Cats vs Cucumbers: My Favorite Mechanism

Hey, I'm Jamie from Stillmmy Games, and today I'm going to talk about my favorite mechanism in a game called Cats Versus Cucumbers. There have been a lot of cat themed games that have been released, and as much as I love cats, I can't buy all of them, but I thought this one looked whimsical and cute enough, and it had a push luck dice rolling mechanism that I really thought I would enjoy.

It hearkens to other similar games like Farle, and I do enjoy it. I played a couple times already. Um, here is what the components of the game look like up close. And so let me start by talking about my favorite mechanism in the game, which is that there is the possibility that you bust in this game.

You bust when you roll the six dice. You roll all six dice and if if you and you can reroll them a couple times. Um if on any of those rolls you end up with three cucumbers, that is when you bust and uh and your turn ends. However, I really like that even on a bus turn, the game gives you something.

The game gives you a cucumber. you actually get a little cucumber token. And what this means is that on a future bus turn, you can actually spend that cucumber to continue re-rolling. It kind of doesn't completely reset your turn because you can use the dice that you've already rolled, but it says ignore the bust and keep on going.

I really like that. I really like that. It is a way to feel good in a game where when you bust, uh, you know, nothing has happened on your turn when you bust, but at least it gives you a way to get out of a future bust. Now, the one little odd thing about this game that I will mention is that there is the possibility of another turn.

So, most turns you are going to be getting something. You'll get a you'll get one of these treat tokens. You'll get a a a toy token. You'll get to put a cat in the box. But there is the possibility of a turn where you don't get any of those things and you don't bust and you just don't get anything uh if you don't roll three of any any icon.

So, there is the possibility that happens. So, it is it's interesting that the game actually gives you more stuff for busting than not getting anything at all on on your turn. Thought that was a little bit interesting. One other thing I mentioned, the game Farle, and Cats Versus Cucumbers does something that Farle does, which is that if you manage to use all of your dice on your turn, um, specifically for two special uh sets of dice, like if you have one of everything or or two pair, two bear, two or yeah, a pair, a pair, a pair.

Um, then you get to have a whole another turn after that where you get to roll all the dice again and keep on going. That's exciting. I like that in Farle. I like that here. Gives you a reason to push your luck even after you've already locked in something. And the game actually does something else that that contributes to that, which is that if you have like say you have three of a kind of the treats, that means that you get one treat.

The game uses the number three throughout the game consistently. However, if you get a fourth treat, um, then you get another one. So you get one treat for the first three and then if the the fourth treat that you roll, you get another one and then you can keep on going for a fifth treat, you can get even another one.

So the game gives you a reason to push your luck even when you've already locked in the three that you actually need. Um, I thought that was clever as well. Let's see if there's anything else that I wanted to mention here. Um, that's pretty much it. I will mention one little thing that I would recommend if you play Gats versus Cucumbers because we found the game due to the combination of the cucumbers and what the standard endgame conditions are.

We did apply a house rule and we play with it house rule multiple times and it works out pretty well. So I I can I think I can say after using this house rule that I do recommend it. Now the game has this fun thing where you get to place cats in these boxes and advance them on boxes towards more points.

And uh this is not related to one of the standard endgame conditions, but our house rule has been that the game ends uh when the game can end if a player has all three of their cat tokens in the highest point box, the final box. If all three cats are there, that triggers the end of the game. You take equal equal number of turns, then you end the game.

The other in endgame conditions are if the all the tokens run out and there are a lot of tokens. We've never come close to running out of the tokens or if you run out of lives. Whenever you bust, as long as you don't use a cucumber, then you get to use a uh a live a life. Um cats have nine lives. Scales nicely by player count, but we've also never come close to that happening either.

So, uh we have found that the game the the right length of the game is typically when a player has reached that final box has three cats in that final box. way of the game then. Just to throw that out there as a as a thing to try if you if you like the game but you find it going on a little bit long, try that end game condition.

It seems to work pretty well. I normally don't mention house rules in these videos, but I can see this being a fun light game that I get to the table quite often if I use that house rule. Um, yeah, those are my favorite mechanisms in Cats versus Cucumbers. Let me know your thoughts if you have played the game or if you played a game that has any similar mechanisms to these.

Particularly a game where when you bust in a roll push your luck game that you actually get something to compensate for that turn that that would otherwise just be a dead turn. Thanks.