I am a huge fan of Agricola which is precursor to this board game. Having left my copy to my home country I was looking for a similar experience but did not want to buy the same thing twice. Therefore, I felt that Caverna would be a safe bet and I was right. It is a deeply strategic board game with numerous ways to victory, which shares similar mechanisms with Agricola making it a familiar experience to someone who has already played this game before, while being different enough to feel like a different game.



Opening the box it is obvious why it is so huge, heavy and expensive. It contains a plethora of wooden and thick cardboard pieces which is a pleasure to smell. The artwork is pleasing and a bit comic-y making it ideal as a family game. The setup and the rules require some serious time investing to make sure all bases are covered as there are plenty of details that can missed if someone hurries. It is supposed to take 20 minutes per player to finish but my experience has shown that it is more like 40-60 minutes per player (unless playing with experts) so make sure you have no other plans made for later.



The idea is each player is managing a family of dwarves. Your play mat is split into two areas; the forest and the cave. The forest can be turned into a farm where you can grow livestock, grain or vegetables. The cave can be explored to dig for ore and rubies, or furnish different rooms (caverns) differently to acquire unique bonuses. In addition to that, each dwarf can be "armed" with a weapon and go on expeditions to gain loot (do not expect any fancy RPG elements here, this is as simple as obtaining certain items depending on the weapon level). This basic structure is common to all players. What differentiates each player's strategy are the numerous options available on a common play mat where actions, resources and caverns are waiting to be picked in turn order. All caverns are unique and open up different, never-ending strategies to pursue.



This never-ending combination of things to go for is perhaps one of the two disadvantages of this game I can think of. For a beginner, this can feel intimidating (as he is faced with too many options without being able to appreciate their significance at first) and lose interest. Therefore, if anything this is a board game that requires commitment to repeated plays by the same people. The other disadvantage is the amount of time it takes to set it up. I highly suggest investing in some form of organiser (either tackle boxes or specialised wooden inserts). Unfortunately, I find that even with an organiser it takes time to set it up and can feel like doing too much work to play a game.



In summary, this is a costly game that the more effort you put into it the better the results you gain out of it. It can appeal to anyone who is looking for a fun, strategic board game, which uses action-selecting, resource-gaining and engine-building mechanisms, and does not mind spending the time to arrange things around on the play mat. It plays solo or up to 7 players. Personally, I think it is mostly enjoyed by a group of 3-5.