Cascadero is a fun route-building game.

Where you can have the most points, and not win!

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. Thus, he appoints four ministers to visit the people and restore civil harmony. While the ministers are obligated to bring prosperity to the entire land, each of them also has one dedicated responsibility: Farming, Crafting, Mining, and Markets. El Cascadero also records in his book the successes of his ministers…

Cascadero Game Overview

Quick Rules Summary

Players take turns playing an envoy on an empty hex on the board. If they make a route connecting two towns, they move up the track of the colour town they just connected to. They move up more spaces for each other player that is connected to that town and if it contains a white royal messenger.

Moving up tracks grants awards such as points, taking another turn or even taking a bonus move on track. Landing exactly on a row with a seal, which are first come first served, gives you that seal. Seals can be used to take enhanced actions on your turn.

There are some other rewards that all players can get, such as connecting 2 cities of the same colour together with one group on envoys. There are also some first come, first served rewards such as connecting 5 cities of all 5 colours with one group.

How do you win?

When a player runs out of Envoys or a player gets 50 points the game ends.

The player with the most points wins…. maybe! First of all, you have to get your token to the top of the track in your player’s colour. Only the players that have done this can win, if no one does then the most points win from any player.

Main Mechanisms

Route building is the main one. You need to connect to cities to move up the tracks but also to achieve those bonuses.

Theme

So the player colours and their related tracks represent Farming, Crafting, Mining, and Markets. The symbols on the tracks reflect that. But I don’t see a theme while playing.

Setup

Put the seals and cubes on the tracks, royal messengers on their spaces and hand out the envoys. I believe that’s all.

Components & Artwork

All the envoys and messengers are detailed and really nice. The seals look good and didn’t need to be wood but I’m glad they are. The art is minimal but the graphic design is pretty good for the most part.

Ease of Teaching

Teaching is very easy, especially the basics of playing envoys and moving cubes. Some of the abilities gained from the seals are not too clear.

Similar Games

I’ve played Rebirth and Through the Desert, two similar route-building games from Reiner Knizia. Rebirth was also published in 2024.

There are more, I even played one from a different designer not long after playing this that had a similar feel.

Cascadero Review

Positives

Very easy gameplay with a fair bit of strategy.

Comboing several track movements in a turn is satisfying.

The end-game scoring twist with you needing to be at the top of your track to be in with a chance is really fun and adds a lot to the gameplay.

The board is double-sided with slightly different advanced rules on the other side.

You can block off opponents to prevent them from making connections…

Negatives

…which is frustrating as someone may spot you but not someone else. It’s quite tough to see a route when the board gets busy.

I’m not sure about long-term replayability. I would like to have seen variable scoring goals to make games different.

Summary

A very fun and simple to play game with a lot to think about as you play and a great end-game goal.

Jesta ThaRogue