Cool for Cats
Cat Packs (1-4 players) is the new game by Tobias Hall (Dicetopia, Betwixt and Between). In this tile-laying game you try to attract cats to your neighbourhood, to have them fight other player’s gangs. For solo an opponent grabs high cards from the display and builds their own cat gang that you’ll have to face every round. At the end of the game you compare your score to a chart and see how well you did.
The game has over one hundred unique illustrated cat cards, each with some border markings for placement and other icons for effects and scoring. You can’t just put any cat next to any other, and you may have to rotate cards to get better synergy. Every round you (and the opponent) will get two cards from the display – or, in game terminology, Cats from the Alley. When played, cats may trigger effects and they’ll add to the total pack power for the fight at the end of the round. Of course, “power” is actually called “Pawer” in the game.
You don’t just score points – sorry, catshine – for winning those catfights though, there’s also pattern matching and set collecting involved. And it looks like it would play in a rather short time solo.
Purrsonal opinion: a game for cat lovers, obviously, and tile laying aficionados. I am neither. But the illustrations are very nice. So yeah, cool for cats.
Cat Packs will launch on Gamefound on 5 April. Wooden tokens, playmats, an artbook and signed drawings are available as well. There’s even a pledge with a discounted price for those that struggle financially and with this generous gesture All or None Games has captured our hearts and gained our respect. 😽 Furry nice.
I backed two campaigns from Tobias Hall and in both the whole production and delivery process has been as smooth as can be. I also enjoy that they usually offer reasonable prices in their campaigns.
That said, I did not have lots of fun with Betwixt & Between and the prospect of fighting an AI doesn't really inspire me. I didn't see anything in the gameplay that caught my interest, even though I would gladly try that game, so it will likely be a pass.
I think the artwork is great though and it's really nice to see a very personal and heartfelt artstyle for a change. But I already mentioned the cover of Betwixt a Between as one of…