Caverna is a development strategy game for 1 to 7 players aged 12 and up.

The playing time is about 30 minutes per player.

Uwe Rosenberg advises:

You can play this game with up to 7 players. For your first
play, we recommend you only play with 5 players at most
to reduce downtime.

Game idea
In this game, you take the roles of adventurous dwarfs living reclusively in caves where you dig for ore and rubies and furnish caverns
to become living and working areas. You need ore to craft weapons to undertake expeditions in search of adventure and loot. Rubies
are a valuable and highly flexible good: you can trade them for other goods and landscape tiles at any time. Outside your caves, you
will look after your sustenance by felling trees, raising farm animals and doing some agriculture.
At the end of the game, the wealthiest dwarf will win.

Components
Wooden & acrylic playing pieces
20 light brown Dog tokens
35 white Sheep tokens
30 grey Donkey tokens
30 black Wild boar tokens
30 brown Cattle tokens
45 brown Wood tokens
25 grey Stone tokens

45 black (acrylic) Ore gems

20 red (acrylic) Ruby gems
40 yellow Grain tokens
35 orange Vegetable tokens
1 yellow Starting player token
7x3 Stables in different colors
7x5 Dwarf discs in different colors

16 Game boards
7 large Home boards (Forest on the
left, Mountain on the right)
1 small basic game board with 3
preprinted Action spaces and Round
spaces 1 to 3
1 large basic game board with Round spaces 4 to 12

1 two-sided basic game board with preprinted Action spaces for 1

to 3 players on one side (and for 4 to 7 players on the other side)
1 large additional game board (with additional Action spaces for
5 players on one side and for 6 to 7 players on the other side)
1 small additional game board (with additional Action spaces for
3 players on one side and for 7 players on the other side)
4 longish supply boards to organize the Furnishing tiles

Entry-level dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

On counter sheets
20 Gold coins labeled 1
24 Gold coins labeled 2
5 Gold coins labeled 10
1 Additional dwarf marker
88 1 Food markers
7 round Harvest markers

52 Weapon strength markers

(1x 1, 1x 2, 4x each of 3 to 13, and 6x 14)
8 Multiplication markers 4x
(on the other side: Begging markers -3 Gold)
8 Goods markers (8 Sheep, 8 Donkeys, 8 Wild boars,
8 Cattle, 10 Wood, 10 Stone, 10 Ore, 5 Rubies)
2 8 Animals markers

Furnishing and landscape tiles

17 identical Dwelling Furnishing tiles
47 other unique Furnishing tiles
8 single tiles Tunnel (on the other side: Cavern)
16 single tiles Ruby mine (on the other side: Field)
16 single tiles Meadow (on the other side: Small
pasture)
29 Playing cards
1 Harvest events card
12 Action space cards
with Action spaces for rounds 1 to 12
7 Overview cards Rubies, Harvest time

Ore mine

24 twin tiles Ore mine/Deep tunnel

(on the other side: Large pasture)
40 twin tiles Cavern/Tunnel
(on the other side: Cavern/Cavern)
40 twin tiles Meadow/Field
(on the other side: Small pasture/Field)

Wish for children

either

or

furnish
a Dwelling
Dwelling

Room

for

Dwarf

Round 4

7 Overview cards Expedition loot

(values 1 to 8 on one side and 9 to 14 on the other side)
2 Dwarf cards for the solo and 2-player game

also
scoring pad
bags to organize the components

24 page rule book

8 page appendix with details on Expeditions,
the Furnishing tiles and the Action spaces

Setup
We will explain the game for 2 to 7 players first. The solo rules will be explained on the last page.

Your personal playing areas

Each player chooses a color and takes the Home
board and the 5 Dwarfs and 3 Stables of that color.

Harvest tim
e
1.) Field ph
ase

Entry-level dwelling

Place 2 of the 5 Dwarfs side by side in the Entrylevel dwelling on your Home board. Keep the
remaining 3 Dwarfs and Stables next to your Home
board as your personal supply.

Expedition

2.) Feeding
ph ase

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

per

per

3.) Breeding
ph ase

(Return the Dwarfs, Stables and Home boards of the

leftover colors to the game box.)

furnish
a Cavern

Then take one of each of the 2 different Overview

cards.
Randomly determine the player who gets the
Starting player token. The Starting player and the
player to his left each get 1 Food. The third player
gets 2 Food. Each other player gets 3 Food.

loot

after Exp edit

ion all Weapo
ns +1

Stables

Your first two Dwarfs live together in the

entry-level room of their cave.

We recommend you cover the Dwarfs in your

supply with Stables to avoid using them by
accident before you are allowed to.

in clockwise order

Starting player

2nd player

3rd player

5th player

4th player

6th player

7th player

Players get a different number of Food depending on their position in the turn order.

Ruby mining

The game boards with Action spaces

PLAYERS

Place the two single-sided basic game boards with

Round spaces 1 to 3 and 4 to 12 next to each other.
Shuffle the 7 Harvest markers and place them
face-down (with the grey rune symbol facing
up) on the Round spaces 6 to 12, one marker per
space. Place the Harvest events card next to the
game boards.

Round 4

with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

Stage 2
Round 1
Stage 1

if you have
at least

Ruby mine

remember:
use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

no harvest

Housework

and / or

furnish
a Cavern

Wish for children

either

Round 4

Round 7

Round 10

Stage 3

Stage 4

or

furnish
a Dwelling
Wohnhhle

Platz

fr

Zwerg

pay 1 Food
per Dwarf

Round 2

Round 5

Round 8

Round 11

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Round 3

Round 6

Round 9

Round 12

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

no harvest

Slash-and-burn

No harvest

and then / or

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

Scoring

Pay 1 Food
per Dwarf
instead of
harvest
Skip the
Field phase
or the
Breeding phase

The 7 harvest markers

are put face-down on
the game boards.

In a 2-player game, remove one of the Harvest markers with a green leaf from the game. Then distribute the
remaining 6 markers among the Round spaces 6 to 12 leaving space 9 empty.

Place the third basic game board to the left of the first two. Turn it to the appropriate side depending
on the number of players (1 to 3, or 4 to 7 players).

Strip mining

There are two additional game boards.

Large depot

In games with 5 to 7 players, the larger additional game board is used. Turn it to the appropriate
side depending on the number of players (5, or 6 to 7 players).
The smaller additional game board is used in games with 3 or 7 players.
Place the required additional game boards to the left of the basic ones.
Imitation

pay 4 Food to use

an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

Imitation

supply boards

Place the supply boards for the Furnishing

tiles near the other game boards.

Strip mining

Round 4

with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

Stage 2

basic game boards

Round 1

additional
game
board
Imitation

This is the setup for a 3-player game.

Especially in a 3-player game, players
tend to forget about the additional
game board. Place the supply boards
near the other game boards as you
see fit.

Ruby mining

Starting player

Excavation

Drift mining

Wish for children

either

Stage 1

and / or

and / or

if you have
at least

Ruby mine

remember:
use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

pay 4 Food to use

an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

and / or

furnish
a Cavern

Round 7

Round 10

Stage 3

Stage 4

Wohnhhle

Platz

fr

Zwerg

pay 1 Food
per Dwarf

no harvest

Housework

Ore mining

Supplies

Logging

Round 4

or

furnish
a Dwelling

Round 2

Round 5

Round 8

Round 11

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Round 3

Round 6

Round 9

Round 12

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

and then / or

for each

Ore mine

no harvest

Forest exploration

Wood gathering

Slash-and-burn

Sustenance

Clearing

No harvest

and then / or
and / or

and / or

Pay 1 Food
per Dwarf
instead of
harvest

Harvest events card

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

Skip the
Field phase
or the
Breeding phase

Scoring

The supply boards and Furnishing tiles

When playing with 6 or 7

players, we recommend
that you start with the Full
game to make sure that
there is a sufficient number
of Furnishing tiles in play.

The supply boards are double-sided. One side is used in the Introductory
game, the other side is used in the Full game. The Full game comes with
a larger variety of Furnishing tiles. (Put the unused Furnishing tiles back
into the game box when playing an Introductory game.)

Place the Furnishing tiles on the appropriate spaces on the supply boards. There is more than one ordinary
Dwelling tile. Place some of them on the appropriate space on the supply board and keep the rest next to it as
a reserve.
There is a sufficient number of ordinary Dwelling
tiles (costing 4 wood and 3 stone). You do not need to
put all of them on the supply board. Replenish them
incrementally from time to time when needed.

Dwelling
Dwelling
Dwelling
Dwelling
Dwelling
Dwelling

Simple dwelling

Room for 1 Dwarf

Room for 1 Dwarf
Room for 1 Dwarf
Room for 1 Dwarf
Room for 1 Dwarf
Room for 1 Dwarf
Room for 1 Dwarf

Simple dwelling

Cuddle room

Breakfast room

Room for 1 Dwarf

Room for as many

Room for
up to

as you have

Stubble room

you may keep

1 Farm animal on
each empty Field

The Action space cards

PLAYERS

Shuffle the 12 Action space cards. Keep them face-down while shuffling.
In the 2-player game, only 11 Action space cards are used. Remove the Exploration card with the Level
4 expedition from the game. (Cover the unused Round space 9 with a Dwarf card.)

