The Isle of Cats Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• GAME PLAY
• HOW TO WIN
• COMPONENTS
• SETUP
  • GLOBAL SETUP
  • PLAYER SETUP
  • EXPANSIONS
  • BEFORE YOUR FIRST GAME
• THE BOATS
  • ROOMS
  • KEY TERMS
    • ROWS AND COLUMNS
    • EDGE OF THE BOAT
    • TOUCHING
  • TILE PLACEMENT
    • THE FIRST TILE
    • ALL OTHER TILES
  • TREASURE MAPS
• DAY OVERVIEW
  • FILL THE FIELDS
    • CATS
    • RARE TREASURE
  • PHASE 1: FISHING
  • PHASE 2: EXPLORE
    • SELECTING DISCOVERIES (DRAFTING)
    • ACCESSING DISCOVERIES
  • PHASE 3: READ LESSONS
    • PUBLIC LESSON CARDS
    • LESSON CARDS
  • PHASE 4: RESCUE CATS
    • SPEED
    • RESCUING CATS
    • PLACING CATS
    • EMPTY FIELDS
    • BASKETS
      • PERMANENT BASKETS
      • REGULAR BASKETS
      • BROKEN BASKETS
  • PHASE S: RARE FINDS
    • PLACING OSHAX CATS
  • EMPTY THE FIELDS
  • KEEPING CARDS AND FISH
    • CARDS
    • FISH
  • ANYTIME CARDS
• SCORING
  • • RATS
    • ROOMS
    • CAT FAMILIES
    • RARE TREASURES
    • LESSONS
    • PUBLIC LESSONS
  • TIEBREAKER
  • CAT FAMILIES
• SOLO MODE
  • OVERVIEW
  • SOLO SETUP
  • SISTER SETUP
  • SOLO FILL THE FIELDS
  • SOLO PHASE 1. FISHING
  • SOLO PHASE 2. EXPLORE
    • A. SELECTING DISCOVERIES (DRAFTING)
  • SOLO PHASE 3. READ LESSONS
    • PUBLIC LESSONS
    • LARGEST FAMILY
  • SOLO PHASE 4: RESCUE CATS
    • SOLO BASKET DECK
    • SPEED
    • RESCUING CATS
    • RESOLVING SOLO BASKET CARDS
    • WHAT IF THE TILE DOES NOT EXIST?
  • SOLO PHASE 5: RARE FINDS
    • OSHAX
  • SOLO EMPTY THE FIELDS
  • SOLO SCORING
    • CAT COLOURS
    • LESSONS
    • TOTAL
    • TIEBREAKER
• LESSON MODULES
  • CORE LESSON CARDS
  • MODULE LESSON CARDS
• OSHAX AND RARE TREASURE PROMOS
  • OSHAX
  • RARE TREASURES
• FAQ

GAME PLAY

You are a citizen of Squall's End and are on a rescue mission to save as many cats as possible before Vesh arrives. You must explore the island, rescue cats, gather ancient treasures and find a way to fit them all onto your boat before returning safely to Squall's End.

As you explore the island, you'll rescue cats and discover treasure. Cats and treasure are represented by tiles of different shapes that you must carefully place onto your boat. Try to keep families together, complete lessons and leave enough room to place the next thing on your boat. But watch out - returning to Squall's End with a half empty boat isn't going to look good!

HOW TO WIN

At the end of the game, you will earn points for:

• Each cat family you have.
  A family is 3 or more touching cats of the same colour.
• Your rare treasures.
• Any lessons you have completed.

You will lose points for:

• Every visible rat on your boat.
• Any rooms on your boat that have not been filled.

The player with the most points will be the winner.

COMPONENTS

• 30 cat figures
  6 of each colour
• 85 cats
  17 of each colour
• 42 fish tokens
  20 x 1 fish and 22 x 5 fish
• 44 common treasures
  11 of each shape
• 1 Vesh's boat
• 25 rare treasures
• 6 oshax
• 10 basket tokens
• 4 player boats
• 1 island board
• 1 discovery bag
• 1 scorepad
• 150 discovery cards
• 18 family cards
• 5 solo colour cards
• 23 solo basket cards
• 1O solo lesson cards
• 9 solo advanced lesson cards
• 4 colour cards
  These can be given to anyone who would like assistance identifying colours.

