Caverna

Caverna is not for everyone, but it's pretty close. It's a big box game, meaning it has a LOT of components, and for people who aren't already into board games, it might be a bit overwhelming. It's not actually that hard to learn, but it's more complicated than, say, Kingdomino.At the core, it's a worker placement game like Raiders of the North Sea, with nods to Kingdomino and even Castles of Mad King Ludwig. To me it's the quintessential worker placement game. Agricola has a lot of the same mechanics but is more punishing. This is a better experience for more players, or for those newer to board games and who might be reluctant to learn something that looks so vast. And it is vast.The complexity comes mainly in the form of 1) how many actions you have to choose from, and 2) how many different rooms you can build. Once you learn the basic game flow, the rest will start making sense the more you play. Caverna is a game where the strategy runs pretty deep. You will continue to notice new things every time you play.As I said in the title of this review: if you need help picking your "big box game," let me help you out: pick Caverna. If your group of friends is a more hardcore gamer group that plays many different games, you might want to go for Agricola instead. If you're not sure, just get this one. For the same price as Settlers of Catan, you get a lot more. Much wider support for number of players, expandable boards, tons of components, and even a solo play mode. The components are well made and satisfying to use.I really can't think of anything negative here. It does take some learning, but not much compared to other big box games. As a gift it is probably best to consider smaller or less expensive games. I would want to know the person I was gifting it to was a super board game geek before buying this for them - but then, if they were a super board game geek, they'd probably already own it. So the gifting value is a bit limited.

Caverna is a great worker placement style game with many choices on the way to collect points. Pros Cons:Pros:Many different strategies create great replay valueThe components are amazingly well done. Very high quality gameSurprisingly easy to teach for such an involved gameA ton of theme, really feel like a dwarf familyCons:So much going on, easy to get frustrated or lost on your first game or two, making choices to make choices without thoughtVery unclear how to maximize points to win, makes it hard to work towards an objective (which is also a pro)While the point system is better, it's still a little complexSetup/Cleanup is lengthyReally feels like you're playing solo but there are other farms out there (Oblivion Movie effect kinda?)I would like to suggest to people playing that once a worker is placed, it's much faster to have the next person place their worker and keep going while the first one collects the pieces or places their tiles. If you wait for everyone to completely collect their items and think about their tile placement, it gets very lengthy.I loved this game personally, and my other gamer friend really enjoyed it as well. My girlfriend, who is by all definitions a very casual player, didn't particularly enjoy it; in her mind it was a 2.5 out of 5 stars kind of game because of the length and having no idea what she was supposed to do to win. My other casual gamer friend was in a similar boat and gave it 3 out of 5. I think that if they played it again now that they have a handle on it they'd increase their scores as this really is a great family kind of game.

I have played it only twice solo and one time 2 players and it is fantastic. The time estimate is 30 minutes per person, but I found that it is closer to 1+ hrs per person. The dynamics of this game are excellent: worker placement, resource gathering, territory management. I feel the variability of approaches will allow this game to stay fresh for a long time. In the three games I have played, I have taken three different approaches and do not know if one is necessarily better than the other. It just all depends.I have played a lot of different games and I think the theme of this game widens the range of audience receptive to this game. Although there is no direct conflict with the other players board, since you have to place workers (dwarves) on action options (only one dwarf can take any action in a round), there will be some hurt feelings as players vie for the same options.My cons would be that there are so many pieces that if you don't buy (or build in my case) your own piece organizer, setup and tear down is too time consuming. Also, the wood and the cows/dogs are too similar of a color and can get a bit jumbled.Overall, I recommend this game for people who are willing to have longer board gaming sessions. The rules seem intimidating, since there are over 30 pages, so it would be good to familiarize yourself in a single player game instead of learning it as a group.FYI, I also added eyes to my sheep because it is hilarious. The game pieces don't come like that.

This is a game I have heard about for a long time. The battle between Agricola and Caverna. All I can say is I can't wait for my next play through of this game. It comes with board and boards of pieces to punch out and has a lot of pieces in the box due to the game being able to play up to 7 players. Caverna plays best at 4 players and the board changes depending on the playground. It has been said that this game can get stale due to the elements not changing very much but I find it great fun trying to maximize the potential of a new strategy. That is the core of the game as there are any number of paths to victory points. Definitely watch a play through on YouTube as it is not a hard game to grasp but does come with a hefty rulebook to flip through and takes quite a bit of setup. You will need a fairly big table to play as well.