Rearrange the shuffled Action space

cards into a face-down stack as follows
without looking at them.
The 12 Action space cards rearranged
after shuffling. You can fan them out or
keep them in a stack.

Wish for chil

dren

either

Round 4

or

fur nish
a Dwelling
Dwelling

Room

for

Dwarf

O re m
in e

Put the three stage 4 cards at the bottom of the stack, on top of them the three (or two) stage 3 cards, and on top of those
the two ordinary stage 2 cards.
Put the card for round 4 on top of these. (This card says Wish for children on one side and Urgent wish for children
on the other side. Right now it does not matter which side faces up.)
Finally, put the three stage 1 cards on top of the stack.

The landscape tiles

Sort the landscape tiles by type and put them in separate stacks.
There are 3 types of both, single tiles and twin tiles.

The building materials, animals

and Weapon strength markers
Separate the remaining components and keep them in separate
piles next to the game boards. All the animals may be kept in
one pile and all the building materials in another. You do not
need to sort the Weapon strength markers by number.

Ruby m
in e

You will place single and twin tiles on your Home

boards during the course of the game. Fields and
Meadows (which can be further upgraded to Pastures)
can be placed on Forest spaces; Caverns and Tunnels
(which can be further upgraded to Mines) can be
placed on Mountain spaces.

Goal of the game

Your Home board consists of two parts (see below). On the left side, there is a Forest that you
will cut down during the course of the game. On the right side, there is a Mountain with an
entrance to your cave system, which currently consists of two Caverns. One of these is the
Entry-level dwelling and has been furnished for 2 Dwarfs and a pair of animals. The other
Cavern is still empty, but is ready to be furnished.

empty Cavern

Caverns can be furnished like the one

Your first two Dwarfs live in the entry-level room of at the bottom of this illustration or they
your cave system. If you want to grow your Dwarf can be empty like the one at the top.
family, you will need to add more Dwellings. There Dwellings are special types of furnished
are Furnishing tiles for this purpose as you have Caverns. There are a lot of other ways to
furnish a Cavern.
already seen during setup.
Each of your Dwarfs may take one action per round the available actions are displayed on
the game boards. You will place your Dwarfs, one at a time, in clockwise order on Action
spaces until all players have placed their Dwarfs on the game boards.
The goal of your actions is to collect Food for your Dwarfs and to develop your Home board
to be worth a lot of Gold points at the end of the game. Let us have a look at what you can do
with your Home board and what you get Gold points for.

Entry-level dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

When placing your Dwarfs on the game boards, you will eventually get in one anothers way. Each
Action space may only be occupied by a single Dwarf. The Dwarfs only return home after they have
all been placed. Then they are placed again in the next round.
While reading the rules, you may come back to the following section every now and then to get a
better view of the context. This section is not required for understanding the rules. Any information
found here is also explained elsewhere in the rule book.

To get a grasp of what happens on your Home boards

You cut the Forest on your Home board to get Wood and cut through the Mountain to get Stone. You need these building
materials to furnish the hollowed out spaces of your Mountain. Outside the Mountain, you can use the cleared Forest land
to do agriculture and raise Farm animals to feed your little family.
Cut the Forest to make room for
Fields and Meadows.

Meadows can be fenced in to

form Pastures for your Farm animals: simply turn the Meadow/
Field twin tile to the other side.
A fenced space can hold a pair of
animals.

Expand your cave

system by placing
Cavern/Tunnel and
Cavern/Cavern twin
tiles in the Mountain.

Collect Rubies to buy single

Field and Meadow tiles for
1 Ruby each.
Entry-level dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

These are Rubies.

Place your first Meadow/Field

tile on the Forest spaces in front
of your cave entrance.

Or expand your cave system with

single tiles bought with Rubies:
a single Tunnel costs 1 Ruby, a
single Cavern costs 2 Rubies.
(Rubies have many other uses as
we will see later.)

Your Entry-level dwelling is a Dwelling

for your very first couple of Dwarfs. You
can also keep a pair of animals there.

There are more ways to keep animals than shown on the previous page.
You can place a Large pasture on two adjacent Meadow spaces to keep your animals more
efficiently. You can even double its capacity by
building a Stable on it. You can keep up to 8
animals of the same type on a Large pasture with
a Stable.

You can place Furnishing tiles in

the Caverns of your cave system.
These tiles can be beneficial to
you during the course of the game
or at its end.

You can place a Stable on

a Forest space (that you
have not cleared, yet): A
Forest stable can hold 1
Wild boar, but no other
animals.

Blacksmithing parlor

at any time
before scoring

Ruby mine

Ruby mine

You can also build a

Stable on a Meadow
space. A Meadow
stable can hold
1 animal of any type.

There are ordinary

Tunnels, and Deep
tunnels in Ore mines.
You can place a
Ruby mine on any
of these Tunnels. If
you place one on a
Deep tunnel, you will
immediately gain
1 Ruby.

Ore mine

Each Mine can hold

1 Donkey.
Entry-level dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

You can grow Grain and

Vegetables on your Fields
and harvest them later.

You can
place an
Ore mine
on two
adjacent
Tunnels.

This table displays how to

feed your family.

Weapons and Expeditions

Expedition loot

Veteran Agricola players may be highly interested in what the Weapons are for. In Caverna, your Dwarfs
gather Ore to forge Weapons. The strength of a Weapon is determined by the amount of Ore used in the
process and is increased by 1 after each Expedition. Depending on its level, an Expedition may yield 1 to 4 loot
items. What these items will be depends on the strength of the Weapon that has been used (see the Overview
card). A newly forged Weapon can only have an initial strength equal to or lower than 8. This strength can be
increased over the course of the game to the maximum strength value of 14.
Blacksmithing

after Expedition all Weap

ons +1

furnish
a Cavern

The available loot items

up to a strength of 8.

This Dwarf gets the best Weapon he can get via forging.
and then / or

The special thing about the Cave Farmers is the two groups that emerge when playing with a lot of
players: one group goes after Weapons, the other one pursues the peaceful route. Members of the
same group, of course, will compete for the same resources. Be vigilant about the competition within
your group, so you do not lose against the other one.

Number of components
The only components that are purposely limited in number (apart from the unique
Furnishing tiles) are the 5 Dwarfs and 3 Stables of each player. Any other components are
considered to be unlimited. If you run out of any such component, use the Multiplication
markers or improvise. Put a good token on a Multiplication marker to indicate 4 tokens of
that type.
There are markers depicting 8 animals of a specific type. These can be used on Large
pastures with a Stable. Also, there are markers for 10 units of a specific type of building
material or for 5 Rubies.

You can multiply animals

as well. This Large pasture is
currently holding 4 Wild boars.
5

Let us have a look at the scoring pad

At the end of the game, the player with the most Gold points wins. In the following example, we will have a look at the ways
you can score points. The numbers in parentheses are the points gained in the example.
Each animal is worth 1 Gold point. There are
Dogs, and the Farm animals Sheep, Donkeys,
Wild boars, and Cattle. (2+4+2+3+10=21)

21

Furnishing tiles are worth the number of points

printed on them. (2+2+2=6, and 3+3=6 for the
Dwellings that have been built during the game)

You lose 2 points for each type of Farm

animal that you are missing. (This Home
board is not missing any type of animals.)
Pastures are worth the
number of points printed
on them. (2+4=6)

Breeding cave

Ruby supplier

Blacksmithing parlor

for 1/2/3/4
newborn animals:

at the beginning
of the next 4 rounds

at any time
before scoring

12

You lose 1 point for

each unused space of
your Home board.

Ruby mine

-1

-3

-1

Ruby mine

Mines are worth the

number of points
printed on them.
(4+3+4=11)

Dwelling

Vegetables, Rubies and

Gold are each worth 1
Gold point.
(4+1+13=18)
18

The player in this example has

got a total of 80 Gold points.

Grain is worth Gold

point (rounded up)
regardless of whether
it has been already
harvested or not.

Room for 1 Dwarf

Ore mine

-1

Entry-level dwelling

Dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

Room for 1 Dwarf

Each Dwarf
is worth 1
Gold point.

Fodder chamber

per

11

Farm
animals

Some Furnishing tiles may

award additional points.
(The Fodder storage
awards 6 Gold points for 19
Farm animals.)

80
A score of 80 Gold points is a
realistic one. Advanced players
will easily crack 100 points.

Flow of play
This section consists of two parts. At first, we will look at the course of a round. Then we will explain the actions.

The course of a round

2
6

PLAYERS

Each of the 12 rounds goes through five phases that

are played one after another in the order described here.
In the 2-player game, there are
only 11 rounds to play.

