorta Summer Board Game Bonanza” is none other than “Isle of Cats”. We recently also bought the boat and late arrivals expansion which are not used here but will get played at some point.

We are a big fan of polyomino games in the Bailey House and along with Bärenpark this is one of the best.

The best thing about it is it is a kids game and an adult game in one box. There are 2 rulebooks (the family game is 2 sides of A4), there are different boards and different card sets. We played the kid version but i have played the older one woth Jack before and it works fine. I have played games that can be made simpler but never have I seen such thought that has gone into making the game appeal to all.

The game sees you trying to rescue cats from an island before the evil pirate gets there. Over 5 turns you draft cats and place them on your board trying to cover up rats and fill complete rooms to earn bonus points. At the end of the game you also earn points for amount of cats of each colour as well as some personal lessons (objectives) such as fill the middle line or a cat of each colour on the edge. At the end of 5 round scores are added up to see who wins.

It is a simple game to play but the

Polyominos are generally bigger than in most games which means tessellating them is probably more enjoyable here than any other game I have played. It also fairly fast even with adult rules.

Toby loves this game and its def one of his fave (hence his roll and write win on holiday) but he sometimes struggles as you would expect to think a few shapes ahead to inform his laying (not that it affects him). Please remember Toby has grown up around board games and as such is generally capable above his age.

As you can see I just won this but only by a small margin.

I love Isle of Cats as do that boys. I have played the adult version once with Jack(7) as well as Katie(35) and its a great game.

A game I would recommend to fans of tile drafting games but the 2 different rules and games in one box aimed at kids or adults really sweetens the deal as this can be played with fairly young kids (who can engage) as well as adults on game night.

Great stuff