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 45 black (acrylic) Ore gems
35 white Sheep tokens 20 red (acrylic) Ruby gems
30 grey Donkey tokens 40 yellow Grain tokens
30 black Wild boar tokens 35 orange Vegetable tokens
30 brown Cattle tokens 1 yellow Starting player token
45 brown Wood tokens 7x3 Stables in different colors
25 grey Stone tokens 7x5 Dwarf discs in different colors
16 Game boards
7 large Home boards (Forest on the 1 two-sided basic game board with preprinted Action spaces for 1
left, Mountain on the right) to 3 players on one side (and for 4 to 7 players on the other side)
1 small basic game board with 3 1 large additional game board (with additional Action spaces for
preprinted Action spaces and Round 5 players on one side and for 6 to 7 players on the other side)
Entry-level dwelling

Room for 2 Dwarfs

and 1 pair of
animals

spaces 1 to 3 1 small additional game board (with additional Action spaces for
1 large basic game board with Round spaces 4 to 12 3 players on one side and for 7 players on the other side)
4 longish supply boards to organize the Furnishing tiles
On counter sheets
20 Gold coins labeled “1” 52 Weapon strength markers
24 Gold coins labeled “2” (1x “1”, 1x “2”, 4x each of “3” to “13”, and 6x “14”)
5 Gold coins labeled “10” 8 Multiplication markers “4x”
1 “Additional dwarf” marker (on the other side: Begging markers “-3 Gold”)
88 “1 Food” markers 8 Goods markers (“8 Sheep”, “8 Donkeys”, “8 Wild boars”,
7 round Harvest markers “8 Cattle”, “10 Wood”, “10 Stone”, “10 Ore”, “5 Rubies”)
2 “8 Animals” markers
Furnishing and landscape tiles Ore mine

17 identical “Dwelling” Furnishing tiles 24 twin tiles “Ore mine/Deep tunnel”

47 other unique Furnishing tiles (on the other side: “Large pasture”)
8 single tiles “Tunnel” (on the other side: “Cavern”) 40 twin tiles “Cavern/Tunnel”
16 single tiles “Ruby mine” (on the other side: “Field”) (on the other side: “Cavern/Cavern”)
40 twin tiles “Meadow/Field”
16 single tiles “Meadow” (on the other side: “Small
(on the other side: Small pasture/Field)
pasture”)
29 Playing cards Wish for children

either Round 4

1 “Harvest events” card 7 Overview cards “Expedition loot”

or
12 Action space cards furnish
a Dwelling
(values 1 to 8 on one side and 9 to 14 on the other side)
with Action spaces for rounds 1 to 12 2 Dwarf cards for the solo and 2-player game
Dwelling

Room for 1 Dwarf

7 Overview cards “Rubies, Harvest time”

also
scoring pad 24 page rule book
bags to organize the components 8 page appendix with details on Expeditions,
the Furnishing tiles and the Action spaces 1
 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 Harvest tim
1.) Field ph
e
Expedition
loot

board and the 5 Dwarfs and 3 Stables of that color. Entry-level dwelling ase after Exp edit
ion all Weapo
ns +1

Place 2 of the 5 Dwarfs side by side in the “Entry- 2.) Feeding

ph ase

level dwelling” on your Home board. Keep the Room for 2 Dwarfs per
per
and 1 pair of
remaining 3 Dwarfs and Stables next to your Home animals
3.) Breeding
ph ase

board as your personal supply.

(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.
Stables
Your first two Dwarfs live together in the
entry-level room of their cave.
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.
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 4th player 5th 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

with 2 players
Round 4
only from
round 3 on Stage 2

Round 1 Wish for children

Round 7 Round 10
either Round 4

Stage 1 Stage 3 Stage 4

or
remember: furnish
a Dwelling
Ruby mine use additional game boards Wohnhöhle

if you have
Platz für 1 Zwerg

in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

at least

Place the two single-sided basic game boards with Housework

no harvest
pay 1 Food
per Dwarf

Round spaces 1 to 3 and 4 to 12 next to each other. and / or

Round 2 Round 5 Round 8 Round 11

Shuffle the 7 Harvest markers and place them

furnish
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
a Cavern

face-down (with the grey rune symbol facing no harvest

Slash-and-burn

The 7 harvest markers

up) on the Round spaces 6 to 12, one marker per No harvest

are put face-down on

space. Place the “Harvest events” card next to the
and then / or Round 3 Round 6 Round 9 Round 12
Pay 1 Food
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4

the game boards.

per Dwarf
instead of
harvest

game boards.
up to 2 new Grain and
2 new Vegetable fields Skip the
Field phase
or the
Scoring Breeding phase
PLAYERS

In a 2-player game, remove one of the Harvest markers with a green leaf from the game. Then distribute the
2 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 4
2 pay 4 Food to use
an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)
Imitation
 supply boards
Ruby mining
Starting player
Strip mining Excavation
Drift mining

Place the supply boards for the Furnishing with 2 players

only from
round 3 on
Round 4
Stage 2

basic game boards

Round 1 Round 7 Round 10

tiles near the other game boards.