Players who have already played Agricola

only need to read the brown sentences.
All the other rules are the same in both
Caverna and Agricola.

Overview of the course of a round

The five phases of a round are:
Ruby mining

At the beginning of each round, turn over the top

Action space card and put it on the appropriate space
on the basic game boards.
with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

1. Add a new Action space

This is where you will place the first

Action space card in Round 1.
if you have
at least

Ruby mine

Round 1
Stage 1
remember:
use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

no harvest

Housework

2. Replenish accumulating spaces

Place goods from the general supply on the and

Action
/ or
spaces that require them. These Action spacesfurnish
show
a Cavern
an arrow.

Ruby mining

Round 2
Stage 1
with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

The accumulation arrow

no harvest

Slash-and-burn
Ruby mining

In clockwise order, take turns to place 1 Dwarf per

turn on an Action space on the game boards.
Then
and then / or
carry out the actions on that space. Each Action space
may only be occupied by a single Dwarf.

Blacksmithing

with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

3. Work phase

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields
Ruby mine
if you have
at least

Ruby mine

if you have
Round
3
at least
Round
Stage 11

use a
in games

Stage 1
and then / or

remember:
use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

Housework

This Dwarf is forging a Weapon.

no harvest

Housework

4. Return home

and / or

After all Dwarfs have been placed on Action spaces,

and / or
return your Dwarfs to their Dwellings.
furnish

furnish
a Cavern

Round 2
Stage 1

a Cavern

Harvest time
1.) Field phase

5. Harvest time

At the end of most of the rounds, there is a Slash-and-burn

harvest:
collect Grain and Vegetables, feed your family, and
breed your animals.

no harvest
2.) Feeding phase
per

per

3.) Breeding phase

Slash-and-burn
Round 3

and then / or

Stage 1

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

1. Add a new Action space

Blacksmithing

Turn over the top Action space card from the stack and put it on the empty Round
space with the lowest number. (The Round spaces are numbered 1 to 12.)
The new Action space adds to the number of
available actions. It can be used by any player in
the Work phase of this and all subsequent rounds.
From the start of round 6, you must also turn the
Harvest marker on the Round space where the new
Action space card is placed face-up. Leave the
marker on the grey rune space.

There is a grey rune symbol on the back

side of each Harvest marker, and a green
leaf or red question mark on the front side.

The first Round

space reminds you
to check if you need
additional game
boards

and then / or

Ruby mining

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

and then / or

Round 1
Stage 1

if you have
at least

Ruby mine

remember:
use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

no harvest

Housework

If the Harvest marker shows a green leaf,

there will be a normal harvest at the end
/ or 9).
of the round (seeandpage
Round 2
furnish
a Cavern

Stage 1

If it shows a red question mark, the harvest

will be played differently (see Which
no harvest
rounds end with a harvest?, page 10).
Slash-and-burn

Example: A red question mark has been revealed: The

Harvest events card determines which
event will affect the coming harvest. In this
example, it will be the event at the top of the
card.

or
Ruby mine

No harvest

Round 6

Round 9

Stage 2

StagePay3 1 Food

Ore mine

per Dwarf
instead of
harvest

Skip the
Field phase
or the
Breeding phase

If you like the element of surprise, we

recommend you reveal the Harvest marker
only at the end of a round.

Family life

Special cases when adding a new Action space

Wish for children

Wish for children

either

Urgent
Wish for children

Round 4

Urgent
wish for children

either

Round 4
Dwelling

The Wish for children Action space card will always come into
play in round 4. Initially, place it with the Wish for children
side facing up on the game board. Turn it to the other side that
says Urgent wish for children as soon as you add the Family
life Action space card in stage 3.
PLAYERS

and / or

furnish
a Dwelling
or

Room

for

Dwarf

and then

furnish
a Dwelling

Drift mining

Dwelling

Room

for

Dwarf

or

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

In the 2-player game, the last round of stage 3 round 9 is skipped,

as the Exploration Action space card was removed from the game (see
Setup, page 3).

Thats the way it is with small

/ or for
families: Over time aand
wish
children will become an urgent wish.

2. Replenish accumulating spaces

On many Action spaces, there is a special arrow and a background illustration indicating
that this space has to be replenished with goods every round. These Action spaces are called
accumulating spaces.
Accumulating spaces have to be replenished even if there are goods left on them from previous
rounds. 3 Wood and an arrow, for instance, indicate that you put 3 Wood on that Action space
every round.

Logging

This is an accumulating space.

and then / or

There is an exception: 3 (1) Wood and an arrow, for instance, indicate that you put 1 Wood on that Action space every
round unless that Action space is empty, in which case you put 3 Wood on it. Read the icons of other Action spaces
accordingly. 1 Grain (1 Vegetable) on the Sustenance Action space, for instance, means you have to put 1 Grain on that
Wood gathering
space if it is empty, and 1 Vegetable instead if not.
Details on replenishing accumulating spaces
When replenishing, take the required goods from the general supply.
There is no upper limit for the number of goods on an accumulating space.
If you run out of a specific good, use the Multiplication markers or improvise (see page 5)

3. Work phase
Beginning with the Starting player and in clockwise order, take turns to pick up a single Dwarf from your cave and
place it on an unoccupied Action space. Then carry out the depicted action immediately. Play continues until all
Dwarfs of all players have been placed in this fashion.
Please note the play order of Dwarfs: You have to place your Dwarfs
in ascending order of their Weapon strength, beginning with your
unarmed Dwarfs (i.e. those without a Weapon) and followed by your
armed ones (i.e. those bearing a Weapon).
Each Action space can only be used by one Dwarf in a round.

These Dwarfs have to be played in the indicated order.

Whenever you take building materials, Grain, Vegetables, Food or Rubies, the
tokens are placed in your personal supply in view of the other players. Animals may
not be placed in your supply; they must be placed directly on your Home board. (See
page 20 for the animal husbandry rules that we have already addressed briefly on
Wood, Stone and Ore are building materials.
page 5.)
8

Details on the Work phase

Animals that you gain during the Work phase but that you cannot or do not want to
accommodate on your Home board may be converted into Food immediately (according
to the conversion table on your Home board and on page 11).
You can only place Dwarfs from your cave. You may not use the Dwarfs in your personal
supply (as they have not been born yet, if you will, but they can be introduced later, see
Family growth on page 15).
On your turn, you can only ever place one Dwarf at a time.
You may not place a Dwarf on an Action space without performing at least one of its
actions.
Due to the Family growth action (see page 15), some players may have fewer Dwarfs
than others in their caves. If a player runs out of Dwarfs during a round, this player is
skipped. Only the players that have Dwarfs left in their caves continue to play them one
by one as described.
On some Action spaces you have to choose one out of several options (either or).
Other Action spaces allow you to take any number of the available actions (and/or,
and then/or).
There are two Action spaces that have a mandatory primary action and an optional
follow-up action (and then). In case of the Urgent wish for children Action space,
you have to use the first action in order to use the second one at all.

Urgent
wish for children

either
furnish
a Dwelling

Round 4
Dwelling

Room

for

Dwarf

and then

or

Adventure

and then / or

and then

4. Return home
Remove your Dwarfs from the game boards and return them to their Dwellings.
Details on returning home
It does not matter how you distribute the Dwarfs among the
Dwellings in your cave system.
You may never have more Dwarfs in play than available room in
your cave. This is why each of your tired Dwarfs will always find a
place to sleep.
It is best to place your Dwarfs side by side in your cave so that your
opponents can easily see which of your Dwarfs have a Weapon and
what strengths these Weapons have.

Entry-level dwelling

Dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

Room for 1 Dwarf

Dwellings are indicated by the orange

background color of their name tag.

5. Harvest time
During the Harvest time, players have to sustain their families. Some rounds do
not end with a harvest, others do (see Which rounds end with a harvest? on
page 10). A harvest goes through three sub-phases that are played in the following
order (see the Harvest time Overview card).
Sub-phase 1: The Field phase
Remove 1 Grain or Vegetable token from each sown Field on your Home board
and place it in your personal supply. (See page 14 for information on how to
grow crops.)

Its time for the harvest!

Sub-phase 2: The Feeding phase

In the Feeding phase, you have to feed your Dwarfs by paying 2 Food per Dwarf in your cave. Offspring that were born
during the current round from a Family growth action only consume 1 Food for this round, but will require 2 Food in
future harvests. (See page 15 for details on Family growth.)
If you do not have enough Food, you may convert goods into Food (according to the conversion table on page 11) or you
will have to take Begging markers.

9

Begging markers
If you cannot or do not wish to produce the required Food, you must take 1 Begging
marker for each missing Food. You may not give up Dwarfs to avoid the need to feed
them. (At the end of the game, you will lose 3 Gold points for each Begging marker.
There is no way to return Begging markers once you have taken them.)

