How to Play Caverna: The Cave Farmers – Rounds, Dwarfs & Harvests
Caverna: The Cave Farmers is a worker-placement game about developing two sides of one homestead: a farm outside and a cave system inside the mountain. Dwarfs take actions, gather resources, furnish caverns, grow crops, raise animals, mine ore and rubies, forge weapons and go on expeditions.
Base-game guide. This covers the original Caverna base game for 1–7 players. The standard game lasts 12 rounds, while the two-player game uses 11 rounds.
Each round has five phases
- Add a new action space. Reveal the next round card/action space.
- Replenish accumulation spaces. Add resources to spaces that build up from round to round.
- Work Time. Players alternate placing one available dwarf on an unoccupied action space and resolve that action immediately.
- Return home. After all dwarfs have worked, return them to their home boards.
- Harvest. On rounds that show a harvest, resolve fields, feeding and breeding.
Work Time is the core of the game
Every adult dwarf gives one worker-placement action. Action spaces let you collect wood, stone, ore, rubies, grain, vegetables and animals; clear forest; dig caverns; build rooms; fence pastures; sow fields; grow the family; forge weapons; mine; or take expeditions.
Like Agricola, an action space is normally occupied by only one dwarf during the round. The order in which you take contested actions therefore matters.
Your board has a forest side and a cave side
Outside, you clear forest to make room for fields and pastures. Inside, you excavate mountain spaces, build caverns and convert those caverns into furnishing tiles such as dwellings, mines and special rooms. Furnishings can provide points, resources or permanent abilities.
Growing the family gives more future actions
Dwellings create room for additional dwarfs. Family growth is powerful because a new dwarf becomes another worker in later rounds, but a larger family also increases future feeding requirements.
Weapons unlock expeditions
Ore can be used to forge a weapon for a dwarf. Armed dwarfs can take expedition actions and select rewards allowed by their current weapon strength. After an expedition, the dwarf’s weapon becomes stronger, creating a long-term alternative to some ordinary resource-gathering actions.
Harvests follow field, feeding and breeding steps
During a harvest, collect crops from planted fields, feed the family, and then breed eligible animal pairs if you have room for the newborns. The exact harvest schedule is shown on the round track, so players can see when the next food deadline is approaching.
Animals need legal housing
Pastures, stables and certain furnishings determine animal capacity. Dogs interact specially with sheep, while farm animals—sheep, donkeys, wild boar and cattle—are important both economically and at final scoring.
The game ends after the final round
After the last round and its required harvest, score the farm. Points come from furnishing tiles, animals, crops, rubies, gold, dwarfs, pastures, mines and special bonuses. Missing farm-animal types and unused home-board spaces can reduce the total.
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Sources and scope
Checked September 20, 2026. Forgotten Folk, Frantic Fiends and Cave vs. Cave are outside this guide.