Cascadia

I picked this up mostly because two people in my group already owned Calico and kept comparing the two, and, ok, I get it now, they really are cousins. Same publisher energy, same wildlife-tile-matching bones. But Cascadia clicked for me in a way Calico didn’t, mostly because the habitat tiles do something a straight tile-laying game usually doesn’t: they let you course-correct. You start a round with one plan and by the third draw the tiles just aren’t there for it, so you’re building the map you can get instead of the one you wanted.

That adaptability is the whole game, honestly. I went in with a strategy for maximizing bears my first play and got derailed on turn two when nobody was offering bear pairs. Had to pivot to foxes and salmon and still ended up happy with the board. There’s something satisfying about a puzzle that punishes rigid planning without punishing you for having a plan in the first place.

Component-wise it’s gorgeous, the wood tokens have real heft, and I like that the box insert actually organizes the wildlife tokens instead of dumping them into one bag and calling it done. Small thing, but I notice it every time I set up a game, since half my shelf has insert situations I’ve had to redesign myself.

Where it loses me a little is at higher counts. Four players start grabbing pairs before you get a turn, and the analysis paralysis creeps in once people learn the scoring cards well enough to actually calculate outcomes instead of eyeballing them. Two player is the sweet spot for me, maybe three. I haven’t tried the full expansion with six and based on what I’ve read I don’t think I will.

It’s not going to replace my heavier stuff, but it’s the game I reach for when I want something thinky that doesn’t ask forty-five minutes of setup first.