SETUP

GLOBAL SETUP

1. Island. Place the island in the centre of the play area (Red Cat side up); the areas on either side of the island are known as the fields.

2. Vesh's Boat. Place Vesh's boat on space 5 of the day tracker.

3. Common Treasure. Place the common treasure tiles below the island.

   • Use 5 of each tile for 1-player.

   • Use 5 of each tile for 2-player.

   • Use 8 of each tile for 3-player.

   • Use 11 of each tile for 4-player.

     These are limited, so when you run out, you may no longer take common treasure.

4. Oshax. Place 6 Oshax tiles below the common treasure.

5. Supply. Place all the wooden cat pieces, 1 fish tokens, and 5 fish tokens in the supply.

6. Discovery cards. Shuffle the discovery cards and place them in a face-down pile.

7. Permanent baskets. Place the permanent basket tokens below the discovery cards deck.

8. Discovery bag. Place the discovery bag somewhere all players can reach.

PLAYER SETUP

Each player receives:

• 1 random boat (Red Cat side up).
• 1 permanent basket (green side up).

Randomly decide who goes first. Then, beginning with that person, go around the table and have each player:

• Choose a colour by taking their favourite cat figure from the supply.
• Place their chosen cat figure on the island in turn order.

EXPANSIONS

If you own any expansions you can find some additional setup information.

BEFORE YOUR FIRST GAME

The first time you play, you will need to put some of the cat and treasure tiles into the discovery bag.

Place the following in the discovery bag:

• All blue, green, orange, red and purple cat tiles.
• All rare treasure tiles.

Do not put the Oshax tiles or the common treasure tiles in the discovery bag.

THE BOATS

Each player has their own boat containing 7 rooms, 19 rats and 5 coloured treasure maps. This is where you will be placing every cat you rescue and any treasure you find.

ROOMS

Every square on your boat is part of a room; you can identify rooms by the walls surrounding them.

When you start placing tiles on your boat, you may find it difficult to remember where each room is. To help with this, you can use the different icons in the corners of the rooms.

You do not need to remember these icons, but they are listed to the right for reference.

KEY TERMS

ROWS AND COLUMNS

Rows. A row is a line of squares that is 1 square high and runs horizontally from left to right across your boat.

Columns. A column is a line of squares that is 1 square wide and runs vertically from top to bottom across your boat.

EDGE OF THE BOAT

The edge of the boat is the thick white line that frames the grid of squares on each boat.

TOUCHING

Two things are touching if they are immediately adjacent, diagonals never count.

TILE PLACEMENT

Whenever you rescue a cat, befriend an Oshax, or collect treasure, you will receive a tile that you must place on your boat. If your boat is full or a tile does not fit, then you cannot take that tile.

• Tiles may be rotated and flipped to any orientation you wish.
• Tiles cannot overlap each other.
• Tiles must fully sit within the edge of your boat.
• Tiles must always line up with the squares on your boat; no parts of a square should be visible.

THE FIRST TILE

Your first tile may be placed anywhere on your boat.

ALL OTHER TILES

After your first tile, every other tile must be placed immediately adjacent to another tile already on your boat, so that they touch.

Adjacent tiles do not include diagonals.

TREASURE MAPS

Your boat contains five coloured treasure maps that can be used to unlock common treasures.

If you place a cat tile on a treasure map icon, and the colours match (e.g. green cat on green treasure map), then you may instantly take any one of the four common treasures and place it on your boat.

You can place other tiles over a treasure map, but you will not receive the bonus treasure.

DAY OVERVIEW

The Isle of Cats is played over 5 days. During each day, the fields are filled with cats and players gather fish, explore the island, read lessons, rescue cats, and find rare treasures as they try to fit everything in their boats.

FILL THE FIELDS

CATS

The start player should draw tiles at random from the discovery bag, placing 2 cat tiles (not including treasure) per player in each of the fields.

• 8 cats (4 per field) for 2-player
• 12 cats (6 per field) for 3-player
• 16 cats (8 per field) for 4-player

RARE TREASURE

If you find rare treasure, place it by the common treasures under the island and continue drawing tiles from the discovery bag. Rare treasures do not count towards the number of tiles drawn.

PHASE 1: FISHING

Each player takes 20 fish from the fish supply.

PHASE 2: EXPLORE

The explore phase is split into two parts:

1. Selecting discoveries, where you will choose cards you may want to use.
2. Accessing discoveries, where you will choose and pay for any selected cards you wish to keep.

