''Cascadia'' is a 2021 board game designed by Randy Flynn and published by ''Flatout Games''. In ''Cascadia'', player draft and add

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

tokens and matching

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

tokens to score

victory points In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-sha ...

based on various scoring conditions. Upon its release, ''Cascadia'' received critical success, with reviewers praising its components, accessibility, and strategy, but also noting its lack of player interaction. ''Cascadia'' won the 2022 ''

Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...

''.

Gameplay

In ''Cascadia'', which is set in the Cascadia region of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

, players select one of the four available combinations of habitat and wildlife tokens to add to their existing habitat tokens. If three or four wildlife tokens are identical, players may choose to replace the four wildlife tokens with new ones. Habitat tokens must be placed adjacent to an existing habitat token, whereas a wildlife token are placed on a habitat token with the matching terrain. After each turn, habitat and wildlife tokens are replenished; once all habitat tokens are used, the game ends, and players earn points based on contiguous habitat tile corridor groups and varying wildlife scoring cards with different scoring goals for each wildlife depending on their behaviour. For example, victory points are rewarded for

bears Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the North ...

if their wildlife tokens are grouped together, but

foxes Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

gain victory points based on a combination of prey species. The game also has additional scenarios and minor goal alterations. Randy Flynn

Reception

Upon its release, ''Cascadia'' received critical success. Matt Thrower from ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' described the components as "simple", but praised the art, the simplicity of the rules, engagement, and replayability offered from the scenarios and goal alterations, arguing that " heseoffer fantastic variety and add a particular spice to solo play". However, he criticised the lack of player interaction. Reviewing from ''

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication fro ...

'', Keith Law considered it to be one of the best games of 2021, praising the combination of strategy, ease of play, replayability, solo mode, and the campaign-like scenarios. Similarly, a review from ''Tabletop Gaming'' also commented positively on the artwork, the strategy from the "exquisitely enjoyable puzzle experience", accessibility, and solo mode, but was critical of the lack of player interaction and downtime at higher player counts. The review also compared it to Calico, and described that it was "a little easier on the brain and therefore a tad more chilled". The game also appeared on a list of best 2022 games from ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

'', with the reviewers complimenting its components, replayability, and strategy due to a variety of ways to victory from " reatingcorridors, focusing on area control, and cornering endgame bonuses". ''Cascadia'' subsequently won the 2022 ''

'', with the jury stating that " hetwo-part puzzle is especially successful, requiring players to find a good balance between matching landscape tiles and playing the right animal symbols. The modular rule cards give the game a high level of replayability, presenting players with new challenges every time, as well as an optional campaign mode". The game placed second place in the 2022 ''

Deutscher Spiele Preis __NOTOC__ The Deutscher Spielepreis (, ''German Game Prize'') is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine ''Die Pöppel-Revue'', which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Spiel des Jahres Board games introduced in 2021 Spiel des Jahres winners