This is the first cat-themed game of the Summer of Games 2026, and it is a banger!
You are a citizen of Squall’s End on a mission to rescue inhabitants from the legendary Isle of Cats. The island, inhabited by a race of ancient, fierce, wise, and majestic cats, is threatened by the approaching armies of Vesh Darkhand, who will stop at nothing to destroy the island and its noble creatures.
The Isle of Cats Duel is a competitive 2-player tile-placement game played over 4 rounds, aka days. Each player has their own boat containing 7 rooms, 5 colored treasure maps, and even rats to entertain the cats you’ll rescue. This is where you will be placing every cat you rescue and any treasure you find.
A round consists of setting up the island, player turns and clearing the island. At the start of each round, BGA will fill the island board as we want you to only have fun playing.
Once the set-up is complete, you will take turns with your opponent exploring the island by moving the Oshax figure exactly 2 spaces along the path footprints. You can also select discoveries and perform any number of fish actions you can afford. Discovering and fishing are optional, but they come with nice perks. You can discover cats, treasures and other shenanigans with immediate effect. Or you can use fish stored on your boat to move more, jump around, get a treasure or an extra discovery.
A round ends when the island is empty or when both players choose not to perform the selection action on consecutive turns. Then BGA jumps back in, clears the island and sets things up for the next day, sorry, round…
The Summer of Games 2026 will bring more cats around during the month of August. You can keep track of what will be released daily on this forum post. Now, it is time for you to go save some cats!
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=theisleofcatsduel
Thanks to Frank West, the game designer, and to The City of Games, the publisher, for letting us add their game to the platform. And thank you to Mizutismask for the BGA port.
This was your Monday release.
Don’t expect the cats you rescue to be thankful. As a cat once said: “Meow! Zero fluff given”. Take care and play fair…
