Get ready to sleuth your way through an evening’s entertainment at the Cloaked Cats Ball, a game of deduction and logic for 2-4 players ages 7+ where CATS are the honored guests of the ball. The cats are disguised, but each has a few features that will give you clues including pose, coat color, coat pattern, and accessories.
Each player gets the 16 mask tiles in their player color and a 3D fan/card holder, and 3 feature cards, and 3 cat cards.
Each turn, a card card is played by the active player. All players then reveal masks by comparing the cat card to their three hidden feature cards. If any of the features on the cat card are the same as any of their secret features, they place one mask onto the cat card.
After all players with matching features have placed a mask, the active player can guess one feature belonging to one other player based on the clues given by the cat cards and mask token placements. Guessing is optional, but if the guess is correct, the opposing player must reveal their feature card and give one of their masks to the active player. If the guess is incorrect, the active player must give one mask to the questioned player. Masks collected from other players are worth points at the end of the game.
Lastly, the active player draws a new cat card from the deck before play passes to the next player.
As more cat cards and masks are laid out on the table, the more information players have to make deductions about other players’ hidden features. Sometimes figuring out which features you know for sure another player DOESN’T have is the key to success.
The game ends when one player has had to reveal all three of his feature cards and then scoring begins! Each mask belonging to an opponent is worth one point and each feature still hidden is worth one point. The player with the most points wins!
GAMESCHOOLING
This game requires kids to exercise their powers of deduction and logic. Figuring out the hidden features requires deep thinking, persistent recalculation, and attention. These skills are all beneficial in academic subjects like math and science and in many real life situations! The power of attention and observation, of thinking logically to solve a problem, and being able to stick to a difficult puzzle until it is solved are all skills that kids will find useful in their trajectory towards adulthood.
Thanks to HABA for another wonderful way to teach skills and have fun through educational games!
