Empire of Whiskers

In Empire of Whiskers, players become these enlightened street cats who take on the roles of powerful cat leaders in the historic city of present day Cairo, Egypt. Each cat is a descendant of one of the four ancient Egyptian cat deities: Bastet, Sekhmet, Mafdet, and Pakhet, each striving to take over the city, with the streets and alleys serving as their hideouts and battlegrounds. They begin their quest for dominance with a base territory and an army of three cats trained in the martial art of Katjitsu, aiming to expand their influence across all territories in Cairo. 

Game Components

1. Game Board: A vibrant illustrated map of Cairo split into 12 territories.

2. Cat Deity Figures: 4 distinct cat figures, each representing a different Ancient Egyptian cat deity (Bastet, Sekhmet, Mafdet, or Pakhet).

3. Cat Army Tokens: Players start with three tokens each, representing their martial arts-trained cat army corresponding to the color of the deity.

4. Upgrade Cards: These come as either a hideout or army update with specific amounts.

5. Dice: Used to move army tokens from one territory to another and to determine the outcomes of combats.

6. Event Cards: Various scenarios that may negatively impact the hideouts and armies in specific territories, while possibly giving advantages to others.

7. Hideout Tokens: Tokens placed on claimed territories or to represent an extra defensive layer.

Setup

1. Each player selects a cat deity figure and receives the corresponding cat army tokens (3 per player).
2. Each player then selects a territory for their figure and army that will act as their base hideout.
3.  Shuffle and pass 2 Upgrade cards to each player.
4.  Randomly choose the starting player, with the next  being the person on their left.
5.  At the beginning of each round an Event card must be drawn.

Player Turns

On each turn the player can only make 3 moves out of these 5 options: 

1. Movement: Roll the dice to determine how many spaces you can move your cat army. If a player has connected territories they can freely move their cat army without it counting as a move.
2. Combat: Choose to engage in combat if you are entering a territory occupied by another player or to attack players' cat tokens that are on your territory.
3. Claim Territory: If you have 3 army cat tokens on an unoccupied territory you can claim it as a new territory by placing a Hideout Token. 
4. Hide Out Upgrade: Use this card in your hand to add a defensive layer to your territories by adding another Hideout Token. 
5. Cat Army Upgrade: Use this card to get more Cat Army Tokens to help attack and/or defend territories.

Combat:

1. Initiate: When you move into an occupied territory the occupier my decide whether or not they want to attack. You can declare an attack as 1 of your 3 moves or choose to do nothing. If the attack is declared players must pick how many tokens will be sacrificed in the battle. 
2. Roll Dice: Both attacker and defender roll dice depending on the number of army tokens that will be battling against each other. Each battle must have an equal amount of tokens from each side. For example, if it is a 5v5 battle players must roll 5 times and record the result of each roll
3. Outcome: Th total of each player's rolls are compared and the loser decides whether to lose those army tokens or a hideout defense layer from that territory.
4. Takeover: If the defender loses all cat armies in the territory and all defensive layers of the hideout, the attacker takes control. If this is a base hideout the losing player must set up a new base in the nearest territory. If there are no more territories to evade to the player must surrender by removing their figure from he board.

Winning

The game ends when a player controls all territories by eventually eliminating all other players’ cat armies and hideouts.