Our Bookstore publishing house made its players happy a few years ago with a small card game called Sen. The inconspicuous box with a fish on the cover contained Marcin Minor’s beautiful graphics and a simple game, which for many has become one of the best proposals in a limited amount of time. Later on, Ravens appeared , which in my opinion is the worst item in the series, followed by Dragons , which once again impressed with the illustrations. In addition, Sen has a jubilee edition and the possibility of combining with the first version to further expand both games. Card games had come to be called the “dream trilogy” and it seemed to be a successful but completed cycle. And then suddenly information about Cats appeared. Does the new release from the publishing house fit in with the others, or is it trying to take advantage of the previous titles and their popularity?
Show your baby what’s inside
The size of the box matches the previous ones and looks good next to them. Michał Minor is again responsible for the graphics and although some of them are interesting, they did not impress me as much as those from Dreams or Dragons . However, cat lovers will be able to add another game about their favorite furries to the shelf, so the illustrations will probably be nicer for them.
The rules are simple, as befits a dream series. Everyone gets 4 cards in their hand and the rest of them form a face-down pile. Our task is to dream as many cats as possible. We will arrange a maximum of four columns in front of us, and each of them can contain no more than four cards. We add cats and ravens, both at home and at our rivals. Of course, we want the highest possible values for ourselves, but for our teammates we usually plant birds that have a value of 0.
What we will do most often is pair cats. If we manage to play the same as the one already on the table, one turns over and the other dominates – one card is turned face down and the other is placed face up on it. There is a “x2” multiplier on the back, so place the other cat so that it does not cover it. If, on the other hand, we play a furry of the same color, but with a different value, we put both cards on the discard pile and draw a card to our dream face down, face down. The number 9 is above the multiplier and is the highest in the deck. If you have a column of one such card, you end up with 9 × 2, or 18 points.
The game ends when it is no longer possible to draw or shuffle cards, or when one of the players has at least 3 columns with a minimum of three nines in each of them. Then the points are scored and the winner is selected.
Fourth wheel on the wagon
Reaching for Koty , I had mixed feelings, fortunately, after the first game, it turned out that it was a successful continuation of the series. Like the others, it is characterized by simple rules and the pleasure that comes from fast-paced gameplay. However, this time we are dealing with a greater dose of negative interaction. In the previous parts, you could mess up your rivals a bit, but this time we can do it all the time and gain a lot from it. Every time we pair our opponent’s cats, we take them out of his sleep, and we can restrain him with ravens.
The number of players is also new, because we can play as many as 7 people ( Ravens – 2, Dream and Dragons – from 2 to 5). It’s really a lot and although I didn’t manage to get the maximum squad at the table, I can only guess what is going on there. Chaos and the dynamics of changing dreams make the gameplay even more emotional and unpredictable. So, are we bored in a duo? No, only our negative actions are directed at one person all the time. 3 to 5 players play optimally because we have some control over our sleep, but at the same time a lot is going on.
It’s hard for me to say if this is the best part of the series. Dragons and Dream are memory games, so we need to focus on them and remember the values of the hidden cards. Cats , on the other hand, refresh the sleepy cycle and move towards party titles with a large dose of interaction between players.
