Cascadia rules: how to play and how to score

Cascadia quick rules

The goal

Everyone builds their own environment, made of Habitat Tiles where wildlife live. Each turn, you add one Habitat Tile and one Wildlife Token. You score for your animals, following five Wildlife Scoring Cards that change from game to game, and for your largest habitat corridors. Everyone takes twenty turns, and the most points wins.

Choosing a combination

In the center, four combinations each pair a Habitat Tile with a Wildlife Token, and you take a whole combination. If all four tokens are the same species, they’re all replaced. If three match, you may, once per turn, wipe those three and draw three new ones: that’s the overpopulation rule.

Placing the tile and the token

Place them in any order. The tile must touch at least one tile already placed; matching habitats isn’t required, but that’s how your corridors grow. The token goes onto an open tile showing its species, one per tile; otherwise, it goes back in the bag. Then the combinations are refilled.

Nature Tokens

Placing the matching token on a Keystone Tile earns you a Nature Token. Before choosing your combination, you can spend one to take any tile with any token, or to replace as many Wildlife Tokens as you like. Each Nature Token you have left at the end is worth one point.

Wildlife

Each species scores its own way, following its card. With the A cards, recommended for your first game: bears in separate pairs, elk in straight lines, salmon in runs, hawks on their own, and foxes by the number of different species around them. Read all five cards before you start.

End of game and scoring

The game ends when the stacks can no longer refill the combinations: everyone has taken twenty turns. Score your five species, then 1 point per tile in your largest corridor of each of the five habitats. The largest corridor of each habitat earns a majority bonus, and each leftover Nature Token is worth one point. On a tie, the most Nature Tokens wins.

Beginner pitfalls

A Wildlife Token only goes on a tile showing its species: keep open tiles for the animals you’re hoping for, because a token you can’t place is lost. Don’t bet everything on wildlife: corridors and their bonuses count a lot. Save a Nature Token or two for the end, and remember a placed tile never moves.

With Landmarks

You can play with up to six, and everyone starts with an extra Keystone Tile. When you place the fifth tile of a corridor, or beyond, you can put a Landmark Token of that habitat on it and choose a Landmark Scoring Card, which gives points or a bonus at the end. Only one Landmark Token per habitat, and its tile can no longer hold an animal.

How to score Cascadia

Bears, Elk, Salmon, Hawks, Foxes

One line per species: the points for your animals, according to this game’s Wildlife Scoring Card.

Mountains, Forests, Prairies, Wetlands, Rivers

One line per habitat: 1 point per tile in your largest corridor of that habitat.

Corridor majorities

For each of the 5 habitats. With 3 or 4 players: 3 points for the largest corridor, 1 for the second largest; if two players tie for largest, 2 points each; if three or four tie, 1 each, and nothing for the next largest; ties for second largest score nothing. With 2 players: 2 points, or 1 each if tied. Solo: 2 points for each habitat with a corridor of 7 tiles or more.

Unused Nature Tokens

1 point per unused Nature Token. They also break ties.

Landmarks (expansion)

The points from your Landmark Scoring Cards. A card that enlarges a corridor is counted in that habitat’s line.

Worked example

Emma: bears 11, elk 9, salmon 10, hawks 8, foxes 7, so 45 for wildlife; corridors of 5, 7, 4, 3 and 6 tiles, so 25; two majorities and one second place (3 + 3 + 1 = 7); 2 Nature Tokens: 45 + 25 + 7 + 2 = 79 points.

Common mistakes

• Adding up all your corridors of one habitat: only the largest counts.
• Using the wrong majority scale: it depends on the player count, and ties change it.
• Forgetting unused Nature Tokens: 1 point each, and they break ties.
• Scoring wildlife with last game’s cards: the Wildlife Scoring Cards change from game to game.

How to set up Cascadia

Setup takes about 5 minutes. For solo, set up as for 2 players; add the Landmarks steps if you play with the expansion.