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It is hard to imagine the hobby without Reiner Kinizia. The sheer output of games (over 700 and counting!) is matched only by how influential his most well-regarded games have been. And he doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, as Cascadero, his most recent release, shows. And I’m pleased to say that it doesn’t disappoint in terms of quality either as the Good Doctor has pretty much knocked it out of the park again. Whether it will appeal to you or your game group will likely depend on how you feel about his particular brand of tricksy, abstract area control games and also about the distinctive visual flair of another member of Boardgame Royalty, artist Ian O’Toole. Both of these factors are strong reasons why I really enjoyed this game, and possibly equally strong reasons why someone else may not. So strap in for a quick tour of 15th Century Spain and see if this is a game that should grace the shelves of your Casa any time soon.
Nobody Expects the Spanish Indecision!
I genuinely feel that there is no other designer around that quite has their finger on the pulse of light-medium games as Reiner Knizia. Cascadero is another game that neatly falls into this bracket and demonstrates the coveted “simple to learn but hard to master” tag that lighter Euros aspire to.
Cascadero is for two to four players, although I would suggest that it plays best with at least three. Players taking on the role of Ministers to the newly crowned El Cascadero trying to reunite a Spain torn apart by infighting and civil unrest. As Ministers, players compete to send their envoys around the board, make links with the scattered villages and bring the rule of the new leader to the outposts. Each player has one of four areas of special interest each with a scoring track to record their progress: Mining, Farming, Crafting and Markets. There is also a fifth track for education. Players aim to send out their messengers to different coloured villages on the board to trigger scoring along these tracks and to obtain bonuses as they progress. As they progress along the different tracks they will gain more victory points and better rewards for achieving these quicker than other players. A canny Minister knows that they will need to achieve some success in all of the different areas to earn the best rewards and score the most points. The catch, however, is that if players diversify too much and do not reach the end of their specific coloured track, they are disqualified from winning the game, no matter how many points they achieve!
How to Play:
A players turn is deceptively simply in Cascadero: Play one coloured Envoy onto an empty hex on the board. And that is it. There are very few restrictions on placement and once placed the pieces rarely move. But within this one simply action lies a huge amount of strategy and scope for messing with your opponents. The added complication in Cascadero comes in the scoring. Scoring is triggered by placing an envoy by a coloured village. If the envoy is isolated, then this doesn’t (usually) score. But if placed adjacent to a village and it links to one or more of your other envoys, then this will trigger scoring on the coloured
Success track that matches the village. Even better, if the village already has an envoy next to it, then you will score twice on the track… as long as the new envoy placed is part of a separate group from the original. There are also achievements to be gained by placing envoys adjacent to different towns, grouping them in unbroken chains to gain valuable Victory points. And here is the main dilemma in Cascadero. Because although the game rewards “chaining” with victory points, these rewards are first come first serve and can result in a race. However, to progress on the Success tracks successfully, players will likely need to place envoys around villages in multiple separate clusters in order to benefit from the higher scoring. The higher up a track you progress, the more bonuses you receive such as extra turns, moving pieces on the board, Victory points and crucially, movement up other Success tracks. Hence choosing when you want to daisy chain your pieces across the board for achievements or cluster them around key villages to jump up the tracks will depend on your tactical preferences and a good reading of the board.
Maxed Messengers
An added wrinkly is the appearance of Royal Messengers, or Heralds, in five of the villages on the boards. These remain in place throughout the game and add an additional move along the Success track when linking with its village. So if this is the second, or even third group, it will give a three place bump up a track. In a game of fine margins this can be huge and guarantees that these villages will be hard fought for early in the game. Moves of three in the success track can ensure multiple bonuses can be gained from the tracks in one move, leading to juicy little combos which will delight you as much as it annoys your opponents. One such Bonus is the Royal Seal. These are only available from certain track spaces and are one off rewards for whomever reaches the space first. Their power is limited but surprisingly useful. Basically, with a royal decree in hand, a single Envoys counts as a group and therefore will score when placed next to a village and possibly open up a new area for them to exploit. There is also an achievement to be gained by collecting three seals without using them. Only a few points but as with everything in this game, a little goes a long way.
