Some would say that hoarding cats could be a sign that you have a problem. However, in the game Gattara from Disometric Games, this is how you claim victory. Gattara is an Italian word roughly translated as “cat lady.” In this fast-paced card game, you’ll attract, steal, and hide neighborhood cats to become the winner among your competitive cat lovers.
Herding Cats
Players are given a screen and two Stray Cat tokens to start the game. You’ll want to keep the cats you’re collecting secret from the other players at the table and avoid the appearance of having the most cats. You’ll use a hand of three cards to gather new cats during the course of the game.
At the start of your turn, if you have less than three cards, draw one from the central deck. Once you have three cards, simply play one of the cards in your hand. Red cards will cause a player to lose a cat token, green cards allow players to gain a cat token, and yellow cards will affect the game in a unique way. This can mean changing hands with another player, drawing a card from an opponent, passing a cat to another player, ect.
In the center of the table are cat tokens that come in three color/number combinations. Stray Cats are grey and count for one point. Pedigree Cats are black and count for two points. Show Cats are white and count for three pionts.
The gameplay is as simple as playing a card and executing the text on the card. Gattara is ultimately about trying to gather a specific number of cats, based on the player count, in order to claim victory. It won’t be easy, though. Some of the cards in Gattara will cause you to lose cats, important cards from your hand, or possibly stop your plan to add more felines to your stash.
The Ferocious “Meow”
Gattara is a card game with plenty of “take that” interactions. Cards will trigger actions such as swapping your hand of cards or stealing cats that that you’ve previously selected. Your player screen hides the type and quantity of cats that you’ve collected. Players want to keep track of what cat tokens are being collected during the game. If you play a card and target another player that doesn’t have that cat type in their collection, you’ll miss out on adding a new cat to your collection.
Some cards in Gattara are marked with the MEOW icon. When one of these cards is played against a player, they can counter with another MEOW card, cancelling its affects and then doubling the affect of the newly played card. These can be devastating, but they add a nice twist to the game.
The card strategies here are straight-forward and include five special cards in the game that skip turns, change the direction of play, swap cat collections and more.
Final Thoughts
Gattara is a cutthroat card game where stealing and collecting a variety of cats is highly encouraged. This one is excellent for families who are looking for fast and interactive card games. The game has cute illustrations throughout and a small memory aspect which I enjoyed. Each game of Gattara plays in under twenty minutes, is easy to teach, and is quick enough to jump into another game right away.
Gattara is being funded through Kickstarter. Check out this campaign from Disometric Games when it launches on October 15, 2026.
A prototype of the game was provided for this coverage. Components and rules covered in this preview are not finalized. Read more about our preview policies at One Board Family.
