Around the border between Canada and the Northwest USA you can find the region of ‘Cascadia’, famous for the extraordinary diversity of its plant and animal life. In the tile-laying game of the same name, up to four nature-lovers compete to create a habitat rich in victory points, connecting matching landscape tiles to form as large an area as possible. This objective is just one of the levels of “Cascadia’s” two-part puzzle, the other relates to the region’s native animals, who will only move into the area when the geographic conditions are right. In one game, the bears might be loners and not want anyone hanging around, in the next they could be social animals and want to hang around in groups of four. Only by cleverly creating a suitable landscape to keep the bears, foxes, buzzards, elk and salmon happy, can you emerge victorious in this attractive and accessible tile-laying game.

“Cascadia” is a real feel-good game. You can always achieve something on your turn, even if the choices on offer aren’t exactly what you wanted. The two-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.