Cantankerous Cats

One minute, they are cute and cuddly, the next, they are underfoot or otherwise causing chaos. And how well a cat balances these two personalities generally determines how much they are loved.

Cantankerous Cats is a simple card game where you do just that. It is designed by Aven Gonzalez of Mentha Designs and published by Meijia Games for 2-6 players ages 9 and up.

Setup

There are a couple of different ways to set up Cantankerous Cats, depending on whether you’re playing with the base or advanced rules. Regardless of which version you’re playing, you’ll always start by selecting your cat card and taking its matching token. Place the token on the scoreboard.

If you’re playing with the base rules (I recommend this if you’re playing with younger players or players who don’t like games with a lot of take-that play), remove any “advanced” cards with two stars around the card type at the top. Shuffle the rest of the cards together to create the Food Bowl draw deck.

Each player then takes three cards and a Pounce token. Then place additional Pounce tokens next to the Food Bowl equal to the number of players in the game.

The player who can meow the best takes the Cat Toy as the first player, and the game begins!

Gameplay

Each turn has 4 simple steps:

• Meal Time: draw two cards from the Food Bowl
• Play Time: choose any two actions
• Groom Your Hand: discard or draw to five cards
• Nap Time: Pass the mouse card counter-clockwise and meow

Play Time!

Play time is when the action happens. The active player chooses any two actions, or the same action twice:

• Bank an Affection card – Player chooses one affection card from their hand and plays it in their house.
• Score a Mischief card – Player uses the Affection (the number of hearts on the card above the picture) from any cards in their house by discarding them to the Litter Box (the discard pile) to pay the cost on the Mischief card. The cost is the number of hearts with claw marks at the bottom of the Mischief cards. If the player needs to use any portion of an affection card, it must be discarded. Then move the player’s cat token up on the scoreboard equal to the number of cat head silhouettes above the cat picture on the Mischief card.
• Play an Incident card- Player plays an Incident (either event or frenzy) card into their house, reads the text aloud, and follows the directions.  After completion, this card is discarded into the Litter Box unless the text says otherwise.
• Be a picky eater – Player discards their entire hand and replaces with an equal amount from the Food Bowl.
• Buy a Pounce token – Player discards a card to the Litter Box and gains a Pounce token. This action can only be taken if a Pounce token is available.

Catlike Reflexes

Some of the cards in Cantankerous Cats can also be played as a reflex action. These cards have grey symbols on the left side showing which type of card triggers them. Choosing to play them as a reflex action is optional and can be done on any turn immediately after the triggering card is played by any player. You can set up your own combos with reflex actions as well.

Reflex cards can only be played from a player’s hand. And, once it is played, it could potentially trigger another reflex! This makes for some fun chains of events.

A Simple Game of Cat and Mouse

The basic rules are simple to understand and make a quick game with adorable cat pictures and silly captions.  The game is played as above until one player is about to score their ninth and final point.  This can only happen while the player has the cat toy (which means it’s their turn), and they must announce this with a “Mraooow!”.  And that’s it for the basic rules!

Advanced Rules: Fighting like Cats and Dogs 

You can win a game with the advanced rules in the same way as the base rules: gain nine points via Mischief cards. However, the advanced rules also add the option for a feral cat victory.  A player becomes feral if they are kicked out of their house because they cannot pay for a Mischief card. You show you’re a feral cat by flipping your cat card from its nice, groomed side to the feral side. And feral cats can only win if they gain nine affection while holding the Cat Toy.

But how can you play a Mischief card without being able to afford its Affection cost? The advanced rules allow players to attack others when it is not their turn by playing a Mischief card and placing it in the active player’s house. You have to use a Pounce token to do so, though.

A player being attacked can defend using Affection banked in their house. If they do not have enough affection banked, they will become feral unless they play a Pounce token themselves and counter with any number of Affection cards from their hand to equal at least the cost of the attacking Mischief.  If the defender succeeds, they score half the Mischief card’s value, rounded down.

Feral Cat

So what happens when a player turns feral? They are kicked out of the house and lose all banked Affection. They now no longer have a loving family to bank Affection with and thus can no longer use any affection they bank on subsequent turns to pay for Mischief, unless they manage to become domesticated again.

A feral cat can still bank Affection, though. The player can choose two goals at this point. Bank four Affection points so that at the beginning of their next turn, they are adopted back into the house and can continue towards their domestic cat goal of nine Mischief points. Or the player can build up enough affection in their hand so that they end their turn with less than four Mischief and can reach a total of nine banked Affection on a later turn.

A feral cat with nine Affection and in possession of the Cat Toy wins. Remember, you need to announce an impending victory, so watch out! Other players can pounce on you at any time.

Impressions

Cantankerous Cats is a very cute game. The cards have wonderful art of cats doing either funny things that make owners say “Aww,” or making trouble and leading to owners gnashing their teeth. Anyone who is a “cat person”, whether kid or adult, will enjoy playing this game for the card art alone.

The basic rules are great for playing with younger kids who aren’t ready for a full-on take-that experience. But experienced gamers will tire of the basic rules fairly quickly.

Cantankerous Cats is at its best when playing with the advanced rules, which make for a much more entertaining game, full of funny moments as players try to turn other cats feral (often at their own peril).

Cantankerous Cats does not take itself too seriously, and players shouldn’t either. Embrace the chaos, just like a cat that purrs for attention before taking a swipe with their suddenly unsheathed claws.

Get Cantankerous Cats on Amazon, direct from Mentha Designs, or at your friendly local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Cantankerous Cats from Mentha Designs and Flat River Games for this review.

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