The Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw Game Review

REVIEW

 In the game, you are the citizens of Squalls End saving the Cat Islands and must save as many cats as possible before the evil Lord Vash arrives. Each cat comes in a unique shape and belongs to a family, you have to find a way to fit them all on your boat while keeping the families together.

GAME PROCESS

 Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw consists of 7 rounds where you try to save as many cats as possible, learn lessons and collect treasures. At the beginning of the game, a 3x4 grid is formed from cards from the cat deck and cards from the lesson deck according to a predetermined pattern.

 Once the grid is prepared, all players can make moves at the same time and must choose one of the four columns of cards. Players can reveal their chosen cards in any order. There are two different types of cards in the game:

 The openings on your boat are drawn as polymino shapes. Cats are always drawn in the specified color and you try to form large groups of cats (families) because they score a lot of points at the end of the game. Oshaks are wild cats and you can choose the color. Finally, there are treasures, they help you fill your boat. Rare treasures are also worth points at the end of the game. Discoveries are always drawn next to each other, and the first discovery you draw can be anywhere.

 Lesson cards show different scoring conditions. If you choose a lesson card, you can check that specific lesson on your lesson sheet to activate this scoring condition at the end of the game.

 Each player has a slightly different boat layout with treasure cards and rats. Treasure cards allow you to get treasures if they are covered by a cat of the correct color, and rats score negative points at the end of the game if they are still not covered. You can also activate special abilities as listed on the boat sheet, but only once per round and only 3 in the entire game.

 After round 7, you tally up your points and the player with the most points is declared the winner!

IMPRESSION

 Originally released in 2019, Cat Island was a huge success on Kickstarter (8,168 backers contributed £467,847), while the new campaign also provided more expansions for fans. With everyone staying at home more the past few years, Frank West, the designer, decided that a remote edition of Isle of Cats would be a good way to let players enjoy Isle of Cats. Since players also really liked this Print-and-Play Flip-and-Write variant of Isle of Cats, City of Games decided to release it in 2022.

 So let me start by saying that I absolutely love Cat Island. I've played it quite a bit since its release, and I've introduced a lot of people to it because of its approachable theme and simplistic rules. I also love Roll-and-Write games, so I was eager to try this new option.

 Explore & Draw does a really good job of keeping the feel of the original. Filling a boat and taking classes is a satisfying combination of mechanics. Instead of drafting cards with opponents, it has an interesting card selection mechanism that offers players equally challenging decisions.

 It does all this in a much smaller package, and setup time is also greatly reduced. Since most of the placement rules are similar to its big brother, you can also start playing even faster if you are already familiar with them. The addition of special abilities (which have limited availability each round and game) adds another layer of decision-making to the game to make it a little more interesting.

 The graphics are mostly reused from the original game, and that's a good thing, as they look great and vibrant. The quality of the cards, erasable fields and included markers is also fantastic. Once again, City of Games has released a perfect game.

 The question is, do I need both games in my collection? Both will remain in my collection for now as they serve different purposes. Explore & Draw as an extra game or after a long day at work. While the Original Game is more of a Main Event game, it has a lot more to offer, especially if you add expansions.

PROS OF THE GAME

• It conveys the feeling of the original game in a much smaller form
• There are many strategies to try
• The order in which the cards come out makes the game different every time you play
• Beautiful production with high quality components

CONS OF THE GAME

• Still need some desk space (for card grid)
• No interaction with players

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DESCRIPTION OF THE BOARD GAME "THE ISLE OF CATS: EXPLORE & DRAW" Admit it, everyone has already played "The Isle of Cats"? Yes, we are talking about the award-winning, original family board game with polynomial tiles and fluffy creatures lost on the island that need immediate evacuation. For all those who are "in the subject" we have good news: now you have the opportunity to play this table right on paper: meet a standalone lightweight version on the mechanics of Flip & Write!..