SELECTING DISCOVERIES (DRAFTING)

The starting player should take the discovery deck and deal 7 cards face-down to each player; these represent the things you can discover on your journey.

Each player should pick up their 7 cards, look at them, and select 2 that they wish to keep, placing their chosen cards face-down in front of them.

Each player should pass their remaining cards to the person on their left.

On Days 1, 3, and 5 pass the cards to the player on your left, on days 2 and 4 pass them to the player on your right.

With the new cards passed to them, players should repeat this process 2 more times, choosing 2 cards to add to their pile and then pass the remaining cards.

Finally, each player will be passed a single card, resulting in each player having a pile of 7 face-down cards.

ACCESSING DISCOVERIES

Each player should pick up their 7 cards and choose which to keep. You may keep any combination of cards, as long as you can afford to pay for them.

In the top left-hand corner of every discovery card there is a cost. If you wish to keep a card, you must pay the cost in fish.

Once you have selected the cards you wish to keep, add up the total cost and return that many fish from your personal pile to the main fish supply.

Place the cards you decided not to keep in a face-down discard pile next to the discovery deck.

It's important to keep the discard pile face down so that other players don't know which cards have been kept.

PHASE 3: READ LESSONS

Lesson cards are always blue!

Each player should check their hand for lesson and public lesson cards. These cards must be played in this phase.

PUBLIC LESSON CARDS

Each player must place every public lesson card they have on the table face-up in a place all players can see, and declare (read it out aloud) the public lesson to all other players.

If the public lesson says "pick a colour", the person playing the card must declare a colour when it is played. Take 1 of the cat figures of the chosen colour from the supply and place it on the card to remember the chosen colour.

Once played, public lesson cards go into a shared pool and do not belong to any player. They can never be discarded from play, and do not count towards any lesson or anytime cards.

LESSON CARDS

Each player must place all of their non-public lesson cards in a face-down pile next to their boat. The cards should be splayed horizontally so that other players can easily count how many lesson cards each player has.

PHASE 4: RESCUE CATS

Rescue cards are always green!

At the start of the rescue phase, players will, in turn order, choose which rescue cards they wish to play and place them face-down in front of their boat.

Once all players have chosen their rescue cards, all rescue cards should be revealed (turned over) simultaneously by all players.

SPEED

The speed value of a card is represented by a number and the Boots symbol. Each player should tally how much speed they have from the rescue cards they have just played. The order of the cat figures on the island will be rearranged by how much speed each player has. The fastest player will be the first in line at the top of the island, and the slowest player will be last in line at the bottom of the island.

This change in turn order immediately affects any cards played from this point onwards.

In case of a tie, the players who have the same speed maintain the same turn order in relation to each other on the island.

RESCUING CATS

Beginning with the start player, each player takes turns to rescue cats until everyone passes. You may only rescue 1 cat each turn, but you may have as many turns as you want until you either run out of fish, baskets, cats, or decide to pass. Once every player has, in turn order, had the opportunity to rescue a cat, play returns to the start player and this process continues until everyone has passed.

To rescue a cat, each player must have a basket and enough fish to lure the cat in. Cats in the field to the left of the island need 3 fish, and cats in the field to the right of the island require 5; this is shown on the island piece.

When you rescue a cat, you must spend the required fish, placing them in the supply pile and use a basket.

• If you are using a Permanent basket, you should turn it over to show that it has been used.
• If you are using any other type of basket, you should discard the card to the discard pile.

PLACING CATS

When you rescue a cat, you must immediately place it on your boat following the tile placement rules before any other actions are performed.

EMPTY FIELDS

Once both the fields are empty (or when all players have passed), the rescue cat phase is over. Any rescue cards that have been played, but have not been used, are immediately moved to the discard pile.

BASKETS

If you want to rescue cats, you are going to need a basket to carry them! There are 3 types of baskets:

PERMANENT BASKETS

These can be used once a day. When you use a permanent basket, you should flip it to the used side to show it has been used. You can gain extra permanent baskets with cards.

REGULAR BASKETS

These can only be used once in the game. Once they have been used, you should place them on the discard pile.

BROKEN BASKETS

You can combine 2 broken baskets to make a regular basket. Just like regular baskets, these can only be used once.

PHASE S: RARE FINDS

Oshax cards are always brown and treasure cards are always yellow!

