Cascadia

01Discover the game

Cascadia makes you assemble a landscape of mountains, forests, meadows, wetlands and rivers. You welcome animals who each seek a particular organization. A good tile to connect your forests can be associated with an animal that does not arrange; the choice of the couple is therefore at the heart of the game.

We keep Cascadia basic, official notice Alderac, without Landmarks extension. This tutorial completely explains a part with the five animal score cards A, recommended to start, then the solo mode using these same cards. Cards B, C, D, the Family or Intermediate scenarios and variants are separate possibilities: their own scale replaces that of the species concerned, it does not add to it. One to four people play in about 30 to 45 minutes. The overall difficulty is that they are not able to play in any way. Average, by spatial arbitrations and cross-objectives.

02Equipment

The game contains 85 Habitat tiles, including 25 single-habitat key tiles, and five Departure tiles, each consisting of three hexagons. The 100 Faune chips are divided into twenty bears, twenty elk, twenty salmon, twenty nozzles and twenty foxes. The French names of the species may vary slightly depending on the translation; their silhouettes and score cards identify them.

Adds 25 Nature chips, 21 Wildlife score cards, a cloth bag and a Score block. The cards include four possibilities per species, plus a Family/Intermediate card. A Habitat tile can show one or two environments and one to three animals accepted; yet a tile will receive only one token. A key tile filled with an animal gives a Nature token.

03The goal

Get the largest total by combining three main sources: the score of each species, the size of your largest continuous habitats and the majority of habitat bonuses. Each unspent Nature adds one more point.

Animals and environments are two different readings of the same landscape. A pair of bears can be found on two different habitats, and a long forest can contain several species. Printed animal correspondence allows the laying; it is the score cards that then tell if this arrangement is interesting.

04Preparing the common offer

Put the hundred animals in the bag. Select randomly, face down, 43 Habitats with two players, 63 to three or 83 to four. This represents twenty tiles per person plus three. The others return to the box. Place the five cards A visible, one per species, and give a tile Random departure to each. Unused departure tiles are arranged.

Reveal four Habitats online and shoot four animals, one under each tile. The four columns form the available pairs. Place the Natures in reserve. Choose the first player at random, or use the fun criterion of the booklet of the last observation of a game animal; then play in the clockwise direction.

In solo, uses the same set of 43 Habitats as for two players, but only one Departure tile. Place the Stock to the left of the offer; this marker will be used to remove the elements that furthest away from the Stock.

05Choose and place in turn

Check overpopulation before choosing

If the four animals in the offer are identical, their replacement is mandatory. Put them aside, pull four substitutes and associate them in order with the tiles. Start again if the four new ones are still the same. The discarded chips are only put back in the bag once this check has been completed.

If there are exactly three identical animals, you can replace these three, but only once during your turn. Keep the fourth one in place, pull the three new ones, and then re-evaluate a possible overpopulation of four. A triple appeared after the optional replacement does not grant a second free replacement of three.

Taking a couple, or spending Nature

Normally, take a tile and the animal associated with it. Before this choice, a Nature can either take any tile and any animal of the offer, or replace the number of animals of your choice. The tiles, they, are not replaced by this effect. Nature spent returns to the reserve.

You can use several Nature during your turn if you own them, applying each expense correctly. For example, a replacement then the separation of a couple cost two Nature. Do not recover in advance the one you hope to win with a placement still not performed.

Add Habitat

Set the tile against at least one side of a tile already in your landscape. You can turn it. It does not cover anything and the old tiles do not move. It is not obligatory to match all the backgrounds: a forest can touch a mountain. Matching the parts of the same medium creates on the other hand the large sets that will mark points.

The Depart tile counts as three hexagons for habitat size. A contact by one corner is not enough to make a continuous habitat. If a tile shows two habitats, each of its half habitats can contribute to its own network, but the same hexagon is not twice in a single network.

