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If you counted 65 points you’re right on the nose. Only time will tell if that’s enough to win you the game! Final Thoughts on Cascadia As a family, we really enjoy animal themed tabletop games, so Cascadia was right up our street! It is the game equivalent of curling up in front of the fire with a hot chocolate- one of the cozy games you can go to after a long day and relax with. Gameplay Cascadia was my #3 new game of 2021 thanks to a combination of easy-to-learn rules and variable scoring methods, making it a solid family game that is meaty enough to satisfy more experienced gamers as well. It’s a game that not only rewards replaying, but makes you want to do so immediately because you realize all the other strategies you didn’t get to try the last time around. Finally set the Nature Tokens (pine cones) off to one side but within easy reach and give everybody a 3 hex Habitat Starter tile. This is a combo tile showing a random selection of 3 out of 5 terrain types (Mountains, Forests, Prairies, Wetlands, and Rivers). There’s also one or more animals on each hex ready to buddy up or keep its distance from other indigenous species! Take A Turn
Complete Unique Habitats: Completing habitats with unique requirements can lead to big point gains. These habitats are less likely to be contested by other players, giving you an advantage. The goals are spatial and seem in keeping with each of the animals represented. So, for example, salmon score higher the more you have in an adjacent run, and Elks like to be with their buddies so score better in groups. They’re fussy though, and have to be in the precise positions shown on the card. Bears are less particular, but they do like a bit of social distancing between their sleuths! Cascadia came out last summer from Flatout Games, the same studio that gave us the surprisingly complex game Calico the year before, with Cascadia a sort of “spiritual successor” to the first title. Calico looks cute and simple, with a theme built around cats and quilts, but the game itself presents a difficult challenge with tight scoring rules and an unforgiving structure—you have a board with a frame around it and have limited places to put hex tiles, with no chance to move them later if you make a mistake. Here at Meeple Mountain we have a concept that we call Builder’s Satisfaction. It’s the feeling you get after playing a game that results in something tangible and appealing. Be it an ancient Greek city in Santorini or an abstract dice sculpture in Blueprints, these are games which leave you happy that you just made something that looks cool.
Fit to Print
Habitat and nature token scoring is easy to understand, but let’s have a look at some examples for the A wildlife cards. Elk score points for being in a straight line. This arrangement would be worth 9 points. Foxes score points for each unique animal type in the tiles surrounding them, even other foxes. This arrangement would be worth 4 points. Grizzlies score for each pair of bears, with no other bears on the surrounding tiles. This arrangement would be worth 5 points. Salmon score points for being in a run, but not necessarily a straight line. Runs cannot be next to each other. This arrangement would be worth 11 points. Hawks score an increasing number of points for each hawk that is next to no other hawk. This arrangement would be worth 5 points because the lower right two hawks are adjacent and will not score. Finishing a Game of Cascadia The premise of Cascadia is simple- collect hexes of different terrain that can support different animals, and score accordingly. The foxes, eagles, elk, bears and salmon all score in a different way depending on how you place them on your board; and with four different scoring cards for each animal, Cascadia has enough variety from play to play to keep interest. In addition, you also score depending on how large an area of one terrain is, with bonus points awarded for the person with the largest and second largest of each type. Each hex, with the exception of special ‘Keystone’ tiles, has two terrains printed on it so placement is crucial to your score at endgame. Complete Habitats Efficiently: Try to complete habitats as soon as possible to earn immediate points. Look for opportunities to place terrain tiles that fulfill multiple habitat requirements in one move. Adapt to Habitat Cards: Don’t be afraid to change your strategy during the game if you draw new Habitat Cards that offer better scoring opportunities. Flexibility is key to success.
Players can also complete habitats by placing the required Animal Tokens adjacent to the terrain tiles.
Cascadia: Landmarks
Of course if that’s really all there was to it, Cascadia wouldn’t be much fun at all. But it’s amazing how a few basic frills to this formula make the game explode with possibilities while leaving it very easy to learn. Your goal is to score points, and you get points in two ways. First by keeping terrain types together, making that open placement less flexible than it appears. And second by obeying the animal scoring cards you’re using that game. Cascadia’s core gameplay loop is super simple. You start with three terrain hexes, each of which has icons indicating which of the five kinds of animals can live there. On your turn you choose one of four randomly drawn pairs of hex and animal counter to add to your map. You can place them where you like: the only caveat is that the animal has to go on a hex that supports it. That’s it. You can collect special pinecone tokens by placing an animal on its own hex, called a ‘keystone’ tile, which allows you to change the sets drawn, but these aren’t common and still require a blind draw from the bag. Otherwise, if there are three or more of one animal type you can swap them. You can never change the drawn hex tiles, which can prevent you from continuing a terrain. a b "Accessible but Challenging, Cascadia Is One of Our Favorite Recent Board Games". pastemagazine.com. 2022-04-13 . Retrieved 2022-07-22.
Animal Placement: Be strategic with the placement of Animal Tokens. Consider how they will help you complete habitats in the future. Placing animals adjacent to incomplete habitats can set you up for big points in later turns. Now, that all sounds rather straightforward. So, here’s where the puzzle ramps up. Each game, there are 5 Wildlife Goals. One for each type of animal, and there are multiple sets (A, B, C, D which can be mixed and matched), such that no single game plays according to the same scoring conditions as another. VERDANT is a puzzly spatial board game for 1 to 5 players. You take on the role of a houseplant enthusiast trying to create the coziest interior space by collecting and arranging houseplants and other objects within your home. You must position your plants so that they are provided the most suitable light conditions and take care of them to create the most verdant collection. Each turn, you will select an adjacent pair of a card and token, and use those items to build an ever-expanding tableau of cards - your home. You will need to keep various objectives in mind as you attempt to increase plant verdancy by making spatial matches and using item tokens to take various nurture actions. You will also build your ‘green thumb’ skills allowing you to take additional actions to take care of your plants and create the coziest space!
Cascadia Overview
Benjamin Abbott (2022-07-18). "Cascadia is board game of the year after Spiel des Jahres 2022 win". gamesradar . Retrieved 2022-07-22. Then select your Wildlife Scoring Cards. There are 4 sets marked A, B, C, and D. Each one includes the 5 animals in the game: Bears, Elk, Salmon, Hawk, and Fox. They are spatially based, placement optimisation goals and you can play with a single set or mix and match (so long as you have one of each species). A is the simplest set which is good for your first few games. There’s also a Family variant Wildlife Scoring Card which replaces all 5 individual animal goals with a single objective which is great for younger or less experienced gamers. Rules are simple - take two adjacent cards from the dynamic city grid and add them to your expanding city. Use your resource cards and bonuses to construct building cards that require specific combinations. Build special civic structures to multiply your city’s points and be the top urban planner!
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