How to play Cascadia

How to play

Setup: Put all the wildlife tokens in the cloth bag. Count out habitat tiles at random, 20 per player plus 3 (43, 63 or 83), and stack them face down; the rest go back in the box. Draw one wildlife scoring card at random for each of the five animals and lay them where everyone can see them; for a first game, use the A cards. Each player gets one starter habitat tile, a single piece made of three hexes. Turn up 4 habitat tiles, draw 4 tokens from the bag to pair with them, and put the pinecone nature tokens within reach.

Choosing a pair: On your turn you take one of the four tile-and-token pairs. First check the tokens. If all four show the same animal, set them aside and draw four new ones, repeating if it happens again. If three match, you may do the same with those three, once per turn. Tokens set aside go back in the bag.

Placing your tile: Add the tile to your own area so it touches at least one tile you already have. Terrain doesn't have to match, but matching edges build the habitat groups that score at the end. Tiles never move once placed.

Placing your token: Put the token on any tile in your area that shows that animal and has no token yet; it needn't be the tile you just took. If you can't place it, or don't want to, return it to the bag. If you put a token on a keystone tile (one terrain and one animal), take a nature token. Then refill the display from the stacks and the bag without moving the other pairs.

Nature tokens: Before taking a pair, you may spend a nature token to take any one tile together with any one token from the display, or to wipe any number of tokens and draw replacements. You can spend as many as you like in a turn, and each one you still have at the end is worth 1 point.

Scoring: The game ends when a taken tile can't be replaced, so everyone gets exactly 20 turns. Score each animal by its card. Then, for each of the five habitats, score 1 point per tile in your largest connected group of that terrain. With three or four players, the largest group of each habitat at the table earns 3 bonus points and the second largest 1; with two players, the largest earns 2. Ties get smaller bonuses. Add 1 point per nature token. Most points wins, and a tie goes to whoever has more nature tokens.

Strategy

Read the five cards first: The scoring cards change every game, so start by working out what each animal wants this time. Bear groups must be exactly the size the card asks for, and must not touch another bear group. Salmon score in runs, where each salmon touches no more than two others. Hawks usually want to be spread out, foxes score for the animals around them, and elk range from straight lines to exact shapes depending on the card. You rarely score all five well, so pick the two or three animals that fit together and that the display keeps offering. Tile and token are separate decisions: The token you take doesn't have to go on the tile that came with it. Think of each pair as a tile for your habitats plus a token for any open spot in your area. Keep a few empty tiles that show the animals you want, so that a good token always has a home. Habitat groups add up: Your largest group of each terrain scores a point per tile, and the biggest group at the table earns a bonus on top. That is five separate chances for points, so line up matching edges where you can and choose one or two terrains to grow large. Keystones buy flexibility: Putting the matching animal on a keystone tile earns a nature token, which later lets you take any tile with any token or redraw the tokens. Two or three in reserve rescue the turns when the pairs don't suit you, and any you never spend are still worth a point each. Leave room around patterns: Bears and salmon punish accidental contact. With the pairs card, a third bear beside a pair spoils it, and a stray salmon can break a run. Place tokens deliberately, and remember that returning a token to the bag is allowed. Watch the display: There are 20 tokens of each animal, and what other players take changes what comes up next. Late in the game, notice which animals are scarce and whether a pair you take also denies an opponent the token they need. Count your turns: Everyone gets exactly 20 turns, which is fewer than it feels. In the last few, stop starting new patterns and finish the ones you have.

Tips

- Read all five scoring cards before your first turn; they decide what every animal is worth this game. - The token you draft can go on any empty tile in your area that shows that animal, not only the tile you took. - Placing a token on a keystone tile is how you earn nature tokens. - A nature token lets you take any tile with any token, or redraw tokens; unspent ones score 1 point each. - You may return a token to the bag rather than place it where it would spoil a pattern. - Your largest group of each habitat scores 1 point per tile, plus a bonus if it is among the biggest at the table. - If three tokens in the display match, you may redraw them once per turn for free. - Everyone gets exactly 20 turns, so stop starting new patterns near the end.

Player count & time

1–4 players in about 45 minutes. In the rulebook's solo mode you set up as for two players; after each turn the pair farthest from the tile stacks is removed and the display slides along before refilling, habitats of 7 or more tiles earn a 2-point bonus, and you rate your score on a chart or play the 15 scenarios. With two players the habitat bonus is 2 points for the largest group; with three or four it is 3 for the largest and 1 for the second. The Landmarks expansion adds landmarks with end-game bonuses, more scoring cards and tiles, and room for 5 or 6 players.

Wildlife scoring variations

Each animal has four scoring cards, A to D, and one is drawn at random for each animal, so there are over a thousand possible combinations. Start with the A cards. For younger or newer players, the Family and Intermediate variants replace all five with a single card that simply scores groups of the same animal by size, in any shape. The rulebook also includes 15 scenarios with set cards and goals, and an achievements chart to track across games.

Why it won Game of the Year

Cascadia took the Spiel des Jahres in 2022. It teaches in minutes, turns are quick, and everyone works on their own landscape, so nobody is attacked, yet the shared display keeps you watching what others take. It plays well solo, at two and at four, and its art and calm pace appeal well beyond regular board gamers.

Common beginner mistake

Placing tiles only to match terrain, then having no open spots for the animals you actually want, or putting every drafted token down even when it breaks a pattern. Keep empty tiles for your key animals, and remember that you can always send a token back to the bag.