The Isle of Cats

Standard multiplayer is for 2–4 over five days. Each player takes a standard-side boat and one permanent basket. Each day, add two cats per player to each field; set drawn rare treasures aside without counting them as cats.

Fishing gives each player 20 fish. Exploration deals seven discovery cards each; draft them in selections of two, two, two and one. Pass left on days 1, 3 and 5, and right on days 2 and 4.

After drafting, choose which of the seven cards to keep and pay their printed fish costs; discard the rest face down. Paying for cards does not pay the later cost of rescuing cats.

During Read Lessons, play every lesson in hand: private lessons face down and public lessons face up for everyone. Public lessons belong to no player and cannot be discarded.

Select rescue cards and reveal together, then reorder by speed; ties preserve relative order. In that order, rescue one cat per turn for one basket plus three fish from the left field or five from the right. Two broken baskets make one basket.

Permanent baskets work once per day; ordinary baskets are discarded when used. Place each rescued cat immediately. The first tile may go anywhere legal; later tiles must touch an existing tile along an edge. Rotation and flipping are allowed, but overlap, overhang and misaligned squares are forbidden.

During Rare Finds, take turns playing one Oshax or treasure card and immediately placing its tile. Assign an Oshax one cat colour when placed. In standard play, covering a treasure map with a matching cat immediately grants one common treasure.

At day end remove unrescued cats, retain available treasures, keep unplayed hand cards and leftover fish, and reset permanent baskets. After day five, families of 3/4/5/6 cats score 8/11/15/20, then five more per extra cat. Each rare treasure scores three; each visible rat loses one and each unfilled room loses five. Add lesson points. Ties favour more fish, then share victory.

Family mode uses family sides and green-backed family cards: choose two secret objectives from three. Over five days, take and place one cat per turn, without standard drafting, fish or baskets; move the starting player to last each day. Matching maps grant common or rare treasure. Score families, rats, rooms and family objectives; ties favour more filled rooms, then share victory.

Official solo uses standard play with a different draft: twice choose three of five cards, then add one card from the deck and pay normally. Your sister’s basket cards remove or switch supply tiles; she has no separate boat. She scores your cats at 5/4/3/2/1 per colour in reveal order plus her lessons. You must strictly outscore her. Public lesson points are halved, rounding up.