Cascadia

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Sourced from: https://jmo.name/games

Player Aid Author: Jarrod Moore

Description

Draft habitat tiles and wildlife tokens to build a scoring ecosystem of wildlife patterns, habitat corridors, and landmarks.

Expansions in Use

  • Landmarks

Cascadia can be played with just the base game components, or with the Landmarks expansion mixed in. If you are using Landmarks, use the adjusted tile counts and extra setup steps below so the landmark rules are part of the normal game flow.

  • Put all Wildlife Tokens in the bag and shuffle them well
    • With Landmarks, add the 35 new Wildlife Tokens to the bag
  • Select the required number of Habitat Tiles based on player count, then shuffle them face down:
    • 1 player: 43 tiles
    • 2 players: 43 tiles
    • 3 players: 63 tiles
    • 4 players: 83 tiles
    • 5 players: 103 tiles, with Landmarks
    • 6 players: 123 tiles, with Landmarks
  • Select 1 Wildlife Scoring Card for each of the 5 wildlife types
    • For a first game, use the A cards
    • With Landmarks, you may shuffle in the E-G cards from the expansion
  • Give each player 1 Starter Habitat Tile
  • Reveal 4 Habitat Tiles and place them in the central display
  • Draw 4 Wildlife Tokens and pair them in order with the Habitat Tiles
  • Place the Nature Tokens within reach
  • Choose a first player

If you are playing with the Landmarks module, make these changes during setup.

  • Use the Landmarks tile counts instead of the base counts:
    • 1 player: 44 tiles
    • 2 players: 45 tiles
    • 3 players: 66 tiles
    • 4 players: 87 tiles
    • 5 players: 108 tiles
    • 6 players: 129 tiles
  • After Starter Habitat Tiles are given out, each player adds 1 extra Keystone Tile to their environment
    • Reveal Keystone Tiles from the selected tile supply until you have one per player
    • Starting with the player to the right of the first player and proceeding counter-clockwise, each player chooses one revealed Keystone Tile
    • Each player immediately places that tile legally in their environment
    • In solo play, take the first Keystone Tile revealed
    • Shuffle any other revealed tiles back into the tile supply
  • Shuffle each of the 5 Landmark Scoring Card decks separately
  • Reveal Landmark Scoring Cards for each habitat type:
    • Multiplayer: reveal cards equal to the number of players from each deck
    • Solo: reveal 2 cards from each deck
  • Place Landmark Tokens near their matching Landmark Scoring Cards
    • Use tokens of each habitat type equal to the number of players

The game is played over 20 turns per player. On each turn, you will draft a Habitat Tile and a Wildlife Token, then add them to your environment.

If you are playing with Landmarks, you may also place Landmark Tokens during the normal tile-placement step when your newly placed tile expands a habitat corridor to the required size.

On your turn:

  1. Resolve any Wildlife Token overpopulation in the display
  2. Choose a Habitat Tile and Wildlife Token
  3. Place the Habitat Tile in your environment
  4. Place the Wildlife Token, or return it to the bag if you cannot or do not want to place it
  5. If you are playing with Landmarks and your tile placement qualifies, you may place a Landmark Token on the tile you just placed
  6. Refill the empty Habitat Tile and Wildlife Token spaces in the display

Do not move the existing display pairs when refilling. Simply replace the tile and token you took.

Before drafting, check the 4 Wildlife Tokens in the display for overpopulation.

  • If all 4 Wildlife Tokens are the same type, you must wipe all 4
    • Set those tokens aside
    • Draw 4 replacement tokens from the bag, one at a time, and pair them in order with the existing Habitat Tiles
    • This can happen multiple times on the same turn
  • If exactly 3 Wildlife Tokens are the same type, you may wipe those 3
    • Set those tokens aside
    • Draw 3 replacement tokens from the bag, one at a time, and pair them in order with the matching Habitat Tiles
    • You may only do this once per turn
  • After all overpopulation is resolved, return wiped tokens to the bag

Normally, you choose 1 existing pair from the display: the Habitat Tile and Wildlife Token in the same position.

Before choosing, you may spend Nature Tokens:

  • Spend 1 Nature Token to take any 1 Habitat Tile and any 1 Wildlife Token from the display, even if they are not paired
  • Spend 1 Nature Token to wipe any number of Wildlife Tokens and replace them
    • Draw replacements one at a time and pair them with the same Habitat Tile positions
  • You may spend any number of Nature Tokens on your turn

If you do not spend a Nature Token, you must take one of the existing tile-token pairs.

Place the Habitat Tile you drafted into your environment.

