
2026Daisy Yi-Ching Chen
From BoardGameGeek
Cute but brutal! In 2025, a group of polar bears leaves the ice-free Arctic to seize the black bears' isles. Isle of Bears is a quick, highly interactive two-player tactical game about stacking bears, stealing control, and pushing your opponent into trouble. Each turn, you choose one of three available action cards to move, jump, swap, gather, push, or rearrange the bears. Bears sharing a space move together, and only the bear on top matters: if your bear is on top, you control the whole stack. This creates a constant back-and-forth battle. A single move can cover an opponent's bear, free a trapped stack, or suddenly turn a safe position into an overcrowded one. When six or more bears gather on the same space, opposing bears are pushed into the sea. Meanwhile, empty isles disappear, making the board smaller and the confrontation increasingly tight. There is no long-term engine to build and very little downtime. Isle of Bears is a 10-15 minute tactical duel where you make the best move from the cards available, disrupt your opponent, and adapt as the board changes. You win immediately when your bears are on top of every remaining occupied space.
熊之島 (Isle of Bears) has 4 videos from 4 creators: 1 review, 2 how-to-play guides and 1 unboxing. They date from September to November 2026.
To learn the rules, start with "What’s New to BGA: Isle of Bears | How to play on BGA" by Digital Board Gamer, which runs 3 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "Daisy Yi-Ching Chen's Isle of Bears, Heybye Gaming & Taiwan Boardgame Design, How To Play & Review" by Board Games With B7.
If you like it, try PWNED!, also by Daisy Yi-Ching Chen, or Champions of Hara, Solar Titans and Carcassonne, which share several of its mechanics.
2018Walter Barber, Ian VanNest, Andrew Zimmermann
1 - 4 players30 - 120 minHeavy weight
2000Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
2 - 5 players30 - 45 minLight weight
From BoardGameGeek:
Cute but brutal! In 2025, a group of polar bears leaves the ice-free Arctic to seize the black bears' isles. Isle of Bears is a quick, highly interactive two-player tactical game about stacking bears, stealing control, and pushing your opponent into trouble. Each turn, you choose one of three available action cards to move, jump, swap, gather, push, or rearrange the bears. Bears sharing a space move together, and only the bear on top matters: if your bear is on top, you control the whole stack. This creates a constant back-and-forth battle. A single move can cover an opponent's bear, free a trapped stack, or suddenly turn a safe position into an overcrowded one. When six or more bears gather on the same space, opposing bears are pushed into the sea. Meanwhile, empty isles disappear, making the board smaller and the confrontation increasingly tight. There is no long-term engine to build and very little downtime. Isle of Bears is a 10-15 minute tactical duel where you make the best move from the cards available, disrupt your opponent, and adapt as the board changes. You win immediately when your bears are on top of every remaining occupied space.
Designer
Daisy Yi-Ching Chen
Publisher
Heybye Gaming
Mechanics