Cascadia: Alpine Lakes Board Game

About this product

Build your Cascadian landscape outward and upward as alpine habitats, wildlife and lakes create a whole new spatial puzzle.

A standalone Cascadia tile-laying game for 1–4 players ages 10+, featuring double-hexagon tiles, wildlife drafting and a new stacking challenge.

Draft habitats and wildlife, stack your landscape to new heights and balance lakes, animals and scoring goals across a three-dimensional ecosystem.

Product Description

The journey through Cascadia continues — and this time, the landscape is reaching new heights.

Cascadia: Alpine Lakes is a standalone spatial puzzle game for 1–4 players that builds on the approachable tile-drafting ideas of Cascadia while introducing a new three-dimensional challenge.

On each turn, choose a Habitat Tile and Wildlife Token pairing and add them to your growing alpine environment. Unlike the original game, the Habitat Tiles are double hexagons, and they can be layered on top of previously placed tiles. As your landscape rises, elevation becomes an important part of both placement and scoring.

Your environment is built from forests, meadows and glaciers, with lakes appearing throughout the alpine landscape. Wildlife includes cougars, eagles, marmots, mountain goats and pikas. As you build, you'll need to think not only about where habitats and animals belong, but also about how high they sit within your ecosystem.

Habitat Scoring Cards give the three habitat types different objectives, while lakes reward both elevation and careful surrounding placement. Wildlife can also score for reaching higher levels, creating another reason to think vertically instead of simply spreading outward.

For players who want even more variety, the Advanced Mode introduces Environment Scoring Cards with wildlife, habitat and spatial objectives. Solo play, Family and Intermediate variants, scenarios and achievements offer additional ways to explore the puzzle.

And although Alpine Lakes is completely standalone, owners of the original Cascadia get an extra bonus: the box includes an Alpine Animals mini-expansion that uses Alpine Lakes wildlife components to introduce new scoring conditions to the original game.

Why You’ll Love It

• A complete standalone Cascadia game — the original Cascadia is not required.
• Introduces double-hexagon Habitat Tiles for a different landscape-building puzzle.
• Stack tiles to create a three-dimensional environment where elevation affects your decisions.
• Build across three alpine habitats: forests, meadows and glaciers.
• Populate your landscape with cougars, eagles, marmots, mountain goats and pikas.
• Score lakes based on their elevation and how completely they are surrounded.
• Wildlife elevation creates another layer of competition and spatial planning.
• Variable Habitat Scoring Cards change how your landscape scores from game to game.
• Advanced Environment Scoring Cards add wildlife, habitat and spatial objectives for even more variety.
• Includes dedicated solo play plus Family and Intermediate variants.
• Scenarios and achievements provide additional challenges beyond standard play.
• Includes an Alpine Animals mini-expansion for owners of the original Cascadia.

Quick Details

• Publisher: Flatout Games / AEG
• Designer: Randy Flynn
• Illustrator: Beth Sobel
• Solo, scenarios, achievements and Alpine Animals mini-expansion design: Shawn Stankewich
• Product type: Standalone family tile-laying board game
• Players: 1–4 players
• Recommended age: 10 years and older
• Playing time: Approximately 30–45 minutes
• Game modes: Multiplayer and solo
• Variants: Family Variant and Intermediate Variant
• Advanced mode: Optional Environment Scoring Cards
• Habitats: Forest, Meadow and Glacier
• Wildlife: Cougar, Eagle, Marmot, Mountain Goat and Pika
• Main gameplay: Habitat tile drafting, wildlife token drafting, tile placement and vertical stacking
• Turn count: 20 turns per player
• Setting: Alpine environments of the Cascadia region

Good to Know

• Standalone game: Cascadia: Alpine Lakes contains everything required to play. You do not need the original Cascadia.
• Familiar idea, new puzzle: You still choose from Habitat Tile and Wildlife Token pairings, but the double-hexagon tiles and stacking rules turn the environment into a three-dimensional challenge.
• Elevation matters: Tiles can be stacked according to specific placement rules, and both lakes and wildlife can benefit from being positioned higher in your landscape.
• Lakes have their own scoring: Lakes score according to their elevation, with their value doubled when completely surrounded by other tiles.
• Five new wildlife species: Alpine Lakes features Cougar, Eagle, Marmot, Mountain Goat and Pika rather than the five species from the original Cascadia.
• Advanced Mode: Add 1–3 Environment Scoring Cards for shared Wildlife, Habitat and Spatial scoring objectives.
• Solo mode: Dedicated solo rules are included, along with scoring benchmarks and additional scenarios.
• Family and Intermediate variants: Alternative scoring cards provide different levels of challenge while retaining the core gameplay.
• Scenarios and achievements: The rulebook includes 20 scenarios as well as achievement challenges that can be pursued in solo or multiplayer games.
• Bonus for Cascadia owners: The included Alpine Animals mini-expansion lets you use selected Alpine Lakes Wildlife Tokens with the original Cascadia Board Game to introduce additional scoring conditions.
• Rulebook: View the Cascadia: Alpine Lakes Rulebook (PDF)

Components

• 84 Habitat Tiles:  ( Double hexagons featuring combinations of Forest, Meadow and Glacier habitats )
• 90 Deluxe Wooden Wildlife Tokens  ( 18 Cougar , 18 Eagle , 18 Marmot , 18 Mountain Goat , 18 Pika )
• 4 Starter Habitat Tiles:  (Quadruple hexagons )
• 12 Habitat Scoring Cards : ( 4 Forest , 4 Meadow , 4 Glacier )
• 27 Environment Scoring Cards : (9 Wildlife, 9 Habitat ,9 Spatial )
• 34 Nature Tokens
• 1 Family/Intermediate Scoring Card
• 1 Wildlife Elevation Scoring Card
• 1 Lake Scoring Card
• 1 Alpine Animals Cascadia Mini-Expansion Card
• 1 Deluxe Cloth Bag
• 1 Full-Colour Scorepad
• 1 Rulebook