Café del Gatto
Café del Gatto Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
Help prepare an extra frothy cappuccino, a hot espresso or an iced latte macchiato at Café Del Gatto. Everyone loves a purring-good coffee, so choose your coffee and milk tiles from the espresso machine wisely and prepare your delicious coffee drinks... layer by layer! Serve the specialties at the right moment and earn the most barista points.
Game Setup
- Before playing, carefully remove all components from the punchboards. Assemble the espresso machine with the red cardboard pieces (see page 4 for detailed instructions). Place it where it is easily visible and accessible to all players. Leave some space next to it for the discard pile.
- Put all 36 coffee/milk tiles in the bag and mix them well. Each tile has a white side (milk) and a brown side (coffee). Draw 5 tiles at random from the bag and place them on the left side of the espresso machine so that the white side is visible. Repeat with another 5 tiles on the right side so that the brown side (coffee) is visible.
- Place the 45 coins and the 12 sugar cubes each separately in a reserve.
- Fold the parts of the drink menu board and stand it up so everyone can see it clearly.
- Now sort the 45 drink tiles by type. Then place the tiles face up in ascending order from left (lowest) to right (highest). The lowest scoring values are assigned several times. Stack tiles with the same score on top of each other. You only need as many tiles as there are players in the game.
- Now each player takes one cup of each type and places 5 cups in front of them on the table. Return unneeded cups to the box.
- Now each player takes 5 coins. The player who was last to drink a coffee takes the start tile and places it in front of them. The starting player must immediately place one coin as their own into the reserve and therefore starts with 4 coins.
Course of the Game
Players act clockwise. On your turn, you may choose to perform only ONE of the following 3 actions:
- Buy 1 coffee/milk tile, or
- Serve 1 or more coffee drinks, or
- Take 2 coins.
Players act until one player has served all 5 of their cups. The player who has accumulated the most points for their coffee drinks is the winner of the game.
Explanation of the coffee/milk tiles
- White side (milk) and brown side (coffee).
- Each tile shows a barista value (from 1 to 4) and a type of preparation: cold (snowflake symbol), frothy (foam/latte-art symbol) or hot (steam symbol).
- Apart from the color, the tiles are identical on both sides.
Possible Actions
Buy 1 coffee/milk tile (the action performed most often)
(On page 4 we explain in detail why the sugar cube is so special.)
- You may only buy 1 tile from the espresso machine. The price of this tile corresponds to the barista value shown on the opposite side of the espresso machine (it does not matter which symbol it is).
- You pay the price in coins and place them in the reserve. When you remove the tile from the espresso machine, the upper tiles slide down and change the prices for the next player.
- Note: tiles in the top two rows cost more! For the tile in the top row you must pay +2 additional coins, and for the tile in the next row +1 coin.
- Place the tile you bought in one of your cups. Remember that you must always fill the cups FROM BOTTOM TO TOP (as when pouring into a cup). In addition, a milk tile must always be placed on a white square and a coffee tile always on a brown square. You may rotate tiles after buying them, but you must use them as you removed them from the espresso machine.
- Finally, draw a new tile at random from the bag and place it in the empty space at the top of the espresso machine. If it was a milk tile, the new tile is inserted with the white side facing out, and if it was a coffee tile, with the brown side facing out.
Example 1: Luna wants to buy the milk tile with the 3 that is in the center-left position of the espresso machine. The opposite tile is the coffee tile in the center-right position, which determines the price. It has a 1. So Luna places 1 coin in the reserve and takes the milk tile with the 3. However, if she had wanted to buy the coffee tile with the 1, she would have had to pay 3 coins, since the opposite milk tile determines the price.
Example 2: Cosmo wants to buy the coffee tile with the 3 that is in the second row from the top. The opposite milk tile has a 2. As the tiles in the top two rows cost more, Cosmo must pay 1 additional coin; that is, 2 + 1 = 3 coins.
Serve 1 or more coffee drinks (only possible if you have completely filled at least one cup)
If you have the corresponding coffee/milk tiles in all the spaces of a cup, you may "serve". To save time, you may serve all your filled cups during one turn. For each cup, you receive coins and drink tiles:
Coins (the symbols are decisive)
On the drink menu board, you can see how many coins you get for the selected coffee drink.
First, look at the column showing the drink that you want to serve.
