Much more than Agricola 2.0

Playing Agricola and realizing it was not really for us was kind of a bad omen for ⛏️ Caverna, a game we have had on our shelf for a few years now. It did make us intrigued to see the differences though, as Agricola vs Caverna is a constant debate in the hobby. So after trying Caverna we were very surprised how much we enjoyed it. To me it is miles above Agricola thanks to several new additions, but most notably there is much more flexibility as you can obtain things in multiple ways. Being able to pivot in games is a must in my opinion. 🙃

So the two games do seem almost the same from afar. 👉 Worker placement, worker blocking, new actions added every round, a family you want to grow during the game, sowing crops and breeding animals, and the constant need to have enough food to feed hungry mouths. So I’ll focus on the differences. 🧐

Player boards now have a mountain too. This is where you excavate caverns and tunnels so you can build all kinds of rooms and mines. Room tiles replace the improvement and occupation cards from Agricola. I do like this added emphasis on the tile placement element a lot! 🙃

Then one of the biggest things is how you can craft weapons 🗡️ for your dwarves (oh yeah, these are not random farmers, but fantasy dwarves instead!). Weapons let you go looting with some actions, which basically means you get to pick out some bonuses from a list. (So no worries, there is no fighting other players). You can also get rubies that can be exchanged for a number of things.

Looting and rubies are the added flexibility I mentioned earlier, which means you won’t just get denied some essential thing thanks to a pesky opponent. I think many enjoy the tightness and competitive nature of Agricola, but we prefer the feel-good moments that mechanics like this offer, like realizing you CAN do those actions you wanted in some other way after all. 😊

So even if the two games look similar from afar, playing them are two quite different experiences, and Caverna is now not just a game we own, but one we like. 😁