Sub-phase 3: The Breeding phase

If you have at least 2 Farm animals of the same type, you get exactly
1 additional (baby) animal of that type but only if the new animal can be
accommodated on your Home board. (Baby animals and parent animals
may not be converted into Food immediately after the birth. You have to
accommodate them on your Home board first.)

Details on breeding
You get all of your baby animals at the same time, not one by one.
You can only get at most one animal per type in each harvest.
Dogs are not considered Farm animals. They do not breed.
The animals breed regardless of where the parent animals are placed
on your Home board. The parents may be in separate areas.

Entry-level dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

The player in this example has built

a Stable in the Forest just outside his
cave. Now he is able to keep up to 3
Wild boars. (Animal husbandry will
be explained in detail on page 20.)
Therefore, his Wild boars can breed a
piglet (despite the fact that they currently
do not seem to be interested in each
other at all).

Which rounds end with a harvest?

Rounds 1 to 4
In the first four rounds, there is only one harvest: at the end of the third round. The first two rounds do not have a
harvest at all. At the end of round 4, there is no harvest but instead you have to pay 1 Food per Dwarf in your cave
(even for offspring Dwarfs). There is no Field or Breeding phase at this time.
Rounds 5 to 12
By default there will be a harvest at the end of rounds 5 to 12.
This may change if a Harvest marker shows a red question mark. (Harvest markers have been placed on Round
spaces 6 to 12 during setup, see page 7.) The change depends on the number of question marks that have already
been revealed.
As explained on the Harvest events card, there is no harvest at the end of the round in which the first
question mark is revealed (like at the end of rounds 1 and 2).
At the end of the round when the second question mark is revealed, instead of a harvest, you have to pay 1
Food per Dwarf in your cave (even for offspring Dwarfs; like at the end of round 4).
When the third question mark is revealed, you have to decide individually whether you want to play the Field
phase or the Breeding phase of the Harvest time at the end of the round. (You cannot play both these phases,
but you must still play the Feeding phase. Each player may choose differently.)

To keep track of how many question marks have been already revealed, place them on the
Harvest events card (from top to bottom) after they have been resolved.
You will need a lot of Food for your hungry
Dwarfs due to the high number of harvests in
this game. On the other hand, you will collect
crops more frequently and your animals will
breed more often. If you take the right steps to
feed your family early on, it will not be as hard
as it seems.

10

In this example, the first

question mark has already
been resolved. When the
next one is revealed, all
players will have to pay
1 Food for each of their
Dwarfs.

No harvest

Pay 1 Food
per Dwarf
instead of
harvest
Skip the
Field phase
or the
Breeding phase

Food conversion rules

To feed your Dwarfs, you may convert goods into Food at any time (without constraints). There is a Food conversion
table at the bottom right of your Home board that summarizes the following Food conversion rules:
You can buy Food with Gold. Pay one more Gold than the amount of Food you wish to get.
(For instance, 1/2/3/ Food cost 2/3/4 Gold, respectively. Gold is available in denominations
of 1, 2 and 10. You may change your Gold at any time. You cannot spend the Gold points
that are awarded at the end of the game for things like Mines or Meadows. Keep in mind
that each Gold is worth 1 point at the end of
the game.)
Entry-level
dwelling
In addition, you can convert animals and crops into Food.
Sheep are each worth 1 Food, Wild boars 2 Food,
and2 Cattle
Room for
Dwarfs
1 pair of
3 Food. A single Donkey is worth 1 Food, butand
2 Donkeys
animals
are worth 3 Food.
Each Grain is worth 1 Food, and Vegetables are worth
2 Food.
Rubies could be exchanged for goods like Wild boars and
Vegetables that are each worth 2 Food (see page 17 for
details on Rubies); therefore, you can convert Rubies into
2 Food directly.
Dogs and the building materials Wood, Stone and Ore are
not worth any Food. (Nor are Dwarfs, by the way.)

This is what Gold

looks like

And this is what Gold

points look like

The Food conversion table on your Home board

summarizes the Food conversion rules.

Now you know how to play a round. If you go back to pages 4 to 6, you might notice what we have
not talked about yet: which actions you can take to become a wealthy dwarf. Let us have a look at the
remaining rules by explaining the Action spaces.
As most of the following rules will be new to veteran Agricola players as well, we will now stop
using brown color to mark new stuff.

The actions
Some Action spaces are already available at the beginning of the game, others will become available later (see Add a new
Action space, page 7). Some Action spaces are only available with a certain number of players (see Setup, page 2).
We will now explain the Action spaces grouped by type in the following order.
Type of Action space

1. Action spaces for twin tiles

(including the explanation of the Sow action)

2. Action spaces for family growth

(including the explanation of the Furnish a cavern
action)

Questions that will be answered

Page(s)

How can I get twin tiles on my Home board?

12 to 14

How can
I get more
Dwarfs into
my cave?

Wish for children

either

Round 4

14 to 16

or

furnish
a Dwelling
Dwelling

Room

for

Dwarf

11

What can I do with Mines and Rubies?

How can I get the single tiles on my Home board?
3. Action spaces for goods and mines
(including the explanation of Rubies)

Ore mine

4. Action spaces for animals (including the

explanation of the Build fences and Build stables
actions and how to keep animals)

16 to 18

Ruby mine

How can I get animals on my Home board?

18 to 20

Strip mining

5. Action spaces for weapons

(including the explanation of the Expedition
actions)

What are Weapons for?

20 to 22

6. Starting player

Who will be the Starting player next round?

22

7. Imitation

What can I do when

an opponent has
occupied an Action
space I wanted to
use?

22

Imitation

pay 4 Food to use

an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

1. Action spaces for twin tiles

At the end of the game, you will lose 1 point for each unused space on your Home board. An unused
Forest exploration
space is one that does not have a tile (or Stable) placed on it. You will now learn how to get tiles for
your Mountain and for your Forest.
Action spaces: Excavation and Drift mining
The Excavation and Drift mining Action spaces accumulate Stone. Take all
the Stone tokens from the Action space when taking the action.
Additionally, you may place a Cavern/Tunnel twin tile on two adjacent empty
Mountain spaces of your Home board. The new tile must connect with your
cave system, i.e. you must place it (horizontally or vertically) adjacent to an
already occupied Mountain space.
Drift mining

and / or

Imitation

12

pay 2 Food to use

an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

Excavation

and / or

Growth

either

If you place the new tile on one of the

Starting player water sources, immeunderground
diately take the indicated 1 or 2 Food
from the general supply.

Cavern/Cavern
twin tile

Immediately take
1 Food as soon
Room for 2 Dwarfs
as
you cover this
and 1 pair of
animals
space on your Home
board.
You start the game with two
occupied Mountain spaces.
Entry-level dwelling

The
difference
between
the
Excavation and the Drift mining action is which side you may turn the twin
tile on. With the Excavation action, you may choose either side, but when taking
the Drift mining action you must use the Cavern/Tunnel side. The Cavern/
Cavern side can only be used with the Excavation action.
In games with 4 to 7 players, the restriction of the
mining Action space is countered by the fact
DriftOre
mining
that it will accumulate Stone faster than the Action
space Excavation.

Stage 1

Excavation

Drift mining

Starting player
Ruby mining

remember:
use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

Details
on the Excavation and Drift mining Action spaces
if you have
at least
If you have run out of adjacent empty Mountain spaces, you may not place any more twin tiles in your Mountain.
In this case, you may not place a single tile instead when using the
or Drift mining action (on single
andExcavation
/ or
and / or
tiles, see Rubies on page 17
and
The
Expedition
loot
items
in
the
appendix).
no harvest
In
games
with
5
to
7
players,
there is an Action space called Small-scale drift mining. It provides 1 Stone and a
Housework
Cavern/Tunnel twin tile.
In 7-player games, there is an additional Action space called Extension. It also provides 1 Stone
either
Ore mining
Supplies
and a Cavern/Tunnel twin tile. Alternatively,
Loggingyou may take 1 Wood and a Meadow/Field twin
Housework
tile
andfor
/ orthe Forest on your Home board.
Ruby mine

with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

Imitation

use an Action space that

is occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

if you have
at least

Ruby mine

Extension

furnish
a Cavern

Round 2
Stage 1

or

The twin tile with a Meadow and a Field.

and / or

furnish
a Cavern

and then / or

for each

The Meadow/Field twin tile will be explained next.

Ore mine

no harvest

Action
spaces: Clearing, Sustenance and Slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn
Wood gathering

and then / or

Round 3

Apart from the goods depicted on

the1 Clearing and
Stage
Sustenance Action spaces, you can get a Meadow/Field
twin tile there. This tile is also available on the Slash-andup to 2 new Grain and
burn
Action space.
2 new Vegetable fields

Clearing

Sustenance

and / or

and / or

Slash-and-burn

and then / or

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

These Action spaces provide the means to

lay out Meadows and plow Fields.

