Cascadia is a puzzle and terrain building board game based on the natural ecology of Northwest North America. It was designed by Randy Flynn and published by Flatout Games. It was first released in 2021 and won one of the most important awards in the board game industry in 2022: the German Game of the Year Award (Spiel des Jahres). 

1. Introduction to Gameplay

In the game, players take turns to select a set of "terrain tiles + animal signs" from the public area, splice the terrain tiles into their own ecosystem, and put the animal signs in the right place. The goal is to optimize the distribution of animals and terrain connections according to the requirements of the score card to get the most points.

(1.) The game includes:

5 types of terrain: forest, grassland, wetland, river, mountain

5 types of animals: bear, fox, salmon, deer, eagle

Each animal has several different scoring cards, for example:

Eagle: The farther each eagle is from other eagles, the higher the score (representing that they are solitary animals)

Deer: Score higher in groups

Bear: Score in pairs

 

(2.) The end of the game is based on:

The score of each animal's score card

The size and number of continuous areas of the same terrain

Terrain diversity bonus (each terrain is connected)

Natural channel bonus (the longest chain of the same terrain) 

2. Practical strategy skills

(1.) Observe the requirements of the animal score card in advance

The animal score card will change in each game (choose 1 from 3 cards of each animal), so you must read their scoring logic carefully at the beginning.

For example:

Eagle: likes to stay away from each other and cannot be placed too close.

Bear: Only score in pairs, and it is forbidden to place too many randomly.

Fox: The more types of animals around, the better, so they are placed at the "animal intersection".

 

(2.) "Control" of resource refresh for the future

You are not limited to "accepting" the 4 sets of cards on the field, but you can influence the next round of combination refresh through your behavior!

High-level players will do this:

Deliberately create an impossible placement of animal signs to refresh channel cards and clear the animal pool (pseudo-waste cards, real clearing the field)

After using the channel cards, "lock" the refresh order to create the perfect group you can choose in the next round

Observe the puzzle style left by the opponent, "grab" specific shapes in advance to interfere with their animal goals

 

(3.) Spatial sense construction: Use "virtual grids" to simulate layout

Top players will do mental calculations when playing Cascadia:

The current animal's score requirements → "outline map" of the required space

The available spaces in your own puzzle → Which "grids" are the key points?

Leave space for planning → Not to fill it up, but to reserve a possible place in the future

Skills: Use the concept of "virtual animal + planned grid"

Example: You already have a bear, but there is no good place to put the second one. The next time you get the bear, you may not be able to put it, so leave two empty forests in advance

 

(4.) Game usage of natural channels

In high-score games, the use of natural channels has a "three-protect and one-grab" strategy:

Maintain stability: Used in key rounds to avoid bad combinations dragging points

Maintain animal card formation: Quickly fill in gaps

Maintain terrain area integrity: Avoid disconnecting large areas

Grab core animals: The number of specific animals is limited, and timely "grabbing" may disrupt other people's layout

 

(5.) Advanced skills for different animals:

Bears: in pairs or groups

Divided area two-way replication method: Don't make a "bear factory", but a dispersed layout, a left-right symmetrical "replication colony" is more stable

Fox: surrounding heterogeneous species

Shared animal pool design method: use the "shared neighbor" structure, for example, a fox shares 3 different animals around it to bring value to other foxes

Deer: specific graphics

Pre-empty space design: X-shaped needs to leave the center empty → start from the periphery and develop the inner circle backwards

Fish: line flow

Flow to the edge method: do not let the fish enter the inner circle, because the "closed dead line" will be stuck; it is recommended to "river-shaped corridor" or "S-shaped fork"

Eagle: Dispersed type

Corner + diagonal extension layout: use the 4 corners as eagle points, and make extension channels on the edges to ensure separation

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