How to Play Cascadia Junior
Learn Cascadia Junior setup for 2–4 players, legal tile placement, groups of three animals, Wildlife Markers and the ten-turn ending.
Cascadia Junior uses a short four-step turn: take one of two faceup Habitat Tiles, place it beside your environment, check for a new animal group, then replace the chosen tile in the display. After everyone has taken ten turns, award habitat sightings and score the panorama.
Official English rulebook PDF · Scoring and advanced-mode reference
Prepare the correct number of tiles
| Players | Tiles used | Tiles returned to the box |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 23 | 27 |
| 3 | 34 | 16 |
| 4 | 45 | 5 |
Mix the tiles facedown and form draw stacks from the quantity for your group. Give each player one random starting tile, faceup in their personal area, and a Panorama Board with its reference side up. Leave enough room to extend the environment.
Reveal two tiles in the center. Place the five Wildlife Cards with their standard A side visible. Sort the Wildlife Markers by their matching animal cards. Mix the sighting tokens without looking at cone values: put wildlife sightings by their species and habitat sightings in the supply, picture sides up.
The tile counts provide one starting tile plus ten chosen tiles per player, with one tile ultimately left in the display. The starting tile is not your first turn.
1. Choose a tile
The youngest player begins. Choose one of the two faceup Habitat Tiles. Both printed hexagons belong to that tile and stay together. You are comparing the animals and habitats on one whole tile against those on the other.
Teaching example: Point out one candidate that extends an animal pair and another that expands a terrain group. Ask which goal the player wants to pursue, rather than selecting the tile for them.
2. Place the whole tile
At least one edge of the new tile must touch an edge of your existing environment. Rotate the new tile to find a useful orientation before placing it. A corner-only touch does not satisfy an edge requirement. Do not move tiles already placed.
Matching animal icons or habitats creates opportunities to score, but a match is not required on every touching edge. A tile can be legally connected even when the terrain along that connection differs. Check legal placement first, then evaluate the scoring opportunity.
Decision example: If one orientation completes a three-animal group while another makes a two-space terrain group, the immediate sighting may be attractive. However, check both hexagons: the first orientation might also leave the other habitat in a useful position for a later tile.
3. Check for three unused matching animals
In standard play, three icons of the same species must form an edge-connected group. The group can bend; it does not need to form a straight line or a particular shape. None of the three icons being counted may already carry a Wildlife Marker.
Cover the qualifying icons with three matching Wildlife Markers, then take a matching Wildlife Sighting Token and put it on your Panorama Board with the animal picture visible. Remaining unused icons may help make another group later.
Example: You have two connected, uncovered fox icons. A new fox touching that group can create a trio. Place fox markers on those three icons and take a fox sighting. Adding a fourth fox next turn does not make a fresh trio by reusing two of the covered foxes.
Watch the component names: Wildlife Markers stay on habitat tiles; Wildlife Sighting Tokens go to the panorama and carry the hidden cone score. They do different jobs.
4. Refill the two-tile choice
Reveal a new tile from the draw stacks to restore two faceup choices, then pass the turn. Track turns by each player’s growing environment if needed. The game ends when each player has taken ten turns and has 11 Habitat Tiles including the starting tile.
One tile remains in the middle. The end is based on completing those ten turns, not on filling a panorama or collecting a certain number of animal tokens.
What happens at the end?
Now check each habitat for edge-connected groups. A connected group of three to five matching habitat spaces earns one habitat sighting; a group of six or more earns two. Then flip all panorama sightings and count their cones. See the scoring page for the distinction between connected groups and the two hexagons on each tile.
Learn the game with a consistent checking routine
- Confirm the new tile touches an existing edge.
- Check whether a trio uses three identical, uncovered animals.
- Mark those animals before taking the panorama reward.
- Replace the tile in the center.
This routine makes progress visible without adding a new rule. For early sessions, leave the Wildlife Cards on A and practice connected groups first. Flip to the advanced side only when the standard process is familiar; the advanced-mode guide explains what changes.
Sources and scope
- AEG English Cascadia Junior rulebook PDF — downloadable instructions and English component names.
- KOSMOS official German Junior instructions — setup quantities, placement, marking, ending and advanced-mode clarification.
- AEG release announcement — designers, 2025 release, player count and intended progression.
Checked October 4, 2026. Rules were researched from publisher materials, including the official KOSMOS instructions; English component names follow AEG. Teaching and decision examples are editorial guidance, not firsthand family testing or developmental guarantees. Use the Wildlife Cards in your copy for the advanced shapes. Editorial policy and corrections.