Caldera Park

About the game

What is Caldera Park?

Welcome to the wilderness of North America! Breathtaking mountain views and spectacular geysers await you. Vast forests and prairie provide habitats for native animals. Your task is to group animals of the same species together in families as large as possible. But large families are only half the battle: to score a lot of points, they also need access to watering holes and must avoid bad weather. A turn comprises two simple steps: First, one player chooses a feature (species or watering hole) and a terrain requirement from a limited selection. Then, each player must place one of their tokens showing that feature onto one of their park spaces obeying that terrain requirement. What seems no trouble at first grows more and more challenging and exciting as the available spaces become fewer and fewer. But it’s not only the choices of your fellow players that can disrupt your plans. There are also unpredictable weather tokens that you must take into account. After five rounds, the game ends. Then you score your most valuable family of each species and the terrains you completely populated. Caldera Park is an interactive puzzle-game that achieves a perfect balance between strategic planning and luck. This, and its accessible ruleset, make it a great next step for anyone who enjoyed Savannah Park. —description from the publisher

How it plays

Mechanics

On the shelf

Categories

Questions players ask

Questions to bring to BoardGameBrain

• How do setup and the first turn work in Caldera Park?
• When does scoring happen and what ends the game?
• How should the table resolve an unusual timing or rules interaction?