Cat Packs Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Content
• Overview
• Setup
• Flow of the Game
  • Start of a Round
  • Player Turn (2 steps)
  • Cat Card Breakdown
  • Example of an Efficient First Turn
  • End of the Round
• Card Effects
  • Resources
• Getting Catshine (Winning!)
  • Final Scoring Example
• Friendly Variant
• Solo Mode
  • Solo High Scores

Content

• 100 x Cat Cards
• 4 x 6 Summary Cards
• 1 x First Player Card
• 24 x Catshine Tokens *
• 24 x Catnip Tokens *
• 24 x Pawer Tokens *
• 5 x Shard Tokens
• 5 x Wild Border Tokens

* These tokens are considered to be unlimited. Larger tokens represent 5 resources.

Overview

Piece together your ultimate gang of cats! Recruit them from the Alley and expand your Pack. The goal of the game is to cleverly use your Cat Cards to collect as much Catshine as possible!

Setup

1. Shuffle all Cat Cards THOROUGHLY and place them in a facedown pile. Deal 5 Cat Cards from the pile to each player. The players decide which 3 to keep to their hand, discarding the other 2 Cat Cards back to the pile. Once everyone has decided, shuffle the pile again to form the Cat Pile. Should the Cat Pile ever become empty, shuffle all discarded Cat Cards and form a new Cat Pile.

2. Draw Cat Cards from the Cat Pile to create 4 facedown Round Piles, one for each round of the game. If playing 1-2 players, each Round Pile should have 9 cards in it (11 if playing 3 players, and 13 if playing 4 players). Place the Round Piles next to each other, on the opposite side from the Cat Pile (to avoid any pile confusion).

3. Place all games tokens (resources) next to the play area. This is the Supply.

4. Randomly determine a first player to receive the First Player Card, then give each player 3 Catnip Tokens and 1 Summary Card.

(Illustration: example of a setup for 2 players.)

Flow of the Game

The game is divided into 4 rounds in which players alternate taking 2 turns each. Turns are played in clockwise turn order starting with the first player. The game ends after the 4th round and the player with the most Catshine wins the game!

Start of a Round

Pick a Round Pile that will be used for the round. Draw 5 Cat Cards from it and create a faceup card display in the center of the table. This display will be referred to as the "Alley". At the start of every round except the very first round, players receive 1 Catnip and income from the Cat Cards in their Pack with any Recurring Effect. The first player can now start their turn following the 2 steps below.

Player Turn (2 steps)

Step 1. Begin your turn by taking a Cat Card of your choice from the Alley into your hand for free. Immediately replace the taken card by drawing a new Cat Card from the current Round Pile.

Step 2. Play any number of Cat Cards from your hand by paying the Catnip cost (if any) in the upper left corner of the card to the Supply. You can also pay by discarding other Cat Cards from your hand, hence the Catnip symbol on the back of the cards (1 Cat Card = 1 Catnip).

The first Cat Card you play has no placement rule (other than the Catnip cost) and you simply place it in front of yourself and gain any Cat Card Effect. Cat Cards played in front of yourself are considered your Pack. You evolve your Pack by placing future Cat Cards orthogonally adjacent to a previously placed Cat Card and match the Side Pattern of all connected sides (all cats do NOT get along...). You may rotate the played Cat Card any way you want. There are no restrictions regarding size of your Pack.

When you no longer wish to or cannot play any Cat Cards, the next player starts their turn.

Cat Card Breakdown

(Diagram labels: Catnip Cost, Cat Card Name, Side Pattern, Cat Type, Pawer Value, Card Effect, Catshine Corner.)

Example of an Efficient First Turn

Maria starts her turn by taking a Cat Card from the Alley. She then plays "The Bride" for free, which Instant Effect gives her 2 Catnip. She then pays 1 Catnip to play "The Student" next to it. She then plays "The Accountant" for free, rotating it, to prepare for a full corner Catshine symbol. "The Accountant" has a Multiplier Effect giving her 1 Catnip for each Cat Card with the "Yarn" Cat Type in her Pack (2 in this case). Finally, she pays 2 Catnip tokens to play "Adventure Cat" rotated next to "The Student" to start another Catshine corner.

End of the Round

When each player has taken 2 turns each, the Round Pile will be empty and the round ends. All Cat Cards in the Alley are discarded and the following occurs:

1. Pawer Struggle - The player with the highest total Pawer from their Pack including Pawer tokens wins a Catshine token (you must have at least 1 Pawer from a Cat Card in your Pack to participate). If tied, all tied players win 1 Catshine Token. The winner(s) discard all Pawer tokens needed to win (For example, if a player needs to use 3 Pawer tokens to have the most Pawer, that player must discard all 3 Pawer tokens). The winner(s) then place the gained Catshine token on top of a Cat Card with a Pawer Value in their Pack to cover it. From now on, that Pawer Value does not exist (if the covered Pawer Value is greater than 1, the player receives the difference in Pawer tokens as compensation).