Entry-l

You have to place the Meadow/Field twin tile on two adjacent Forest spaces of your Home board. The
first such tile has to be placed in front of the cave entrance (see illustration). Any subsequent tiles have
to be placed adjacent to an already existing Field, Meadow or Pasture (see the Build fences action on
page 19 for more details on Pastures).

A close-up view of
the cave entrance

Immediately take 1 Wild boar from

the general supply when covering
one of the Wild boar preserves in
your Forest. You can accommodate
this Wild boar on your Home board
or convert it into 2 Food immediately
(see the conversion table on your
Home board).

Room
and
a

The first Meadow and/or Field

tile you place in the game must be
placed in front of your cave entrance
Room for 2 Dwarfs
regardless
of whether it is a single or
and
1 pair of
animals
a twin tile.

Entry-level dwelling

Immediately take 1 Food from the general supply

when covering the water source in your Forest.

Details on the Clearing, Sustenance and Slash-and-burn Action spaces

The two adjacent Forest spaces on which you place the Meadow/Field twin tile do not need to be empty. One
of them may already be occupied by a Stable. In this case, place the twin tile underneath the Stable such that the
Stable ends up on the Meadow (see page 20 for more details).
If you have run out of adjacent Forest spaces, you may not place any more Meadow/Field twin tiles. In this case,
you may not place single tiles instead when taking the Clearing, Sustenance or Slash-and-burn action.
You do not necessarily need to place Fields adjacent to other Fields, or Meadows adjacent to other Meadows. (The
tiles themselves, though, have to be placed adjacent to one another.)

13

Apart from the twin tiles, the Clearing and Sustenance Action spaces
provide Wood and crops, respectively. The Slash-and-burn Action space,
on the other hand, provides an additional Sow action.

and then / or

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new
Vegetable
This
is how
you fields
sow.

You can sow crops to collect them in the

Field phase of the harvest. This is one way of
feeding your family in the long run.

The Sow action

You can grow crops with the Sow action. To sow Grain, take 1 Grain from your personal supply and put it on an empty
Field. Then take 2 Grain from the general supply and put them on top of your sown Grain.
Instead of Grain, you may sow Vegetables. Take 1 Vegetable from your personal supply and put it on an empty Field. Then
put 1 Vegetable from the general supply on top of your sown Vegetable.
With a single Sow action, you can sow Grain and Vegetables up to 2 times each.
A newly sown Grain field
contains 3 tokens, a newly
sown Vegetable field just 2
tokens.

Details on the Sow action

You cannot sow a crop, i.e. Grain or Vegetable,
if you do not have at least one token of it in your
personal supply (unless you have Rubies, see
page 17.)
A completely harvested Field can be sown again
with another Sow action.

Entry-level dwelling

Ruby mining

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

You can take a Sow action on the Slash-and-burn Action space and later on the Family life
Action space (in stage 3). Family life is what the next section is about.
with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

if you have
at least

Ruby mine

2. Action spaces for family growth

Housework

The Furnish a cavern action

The Furnish a cavern action can be found on the Housework Action space.

Stone carver

immediately
every time you furnish
a Cavern or build a
Stable, you receive
a discount of

Entry-level dwelling

14

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

use add
in games w

When using the Furnish a cavern action, choose one of the

available Furnishing tiles on the supply boards.
Pay the building costs indicated on the left below the name
of the tile (most often Wood and/or Stone) and place it on an
empty Cavern space in your Mountain.
Every Furnishing tile has an ability which is shown at the
bottom of the tile. (The abilities of all Furnishing tiles are
explained on page A3 of the appendix.)
Dwellings are special Furnishing tiles. They provide room for
additional Dwarfs.
Dwellings are indicated by the red
background color of their name tag.

and / or

furnish
a Cavern

Slash-and-burn

Dwelling

Room for 1 Dwarf

and then / or

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

Details on the Furnish a cavern action

You may be able to furnish an empty Cavern as a result of an Expedition (see the Detailed
example on forging a Weapon and undertaking an Expedition on page 22).
You cannot carry out the Furnish a cavern action if you do not have an empty Cavern.
(You can get a Cavern via Rubies, see page 17.)
You may not place a Furnishing tile on a Tunnel, Mine or empty Mountain space. (However,
you may place one on the empty Cavern that is pre-printed on your Home board.)
Once placed, you cannot remove, displace or build over a Furnishing tile.
Except for the ordinary Dwelling (see the illustration on page 14), there is only one copy of
each Furnishing tile. The number of ordinary Dwelling tiles is considered to be unlimited
(improvise if needed).
The next action specifically addresses the building of Dwellings.

Entry-level dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

This Cavern is
waiting to be
furnished from the
start.

Wish for children

either

The Furnish a dwelling action

The Furnish a dwelling action is found on both sides of the Action space card for round 4
(Wish for children and Urgent wish for children).

Round 4

or

furnish
a Dwelling

When using the Furnish a dwelling action, take a Dwelling tile, pay its building costs and
place it on an empty Cavern. There are 6 different types of Dwellings. Every Dwelling provides
room for one or two Dwarfs.

Dwelling

Room

for

Dwarf

Details on the Furnish a dwelling action

You may be able to furnish a Dwelling as a result of an Expedition (see page A2 of the appendix).
For details on the special Dwellings, check the appendix on page A3.

The Furnish a dwelling action prepares you

for the Family growth action that we will
address next.
Wish for children

either

The Family growth action

The Family growth action can be found on the Family life, Wish for children and Urgent wish
for children Action space cards, and (in games with 4 or more players) also on the Growth Action
space.

Round 4

or

furnish
a Dwelling
Dwelling

Room

for

Dwarf

You can only use a Family growth action if you have more room for Dwarfs in your Dwellings than
you have Dwarfs. (An offspring requires room in your cave.)
When taking a Family growth action, put a Dwarf disc from your personal
supply on top of the Dwarf taking the action.

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

Family life
Wish for children

Urgent
Wish for children

and / or

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

Entry-level dwelling

The new Dwarf cannot take an action this round. (The

offspring has to grow up first.) In the Return home phase
of this round, the new Dwarf has to be accommodated
in an available Dwelling like the other Dwarfs.

Dwelling

Dwelling

Room for 1 Dwarf

Room for 1 Dwarf

This players cave has room for 4 Dwarfs but

only 3 Dwarfs are living in it at the moment.

Look at this lovely pregnant Dwarf woman!

15

Details on the Family growth action

Players taking a Family growth action will have one more (adult) Dwarf to use in
subsequent rounds. (However, they will also have to feed more Dwarfs, see Harvest
time on page 9.)
Dwarf families are limited to 5 Dwarfs. You may no longer use a Family growth
action once you have all of your 5 Dwarfs in play (unless you build the Additional
dwelling, see page A3 of the appendix).
You get only one Family growth action per Action space, but you may occupy more
than one of them to grow your family faster.

Additional dwelling

Room for the

sixth Dwarf only

The Additional
dwelling provides
room for a sixth Dwarf.

Drift mining

The Family growth action is also available on the

Growth Action space when playing with 4 to 7 players.

The Growth Action space is one of

the Action spaces that provide several
/ or about
different goods. We willandtalk
Action spaces like this in the next
section.

Excavation

and / or

3. Action spaces for goods and mines

Imitation

Action spaces: Supplies and Growth

pay 2 Food to use

an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

The Supplies and Growth Action spaces are available from the start.

They provide 1 Wood, 1 Stone, 1 Ore, 1 Food, and 2 Gold. In games with 4 to 7 players, you can
take a Family growth action instead on the Growth Action space (see previous section).
Logging

Growth

either

or

fo

Action space: Ore mine construction

The Ore mine construction Action space will become available in stage 1.
If there are two horizontally or vertically adjacent
ordinary Tunnel spaces in your Mountain, you may
use the Ore mine construction Action space to place
an Ore mine/Deep tunnel twin tile on top of these
spaces. If you do so, take 3 Ore from the general supply.
Additionally or alternatively, you may undertake an
Expedition of level 2 on that Action space (see page 21).

and then / or
Clearing
Ore mine construction

Ore mine
Ore mine

Forest exploration

and / or
and then / or

Two ordinary Tunnels are covered by an Ore

mine tile.

Details on the Ore mine construction action

Deep tunnel tiles are indicated by a much darker background color (as opposed to the ordinary Tunnel
tiles), and show staircases.
The Ore mine/Deep tunnel twin tiles can only be placed on top of ordinary Tunnels. You may not
place them on top of Deep tunnels.
Entry-level dwelling
You will only get 3 Ore if you did place the twin tile on your Home board.
The staircase to
Room for 2 Dwarfs
An Ore mine is worth 3 Gold points.
the Deep tunnel.
and 1 pair of
animals
Each Mine can hold 1 Donkey (see page 20 for details on animal husbandry).
Tip for the Ore mine construction action
You may trade 1 Ruby for a single Tunnel tile at any time (see page 17). You can do so to place the single Tunnel
next to an existing ordinary Tunnel in your cave and then use the Ore mine construction action to cover them
with an Ore mine/Deep tunnel tile. (You can even cover two adjacent single Tunnels.)
Rubies can be collected in Ruby mines which will be explained next.

