Cascadia Animal Spotlight – Red Foxes

February 20, 2025

Cascadia Digital is now available on Steam, Android, and iOS!

Cascadia reminds us about the interconnectedness of ecosystems and the importance of biodiversity, with wildlife being integral to the game’s essence. Take a look at each of the game’s five animals in our Animal Spotlight series!

The Red Fox

The Animal Spotlight series concludes with today’s featured creature, the Red Fox! This cunning critter of the Pacific Northwest is a stark contrast to last week’s Red-Tailed Hawk, but an equally fascinating inhabitant of the Cascadia region.

The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) is one of the most widespread mammals in the entire northern hemisphere. The Cascade Red Fox is a subspecies of red fox that is found in the prairies and subalpine areas at the foot of the Cascade Mountains. Red foxes are clever hunters that will eat just about anything – from small rodents to birds, eggs, and even insects.

Playing Red Foxes in Cascadia

Did you know that the Red Fox has one of the highest points-per-tile ratio in all of Cascadia? A single Red Fox can be worth up to 7 points alone, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s a pathway to easy points — you’ll need the wily wits of a fox itself to play these tricky little critters to their maximum potential. Red Foxes score points based on how they’re surrounded, so scoring them well requires careful interplay with the rest of your entire board.

Red Fox Tips

SCORING CARD A - NEARBY ANIMALS

Remember that fellow Foxes not only contribute to each other’s scoring, but are required for maximum points! It’s prudent, then, to remember that you’ll get more efficient use out of your Foxes if you’re keeping them all together.

SCORING CARD B - NEARBY PAIRS

A fully-scored Fox earns 7 points, the highest for any single Wildlife Token in the game! Consider the ways you could take advantage of this — you might start with “reusing” the animal pairs you’ve already assembled for one Fox by placing another Fox next to them.

SCORING CARD B - NEARBY RELATED

There aren’t very many Scoring Cards that allow an animal to fully surround a hex without compromising their own scoring (only Hawks, Elk, and Salmon in specific circumstances), making this card difficult to play around. Unless the conditions are ideal, consider using Foxes as a way to opportunistically scrape up some extra points here and there, rather than making them a top priority.

SCORING CARD B - DYNAMIC DUOS

It takes 10 Wildlife Tiles to get maximum scoring on these Dynamic Duos, and you only have 20 in one game! Don’t feel bad stopping at a single pair; it’s not impossible to get good scoring out of additional Foxes, but it’s worth considering opportunity costs and the potential for diminishing returns before you place any beyond your first pair.

Fun Fox Scenarios in Cascadia Digital

Challenge – On the Move: This Challenge isn’t specifically related to Foxes, but it allows you to have some fun with them. Foxes can be notoriously difficult to plan for, and this Challenge allows you to move Habitat Tiles with your Nature Tokens. One of your Foxes not working out too well for you? Move him somewhere else!
Solo Scenario 5: This Solo Scenario dares you to fully score 3 Foxes with Scoring Card B (Nearby Pairs). That means almost every Wildlife Token you play has to be in service of your Fox scoring. If you can pull it off, you may just learn a thing or two in the process about how to play Foxes more efficiently.

Discover the Pacific Northwest

Like the tricksters they are, Foxes can promise the potential of points, but if you’re not careful, they may just end up causing a mess of things instead!

Cascadia’s five animals each invite their own unique style of play, each one with its own quirks and behaviors, a reminder of the real-life biodiversity that the game is inspired by. Now that we’ve featured each one, this marks the end of the Animal Spotlight series, but with Cascadia Digital now available, the trail has just begun!

Cascadia Digital is now available on Android, iOS, and Steam. The hiking trail beckons — will you answer the call?

More Animal Spotlights