Starting with the first player, each person takes turns to collect their rare finds until everyone passes. You can only play 1 card each turn, but you may have as many turns as you want until you either run out of cards or decide to pass. Once every player has, in turn order, had the opportunity to play a card, play returns to the start player and this process continues until everyone has passed.

When you befriend an Oshax or take a treasure, you must immediately place it on your boat following the tile placement rules before any other actions are performed.

PLACING OSHAX CATS

The Oshax are friendly creatures and like to belong to a family. When you place an Oshax on your boat, you must immediately choose which family of cats it will befriend.

Take the cat figure that represents your chosen family from the supply and place it on the Oshax tile; this Oshax counts as both an Oshax and a cat of the chosen family for the rest of the game.

EMPTY THE FIELDS

At the end of each day, any cats that weren't rescued from the fields flee and should be placed back in the box; they will not be needed again. Unclaimed treasures should remain below the island piece and are not returned to the box.

Update the day tracker by moving Vesh's boat along 1 space.

If Vesh's boat reaches the hand symbol, Vesh has arrived and it's time to set sail. Proceed to scoring.

Otherwise, each player should flip their permanent baskets back to the active side and the next day begins!

KEEPING CARDS AND FISH

CARDS

In each phase, you may choose which cards to play and how many, with the exception of lesson cards, which must always be played during the Read Lessons phase.

Any unplayed cards remain in your hand for the next day. You do not have to pay for them again and there is no limit to how many cards you may have in your hand.

FISH

Any fish you do not use get carried over to the next day.

ANYTIME CARDS

Anytime cards are always purple!

Anytime cards can be played at any time during a day.

When playing an anytime card, the player should declare they are playing the card and fully resolve it before any other actions are performed. If two players wish to play anytime cards at the same time, then you should resolve the cards in order based on the turn order track on the island.

SCORING

At the end of the game, players should add up their score.
The player with the highest score wins.

RATS

You get -1 point for each visible rat on your boat.

ROOMS

You get -5 points for each room that has not been filled.

A filled room is one that has no visible squares.

CAT FAMILIES

You get points for each cat family you have.

CATS	POINTS
3	8
4	11
5	15
6	20
7	25

If you have 8 or more cats in a family, you score an extra 5 points for every additional cat in that family.

RARE TREASURES

You get 3 points for every rare treasure on your boat.

Common treasures do not score points.

LESSONS

Reveal each lesson card you have. If you have completed the lesson, then add those points to your score.

PUBLIC LESSONS

Check each public lesson card and add the points from any completed cards to your score.

TIEBREAKER

In the case of a tie, the player with the most fish wins (they remembered their cats might want a snack on the way home).

If the tied players have the same number of fish, then both players win.

CAT FAMILIES

A cat family is 3 or more cat tiles of the same colour that are touching.

SOLO MODE

If the approaching armies of Vesh Darkhand weren't bad enough, you now notice your sister has snuck aboard your boat and is trying to claim credit for all your hard work. Not only do you need to rescue cats and avoid Vesh, but now you will have to also sabotage your sister's plans in order to succeed!

OVERVIEW

This section highlights all of the changes to the rules that are required to play with only a single player. You should only read these rules once you have learned the normal rules for the game. All of the normal rules apply unless stated otherwise.

SOLO SETUP

To begin, set up the game following the normal rules. You will only need 1 player boat.

Oshax. You will need to arrange the Oshax tiles in a horizontal line, in a random order. Each Oshax will be referred to by its position in the line e.g. the third Oshax in the line from left to right is Oshax 3, the last one is Oshax 6.

SISTER SETUP

1. Solo colours. Shuffle the solo colour cards and place them in a row on the table. Flip the first card over, and leave the remaining 4 face-down.

2. Solo lessons. Shuffle the solo lesson cards and place 3 face-up on the table. Return the rest of the cards to the box.

3. Advanced solo lessons. If you would like to play a harder game, you can include advanced lessons.

   Shuffle the advanced solo lesson cards and place a number of cards face-up next to the solo lesson cards. Return the rest of the cards to the box.

   • Medium difficulty: 1 advanced card
   • Hard difficulty: 2 advanced cards
   • Very hard difficulty: 3 advanced cards
   • Expert difficulty: 4 advanced cards

4. Solo baskets. Shuffle the solo basket cards and place them face-down on the table.

SOLO FILL THE FIELDS

When filling the fields, you will place 4 cats in each field so that there are 8 in total.