16

Action space: Ruby mine construction

Ruby mine construction

The Ruby mine construction Action space will become available in stage 2 (in round 5 or 6).

either
Ruby mine

If you have at least one empty Tunnel space in your Mountain, you can place a Ruby mine on
top of one of these spaces. If (and only if) you place the Ruby mine on top of a Deep tunnel, you
immediately get 1 Ruby from the general supply. (Deep tunnels and Ore mines are on the same tiles.
This is why the Action space displays an Ore mine/Deep tunnel twin tile.)

or
Ruby mine

Ore mine

Ruby mine

Details on the Ruby mine construction action

A Ruby mine is worth 4 Gold points.
Every (Ore and) Ruby mine can hold 1 Donkey (see
page 20 for details on animal husbandry).

An ordinary Tunnel space has

been covered by a Ruby mine tile.
You do not get a Ruby for this.

Action spaces for mining: Ore mining, Ore delivery, Ruby mining and Ruby delivery
The Ore mining Action space is available from the start. The Ruby mining, Ore delivery and Ruby delivery Action
spaces will become available in stages 2, 3 and 4, respectively.
When using one of these Action spaces, take all the Ore and Ruby tokens from that space.

Drift mining

Excavation

Starting
player
Ore delivery

Ruby mining

with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

If you have at least 1 Ruby mine, take 1 additional

Ruby when taking the Ruby mining action. (You
will only ever get 1 additional Ruby.
Round 1

and / or
Take 2 additional
Ore tokens
from the general supply for
each Ore mine you have
when you take the Ore
mining or Ore delivery
action.
Logging

Supplies

Ore mine

for each

Ruby mine

if you have
at least

remember:
use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

In the 2-player game only: No Rubies

are placed on this Action space in the
first two rounds.)

no harvest

Ore mining

Housework

Ruby delivery

and / or

furnish
a Cavern

and then / or

for each

Ore mine

if you have
at least

Wood gathering

SPIELER

Stage 1

and / or

Clearing

Sustenance

and / or

and / or

Ruby mine

Round 2

If you
Stage 1 have at least 2 Ruby mines, take 1 additional
Ruby when taking the Ruby delivery action. (You
will only ever get 1 additional Ruby.)
no harvest

Slash-and-burn

Rubies

and then / or

Round 3
Stage 1

Rubies can be used in a variety of ways. (There is an Overview card for quick reference.)
up to 2 new Grain and
2 new Vegetable fields

Rubies are sort of a wild card. You can exchange them at any time at a 1:1 ratio for animals,
building materials, Grain, Vegetables and Gold. There is an exception with Cattle: You have to
pay 1 Food on top of the Ruby token to get 1 Cattle (see at the bottom left of the Overview card).

1 Zwerg in der Einsetzf

olge vorziehen

You can also spend 1 Ruby to get a single Field or Meadow tile. You have to place it immediately
on an empty Forest space that is adjacent to an already existing Field, Meadow or Pasture. (On page
13, we have already explained Fields and Meadows. If you have no Fields, Meadows or Pastures
in your Forest, place the single tile in front of your cave entrance. See page 20 for more details on
Meadows and Pastures.)
Alternatively, you can spend 1 Ruby to get a single Tunnel tile or 2 Rubies to get a single
Cavern tile (see at the bottom right of the Overview card). You have to place it immediately on
an empty Mountain space (adjacent to your cave system). (On page 14 and on pages 16-17, we have
already explained Tunnels and Caverns.)
Rubies can also be spent to play an armed Dwarf out of order. By paying
1 Ruby, you can ignore the play order for one of your Dwarfs. (See
page 8 for details on the play order of Dwarfs.)
17

Slash-and-burn

Tips on using Rubies

Changing the play order of your Dwarfs is important for Expeditions (see page 21).
and then / or

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields
Ruby mine

Round 3a Sow action (see page 14), you can spend

When taking
1 Ruby to
get1 a single Field tile before you sow crops. (You
Stage
can also spend Rubies to get crops in the first place.)

When taking the Ruby mine construction action, you can

spend 1 Ruby to get a single Tunnel tile before you place the
Ruby mine on top of it (see page 17).

Ore trading
Depot

Action space: Ore trading

The Ore trading Action space will become available in stage 4.
When using this Action space, you can exchange 2 Ore for 2 Gold and 1 Food from the general supply.
You may do this up to 3 times (e.g. you can exchange 6 Ore for 6 Gold and 3 Food).
Action space: Weekly market
The Weekly market Action space is only available in games with 5 to 7 players. It is available from
the start.
You get 4 Gold from the general supply. You can then spend your Gold to buy different goods if you
like. The prices are printed on the card: any building material, Sheep or Donkey costs 1 Gold; a Wild
boar or Dog costs 2 Gold; Cattle costs 3 Gold; Grain costs 1 Gold and a Vegetable costs 2 Gold.

Details on the Weekly market action

You can only buy one token of each type per action.
You are not limited to spend only the 4 Gold you received. You can spend as many Gold coins
as you have and wish.
You may spend fewer than 4 Gold. (You may even refuse to spend Gold at all.)
You can buy animals and then immediately convert them into Food.
You get change if you cannot pay the exact amount with the coins you have.

Weekly market

and then / or
only 1 token per type:

Hardware rental

and then / or

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

4. Action spaces for animals

Action spaces: Sheep farming and Donkey farming
The Sheep farming and Donkey farming Action spaces become available in
stages 1 and 2, respectively.

Sheep farming
for

Donkey farming
for

for

for

for

for

and then / or
and then / or
They accumulate Sheep and Donkeys, respectively. Before taking the animals,
you can turn Meadows into Pastures and/or build exactly 1 Stable to make room
for more animals. The exact details will follow.
You have to accommodate the Sheep and Donkeys on your Home board. (You may
not place them in your personal supply, but you may convert them into Food. The exact rules on animal husbandry will be
explained at the end of this section on page 20.)

There is no Wild boar farming Action space. One way to get Wild boars is
to build over the two preserves on your Home board. Also, there is no Cattle
farming Action space. You can get Cattle as well as Wild boars as loot from
Expeditions (see page 21) or in exchange for Rubies (see page 17) .
18

Sm

The Build fences action

Hardware rental

Fence building

Meadows can be fenced in to become Pastures on the Sheep farming, Donkey farming and
Fence building Action spaces.
When using one of these Action spaces, you can turn exactly one Meadow into a Small
pasture
and then
/ or
and/or exactly two adjacent Meadows into a Large pasture. (Fenced in Meadows are called
Pastures.) Pastures can hold animals (see page 20).
You have to pay 2 Wood to fence in a single Meadow space. This space becomes a Small pasture.
To indicate this, turn the Meadow tile to the other side.

and then / or
for

for

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

+2

+2
+4

Turn a Meadow tile to the other

side when building fences.

If you have two adjacent Meadow spaces on your Home board, you can pay 4 Wood
to turn them both into one Large pasture. To indicate this, place a Large pasture
twin tile on top of these spaces. (Large pastures are printed on the back side of the
Ore mine tiles.)
Eingangswohnhhle

You can place a Large pasture on top of two horizontally

or vertically adjacent Meadow spaces.
Platz fr 2 Zwerge
und 1 Tierpaar

Details on the Build fences action

You cannot fence in Field or Forest spaces or any spaces in your Mountain.
Only Meadows can become Pastures. You cannot turn a Forest space into a Pasture directly.
Pastures are permanent. Once established, they cannot be combined or split up.
You may be able to build fences cheaper as a result of an Expedition (see appendix, page A2).
You can only build 1 Small and/or 1 Large pasture per action.
Tip for the Build fences action
Before taking a Build fences action, you may spend 1 Ruby to
buy a single Meadow tile and then turn this tile into a Small pasture
with your Build fences action.

+2

The Build stables action

You can build Stables on the Sheep farming and Donkey farming Action spaces.
Pay 1 Stone to build a Stable. You can place the Stable on any Forest, Meadow or Pasture space.
Stables are permanent. Once established, they cannot be moved or removed. You can only build 1
Stable per action. Like Pastures, Stables allow you to keep more animals.

Sheep farming
for

for

for

and then / or

Details on the Build stables action

You cannot build Stables on Field spaces or on any spaces in your Mountain.
When you build a Stable on a Forest space, this space does not need to be adjacent to any of the landscape tiles on
your Home board.
Each space on your Home board outside your Mountain can only have 1 Stable at most. (Large pastures cover
2 spaces on your Home board and can thus have up to 2 Stables.)
You are limited to 3 Stables (in your color). You cannot build more than 3 Stables.
A Forest space with a Stable can later become a Meadow with Stable if you place a Meadow tile underneath the
Stable. You cannot, however, place a Field on that space.
A Meadow space with a Stable can be fenced in to become a Small pasture, or a Large pasture if it is adjacent to
another Meadow space.
Building a Stable on the water source or the Wild boar preserve in your Forest does not trigger the reward (see
page 13). You have to place a tile on these spaces to get it.
You may build a Stable for free as a result of an Expedition (see page A1 of the appendix).
19

Rules on animal husbandry

You may rearrange your animals on your Home board whenever and how often you like as long as you abide by the
following rules.