2. Change First Player - Pass the First Player Card to the next player in clockwise turn order and start a new round. If it's the end of the 4th round, proceed to "Getting Catshine" instead.

Card Effects

• INSTANT - Immediately gain the number of the depicted resource. Everything gained can be used immediately once you've payed for the card. You may even use Wild Borders or Shards on the same card that you just played or save them for later use.
• RECURRING - At the start of every round, gain the number of the depicted resource. In the final round, you may instead play a Recurring Effect as an Instant Effect.
• MULTIPLIER - Immediately gain the depicted resource multiplied by the number of the depicted Cat Type in your Pack.
• MOVE - Immediately move and/or rotate the number of Cat Cards in your Pack to another legal place (optional Effect).
• FRIGHT - Choose an opponent that must immediately discard either 1 Catnip, 1 Pawer token or 1 Cat Card from their hand (never from their Pack).
• CATSHINE - Surround this Cat Card with 4 other orthogonally adjacent Cat Cards in your Pack to gain 1 Catshine during the final scoring.

Resources

(Resources gained from cards are always taken from the Supply or Cat Pile, NEVER the Round Pile.)

• Catnip - Main currency used to pay for Cat Cards.
• Pawer - Resource used to win Pawer Struggles at end of rounds.
• Cat Card - Represents different cats giving you resources and benefits (can also be used as 1 Catnip).
• Shard - Place on empty Cat Card corners to complete Catshine symbols.
• Wild Border - Place between two Cat Card sides, covering the Side Patterns, to disregard the placement rule.

Getting Catshine (Winning!)

At the end of the 4th round, each player counts their Catshine won from Pawer Struggles then gains 1 Catshine for each of the following in their Pack (each category scores separately and there is no maximum in any category):

• Catshine symbol formed by 4 Catshine Corners.
• Cat Card with the Catshine Effect surrounded by 4 other Cat Cards.
• Every 10 total Pawer you have in your Pack, including Pawer tokens. If you are playing the Friendly Variant, instead gain 1 Catshine for every 5 total Pawer.
• Set of 5 different Cat Types.
• Set of 5 Cat Cards of the same Cat Type.

The player with the most Catshine wins the game! Ties are broken in the following order: (1) Most Cat Cards in their Pack, (2) Greatest amount of Pawer, (3) Greatest amount of Catnip. The winner gets to hold up the First Player Card and bask in its glory!

Final Scoring Example

Tobias has 2 Catshine from winning Pawer Struggles. During the final scoring he gains:

• 2 Catshine for matching Cat Card corners into 2 completed Catshine symbols.
• 1 Catshine for surrounding 1 Cat Card with the Catshine Effect.
• 1 Catshine for ending the game with a total of 10 Pawer.
• 2 Catshine for having 2 full sets of 5 different Cat Types.
• 1 Catshine for having 5 "Yarn" Cat Types.

This gives Tobias a total of 9 Catshine!

Friendly Variant

Not a fan of player interaction? Remove all Cat Cards with the Fright Effect symbol before playing and skip Pawer Struggles at the end of each round. At the end of the game, players may instead convert 5 Pawer for 1 Catshine.

Solo Mode

Follow the setup for 2 players (you and a dummy opponent) but only deal cards to yourself. You are always the first player when playing solo and you play for a high score ranking (check the chart below)! You follow the regular rules when playing with the following exceptions:

On your opponent's turn, choose the Cat Card with the highest Pawer Value from the Alley and place it on your opponent's side. For any ties, take the Cat Card with the highest Catnip cost. If still tied, take the Cat Card that you would have picked for yourself. Ignore all placement rules and your opponent's Cat Card Effects, except Pawer and Fright Effects.

When using the Fright Effect against your opponent, discard 1 Pawer token from your opponent. If this isn't possible, discard your opponent's Cat Card with the lowest Pawer Value.

During each Pawer Struggle, compare your total Pawer Value with your opponent's. If your opponent wins, remove your opponent's Cat Card with the lowest Pawer Value instead of placing a Catshine token on it.

Solo High Scores

• 1+ : Seriously?
• 3+ : Dog
• 5+ : Kitten
• 7+ : Cat
• 10+ : Grand Cougar
• 14+ : Divine Feline