You should draw tiles out of the bag 1 at a time, placing them in a horizontal line. The first 4 cat tiles should be placed on the left side of the island, and the remaining 4 should be on the right.

Any rare treasure tiles you find should be placed in a horizontal line under the island. If you find a rare treasure that has the same shape of a previously found rare treasure, place it on top of the matching rare treasure, creating stacks of matching treasures.

It is important tiles are placed in lines so you can later refer to them by their position in the line.

SOLO PHASE 1. FISHING

Fishing is the same as described in the multiplayer rules.

SOLO PHASE 2. EXPLORE

A. SELECTING DISCOVERIES (DRAFTING)

The drafting step of the Explore phase changes in the solo mode, replace the usual rules with the following:

Take the top 5 cards from the discovery deck, look at them, and select 3, placing them on the table. Place the other 2 cards in a discard pile.

Repeat this step, taking 5 more cards and selecting another 3.

Finally, take the top card from the discovery deck and add it to the 6 cards you previously selected, creating your hand of 7 cards.

Move on to "B. Accessing Discoveries" as usual.

SOLO PHASE 3. READ LESSONS

This phase is the same as described in the multiplayer rules. However you may wish to play your lesson cards face-up!

PUBLIC LESSONS

Public lessons can be used during solo play and only you will score the points. However, the points received are reduced by 50% and then rounded up as necessary.

Example. If you earn 7 points from a public lesson, this is reduced to 3.5 points, and then rounded up to 4 points.

LARGEST FAMILY

For the lesson card "Family Tree", a family of 7 or more is required to complete the lesson.

SOLO PHASE 4: RESCUE CATS

The Rescue cats phase works exactly the same way in the solo game. However, there are a few extra rules for your sister.

SOLO BASKET DECK

Once you have selected the rescue cards you wish to play, you should turn over the top card of the solo basket deck. At the bottom of the card you will see a number of baskets and sometimes a speed Boots.

If the number of baskets is more than 1, you should draw additional cards from the solo basket deck and place them face- down in a row.

Remember, you have already drawn 1 card; if the card says 3 baskets, you should only only draw 2 extra cards.

SPEED

Update the turn order as normal; your sister's Boots is shown on the revealed solo basket card.

RESCUING CATS

As usual, take turns to rescue cats.

On your sister's first turn, you should resolve the face-up solo basket card.

On all other turns, you should reveal the next solo basket card and resolve it. You should ignore the basket and boots values on these cards; only the first card's basket and boots values are used for each day.

If there are no more cards, your sister is finished for this round.

If you pass, you must still reveal all of the remaining cards for your sister and resolve them as normal.

RESOLVING SOLO BASKET CARDS

Each card shows a number of keywords (cat, rare, oshax, and switch) and sometimes a common treasure.

Resolve each keyword/treasure in order from top to bottom.

If a card shows the same keyword twice, you should resolve it twice.

Cat 3. Remove cat 3 from the fields and place it back in the box.

Remember when you filled the fields, you placed the cats in a line and put 4 on either side of the island. Cat 3 is the third cat counting from left to right; cat 8 would be the last cat in the line.

Rare 2. Remove rare treasure 2 from below the island and place it back in the box.

If there are multiple rare treasures stacked in this position, then only take 1 rare treasure.

Remember when you filled the fields, you placed the rare treasures in a line. Rare 2 is the second rare treasure counting from left to right.

Oshax 4. Remove Oshax 4 from the fields and place it back in the box.

Remember during setup, you placed the Oshax in a line. Oshax 4 is the fourth Oshax counting from left to right.

Switch 2, 6. Switch the positions of the cat 2 and cat 6 tiles. Cat 2 will become cat 6 and cat 6 becomes cat 2.

Common treasures. If a common treasure is shown, remove 1 matching common treasure from the game.

If there are no matching treasures left, then nothing happens.

WHAT IF THE TILE DOES NOT EXIST?

When resolving cat, rare, oshax, or switch, if the numbered tile no longer exists, take the last tile in the line.

Example. If the solo basket card says cat 6 and rare 3 but there are only 4 cats and 2 rare treasures available, then you should remove cat 4 and rare 2 instead (the last ones in the line).

If there are not enough tiles left to resolve the keyword, then nothing happens.

