Caverna: The Cave Farmers*
Caverna: The Cave Farmers is a worker-placement board game that builds upon the mechanics of its predecessor, Agricola. It combines farming and cave dwelling themes, where players manage a dwarf family and their expanding homestead.
Gameplay Overview
- Worker-Placement Mechanics: Players use family members to perform various actions each turn.
- Farming and Mining: Balance between cultivating the land and mining resources from the mountain.
- Cave Development: Dig into the mountain to create dwellings and workspaces, while finding valuable resources like ore and rubies.
- Agriculture: Clear forests to create fields and pastures for crops and animals.
- Family Expansion: Grow your dwarf family to increase the number of actions you can take.
- Weapon Crafting and Expeditions: Mine ore to forge weapons, allowing for expeditions that grant bonuses.
- Building and Customization: Use 48 different furnishing tiles to develop your cave, each providing unique benefits.
- Solo Play Option: A variant for solo play to familiarize with game mechanics.
- New Elements: Introduces new concepts to Agricola's formula, including the cave part of the board and new animals like dogs and donkeys.
- End Goal: Aim for the most efficiently developed home board to win.
Conclusion
Caverna: The Cave Farmers offers a rich and immersive experience for fans of worker-placement and strategy games. It enhances the Agricola experience with additional elements like cave exploration and resource mining, providing a deep and engaging gameplay experience. The game's mix of farming, resource management, and strategic development, along with the addition of expeditions and weapon crafting, makes it a highly replayable and versatile game. It's well-suited for players who enjoy planning, building, and optimizing their strategies to create a thriving homestead.
Nominated for 9 awards and won 3.
- 👥 1 - 7 Players
- ⏱️ 30 - 210 Minutes
- 🧒 12+ years old
- 🧩 Hard to learn
We like Caverna: The Cave Farmers so much that we recommend it in the following board game recommendation lists 2026
- Position 10 in All "Deutscher Spielepreis🇩🇪 2014" game award winners & nominees in comparison
- Position 60 in All games of the "Hunter & Cron Patreon Award 2018" list 🇩🇪
- Position 75 in All games from the Top100 "Hunter & Cron Award 2020" list 🇩🇪
- Position 29 in Best games where unchosen resources increase in value
- Position 27 in The best Board Games for Hardcore Gamers
- Position 30 in The Best Board Games with Dogs
- Position 13 in The Best Board Games with Donkeys
- Position 29 in The best games where unchosen resources increase in value 📈
- Position 19 in The best games with automatic growth of resources
- Position 14 in The favorite games of Andi
- Position 12 in The favorite games of Hunter and Cron in 2014
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