Way Too Many Cats! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • How the Game Works
  • Components
  • Card Anatomy
  • Cat and Token Types
• Player Setup
• Game Setup
• Goal
• Turn Structure
  • 1. Take Token Group & Cat Card(s)
  • 2. Toys
  • 3. Create Kitten Habitats
• End of the Game
• Scoring
  • Starter Cats
  • Kitten Scoring
  • Specific Cat Scoring
  • Specific Cat Scoring Examples
  • Cat Type Scoring
  • Cat Type Example
• Solo Game
  • Game Setup
  • Gameplay
  • General Rival Shelter Instructions
  • Game End
  • Rival Scoring
  • Difficulty Levels

Overview

Way Too Many Cats is a competitive drafting spatial puzzle game about drafting cats, making each cat happy, and pressing your luck in the number of kittens you take on.

How the Game Works

In Way Too Many Cats, players are managers of a pet shelter trying to show off each cat in the best light. They accomplish this task in different ways, depending on the cat. Cats of the same type all score the same way, but every cat has their own personality and needs, too!

The game is played until one player fills all spots in their pet shelter; all players get equal turns and the player with the cutest cats wins!

Components

• 128 Cat cards (10 Starter Cats, 118 Cats)
• 6 Reference boards
• 6 Kitten boards
• Toy Tokens
• Kitten Tokens
• 6 Shelters
• 1 Score Pad
• 1 First Player Marker

Card Anatomy

A Cat card shows its Cat Needs (top left), its Cat Type icon(s), its name, and a Card Back. Starter Cats come in two kinds: Basic Starter Cats (gray background, 1 type icon) and Advanced Starter Cats (different, yellow background, 2 type icons).

Cat and Token Types

• Standard Kittens: these match the four Cat types.
• Special Kittens: these do not match the four Cat types.
• Cat Toys: feather toy, scratching post, cat bed.

Player Setup

1. Give each player a Reference board, Kitten board, one random Starter Cat card, and a Shelter.
   • There are two types of Starter Cats: Basic and Advanced. For a player's first game, or if they want to have a more simple game, they should use a Basic Starter Cat. However, there are only 4 Basic Starter Cats.
2. Each player places their Shelter in front of them and their Starter Cat in a section of their choosing in their Shelter.
3. Return all unused Starter Cat cards, Shelters, and Reference cards to the box.

Game Setup

1. Shuffle all the Cat cards and place 4 cards face up in a horizontal line to form Cat Alley. Place the remaining Cat cards in a deck next to Cat Alley.
2. Place the Kitten and Toy tokens into the bag.
3. Draw six tokens and create three groups of face-up tokens:
   • one with one token
   • one with two tokens
   • one with three tokens
4. Give the First Player Marker to whomever most recently interacted with a cat.

Goal

The goal is to be the player with the most cuteness points at the end of the game. Players earn cuteness points by finding Cats, making them happy, and by gathering Kittens into manageable Kitten play groups.

Turn Structure

Each player completes the following actions on their turn:

1. Take Token Group & Cat Card(s)

Players choose one of the following:

• The smallest group of tokens and two Cat cards of their choice.
• The mid-sized group of tokens and one Cat card of their choice.
• The largest group of tokens and the rightmost Cat card.

Each Cat card taken must be placed in the player's Shelter immediately after it is chosen. Kitten and Toy tokens should be placed to the side of the player's Shelter.

Once the tokens and cards have been chosen, do the following:

• Add one token to each token group from the bag.
• Slide the Cat cards to the right and refill Cat Alley to four Cats.

2. Toys

Players may choose to give any Toy (feather toy, scratching post, or cat bed) token(s) to a Cat in their Shelter. Toys can be given to Cats in a future action or at the end of the game before tallying the scores. Toys can also be moved between Cats until the end of the game.