Wish for children

either Round 4

Stage 1 Stage 3 Stage 4

additional and / or and / or

or
remember: furnish
a Dwelling
Ruby mine use additional game boards Wohnhöhle

if you have
Platz für 1 Zwerg

in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

at least

game Housework
no harvest
pay 1 Food
per Dwarf

board
Ore mining
Imitation 4 Logging
Supplies

pay 4 Food to use

This is the setup for a 3-player game.

an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)
and / or
Round 2 Round 5 Round 8 Round 11
furnish

Especially in a 3-player game, players

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
a Cavern
and then / or
Ore mine

for each

tend to forget about the additional Slash-and-burn

no harvest

game board. Place the supply boards Clearing Sustenance

Forest exploration Wood gathering
No harvest

near the other game boards as you and / or and / or

and then / or Round 3
Stage 1
Round 6
Stage 2
Round 9
Stage 3
Round 12
Stage 4
Pay 1 Food
per Dwarf
instead of
harvest

see fit. up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields
“Harvest events” card
Skip the
Field phase
or the
Breeding phase
Scoring

The supply boards and Furnishing tiles When playing with 6 or 7

players, we recommend
The supply boards are double-sided. One side is used in the Introductory that you start with the Full
game, the other side is used in the Full game. The Full game comes with game to make sure that
a larger variety of Furnishing tiles. (Put the unused Furnishing tiles back there is a sufficient number
into the game box when playing an Introductory game.) of Furnishing tiles in play.

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” Dwelling
Dwelling
Dwelling
Dwelling
Dwelling
Dwelling Simple dwelling Simple dwelling Cuddle room Breakfast room Stubble room

tiles (costing 4 wood and 3 stone). You do not need to Room for 1 Dwarf
Room for 1 Dwarf
Room for 1 Dwarf
Room for 1 Dwarf
Room for 1 Dwarf Room for as many
Room for 1 Dwarf Room for 1 Dwarf Room for 1 Dwarf Room for

put all of them on the supply board. Replenish them

you may keep
up to
1 Farm animal on
as you have
each empty Field

incrementally from time to time when needed.

The Action space cards

Shuffle the 12 Action space cards. Keep them face-down while shuffling.
PLAYERS

In the 2-player game, only 11 Action space cards are used. Remove the “Exploration” card with the “Level
2 4 expedition” from the game. (Cover the unused Round space 9 with a Dwarf card.)

Rearrange the shuffled Action space

Wish for chil

cards into a face-down stack as follows dren

either Round 4

without looking at them.

or

The 12 Action space cards rearranged fur nish

a Dwelling

after shuffling. You can fan them out or

Dwelling

Room
for
1 Dwarf

keep them in a stack.

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.
in e

The landscape tiles

O re m

Ruby m
in e
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 You will place single and twin tiles on your Home
boards during the course of the game. Fields and
Separate the remaining components and keep them in separate Meadows (which can be further upgraded to Pastures)
piles next to the game boards. All the animals may be kept in can be placed on Forest spaces; Caverns and Tunnels
one pile and all the building materials in another. You do not (which can be further upgraded to Mines) can be
need to sort the Weapon strength markers by number. placed on Mountain spaces.
3
 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 empty Cavern
Cavern is still empty, but is ready to be furnished.
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
Entry-level dwelling
are Furnishing tiles for this purpose as you have Caverns. There are a lot of other ways to
already seen during setup. furnish a Cavern.
Each of your Dwarfs may take one action per round – the available actions are displayed on Room for 2 Dwarfs
and 1 pair of
the game boards. You will place your Dwarfs, one at a time, in clockwise order on Action animals
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.

When placing your Dwarfs on the game boards, you will eventually get in one another’s 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 Expand your cave

form Pastures for your Farm ani- system by placing
mals: simply turn the “Meadow/ “Cavern/Tunnel” and
Field” twin tile to the other side. “Cavern/Cavern” twin
A fenced space can hold a pair of tiles in the Mountain.
animals.

Collect Rubies to buy single

Or expand your cave system with
“Field” and “Meadow” tiles for
single tiles bought with Rubies:
1 Ruby each.
a single Tunnel costs 1 Ruby, a
Entry-level dwelling single Cavern costs 2 Rubies.
(Rubies have many other uses as
Room for 2 Dwarfs
and 1 pair of
animals
we will see later.)

These are Rubies. Place your first “Meadow/Field” Your “Entry-level dwelling” is a Dwelling
tile on the Forest spaces in front for your very first couple of Dwarfs. You
of your cave entrance. can also keep a pair of animals there.

