Cat Blues: The Big Gig Deep Dive
What the Community Thinks About Cat Blues: The Big Gig
Cat Blues: The Big Gig is a 2024 card game from Bitewing Games for two to four players in which the cards in each hand serve as both the bidding currency and the material for assembling quartets of cat musicians. Board Of It describes it as a re-implementation of an older game by Reiner Knizia, and Nick Murray of Bitewing Games, the game's own publisher, says the company worked with Knizia to evolve and resurrect the design. Board Gaming Ramblings placed the game on the keep pile during its "Keep or Cull" series, while Board Of It came away far less enthusiastic. Reviewers agree that the bidding is distinctive but disagree about how well it holds up over repeated plays and across player counts.
Core Mechanics That Define Cat Blues: The Big Gig
Set Collection Through Quartets
Cards carry numbers and cat symbols, and a player scores by assembling a quartet of four matching cards. Board Of It explains that after winning a bid, a player lays down one or more quartets and takes that many mouse tips, the game's scoring currency, along with a token recording the set. Mouse tips are limited to 20 per round across three rounds, so claiming quartets becomes a race. Board Gaming Ramblings adds the key trade-off: a card used in a bid cannot be scored later, so every quartet competes with the bidding value it provides.
Auction Bidding With Your Own Hand
Cards are flipped from the middle until a duplicate or a joker appears, and then players bid by offering cards from their own hands. Board Of It gives the ranking logic as an example: a bid of two ones is beaten by two twos or two threes, and a bid of three mixed cards can itself be beaten by three ones. Board Gaming Ramblings notes that a player who fails to win the bid loses nothing, which the reviewer called a big advantage in this style of game. Only the bid winner may lay down quartets, so reviewers describe a constant calculation about whether to commit a hand now or wait for a better card to appear in the middle.
The Cat Blues: The Big Gig Experience
A Silly Race for Mouse Tips
Board Of It enjoys the theme's whimsy, noting that the mice handing out the tips are the punters and that the group likes saying "mouse tips" aloud. Because the tip pool is small and shrinks quickly, the table scrambles over who claims what and when. Board Of It notes that a single five-card quartet can leave only one tip for the next player, which turns a routine bid into a sprint. The mood is lighthearted, and Board Gaming Ramblings describes it as a fun little game that delivers more than its size suggests.
Tense Trade-Offs Between Holding and Spending
The tension comes from the hand that funds each bid. Board Gaming Ramblings explains that a player who plays all their cards early has nothing left to bid with, so the table must balance scoring now against keeping cards available. Board Of It describes the same pressure from the other side: a set held back as a bargaining chip may stop being useful once a stronger card surfaces in the middle. Reviewers present the game as more tactical than its playful premise implies, rewarding players who weigh each decision carefully.
What Makes Cat Blues: The Big Gig Stand Out
Your Bid Is Also Your Target
Board Of It singles out the mechanism in which the cards a player bids with are the same cards they are trying to collect. A player holding three threes who needs one more can use those threes as a high bargaining chip, but giving them up means abandoning the set they were building. Board Of It says this makes every bid an interesting decision. Nick Murray of Bitewing Games makes a similar point from the design side, describing the experience of bidding with a hand of cards in order to build a better hand.
Jokers That Cost Points Unless Quartered
Jokers can stand in for any card, and a player may use as many as they like. However, the player who uses the most jokers pays a fine of five mouse tips at the end of each round, and jokers left in hand at round end are penalized even if they were never used. Board Of It explains that assembling a quartet of jokers lets the player lay them down and avoid that penalty. Reviewers see the rule as a deliberate gamble: lean into jokers to win bids, accept the fine, and hope the quartets pay it back.
Potential Drawbacks
The Bidding Ceiling Hurts Larger Tables
Board Of It found the game less satisfying at four players. The last bidder can be shut out when an earlier player has placed a bid that the remaining cards cannot beat, leaving the table to pass around without much action. The reviewer said that with more players the bidding almost goes around once and then stops, while three or two players allow more incremental raises. Board Of It concluded that the game is an auction design that does not get better at higher player counts, and that two players were preferred over four.
A Hidden Hand-Size Trap Makes Learning Hard
Board Of It warned that the natural instinct to lay down a quartet as soon as it forms can backfire. Everyone starts a round with six cards, and a player who plays down quartets early can end up with far fewer cards than opponents, making it very hard to outbid them. Board Of It says new players will not anticipate this until they experience it, which turns the game into a meta-game of hidden timing. The reviewer also said they enjoyed the early rounds more and cooled on the game with repeated play, describing it as a game they like the sound of more than they like playing.
If You Enjoy Cat Blues: The Big Gig
Because Cat Blues is at its core an auction game with a hand-as-currency twist, the most useful recommendations come from other bidding-focused designs that Nick Murray of Bitewing Games discusses in the top 100 episode. Murray describes El Grande as a game in which players bid with cards from their hands to set turn order, and calls Raw a shining beacon of pure auction games, pairing a smart set collection scoring system with a push-your-luck Sundisk bidding system. Murray also highlights Ego as a tense game of chicken bidding with dramatic push-your-luck moments. Players who enjoy the bidding in Cat Blues should consider these titles:
- El Grande: card-based bidding that sets turn order, discussed in the Bitewing Games top 100 episode.
- Raw: a pure auction game built around the Sundisk bidding system, also discussed in the Bitewing Games top 100 episode.
- Ego: a tense game of chicken bidding with push-your-luck moments, also discussed in the Bitewing Games top 100 episode.
What Reviewers Are Saying
"It's a very fun little game. We're going to keep it."
— Board Gaming Ramblings
"It's weird because it's an auction game that's not better at the higher player count in our opinion."
— Board Of It
"The difference is immediately apparent when you suddenly find yourself bidding with your hand of cards to try and build a better hand of cards."
— Nick Murray, Bitewing Games