Bonus Bonuses
One of the design elements I really admire about Cascadero is that the rewards and bonuses are desirable but don’t unbalance the game. They are never so overly generous as to give the winner an instantly unassailable position. It also means that while players have plenty to fight over, it rarely pays to over commit to completing one particular achievement at the cost of other considerations. Cascadero is a game which rewards a fluid approach to tactics and a willingness to change things up as the game progresses. Part of this is due to the way in which player interaction is limited. There are no opportunities to mess with your opponents pieces by moving or removing them. None of the bonuses operate as “take that!” type moves to scupper their progress on tracks or deprive them of hard-won points so it never feels punishing or unfair.
But that doesn’t mean that players are unable to interfere with their rivals. On the contrary, because pieces are permanent once they are on the board, a single envoy can completely derail someone else’s plan. A well-placed, and well timed, piece in the path of your opponent’s lovingly crafted chain, or next to the sole empty village space they desperately need to score, can be the difference between a crushing points victory for them and complete failure to even score. Which frankly, feels pretty good… and will almost guarantee you get to learn a few choice Spanish insults into the bargain.
Mi Casca e Su Casca
Part of the charm of Cascadero’s design is the simplicity of its game rules and how this hides a much more varied decision space than at first glance. However just in case players hanker for a little more variety, there are some additional variations in the gameplay to mix things up. It means you can add a little more complexity for more experienced players without losing the rustic charm of the basic premise. The Advanced variant plays with only two heralds and lets players move these around throughout the game. The other side of the board introduces farmer tiles (at the expense of some of the village hexes) which offer players another route to gain bonuses by placing envoys on the tile. The catch is that these need to be unlocked by placing an adjacent envoy first. The tiles generally give rewards similar to the bonuses on the Success tracks. However some of the tiles allow you to move any one of the Heralds to a different village on the board. While this is a small change, it adds a lot more interaction to the game as Heralds make a huge difference to how quickly you advance up tracks. The tiles themselves are generally one use as envoys tend to stay put, but there is definitely some mileage to be had triggering these tiles, removing envoys from them using a “move” bonus and then re-scoring them again later. It is another example of how a relatively simple addition to the basic rules results in a different game experience. Not necessarily better, not even deeper but different and I am all for anything which adds to the longevity of a game.
Latin lover?
The overall presentation of the game is also lovely, although I can see some people being put off by the somewhat beige tint to the box and board. Personally, though, I think the art work is perfectly suited to the game, giving it a slightly classical, muted feel in keeping with a game set in medieval Europe. Similarly, as you would expect with Ian O’Toole in charge of design aesthetics, the iconography on the board is clear and unfussy ensuring that once the basic rules are relayed you have all the information in front of you to carry on playing without having to constantly refer to the rule book.
The playing pieces themselves are cute wooden pieces, colourful and nice to fiddle with. Even the first player marker is cute…completely unnecessary as first player never changes, but definitely cute.
So what are the negatives? Honestly, very little. This is a simple abstract game that can play quickly unless you really like to overthink your moves. The only real criticism I could level at Cascadero is the same as I would about any abstract game: the theme is pretty much pasted on and it can feel pretty dry at times. Despite some valiant attempts in the rules to make the scoring work thematically ( So the second group of envoys are more trustworthy than the first? Ok, Reiner, whatever you say…), it really doesn’t make much sense and you just have to be ok with that!
I would also say it’s possible some players may feel hard done by when they are disqualified completely by not reaching the end of their specific Success track, but in honesty, it just makes things a little more spicy as players race to gobble up scoring opportunities towards the end of the game. There is even a rare possibility where everyone fails to get to the end of their tracks. In this case the highest scorer is simply the winner. I suppose it is possible this could even be a niche strategy for more devious, and better, players than me.
Final Thoughts
So would I recommend Cascadero? Definitely, but the caveat being that you must be able to enjoy more abstract games and particularly ones with limited player interactivity. Cascadero is a great way to while away an hour with two or three friends, or as an opener for a games evening. I can’t imagine it will be featuring in many top ten lists this year as it is pretty unassuming as games go and definitely on the lighter side. And that’s a shame as it may not get the exposure it needs to go on to be considered a true Reiner Knizia classic. But as a solid, thinky, pretty little game that plays quickly, this one definitely ranks among his better games in recent years and is definitely worth a look
