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If I have learned anything being married to a proud Cat Lady, it's that said cats will inevitably break into random melees, usually at the most inopportune times and at the highest possible volume. It should come as no surprise that these battles are at the core of Cat Conquest...since a game about sleeping twenty hours a day wouldn't hold the same excitement.
According to the box “Each player is a Tomcat (TOM) competing for control of the neighborhood.” Except, you really aren't. You start the game with a TOM in your tableau and most players would assume “Ah, this is me. This is my character.” But your TOM can be defeated and removed from the game. As a matter of fact, this is extremely likely, and jarring, due to the win conditions.
The objective of the game is to defeat opposing TOMs and take over property cards. Both of these count as objectives and a player needs to meet three objectives in order to win the game (and have a stockpile of eight coins). It can be any combination of these in order to win (of course, the number of opposing TOMs you can defeat will vary depending on the number of players). It's a pretty obvious strategy to defeat an opposing player's TOM as your first priority, since TOMs can be upgraded to improve their health and attack power. Why wouldn't you prioritize this since it both reduces the opposing player's attack power and gets you one step closer to victory?
And if you are thinking how do you continue if you lose your TOM, the answer is you will also be forming a colony, a legion of other cats, to help you conquer the neighborhood. The actions you can take on your turn are:
Attack: You'll pay the attack cost in Fish Tokens, inflict damage equal to the attack power of your chosen card and take two Damage when attacking (I guess that is thematic, I've seen enough cat fights that at least two hit points of fur alone is lost during any battle).
Recover: Restore two Health to your TOM or Colony Cats.
Draw: Draw a “play” card. This is where you will find Colony Cats, Buffs, Debuffs and the occasional Consequence (Negative Impact) card.
Scavenge: Gain two fish tokens (in-game currency)
Forage: Gain one coin. Author Note: Cat's don't have pockets.
Fortify: Upgrade your TOM by spending coins out of your non-existent pockets.
The eight coin requirement to win the game means you'll likely be attacking other players colony cards since defeating them will usually net you three or four coins, as opposed to simply taking the Forage action over and over.Cat Conquest isn't a constant back and forth of battles because the game includes a Time of Day board that is advanced at the end of each players turn. Both TOMs and Colony cards have a specific time of day they can attack (One assumes they are napping the rest of the time). So, you cycle through Dawn, Dusk, and Night (Depending on the player count there can also be a Ceasefire time added). Factor in that you can't take the same action two turns in a row and you'll see how proper planning will impact your engagements.
The Property cards, all which possess a 16-bit aesthetic (I wouldn't be surprised to see a Paperboy hefting newspapers at all of them), and have “Health” that varies from two to six. The problem I have is that there is no advantage to taking over a higher Health location. They all count as one objective. I can't think of a single reason you would ever go for the more challenging locations... other than you simply have no other choice. I wish there were some thematical “powers” to conquering a location. Something like taking over a Veterinary Hospital would heal your TOM and all of your colony cards. Or maybe a Pet Sematary that would allow you to resurrect your TOM if they are defeated.
My wife said “I wish the cute kitties on the box were the kitties inside the game.” The majority of the cards feature kitty art that trends more toward conquest than cute. But I do dig the pop culture references, like the cat-riding-a-pig called “Holy Ham Grenade” or the “BFG” (One assumes that stands for Big Feline Gun) with the Doom-style Health Counter in the corner.
The version of Cat Conquest that I played is the “Complete Edition.” This includes Expansion Packs 1 thru 3. This just means there are simply more Play cards to be had. While I love having plenty of cards to choose from and seeing all the Colony creations, this can also be bad since it means you have less chance to pull something specific like a “Bring Back your TOM” card. It can also be very unsatisfying to methodically build up your TOM only to have an opponent pull a instant Level 4 upgrade to their TOM, especially when you know they will likely one-shot your TOM the next chance they get.
Cat Conquest does have a good balance. All of my plays ended with everyone very close in score and I'm sure my suggestions for changes would possibly throw that off. And, not to harp on the lack of ownership for your selected TOM but I never saw a player lose their TOM and “come back” and win the game. Cat Conquest is obviously a passion project but nothing elevates it beyond a simple “That was fun” once you finish a game. I'm not saying anything is wrong with a relatively simple, straight forward game but Cat Conquest lacks a hook to break out of a attack/heal/reinforce cycle.
And please remember to spay and neuter your conquers.
A review copy of this release was provided by the publisher. Therewillbe.games would like to thank them for their support.
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