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In Treasure Cats you play as an anthropomorphic cat trying to find treasure. Each round you will choose to go to the one of two Locations. The Junkyard or the Farmstead,to find Items. Each Item has a Value. At the end of each round, players reveal their Treasure Cards and see which Location yielded the highest Items value. All players who chose that Location get a Victory Point.
Objective:The first player to score 5 Victory Points wins if no other player has 5 or more Victory Points. 6 Victory Points wins if no other player has 6 or more Victory Points.7 Victory Points everyone with 7 shares the win.
Setup:Pick a starting player. At the beginning of each round, the starting player shuffles the cards and deals 2 cards face-down to each player. Then they deal 2 of the remaining cards face up in the center of the play area. Each round has 3 phases.
Phase 1: Choose Treasure Cards.
Opening with the Start Player and moving clockwise, each player will choose a card in their hand as a Treasure Card. They will place this card face up in front of them. Using the other card, hide either the top or bottom half of the shown Treasure Card so that only the Item or Location is visible. *This is very important!
Phase 2: Trigger Active Abilities
Beginning with the Start Player and continuing clockwise, each player displaying an Item with an Active (A) ability may use it.
For example, if a player is showing the Compass, they would choose another player with a revealed Item. The targeted player would have to discard their revealed Item card if they correctly guessed the targeted players location.
Note: A player can only be targeted by the Compass, Abacus, Whistle and Dog Mask once per round.
Phase 3: Award Victory Points
All players now reveal their chosen Treasure Cards unless their Treasure Card was discarded in Phase 2. Each player with a Treasure Card showing a Passive (P) ability may now use that ability.
Add up the value for each Item at each Location. The Location with the highest value of Items wins the round.
Each player with a revealed Treasure Card with the winning Location receives 1 Victory Point. If there is no winning Location, then all players with a revealed Treasure Card earn 1 Victory Point. If a player had to discard their Treasure Card, then they cannot receive Victory Points.
After Phase 3 is complete, check to see if any player has achieved the winning objective. If not, then pass the Start Player token clockwise and start a new round.
-description from publisher
How to Play Treasure Cats
- Compact, easy to teach and quick to play
- Whimsical cat theme with approachable components
- Three-phase structure provides clear rhythm
- Rules scale with player count for more players
- Prototype status means rules may change in future versions
- Some players may prefer heavier strategy or deeper engine-building
- Component variety for very large player counts is thematic rather than functional
- cats collecting items to earn points
- farm and junkyard where cats search for treasure
- whimsical, lighthearted
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card abilities activation — certain abilities on revealed cards can trigger when phase two resolves
- Card Drafting — each round, players select one treasure card from their two dealt cards
- card selection / drafting style — each round, players select one treasure card from their two dealt cards
- endgame scoring and tiebreak — the first player to reach five points wins; if tied, play continues until someone leads by one point
- hidden information / partial revelation — players initially have two face-down cards and choose one to use while concealing the other half
- Limited Points — the first player to reach five points wins; if tied, play continues until someone leads by one point
- Multi-Use Cards — certain abilities on revealed cards can trigger when phase two resolves
- phase-based play — the game progresses through three phases: choose treasure, resolve abilities, award points and reveal cards
- scaling deck by player count — the core deck is augmented with extra cards depending on the number of players (e.g., water bottles, jacket, snow globe, laser pointers for higher player counts)
- set collection / location scoring — points are awarded based on the location (farm or junkyard) where players' treasures reside when scores are tallied
- starting player rotation — after each round, the deck is passed to the left, designating the next starting player
- Turn Order: Progressive — after each round, the deck is passed to the left, designating the next starting player
- Variable Phase Order — the game progresses through three phases: choose treasure, resolve abilities, award points and reveal cards
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- treasure cats from glass shoe games
- the first player who gets to five points will win the game
- what you're seeing here is just a prototype
- the game itself is going to take place over three different phases