A Stable on a Pasture doubles its

total capacity.
(Small pastures with a Stable can
hold up to 4, Large pastures with
one Stable up to 8, and with two
Stables up to 16 Farm animals.)

Dogs wander around. You can keep them on any

spaces of your Home board.

Ore mine

On Pastures, you can keep Farm animals. Each Pasture space can hold
up to 2 Farm animals of the same type. (For instance, Small pastures can
hold 2 Farm animals, and Large pastures can hold 4.)

Ruby mine

Breakfast room

A Stable on a Meadow space

can hold any 1 Farm animal. A
Stable on a Forest space that has
not been covered by a tile can
hold exactly 1 Wild boar.

Instead of the normal rules for Meadows and Pastures (with or without
Stables), you can apply the following when you place Dogs on them: You
can keep one more Sheep on the Meadow or Pasture than there are Dogs
on it. (For instance, 1/2/3/ Dogs can watch 2/3/4/ Sheep, respectively.)
If you use Dogs to watch Sheep on a space with a Stable, you may not use
the Stable.

Details on animal husbandry

You can fence in a Meadow space with Stable to get a Pasture
with double its normal capacity.
Dogs can only watch Sheep; not Donkeys, Wild boars or Cattle.
You cannot use a Dog to keep Sheep in a Pasture that also holds
another type of Farm animal.
Dogs cannot watch Sheep on Forest spaces or Fields.

Each Ore or Ruby mine can

hold 1 Donkey.

Room for
up to

You can keep up to 3 Cattle

on the Breakfast room
Furnishing tile.

Entry-level dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

The entry-level room of

your cave can hold 2 Farm
animals of the same type.

The Cave Farmers has many more options to

keep animals than its predecessor Agricola:
Dogs wander around or can watch Sheep. A
Stable in the Forest can hold a Wild boar, and
a Mine a donkey. (Only Cattle follows the same
rules in both games except for the Breakfast
room.) As a result, you will rearrange your
animals more often to optimize the available
room.

5. Action spaces for weapons

The Forge a weapon and Expedition actions
The Blacksmithing Action space with its Forge a weapon and Level 3 expedition actions will
become available in stage 1. The Adventure Action space with its Forge a weapon and two Level
1 expedition actions will become available in stage 4.
Collect Ore in your personal supply so that one of your Dwarfs can then use it to forge a Weapon with
a Forge a weapon action. Only an unarmed Dwarf can forge a Weapon. When taking the Forge a
weapon action, spend a number of Ore tokens but no more than 8 tokens and take a Weapon strength
marker with a value equal to the number of Ore tokens spent. Place the Weapon strength marker on the
Dwarf taking the action.
This Dwarf may immediately try out its new Weapon on
an Expedition.

20

You can forge a Weapon for as little as 1 Ore.

Blacksmithing

and then / or

The Expeditions

Expedition loot

Every Expedition yields some loot items as depicted on the Expedition

loot Overview card. There are a number of Action spaces on which you can
undertake an Expedition with an armed Dwarf. Expeditions have one of four
different levels (1-4). The Expedition level determines how many different
loot items you may choose from the Overview card. (Choose the loot items
one by one in any order.)
Each space with a loot item on the Overview card has a Minimum strength
value. When choosing an item from the list, you may only choose items with
a Minimum strength value lower than or equal to the Weapon strength of
the Dwarf undertaking the Expedition.
Expedition loot
after Expedition all Weapons +1

for

after Expedition all Weapons +1

One of your Dwarfs with a Weapon strength

of 1 goes on a Level 3 expedition. As a
result, he can get the loot items All weapons
+1, 1 Dog and 1 Wood. He was not
strong enough to get better items (for now).

for

Dwelling

for
Sow

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

furnish
a Cavern

breed up to
2 types
of Farm animals

The Expedition loot Overview card lists a

lot of different goods and bonus actions. Each
space depicts one loot item. Each such item
may only be chosen once per Expedition.

At the end of each Expedition, the Weapon strength of the Dwarf undertaking it will increase by 1 as a result of the
experience gained (regardless of the Expedition level). Only newly forged Weapons are limited to an initial Weapon strength
of 8. You can increase this strength beyond 8 with Expeditions.

furnish
a Cavern

As a result of the All weapons +1 loot item and the

end of the Expedition, the Weapon strength of your
Dwarf has been increased by 2 and is now 3.

As a reminder: The play order of Dwarfs

As mentioned on page 8, you have to place
your Dwarfs in the order of their Weapon
strength. You have to place unarmed Dwarfs
first, then your armed Dwarfs in ascending
order of Weapon strength.
You can spend a Ruby to bypass the play
order for a specific Dwarf (see Rubies on
page 17).

Entry-level dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

After you

Two Dwarfs are left in your cave. You

would like to undertake an Expedition.
Unfortunately, you have to place the
Dwarf with the Weapon strength of 3 next.
Obviously, it would be much more efficient to
use the Dwarf with the Weapon strength of 14
instead.
In the example, you could spend 1 Ruby to
place the Dwarf with the Weapon strength of
14 before placing the weaker one.

Details on Weapon strength

Each Dwarf can only bear a single Weapon.
You cannot use the Forge a weapon action with an already armed Dwarf. Especially, you may not spend Ore to
upgrade his current Weapon or to replace it with a new one.
Weapons are bound to their Dwarfs. You cannot forge a Weapon with one Dwarf and hand that Weapon over
to another Dwarf. An armed Dwarf cannot actively get rid of its Weapon. (A Dwarf by grace of God loves his
Weapon. He would never ever let it go.)
An unarmed Dwarf cannot undertake an Expedition.
You cannot use your Weapons to attack other players.
The highest possible Weapon strength is 14. You cannot further increase this strength.
In the extreme scenario that you have four unarmed
Dwarfs and one Dwarf with Weapon strength 14,
you could pay a single Ruby to place that armed
Dwarf before any of your other Dwarfs.

21

Choosing the right loot items is quite crucial. We recommend the other players continue playing while you
are picking loot. The Weapon strength of your Dwarf will be increased after the Expedition: therefore,
the other players may place the next highest Weapon strength marker next to your Dwarf
undertaking the Expedition to indicate that you are not done yet. Once you have finished picking
loot, you can exchange the current Weapon strength marker of your Dwarf with the new one. (Exception:
You pick the loot item All weapons +1.) The following example illustrates this recommendation.

Blacksmithing

and then / or

Detailed example on forging a Weapon and undertaking an Expedition

You have 10 Ore in your personal supply and an unarmed Dwarf. You place that Dwarf on the
Blacksmithing Action space and pay 7 Ore to forge a Weapon of strength 7. Now your Dwarf can
immediately test its Weapon by undertaking an Expedition. To indicate the upcoming Level 3 expedition,
you can place a Weapon strength 8 marker next to your Dwarf. You then choose the loot items 1
Dog, 2 Gold and Furnish a cavern. They have Minimum strength values of 1, 6 and 7, respectively,
and are thus not greater than the Weapon strength of your Dwarf. At the end of this Expedition, you may
exchange the Weapon strength 7 marker with the Weapon strength 8 one.

Do not underestimate or overrate the importance of Expeditions. The game is designed in a way that you can
win it with a peaceful approach, but also with one relying on heavy weaponry. I can tell you this, though:
With 4 or more players, if a player is the only one going after Weapons, he will most likely win. And if
he is the only one to ignore Weapons, he will also most likely win.

6. Action space: Starting player

Drift mining

Excavation
Drift mining

The Starting player token is not passed at the end of the round. In order to
become Starting player, you have to use the Starting player action. (If no one
does this, the Starting player token stays where it is.) You do not only become
and / and
or / or
and / or
Starting player on that Action space, but you also get all the Food tokens that
have accumulated on it, as well as 2 Ore (in games with 1 to 3 players) or 1 Ruby
(in games with 4 to 7 players) on top of that.
Logging

Supplies
Imitation
pay 2 Food to use
an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

7. Action spaces: Imitation

Starting player
Excavation

Strip mining

and / or

Ore mining
Ore mining
On top
ofGrowth
the Starting player
token and
either
some Food, you will also get 2 Ore or
1 Ruby depending on the player count.