Then, count the different types of preparation (cold/frothy/hot) in your cup: the more identical symbols you have in your drink, the more coins you will get.
If every tile of your drink shows the same type of preparation, you get the number of coins in column 1. If there are 2 or 3 different symbols, you get the number of coins in columns 2 or 3, respectively.
Take the corresponding number of coins from the reserve.
Example 1: In Minka's red cup (cappuccino), all the spaces are covered with tiles. She decides to serve it. Her cappuccino contains a hot coffee tile, a cold coffee tile and a hot milk tile. This means her cappuccino has two different types of preparation and she takes 3 coins from the reserve. (The barista values 2, 1 and 4 are not important for calculating the coins, but they play a key role for the drink tiles.)
Drink tiles (the barista value is decisive)
Add up all the barista points of the tiles in your prepared drink. The sum determines the barista value of your drink.
For each cup, there is a drink tile in a color that shows different point values; you may choose one of them.
You may only select the drink tile with a point value that is equal to or lower than the barista value of your drink. If you choose a drink tile with a point value lower than your barista value, take the difference in coins from the reserve.
Note: Except for the tiles with the lowest point value of each coffee drink, each tile is only available once on the menu board. Those who serve first have the advantage of having more options.
Place all the tiles that were in a cup next to the espresso machine on the discard pile. Take the selected drink tile and place it in your cup.
Example 2: The barista value of the tiles in Minka's cappuccino is 4 + 2 + 1 = 7. She could choose the red cappuccino tile with the 6 (plus 1 coin) or with the 3 (plus 4 coins). Of course, the tile with the 6 gives her more coins, but if she does not have enough coins (or someone has already taken the tile with the 6), she could choose the tile with the 3 and take the difference in coins, in this case (7 - 3 = 4).
Note: Once you have served the drink, you may move the prepared drink to one side. You may only serve each cup once during the game.
You can increase the value of your coffee drink with the sugar cubes; see page 4.
Take 2 coins
Take 2 coins from the reserve. Now your turn is over.
Sugar Cubes
Whenever you buy a coffee/milk tile with a 1 on it, you also receive 1 sugar cube from the reserve.
You may increase the barista value of your coffee drink with sugar cubes, which allows you to take a drink tile with a higher point value when serving.
Each sugar cube increases the barista value by 1.
You may use the sugar cubes you have accumulated when you perform the "serve coffee drink" action, and so use several sugar cubes for a single drink, for example. Return the sugar cubes you used to the reserve.
If at the end of the game you still have unused sugar cubes left, you receive 1 point for every 2 sugar cubes.
Example: During the game, Minka received a sugar cube when she bought a tile with the 1. This increases the barista value of her cappuccino and she can take the highest drink tile, the one with the 8 (7 + 1 = 8).
Cleaning the Espresso Machine
If there is nothing in the espresso machine that you need before buying (this means all the coffee tiles or all the milk tiles), you may exchange all the tiles on one side for 2 coins. To do so, place the tiles from the espresso machine on the discard pile and then refill the column with new tiles from the bag. This does not count as an action and may be done several times.
Afterwards, you may continue to perform a buy action if you have enough coins. If not, your turn ends.
By the way: If the bag runs completely empty and new tiles are needed, refill the bag with all the tiles on the discard pile next to the espresso machine.
Special cases: In the rare case that the bag is empty at the end of your turn and there are no tiles in the storage area to refill it, an intermediate round is played. In this round, everyone must serve one of their finished drinks. Coins and drink tiles are awarded as usual. The next person clockwise starts this intermediate round and then the game continues.
If nobody can serve a drink in this intermediate round, each person must choose the drink with the most tiles in it and place all the tiles in the storage area (without receiving any coins or drink tiles in return).
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as one player has served all of their coffee drinks. The round is still completed, so that all players play the same number of turns (you can see who was first by looking at the start tile).
Now add up the point values of your drink tiles that are in the coffee drinks you have served.
Coffee/milk tiles that you have not served do NOT score points.
If you have unused sugar cubes left at the end, you receive extra points (rounded down) for every 2 sugar cubes. Compare your results.
The player who has accumulated the most points is the winner! In case of a tie, the player with the most coins wins; if the tie persists, the tied players win.
How to Assemble the Espresso Machine
The espresso machine is designed so that you do not have to disassemble it each time, and you can store it assembled in the box. (Assembly is shown in two illustrated steps on page 4.)