We’ve been meaning to play Isle of Cats for a while now; it’s such a great 6 player (with expansion) game! Any game that’s got drafting is a good one for keeping things moving. Plus polyominos and cats? What’s not to love? We paired that with some churro scones since churros are a weakness of mine, and I was happy to find a scone recipe that already included some gluten free flour and required minimal tweaks. Read on for more details!

At a Glance…

Churro Scones

The scones from Vegan Richa called for some almond flour and talked about how to easily substitute the rest of the all purpose flour for gf. This was great because I find scones to be a bit sensitive to gf substitutions. Scones are already a bit dry, and gf flour tends to make things drier. I was super pleased with how these scones turned out in that respect! They interestingly used coconut cream instead of butter, and some grated apple, which I found a fascinating addition. The cinnamon sugar topping was delightful and churro-like! Since we only had 6 people, I made the silly mistake of only making one batch, and then they were a hit and I had a friend request one who wasn’t even there and, moral of the story? Always make more than you think!

Isle of Cats

As previously mentioned, Isle of Cats is a drafting polyomino game. Thematically, you’re trying to rescue cats from an island that’s about to be invaded by pirates and …do unspeakable things to them? Sure sure. Classic theme. To do this, you must lure them to your boat with baskets and fish, because cats are cats. Mechanically, you do this by drafting cards with baskets on them, private goal cards, treasure cards, and more. You must pay for these cards and the cats you rescue with fish of course. You take turns getting the cat tiles and placing them on your board. At the end of the game, you score for your families of each color, rats you covered, and rooms you covered, as well as any goal cards that were played.

The game did not go super well for me that night, due to some unlucky hands of cards and some poor choices I made. Overall though people had a great time. It’s a very welcoming game, and there’s even a ‘family version’ on the other side of the board that simplifies it even more. There’s something satisfying about placing the perfect polyomino tile to make everything fit just right, and the adding mechanisms of the drafting and economy of it make it even more interesting. If you haven’t checked this one out yet, you definitely should!

Want to buy these games? Check out your friendly local game store (FLGS), Amazon [here], or get a first-order discount at Board Game bliss [here].

Or get Isle of Cats on Amazon.com.