- Designer: Frank West
- Artist: Dragolisco
- Publisher: City of Kings Games
- Players: 2 Players
- Playtime: 30 minutes
- Ages: 8+
Isle of Cats Duel is a follow up version to the larger game Isle of Cats, also from City of Kings Games. The lore behind the game is that there is a magnificent island of cats across the water. You have heard that there are dark forces coming to the island. In an attempt to save the cats, you must fit as many as you can on your boat to bring them to safety! In all of this adventure, I was worried about any cats that remain behind, however; we later find out that they are safe and you can find out what becomes of them in the board game Race to Raft. Once I knew the remaining cats were going to be safe, I was excited to play Isle of Cats Duel!
What’s In the Box?
This box is filled with felines!
- 1 Oshax figure
- 45 Cat Tiles
- 32 Discovery Cards
- 2 Player Boards
- 1 Island Board
- 28 Treasure Tiles
- 15 Fish Tokens
- 1 Discovery Bag
- 1 Scorepad
Setup
To set up the game, place the Island Board in the center of the play area. Each player will sit on opposite sides with their boats (Player Boards). Players may choose which side of their Player Boards to use. They do not have to match sides with their opponent.
On the Island Board, place the Oshax figure in the top left space. Shuffle the Discovery Cards and put them in a pile, facedown, to one side of the Island Board. Under the Discovery cards, place the Treasure Tokens. Place all Cat Tiles into the Discovery Bag and mix them up well. Take 3 Cat Tiles out at random and put them to the side of the board opposite of the Discovery Cards. Put the Fish Tokens next to the Cat Tiles and have the Discovery Bag in reach of both players.
Each player starts with 3 fish Tokens. Players randomly decide who is going to go first. It is now time to set up the Island Board.
To set up the Island Board, randomly take 10 Cat Tiles from the Discovery Bag and place them on the 10 Cat Spaces on the board. Then draw 5 discovery Tiles from the pile and place them face up on the cards spaces on the Island Board. This same set up happens at the beginning of each new “day” in the game.
Objective
The goal is to be the player with the most points at the end of the game. You can earn points by having large cat families (at least 3 cats of one color touching each other) and completing lessons on the some of the Discover Tiles. But be careful! You can also lost points by having visible rats on your board or rooms on your boat that have not been filled. It can be a lot to keep track of but the Scorepad will help you out at the end of the game.
Gameplay
Players take turns moving the Oshax figure on the Island Board. They must move the Oshax exactly 2 spaces each turn. They follow the paths on the board for all legal movements. Once a player lands on a space, either a Discovery Card or a Cat Tile, they will pick it up. If it is a Discovery Card, players will follow what is written. Some effects take place immediately and others only happen at the end of the game.
The first Cat Tile a player picks up may be put anywhere on their boat. All other times must be placed to touch the another tile in the boat. Tiles may be rotated or flipped to fit onto a boat. They cannot overlap each other, with no part of the squares underneath showing, and all tiles must fit within the outer edges of a boat.
Every square on the boat is a part of a room. You can pick out the different rooms, as they have walls around them. Players are trying to fill as many rooms as possible with their Cat and Treasure Tiles. There are also 5 colored treasure maps on the floor. If a player covers a treasure map with its matching color Cat Tile, they may take a Treasure Tile to put in their boat.
After taking either a Cat Tile or Discovery Card, players may choose to take any number of Fish Actions they have Fish Tiles to cover. Fish Actions include spending one fish to move one extra space on the Island Board, spending 2 fish to jump anywhere on the Island Board, spending 2 fish to take one Treasure Tile, or spending 3 fish to choose one extra discovery (Cat Tile or Discovery card).
The end of round happens when both players cannot or choose not to take an additional action. At the end of the turn, check to see if the Island Board is empty. If yes, clear the island. To clear the island, take one of the 3 Cat Tiles that were placed at the beginning of the game and put it in the Discovery Bag. Put any Cat Tiles or Discovery Cards left in the Island Board into the box, as they will not be used for the rest of the game. Start the day over where the second player is now the first player.
Once the 3 Cat Tiles next to the board are left to start a day have been exhausted, it is time to move on to scoring. Follow the instructions on the Scorepad for assistance with scoring. The player with the most points wins! In case of a tie, the player with the most Fish Tiles wins. If there is still a tie, players share the victory.
Final Thoughts
I played with Arc the first time we played and I thought I had him for sure! I had so many Discovery Cards and was adding up lots of points in the end. My downfall however, was I forgot that you lost points for any room on the boat that wasn’t completely full. This brought me down by 35 points! Arc won by 10, 30 to 40 points.
While we own Isle of Cats, we have not yet played it, so I can’t compare how the Duel version measures up at this time. I will come back and add my thoughts once we have played through it!
That being said, Isle of Cats Duel is a great 2 player game and we had lots of fun! Clearly my strategy of getting all of the Discovery Cards I could didn’t pay off, as I forgot one of the core scoring rules, but it was still a great time fitting the Cat Tiles into the boat and using the Treasure Tiles to make up for any lost spaces. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a medium weight duel game, especially if they love cats!
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