Cascadero

The kingdom is shattered, its towns are divided, and its people are distrusting. The newly crowned ruler, El Cascadero, seeks to reunite the land, but he can’t do it alone. He appoints four ministers to visit the people and restore civil harmony, each with a dedicated responsibility: Farming, Crafting, Mining, and Markets. El Cascadero also records the successes of his ministers.

Cascadero is the next epic tile placement strategy game from acclaimed designer Reiner Knizia. Ministers visit towns by placing their envoys adjacent to them; but towns are distrusting of single envoys, so newly placed envoys will only trigger town scoring when they are part of an established group or carry an official seal from El Cascadero himself. Towns with Royal Messengers or a history of envoy visits are even more valuable.

Players must choose between two strategies: build long chains of envoys to achieve synergies and objectives, or establish smaller, separate groups to trigger timely town scoring. By triggering town scoring, you advance along that town’s success column, gaining bonuses. Through careful timing and clever plans, players can trigger a cascading combo of exciting bonuses.

Cascadero offers great replayability through emergent player interaction, variable board and tile setups, and an advanced player mode featuring traveling heralds. The game ends when a player reaches fifty points or has no tiles left. Players who reach the end of their success column qualify for victory, and the one with the most points wins.