Cat Café - First play!

27th November 2022

It's a Sunday and we're logged into Board Game Arena for some gaming fun.

Have you ever gone to a cat café or wanted to go to one?
According to Cat Café the game, if you're at one of these establishments you're meant to try and attract as many cats as possible! How is this done? By getting mouse toys, balls of yarn and so on to lure them over.

Of course the actual best way to attract cats is to set up a board game with lots of components, then you'll attract every one for miles around!

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Caveat: We've only played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• Dice: Cat Cafe comes with 5 normal six-siders.
• Player sheet: These sheets depict a number of important items.
  • Cat towers: There are 5 cat towers and they take up most of the space on the sheet. Each tower has 4-6 spaces numbered from 1-4/5/6 depending on the tower. Each tower also has a pair of scoring numbers at the top. Some towers also have 'scratching spots' which are unusable spots.
    Finally, there's a hex grid overlaid on the towers which makes it easier to see how different spaces are connected to each other.
  • Paw prints: Along the right side of the sheet is a vertical line of cat footprints.
  • Columns: Below the cat towers are 6 columns and each is essentially numbered 1-6.
    As well as a cat illustration, each column contains one of the game's 6 actions and associated icon. There's also a box for tracking some of the scoring for each of the symbols.
  • Scoring row: Lastly, there's a row at the bottom of the sheet to track all the game's scoring​ during the game end..

What art does appear in the game can be found on the sheets and there's a definite charm to those hand-drawn styled cartoonish cat illustrations and icons.

​Speaking of icons, nearly all the game's iconography is briefly explained on the sheet itself, there isn't too much of it and I can't imagine it proving a problem to learn.

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How's it play?
Setup

• Dice: Put a number of dice into the central playing area equal to the player count plus 1.
• Sheets: Give each player a sheet.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
During the game players will be drafting dice and then using the results to draw 1 of 6 symbols on the cat towers.
Cat Café is played in 2 phases and uses a typical turn structure for the first phase while the second can be played out by all players simultaneously.

• Drafting: The first player rolls all the dice in a central playing area. Then in turn order, each player takes 1 die.
  After all players have drafted a die, there will be still a die remaining in the central area - this is important for the next phase.
• Assigning values: This phase can be perform simultaneously by all players if they choose to do so.
  Even though each player has only drafted 1 die, they also have to make use of the die remaining in the central area. Thus they will have two dice to assign which will determine which symbol is used and the row it goes on to.
  Placing symbols: One die must assigned to one of the 6 symbol types; cat house, ball of yarn, butterfly toy, food bowl, cushion and mouse toy.
  ​The other die is assign to 'height'.
  So if a player has a '1' & '4' to use, they can put a cat house on the 4th row of a tower OR a food bowl in the 1st row of any tower.
  Once a player has decided on which combination to use, they draw the pertinent symbol (Or letter for that symbol.) on the relevant row.
  Scoring: The cat house and butterfly toy are immediately resolved when drawn, if a cat tower is completed it is scored upon completion.
  • Butterfly: When a player draws a butterfly on one of their cat towers, they can also circle 2 paws on the paw track, each butterfly toy symbol is also worth VPs at the game end. More on what paws do below.
    Cat house: When placing a cat house, the player chooses any one of the 6 symbols types and marks 2 Victory Points (VPs) for each time they've drawn on their player sheet in that symbol's box. Each symbol can only be scored once in this way.
    Cat tower: When a cat tower is completed, that is when all the spaces on a tile are filled, it is immediately scored according to the following criteria.
    • First to complete with tower: If a player is first to complete a tower and with a cat house in the tower, then they score the higher of the 2 scores at the top of the tower - all other players cross that number off, they can only score the lower number.
    • Completed any other way: If a player completes a tower first without a cat house, then they score the lower amount. If they are not first to complete a tower, they score the lower amount.
• Additional rules: There are some other rules that will come into play.
  • Passing: A player may choose or may have to pass their action. In either case, instead of adding a symbol to their sheet, they circle 3 paws on the track.
  • Paw prints: A player may cross-off any number of circled paws to alter a die's value. Each crossed off paw allows the player to increase a die's value by +1 or -1. This can be done in anyway the player sees fit, although a die cannot go from 6 to 1 or vice versa.
• Next round: Once all players have drawn a symbol or passed, the round is over. The player to the left of the current first player now becomes first and takes the dice to roll again.

Endgame
As soon as any player has completed their 3rd tower, the game ends on that round and goes to scoring.
Cat Café has several ways to score.

• Cat house: The cat houses will have actually be scored during the game, they simply need tallying up.
• Ball of yarn: All players count up the number of balls of yarn they have in each individual cat tower.
  For each cat tower, the player who has the most balls of yarn scores 8 VPs for that cat tower, any player who has 1 or more but a lesser number of balls of yarn, scores 3 VPs.
• Butterfly toy: Each butterfly toy scores 3 VPs.
• Food bowl: Each food bowl scores 1 VP per adjacent different symbol type.
• Cushion: Each cushion scores VPs equal to it's height in a cat tower. 
• Mouse toy: These score VPs for being connected in a contiguous group. It is possible for multiple groups to score.
• Cat tower: These scores will have been calculated when the cat tower was completed during play so just need tallying up.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

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Overall
For me, Cat Café is a bit of a mixed bag.

I'm always a fan of games that have streamlined, elegant mechanics and there's definitely some of that to Cat Café but here it seems like sometime it comes at the price of choice.
Sometimes the choices feel meaningful, sometimes they don't.

Players will get to choose a die (And sometimes not even that!) then draft it, after that they'll get a 2 options on how to use those dice, or pass.

For example: A player may get a '1' and a '5', this means they could put a cushion on level 1 but that's a waste of a cushion (Ideally, you'd want it higher.). Alternatively they could put a cat house on level 5 which introduces a new conundrum; is this a good time to play a cat house? In the early game they won't score many VPS and are much more valuable to play in the late game - provided the number comes up again.

All of this gives players several things to think about and sounds good - which it is to an extent but it's also hard to try and plan moves ahead when luck can play such a haphazard role, sure, the appropriate use of paws can mitigate bad luck to a degree but even so, it can be frustrating not getting the numbers needed.
It means players will need to adapt and react to their results as they get them to gain optimal scoring and not rely on getting results they want later unless they have of course acquired a sizable amount of paws.

Next is scoring: Cat Café employs a fairly broad criteria for scoring with different avenues to approach in acquiring VPs.
E.g., the mouse toy scores points for gathering the same type of symbol together while the food bowl scores by gathering different symbols.
This mechanic has been utilised in other games and is understandable here, where players at times will find themselves at the mercy of the dice and have to change what they were going to do.
However, with some scoring occurring mid game and the rest after the end, it does make scoring a little bit too intricate and involved, especially for a game this light.

Having said all of that, I'm probably overthinking everything.
Cat Café is a lightweight, family friendly game with a cute cat theme.
It's not too hard to pick up and while decisions can be fairly limited they do tend to be meaningful. There's also a dollop of luck to add some unpredictability.
It would be a good choice for younger players but perhaps would need someone older to manage the scoring.

For me, I found it a little too simplistic and unengaging as well as slightly frustrating.