  • The tile must touch at least one side of a tile already in your environment
  • You cannot place a tile on top of another tile
  • You cannot move tiles that are already placed
  • Matching habitat edges is not required for placement
    • Matching edges matter for habitat corridor scoring at the end of the game

If you are playing with Landmarks, check whether this placement lets you place a Landmark Token before you finish the turn.

After drafting a Wildlife Token, you may place it on a legal open Habitat Tile in your environment.

  • The Habitat Tile must not already have a Wildlife Token
  • The Habitat Tile must show the matching wildlife icon
  • You may place the Wildlife Token on the Habitat Tile you just drafted, or on any other legal tile
  • If you cannot legally place the token, or choose not to place it, return it to the bag

With Landmarks, a tile with a Landmark Token cannot also hold a Wildlife Token. If you place a Landmark Token on the tile you just placed, the Wildlife Token from this turn must go somewhere else or return to the bag.

When playing with Landmarks, you may place a Landmark Token during your normal tile-placement step.

You may place a Landmark Token if the Habitat Tile you just placed adds a 5th or greater tile to a habitat corridor of that type.

  • The Landmark Token must match the habitat corridor that reached size 5 or more
  • The Landmark Token must be placed on the tile you just placed
  • You cannot place it on another tile in the corridor
  • You may only have 1 Landmark Token of each habitat type
  • After placing the Landmark Token, choose one available matching Landmark Scoring Card and place it next to your environment
  • You may choose not to place a Landmark Token even if you qualify

A tile with a Landmark Token cannot hold a Wildlife Token. If you place a Landmark on a Keystone Tile, you do not gain a Nature Token.

A Keystone Tile shows a single wildlife type with a keystone icon.

  • When you place the matching Wildlife Token onto a Keystone Tile, gain 1 Nature Token
  • You only gain the Nature Token when the Wildlife Token is placed
  • With Landmarks, some Keystone Tiles have multiple habitat types but still work the same way for wildlife placement
  • If you place a Landmark Token on a Keystone Tile, you do not gain a Nature Token

The game ends immediately when a Habitat Tile cannot be replaced in the display because the face-down tile supply is empty.

Score in this order:

  1. Wildlife Scoring Cards
  2. Habitat Corridors
  3. Habitat Corridor Majorities
  4. Landmarks, if playing with the Landmarks module
  5. Nature Tokens

The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, the tied player with the most Nature Tokens wins. If still tied, the tied players share the victory.

Score each of the 5 Wildlife Scoring Cards used in the game.

Each card has its own pattern requirements. In general:

  • Bears score for groups of bears
  • Elk score for specific group shapes or formations
  • Salmon score for runs
  • Hawks score for spreading out or establishing lines of sight
  • Foxes score for adjacent animals or habitats

Use the Scoring Card Reference sections for the common clarifications.

For each of the 5 habitat types, score your largest contiguous habitat corridor.

  • A habitat corridor is a connected group of the same habitat type
  • Tiles are connected when they share at least one matching habitat edge
  • Score 1 point per tile in your largest corridor of that habitat type
  • Score only your largest corridor for each habitat type

With Landmarks, some Landmark Scoring Cards add to corridor scoring. Apply those bonuses when scoring the relevant habitat corridor.

After each player has scored their largest corridor for each habitat type, award majority bonuses.

  • Solo: score a 2 point bonus for each habitat type where your largest corridor has size 7 or more
  • 2 players: the largest corridor for each habitat type scores 2 bonus points
    • If tied, each tied player scores 1 bonus point
  • 3-4 players: the largest corridor for each habitat type scores 3 bonus points, and the second largest scores 1 bonus point
    • If 2 players tie for largest, each scores 2 bonus points and no second-place bonus is awarded
    • If 3 or 4 players tie for largest, each scores 1 bonus point and no second-place bonus is awarded
    • Ties for second place score 0 bonus points

Landmark cards that add to habitat corridor size can also affect these majority bonuses.

If you are playing with Landmarks, score each Landmark Scoring Card you claimed.

  • Add together all points from your Landmark Scoring Cards
  • Record the total in the Landmarks scoring area
  • Some Landmark cards do not score points directly
    • Instead, they add to another scoring category, such as habitat corridor scoring
    • Apply those effects when resolving that category

Each player can have at most 5 Landmark Tokens, one for each habitat type.

After all other scoring is complete, score 1 point for each unused Nature Token you have.

Nature Tokens are also the first tie-breaker.