3. Create Kitten Habitats

Players may choose to designate an open space in their Shelter as a Kitten Habitat by discarding three Toy tokens and placing them back into the box. Up to 4 Kittens can be placed in a Kitten Habitat, with at least one Kitten being placed initially. Additional Kittens can be added at any time, but once a Kitten is in a Kitten Habitat, they must remain there. Kittens in a Kitten Habitat do not score negative at the end of the game and cannot be used in any Kitten sets.

Kittens do not score cuteness points for their type like Cats, but can allow other Cats to score more cuteness points.

Step 1 is the only mandatory step, with Step 2 and Step 3 being optional. Once a player has completed Step 1, the next player starts their turn. Players give Toys to Cats and create Kitten Habitats while the next player takes their Tokens and Cats.

End of the Game

The game end is triggered when one player completely fills their Shelter. Gameplay continues until all players have taken the same number of turns, then players tally their scores.

The player with the highest total cuteness points wins! If players are tied, the player who has pet the most cats in the last 24 hours wins.

Fun Fact: All the Starter Cats are named 'Cat' but in a different language!

Scoring

Each player's total score is based on the following:

• Cuteness points gained from their Starter Cat
• Cuteness points gained and lost from their Kittens
• Cuteness points gained and lost from specific Cats
• Cuteness points gained from Cat types

Starter Cats

Starter Cats give players cuteness points based on how many Cats (not Kittens) of a certain type they have in their Shelter.

Advanced Starter Cats give points based on the lower number of the two types of Cats (not Kittens) a player has in their Shelter.

Billi (2 cuteness points per Feather Cat) is a Basic Starter Cat, so they gain additional cuteness points for every Feather cat that is in a player's Shelter.

In the example on page 7, if Billi replaced Gato, there would be 6 Feather cats, so the player would gain 12 cuteness points.

Billi also gains cuteness points for being Feather.

Gato (2 cuteness points per pair) is an Advanced Starter Cat, so they gain additional cuteness points for the lower of two numbers: the number of Yarn and of Feather Cats that are in a player's Shelter.

In the example on page 7, there are 4 Yarn and 6 Feather cats, so the player would gain 8 cuteness points.

Gato also gains cuteness points for being Yarn and Feather.

Kitten Scoring

• Kittens can be placed in one of two different play groups:
  • A full group of each type of Kitten (7 Kitten types) which earns 15 cuteness points.
  • A matching group of four of the same Kitten which earns 8 cuteness points.
• A single Kitten is either in a full group OR matching group; it cannot be in both.
• Kittens in a Kitten Habitat cannot be part of a group.
• Kittens NOT in a full group, matching group of 4, or in a Kitten Habitat are -2 cuteness points each.

You can use the Kitten board to help you organize and score Kittens.

Specific Cat Scoring

Cats have their needs listed on the top left of their cards. They will only score cuteness points if those needs are met. If no needs are shown, they score the cuteness points automatically. If a Cat has multiple needs, they score for each separately. Each Cat can only gain the cuteness points listed on it once; they cannot trigger their scoring condition multiple times.

Icon	Meaning
Shelter grid with highlighted squares	Score cuteness points if the Cat is placed in the highlighted squares. In this example, the squares are the bottom left or bottom right corner.
Arrow into a Toy (cat bed shown)	Score cuteness points if the Cat is given this Toy.
Arrow into a Toy with a red X	Score negative cuteness points if the Cat is NOT given this Toy.
Plus sign	Score cuteness points only if both the conditions are met.

Specific Cat Scoring Examples

Catnis (-2 cuteness points for the right 3 columns) will get -2 cuteness points if they are placed in the right 3 columns. Catnis will also gain cuteness points for being Fish, Yarn and Feather.

Fluffins (2 cuteness points for a feather toy; 3 cuteness points for the top row) will gain 2 cuteness points if they are given a feather toy. Fluffins will gain 3 cuteness points if they are on the top row of the Shelter. Fluffins will also gain cuteness points for being Paw.

