Like Herding Cats Review

Like Herding Cats is a game for between 3 to 10 players ages 10 and older. The game is like an interesting twist on charades. To start, one person is chosen to be the herder, and everyone else acts as the cats. More people may be herders if you play with more than 5 people, just consult the instructions. One of the cats draws an action card from the deck, making sure to keep it obscured with the top card so that no one sees it. The cat inserts the card into the holster, flips it around a few times, then uses their thumb to flip up the card and reveal the action. It will either be a white or orange action. The first cat puts the card back into the holster and passes it to the next cat, who does the same. Every cat does so, taking note of either the  white or orange action. Then, the magic happens.

The cats don their cat mask blindfolds and act out wordlessly whatever action they happened to see. The herder observes the actions of each cat for 20 seconds (use a phone to keep track) and then must “herd” the cats into groups, based on which action they think each was performing. Note, each cat may have gotten the same action! The herder can ask “who acted out the orange action?” at which point the cats can raise their hands. If they grouped them correctly, you get a point. Next, the herders must guess correctly either the white or orange action. If they do so, they get an additional point. Unlike other games, Like Herding Cats is cooperative, with the aim to earn as many cards collectively as possible before the draw pile runs out. The white and orange actions are very similar, by design, so both point-earning stages of a round can be very tricky, and depend heavily on the actions of the cats. But if everyone knows well enough how the game functions, the cats will know to be discerning in their acting.