The 5 & 6 player expansion
One of the questions I get asked a lot is "Do I need the 5 & 6 player expansion if I'm not going to play with 5 or 6 players?", so I wanted to answer this in an update to make sure everyone has the information they need to make a decision.
What is in the 5 & 6 player expansion?
To keep this as clear as possible, I have categorised the items into things you can use with 1 - 4 players, and things you can only use with 5 - 6 players.
Things you can use with 1 - 4 players
40 unique cat tiles
The 40 cat tiles are completely unique, they have new artwork and are all entirely new shapes. These add a huge amount of variety to the possible cats you can pull out from the bag (increasing the quantity by nearly 50%), and of course give you more cats to look at.
10 rare treasure tiles
While these are the same as the rare treasures already in the game, if you add the 40 new cat tiles to your discovery bag, you will also need to include these tiles.
2 unique Oshax tiles
The 2 Oshax tiles are completely unique, they have new artwork and are unique shapes.
2 player boats
Each player boat is unique in that the position of rats, and colour of treasure maps does change. This means your options will change depending on which boat you are using, some strategies do work better with different boats. As a result, I do think the additional boats add more replayability to the game, even for solo players.
70 cards
The 70 Discovery cards contain 2 new lesson moduleswhich can be used like any other lesson modules, you can switch them in and out of your game as desired.
The other cards can be added to your deck, and will provide additional options, but I only advise this for 4 players or more.
Things you cannot use with 1 - 4 players
1 Oshax Meeple
This is used for player turn order only, in the base game there are only enough pieces for 5 players*. Technically a player could still use this piece, but it doesn’t add anything to the game in terms of new content.
*The Kickstarter Pack, which is included with every pledge on this Kickstarter also includes 1 Oshax Meeple, so you will already have a special one!
16 common treasure tiles
The common treasure tiles are identical to those already in the retail version of the game, in the base game there are only enough to support 4 players.
20 fish tokens
The fish tokens are identical to those already in the retail version of the game, in the base game there are only enough to support 4 players*.
*The Kickstarter Pack, which is included with every pledge on this Kickstarter also includes upgraded fish and provides enough for up to 6-players!
Summary
The 5 & 6 player expansion was primarily designed to allow more players to play the game, but as a result it does contain new content which can be used by even a solo player.
If you have no intentions of playing with 5 & 6 players, than you can just consider this to be an expansion, as I believe the new cat and Oshax tiles, along with the player boats and lesson modules, provide a large amount of additional content that will give you countless hours of additional play.
With that said, there is plenty of content in The Isle of Cats to keep you going for many nights of gaming without the need for additional content. The expansion is certainly not required, and will be available after the Kickstarter via my online store, and hopefully other places as well!
Il le lance même en même temps que l’extension (onéreuse en plus !) de Roll Player porté par son pote (lancé à 5 min d’intervalle)… Y’a non-sens ! Et ben du coup, en faisant un choix, celui-ci sera sacrifié mais c’est dommage honnêtement
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