Set up as a 2-player game, with these changes:

  • Give yourself only 1 Starter Habitat Tile
  • Place the Habitat Tile stacks to the left side of the display
  • Take your turn as usual
  • Before refilling the display, discard the Habitat Tile and Wildlife Token furthest from the draw stacks
  • Slide the remaining tiles and tokens away from the draw stacks
  • Draw 2 new Habitat Tiles and 2 new Wildlife Tokens to refill the empty spaces

The game ends after your 20 turns, then you score normally. With Landmarks, use the Landmarks solo setup and scoring rules as part of the same flow.

For the Family Variant, set up the game normally except that you use only the Family Variant Wildlife Scoring Card instead of 5 separate Wildlife Scoring Cards.

Gameplay is unchanged. During scoring, wildlife score based on groups of the same animal. You may also choose whether to include habitat corridor majority scoring.

The Intermediate Variant works like the Family Variant, but uses the Intermediate Variant Wildlife Scoring Card.

Gameplay is unchanged, but the group-size scoring differs from the Family Variant card.

The faster play rules are useful for 5-6 players or when you want a shorter game.

During setup:

  • Remove Wildlife Tokens from the bag: remove a number of each wildlife type equal to the number of players
  • Deal 5 random Habitat Tiles face up beside each player's play area
  • Pair those tiles with 1 of each Wildlife Token type to create each player's personal supply

During gameplay:

  • After you take your normal turn, and once play has passed to the next player, you may take 1 between-turn action
  • For that action, choose 1 tile-token pair from your personal supply and play it into your environment
  • You may only do this once between each of your turns, and only 5 times during the game
  • You may spend 1 Nature Token to swap any 2 Wildlife Tokens in your personal supply before taking this action

In this mode, each player takes 15 normal turns and up to 5 between-turn actions, still adding up to 20 tiles and 20 tokens.

Bears usually score for creating groups of specific sizes.

  • Bear groups may be in any shape unless the card says otherwise
  • Two separate bear groups may not be adjacent to each other
  • A group must contain the exact number of bears required by the scoring card
  • Landmarks card G scores pairs of bears on Forest tiles
    • A tile counts as Forest if any part of it is Forest
    • Only one tile in the bear pair needs to be Forest

Elk usually score for groups in specific shapes or formations.

  • Elk groups may be adjacent to each other
  • Each elk may only score once
  • If connected elk can be divided into scoring groups in more than one way, use the interpretation that gives the most points
  • Straight lines must connect from flat side to flat side
  • Exact shapes may be rotated unless the card says otherwise
  • Landmarks card G requires the formation to include a Prairie tile
    • A tile counts as Prairie if any part of it is Prairie

Salmon usually score for creating runs.

  • A run is a group of adjacent salmon where each salmon is adjacent to no more than 2 other salmon in that run
  • A run cannot have any other salmon adjacent to it
  • A 3-salmon triangle can count as a run, but no other salmon can be attached to that run
  • Some cards cap the maximum run size that scores
  • Landmarks card G adds points for River tiles in the run
    • A tile counts as River if any part of it is River

Hawks usually score for spreading out or creating lines of sight.

  • A line of sight is a straight line from flat side to flat side
  • A line of sight is blocked by another hawk
  • Other wildlife do not block line of sight unless a scoring card says otherwise
  • When scoring pairs, each hawk can only be part of one scoring pair
  • Landmarks cards may care about foxes or habitat types between hawks
    • Adjacent tiles do not create line of sight for those cards
    • The hawks' own tiles are not counted as being between the hawks

Foxes usually score for what is adjacent to them.

  • Each fox, or fox pair on cards that use pairs, is scored independently
  • Adjacent spaces are the spaces directly touching the fox's tile
  • Some cards count unique animal types
  • Some cards count pairs of adjacent animals
    • Those paired animals do not need to be adjacent to each other unless the card says otherwise
  • Landmarks card G counts unique adjacent habitat types touching the edges of the fox's tile
    • The habitat types on the fox's own tile do not matter for that card

Landmark Scoring Cards are grouped by habitat type. When you place a Landmark Token, take one available card matching that habitat.

Common clarifications:

  • A-E cards: an animal is on a habitat type if at least part of its tile is that habitat type
  • F cards: a Keystone Tile is a habitat type if at least part of the tile is that habitat type
  • G-H cards: score each corridor of the listed habitat type
    • For G cards, a single-tile corridor counts
    • For H cards, a corridor must have at least 2 tiles
  • I-J cards: these do not score directly, but add to habitat corridor scoring
    • They can affect corridor majorities
  • K cards: score a maximum of 5 points and cannot score negative points
  • L cards: score 3 points with no extra conditions

Thumbnail courtesy of BoardGameGeek and the respective publisher.