Cat Type Scoring

Cats may have multiple types and score for each type they have. Some Cat cards have multiple cats and each has their own icon.

Type	Scoring
Yarn	2 cuteness points.
Paw	1 cuteness point for each different adjacent Cat or Kitten type. (Max of 4 cuteness points each)
Fish	2 cuteness points for each adjacent Cat or Kitten of type Yarn. (Max of 6 cuteness points each)
Feather	Feather Cats are scored as a group of adjacent Feather Cats, not individually. Each adjacent Kitten Habitat with one or more Feather Kitten(s) will add one to the group size. Each group scores 3/7/12/18 cuteness points for group size of 2/3/4/5. If the group size is larger than 5, then multiple groups can be scored.

Adjacent is to the left, right, above, or below. It does not include diagonal.

Cat Type Example

The example shelter (top row: Ewok, Luna, Gato, Socks; bottom row: Harold J Bear, a Kitten Habitat holding four Kittens, Domino, Tulip & Daffodil):

• Yarn: There are 4 Yarn Cats: Ewok, Gato, Socks, and Domino. 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 8 cuteness points.
• Fish: There are 2 Fish Cats: Socks and Domino. Both Cats are next to one Yarn Cat. 2 + 2 = 4 cuteness points.
• Paw: There are 2 Paw Cats: Ewok and Luna. Ewok is next to 2 types of Cats, a Paw and a Feather, so 2 cuteness points. Luna is next to Ewok and Gato. Ewok has three types. Gato has two of the same types as Ewok, so Gato adds no new types. There are 3 types of Kittens, but only two are different than Ewok's types. This makes 5 total, however Paw Cats can only gain up to 4 cuteness points each.
• Feather: There are two groups of Feather Cats, one of size 3 and one of size 4, so 7 + 12 = 19 cuteness points. Even though there are two Feather Kittens in the Kitten Habitat, each Kitten Habitat can only increase the size of the group by 1. If there were two Kitten Habitats, each with a Feather Kitten, then each habitat would increase the group size.

NOTE: Tulip and Daffodil are two different Cats so there is one icon for each Cat. Each icon scores, making that group size 4.

Solo Game

Way Too Many Cats is played solo by adding an automated Rival Shelter. The Rival Shelter will take a group of tokens and Cat card(s) according to the game's selected Rival Shelter's board.

Game Setup

Setup is the same as the multiplayer game with a few additions:

• Choose one of the three Rival Shelters to play against this game. These are on the back of the Kitten boards.
• Set aside a player board and Basic Starter Cat(s) for the Rival Shelter. (One Rival Shelter uses two Starter Cats.) The Starter Cat(s) are placed face-up on the Rival Shelter's player board.

Gameplay

Turns in the solo game follow the same structure as the multiplayer game. After the player takes their turn, it is the Rival Shelter's turn. Do the following for its turn:

• Choose one set of tokens and card(s) based on the Rival Shelter's board.
• Place the Cat cards into its Shelter face-down. The placement of the cards does not matter.
• If either of yours or its Shelter is full, the game is now over after the Rival Shelter's turn. Otherwise, play another round.

General Rival Shelter Instructions

• If there are two Cat cards that the Rival Shelter could take that are equal based on its priorities, it will take the leftmost card.
• The Rival Shelter generally follows the rules of the game, unless otherwise stated.
• For the Rival Shelter's Kitten tokens, separate them out by type. Once it has a group of all seven types, place the seven different tokens in a pile to the side.

Game End

If you have more points than the Rival Shelter at the end of the game, you win!

Rival Scoring

Scoring for the Rival Shelters and The Feline Good Scoring Variant are located on the back of the kitten boards.

Difficulty Levels

If you'd like to make the solo game easier or harder, you can change up the difficulty of the game easily by following the Difficulty chart.

Note: the Difficulty chart and the Rival Shelter boards are printed on components (the Kitten boards), not in the rulebook text.