SOLO PHASE 5: RARE FINDS

This phase is the same as described in the multiplayer rules. Your sister will not do anything during this phase.

OSHAX

In the solo game it is possible to run out of Oshax tiles. If this happens, any remaining Oshax cards do nothing.

SOLO EMPTY THE FIELDS

At the end of each day, you should flip over the next solo colour card, moving from left to right. If there are no more solo colour cards to flip over, then you should be at the end of the fifth day and ready to score.

SOLO SCORING

Calculate your score following the normal rules, then calculate your sister's score using her lesson cards and cat colour cards.

CAT COLOURS

Go through the solo colour cards in the order you revealed them; your sister scores:

• 5 points for every cat on your boat of the first revealed colour.
• 4 points for every cat on your boat of the second revealed colour.
• 3 points for every cat on your boat of the third revealed colour.
• 2 points for every cat on your boat of the fourth revealed colour.
• 1 point for every cat on your boat of the last revealed colour.

LESSONS

For each of your sister's lesson cards, add up how many points she earned.

TOTAL

Your sister only scores points for cat colours and lesson cards, nothing else.

TIEBREAKER

The winner is the person with the most points. In the event of a tie, your sister wins!

LESSON MODULES

The Isle of Cats contains 38 lesson cards. This includes 14 core lesson cards and 24 lesson module cards. Additional lesson module cards are available in expansions, if you ever get more, then follow these rules.

CORE LESSON CARDS

You must always use the 14 core lesson cards included with the game. These can be identified by the text on the bottom left corner of the card that says "LESSON" and nothing else.

MODULE LESSON CARDS

You must always use exactly 3 complete lesson modules. These can be identified by the text on the bottom left corner of the card that says "LESSON" or "PUBLIC LESSON," followed by a letter in brackets.

Each lesson module contains exactly 8 cards. Included with the game you have lesson modules A, B, and C. If you get a new module you can switch it with any existing module, but you must always swap all 8 cards.

You can mix and match lesson modules however you wish. You could use modules A, B, and D, or you can use D, F, and H.

OSHAX AND RARE TREASURE PROMOS

There are several Oshax and rare treasure promo tiles available for The Isle of Cats. If you ever get one, then follow these rules.

OSHAX

New Oshax tiles should be added to the discovery bag. These work in a similar way to rare treasures. When drawing tiles from the discovery bag, any Oshax tiles you discover should be added to the other Oshax tiles you have available. Oshax tiles do not count towards the total number of cat tiles drawn from the discovery bag.

When you finish playing, you may choose which 6 Oshax tiles to keep out for your next play of the game and return the remaining Oshax tiles to the discovery bag. This way you will cycle through all of the Oshax tiles and start each game with a new combination of 6.

RARE TREASURES

New rare treasure tiles should be added to the discovery bag. They follow all the normal rules for rare treasures.

FAQ

Q. Can a tile be placed over walls/multiple rooms?

Yes.

Thematically speaking, cat tiles represent the space your new cat will require on your trip home, not the space it takes up at one time. The treasure you can pile up in multiple rooms.

Q. Can I discard public lessons?

No. Once played, public lesson cards go into a shared pool and do not belong to any player. They can never be discarded from play, and do not count towards any lesson or anytime cards.

Q. Can I discard other players cards/tiles?

No. You can only ever discard your own cards/tiles.

Q. Can I put treasure tiles on rats?

Yes (poor rats)!

Q. What is a small treasure?

The 1X1 and 1x2 common treasure tiles are also known as small treasures, these count as both small and common treasures.

Q. Is there a hand limit?

No.

Q. Do tiles with a cat and a kitten count as 2 cats?

No. Every tile always counts as 1 cat, even if there are kittens on the tile.

Q. Is there a limit to how many cats can be in a field?

No.

Q. Is it optional to take treasure tiles?

Yes!

Q. In the solo game, what happens if I run out of Oshax?

The Oshax cards no longer do anything.

Q. If I use a "Draw x cards" card after the Read Lesson phase in the last day, and get a lesson card, can I play the card?

No. You can only ever play a card in the phase it is supposed to be played in. If you draw a card in a different phase, you must wait until the next day to play it. If it is the last day, then you cannot play cards meant for a different phase of the game.

Q. Can I play with more than 4 players?

Yes. There is a 5 and 6 player expansion available for The Isle of Cats. Ask your local retailer for details or take a look at our website.