Welcome the animal

Place the animal on a free tile that shows its species. It can go on the new tile or on an old one; you can also place animal and tile in the right order. Never two animals on the same hexagon, never a species absent from the permitted symbols.

If you cannot or do not wish to place the animal, put it back in the bag. If you occupy a key tile, take a Nature. The animals already installed do not move anymore. At the end of the tour, complete the holes of the offer without shifting the remaining pairs partly to several: a new tile and a new animal replace those chosen.

The solo adjustment

After choosing and placing, remove from the game the remaining tiles and animals the furthest away from the Stock. Stop the two remaining elements towards this end; if you had separated a couple, the tiles and animals each move in their line. Then complete the two locations close to the Stock. The animals thus removed come out of the game and do not return in the Bag.

06Cards A and an example

The neighbors of a tile are its six sides; the contact by a corner does not add a neighbor. For our selection A, apply the following five rules separately:

• Bear A A group of three does not become a pair plus a bear. One, two, three or at least four pairs give 4, 11, 19 or 27 points respectively.
• Wapitis A : form straight lines of one to four animals, worth 2, 5, 9 or 13 points. Each animal serves only once; several lines can touch each other. Choose a legal distribution giving the best total, without counting an animal in two lines.
• Salmon A A bench is a group where each salmon touches no more than two other salmon. The lengths 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 or more are 2, 5, 8, 12, 16, 20 or 25 points. A triangle of three is possible, but add a branch that gives three neighbours to an invalid salmon the bench concerned.
• Nozzles A : count the nozzles that do not touch any other nozzle. For 1 to 8 or more, the points are 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 18, 22 and 26. The other neighbouring species do not hinder this isolation.
• Foxes A : each fox marks one point per species different directly adjacent, including another fox. Two neighbouring bears represent one species for this fox; the fox itself is not its own neighbour.

Example: you take a forest/prairie tile associated with a salmon. You connect its forest to your large set, but you place the salmon on an old free tile accepting this species. It extends a bench of three into a legal bench of four, which goes from eight to twelve points. The chosen tile and the animal have helped two different places.

In another position, a fox has two bears around him, a nozzle and a fox. He sees three different species and gives three points, not four. The points of the second fox will be assessed from his own neighbours.

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07End and complete count

The game ends when there is no more Habitat to normally complete the offer; each one has played exactly twenty laps. Finish the placement of the animal of the last round. First count the five species according to the chosen maps.

For each of the five habitats, keep only your largest continuous corridor and mark a point per hexagon that contributes to it. Your small separate forests do not add to the largest. The same hexagons can contribute to different types of media if their tile has two properly connected habitats.

Adds the majorities, type by type. On two, the largest corridor receives two points; one tie gives one point each. On three or four, the first receives three and the second one. Two first on a tie receive two each, without second prize; three or four first on a tie receive one each, without second prize. An equality for the second place does not give anything. On solo, each type of habitat whose largest corridor reaches at least seven tiles earns two points.

Each Nature conserved is worth one point. The biggest total wins; evenly, the most Nature remaining set, then the victory is shared. On solo, compare your total to the progression table: 60 is a start, 80 a very good result, 100 a high-level result. This table is a performance benchmark, not an opponent to play.

08Frequent errors

• Make correspondence of all landscapes an obligation to pose.
• Put the animal only on the chosen tile this turn.
• Stack animals or move those already installed.
• Return the replaced animals to the bag before pulling their replacements.
• Repeat the replacement of three times in a lap for free.
• Add all small separate habitats or mix scores A and B.
• In solo, put back in the bag the animals removed at the end of the offer.

09Tips for starting

Read the five A cards before choosing your first tile. Searching for isolated bears while they must be in pairs does not always repair at the end. Keep several tiles free for the species you build; a compatible symbol without free space no longer serves.

A Nature can avoid a mediocre choice, but also worth a point if you keep it. Compare the real gain: saving a large bench or completing a habitat can be worth more than a point. In solo, observe the couple furthest from the Stock before choosing, as it may disappear immediately after your turn.