Logging

or

and then / or

for each

Ore mine

The Imitation Action spaces are available in games with at least 3 players. andImitation
costs
then / or
0, 1, 2 or 4 Food depending on the Action space.
Wood gathering

Clearing

Starting player

Sustenance
Clearing

When using an Imitation action, pay the required Food into the general supply and choose
an Action space that is currently occupied by an opponents Dwarf. You may use this Action
and / and
or / or
and / or
space as if you had placed your Dwarf there. The only Action space that cannot
be imitated
is Starting player.

for each

Ore mine

Imitation

Sustenance

pay 4 Food to use

an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

Forest exploration

/ or
Imitationandcost
(apprentices due)

Details on the Imitation action

Do not place your Dwarf on the Action space that you imitate. Your Dwarf stays on Imitation.
When imitating an accumulating space, you do not get any of the accumulating goods as they have
already been
Forest exploration
taken by your opponent.
You cannot imitate an Action space that is occupied by one of your own Dwarfs.
In games with 5 to 7 players, there are multiple Imitation Action spaces (see appendix, page A7) and they may
all be used to imitate the same or different Action spaces.

22

Name

End of the game and scoring

The game ends at the end of round 12. Use the scoring pad to determine the final scores.
There are several different categories for which you can get Gold points. The player who
has the most Gold points wins the game. (In case of a tie, there are multiple winners.)
1 Gold per Farm animal and Dog: Each animal is worth 1 Gold point at the end of the
game, even Dogs. (Dogs are not considered Farm animals.)
-2 Gold per missing type of Farm animal: At the end of the game, you should have
at least 1 Sheep, 1 Donkey, 1 Wild boar and 1 Cattle. You lose 2 Gold points for each
of these types that you do not have on your Home board. (You do not need to have any
Dogs.)
Gold per Grain (rounded up): Count all of your Grain tokens both those in your
supply and those still left on Fields. Divide this number by 2 and round it up. This is the
number of Gold points you get for Grain.

per Farm animal and Dog

per missing type of Farm animal

-2

per Grain

per Vegetable

(rounded up)

per Ruby

per Dwarf

per unused space

-1

Furnishing tiles, Pastures, Mines

for Parlors, Storages

and Chambers
Gold coins and Begging markers

Total

1 Gold per Vegetable: Count all of your Vegetable tokens both those in your supply and those still left on Fields.
You get this number of Gold points for Vegetables.
1 Gold per Ruby: At the end of the game, each Ruby is worth 1 Gold point.
1 Gold per Dwarf: At the end of the game, each of your Dwarfs is worth 1 Gold point.
-1 Gold per unused space: Count the number of spaces on your Home board that have no tile or Stable on them.
You lose 1 Gold point for each such space. The two pre-printed Caverns of your cave system are considered used.
(Unfurnished Caverns are also considered used.)
Gold for Furnishing tiles, Pastures and Mines: Add up the Gold point values on all of your tiles. Small pastures
are worth 2 Gold points, Large pastures are worth 4 Gold points (regardless of the type and number of animals on
those tiles). Ore mines are worth 3 Gold points, Ruby mines are worth 4 Gold points (regardless of whether they hold
a Donkey or not). The value of a Furnishing tile is printed on the right of the tile, right under the name of the tile.
Bonus points for Parlors, Storages and Chambers: Most of the Furnishing tiles called Parlors, Storages and
Chambers (indicated by the yellow name tag) may be worth Bonus points depending on the condition they impose.
The scoring pad has multiple lines for Bonus points. You can use one line per Furnishing tile that you get Bonus
points for. (Details on the Furnishing tiles can be found on page A3 of the appendix.)
Details on Bonus points
Bonus points for the Weaving parlor, Milking parlor, Fodder
chamber, Food chamber and Treasure chamber are awarded
as Bonus points (even though you could add them to other
categories). Minus points prevented by the Writing chamber
have to be adjusted in the respective categories.
As with the Writing chamber, Bonus points for the Hunting
parlor, Beer parlor, Blacksmithing parlor and Spare part
storage are not awarded as Bonus points on the scoring
pad. These tiles allow you to exchange goods for Gold
before scoring. (If you forgot to do so but notice it just before
scoring, you may still do it.)

Weaving parlor

immediately +1

per

per

Writing chamber

prevents up to
7 negative
points

If you have the Weaving parlor,

you will get points for Sheep
twice: in the category 1 Gold
per Farm animal and in the
category Bonus points for
Parlors.
If you have the Writing
chamber, your minus points in
the -2 Gold per missing type
of Farm animal, -1 Gold per
unused space and Begging
markers categories will be
reduced.

Gold coins and Begging markers: Add up the values on your Gold coins and subtract 3 Gold points from that for
each Begging marker you have.

23

Rules for the solo game

The solo game is played according to the rules for 2 to 7 players with the following exceptions:
In the Work phase, place one Dwarf after another. There are no opponents that you have to wait for. The goal of the solo
game is to get the highest score you can. (Try to beat the magical score of 100 points.) You start the game with 2 Food.
Use the game boards for the
2-player game and cover some
of the Action spaces with
Overview cards as indicated in
the following illustration.

Harvest time

Drift
1.) Fieldmining
phase

Ruby mining

Starting player

Excavation

Blacksmithing

Stage 2

2.) Feeding phase

per

Round 1

per

3.) Breeding phase

and / or

and Stage
then /1or

and / or

play 1 Dwarf out of order

if you have
at least

Ruby mine

remember:
use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

no harvest

Logging

Housework

Ore mining

Expedition
Suppliesloot

Developing wish
for children

Round 4

with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

Wish for children

either

Round 4

Round 7

Round 10

Stage 3

Stage 4

or

furnish
a Dwelling
Wohnhhle

Use this card in the

solo game to cover
Wish for children.
Platz

fr

Zwerg

pay 1 Food
per Dwarf

after Expedition all Weapons +1

and / or

furnish
a Cavern

Round 2

Round 5

Round 8

Round 11

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

and then / or

for each

Ore mine

furnish
a Cavern

Wood gathering

no harvest

Clearing

Slash-and-burn

Sustenance

for

Skip round 9

for

Dwelling

and then / or

for

and / or

and / or

Sow

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

Round 3

Round 6

Round 9

Round 12

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

breed up to
2 types
of Farm animals

Scoring

Place the Action space cards face-down on the empty spaces of the game board as indicated by the following table:
1 Blacksmithing

4 Wish for children

7 Ore delivery

2 Sheep farming

5 Donkey farming

3 Ore mine construction

6 Ruby mine construction

8 Family life

10 Ore trading

(Wish for children

Urgent wish for children)

11 Adventure

9 -

12 Ruby delivery

Use a Dwarf card to cover the Wish for children Action space card. At the beginning of round 4, remove the Dwarf card
from the game. Make sure the Action space card shows Wish for children.
There are no Harvest events in the solo game. From round 5 on, there is a harvest at the end of every round.
In comparison with the 2-player game
As in the 2-player game, the Exploration Action space card has to be removed from the game and round 9 will be skipped.
You can cover Round space 9 with a Dwarf card to indicate this. Unlike the 2-player game, Rubies will accumulate on the
Ruby mining Action space from round 1 on.
Refilling the accumulating spaces
Before refilling the accumulating spaces, check if there are any spaces with more than 6 goods. Remove all the goods
from all of the spaces where this is the case and return them to the general supply. For each Ruby you spend, you can prevent
this from happening for one of these spaces. The goods on the accumulating spaces that you paid a Ruby for will be safe for
another round. (This way an accumulating space may accumulate more than 6 goods.)
Other than that, there are no further changes to the rules.
Keyword index
Accumulating space 7, 8, 24
Action space card 3, 7, 24
Agriculture 5, 14, 18
Animal husbandry 4, 5, 20
Begging markers 10, 23
Breeding 10
Building materials 8, 11
Cattle 11, 17, 20
Caverns 4, 11, 13, 14, 17
Dogs 10-12, 20

24

Donkeys 11, 18, 20

Dwelling 2, 9, 14
Entry-level dwelling 2, 4, 10, 15, 20
Expedition 21-22
Family growth 11, 15, 16
Farm animals 10, 12, 20, 23, 24
Feeding the family 9, 11
Fences 4, 19
Food 2, 9, 11
Forge a Weapon 5, 20, 22
Gold/Gold points 11, 23
Grain/Vegetables 11, 14, 23

Harvest (event) 2, 9, 10, 24

Harvest markers 2, 7, 8, 10
Imitation 12, 22
Landscape tiles 3
Mines 5, 12, 16, 17, 23
Minus points 6, 12, 23
Ore 5, 12, 16, 18
Parent animals 10
Play order of Dwarfs 8, 17, 21
Rubies 4, 5, 11, 12, 17-19, 22-24
Scoring 6, 23
Sheep 11, 18, 20

Single tiles 5, 17
Stables 2, 5, 10, 19, 20
Starting player 2, 8, 12, 22
Tunnel/Deep tunnel 16
Twin tile 11-13
Two-player game 2, 3, 6, 8, 17
Weapon (strength) 5, 12, 20-22
Wish for children 3, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16
(and after the game)
Water source 12, 13
Wild boars 10, 13, 20