4
 There are more ways to keep animals than shown on the previous page.

You can place a Stable on You can place Furnishing tiles in

You can place a “Large pasture” on two adja- the Caverns of your cave system.
a Forest space (that you
cent Meadow spaces to keep your animals more These tiles can be beneficial to
have not cleared, yet): A
efficiently. You can even double its capacity by you during the course of the game
Forest stable can hold 1
building a Stable on it. You can keep up to 8 or at its end.
Wild boar, but no other
animals of the same type on a Large pasture with
animals. Blacksmithing parlor

a Stable.
at any time
before scoring
You can
place an
Ruby mine
Ore mine
on two
adjacent
Tunnels.
Ruby mine

Each Mine can hold

1 Donkey. Ore mine
There are ordinary
You can also build a
Stable on a Meadow Tunnels, and Deep
space. A Meadow Entry-level dwelling tunnels in Ore mines.
stable can hold You can place a
1 animal of any type.
Room for 2 Dwarfs
and 1 pair of Ruby mine on any
animals
of these Tunnels. If
you place one on a
Deep tunnel, you will
You can grow Grain and immediately gain
This table displays how to 1 Ruby.
Vegetables on your Fields feed your family.
and harvest them later.

Weapons and Expeditions Expedition loot

Veteran “Agricola” players may be highly interested in what the Weapons are for. In Caverna, your Dwarfs
after Expedition all Weap
ons +1

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.

furnish
Blacksmithing

:
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 You can “multiply” animals
pastures with a Stable. Also, there are markers for 10 units of a specific type of building as well. This Large pasture is
material or for 5 Rubies. 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 Furnishing tiles are worth the number of points
Dogs, and the Farm animals Sheep, Donkeys, 21 printed on them. (2+2+2=6, and 3+3=6 for the 12
Wild boars, and Cattle. (2+4+2+3+10=21) Dwellings that have been built during the game)

You lose 2 points for each type of Farm

animal that you are missing. (This Home Breeding cave Ruby supplier Blacksmithing parlor You lose 1 point for
board is not missing any type of animals.) each unused space of
for 1/2/3/4
at the beginning at any time

your Home board.

newborn animals: before scoring
of the next 4 rounds

Pastures are worth the

number of points printed Ruby mine

on them. (2+4=6) -1 -1 -3
6 Ruby mine

Dwelling
Mines are worth the
-1 Room for 1 Dwarf
Ore mine number of points
printed on them.
(4+3+4=11)
Entry-level dwelling Dwelling Fodder chamber

Room for 2 Dwarfs Room for 1 Dwarf

3
11
and 1 pair of per Farm
animals animals

Vegetables, Rubies and Some Furnishing tiles may

Grain is worth ½ Gold
Gold are each worth 1 Each Dwarf award additional points.
point (rounded up)
Gold point. is worth 1 (The “Fodder storage”
(4+1+13=18) 18 regardless of whether 5 4 awards 6 Gold points for 19
it has been already Gold point.
Farm animals.)
harvested or not.

The player in this example has

80 6
got a total of 80 Gold points.
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

Each of the 12 rounds goes through five phases that
are played one after another in the order described here.
Players who have already played ‘Agricola’
only need to read the brown sentences.
All the other rules are the same in both
PLAYERS

In the 2-player game, there are

2 only 11 rounds to play.
‘Caverna’ and ‘Agricola’.

6
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 topwith 2 players

Action space card and put it on the appropriate space

only from
round 3 on

Round 1
1. Add a new Action space on the basic game boards. Stage 1

remember:

This is where you will place the first

if you have
at least
Ruby mine use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

Action space card in Round 1.

no harvest
Housework

Place goods from the general supply on the andAction

/ or Ruby mining
Round 2
spaces that require them. These Action spacesfurnish
show
2. Replenish accumulating spaces a Cavern
Stage 1

an arrow. with 2 players

The accumulation arrow only from

round 3 on

no harvest
Slash-and-burn

Ruby mining Blacksmithing

In clockwise order, take turns to place 1 Dwarf per

with 2 players use a
turn on an Action space on the game boards. Then
Ruby mine
only from
round 3 on if you have in games
and then / or Round 3
at least
carry out the actions on that space. Each Action space Round
Stage 11
3. Work phase Stage 1
may only be occupied by a single Dwarf. up to 2 new Grain and
and then / or
remember:
2 new Vegetable fields
Ruby mine use additional game boards
if you have in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players
at least
Housework
This Dwarf is forging a Weapon.
no harvest
Housework

After all Dwarfs have been placed on Action spaces, and / or

4. Return home and / or
return your Dwarfs to their Dwellings. furnish
furnish
Round 2

a Cavern a Cavern
Stage 1

Harvest time
1.) Field phase

no harvest
At the end of most of the rounds, there is a Slash-and-burn
harvest: 2.) Feeding phase
per per

5. Harvest time collect Grain and Vegetables, feed your family, and 3.) Breeding phase
Slash-and-burn
breed your animals.
and then / or Round 3
Stage 1

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

1. Add a new Action space Blacksmithing and then / or

Turn over the top Action space card from the stack and put it on the empty Round Ruby mining

space with the lowest number. (The Round spaces are numbered 1 to 12.) with 2 players up to 2 new Grain and
only from
2 new Vegetable fields
The new Action space adds to the number of
round 3 on

and then / or
available actions. It can be used by any player in The first Round Round 1

space reminds you Stage 1

the Work phase of this and all subsequent rounds.
to check if you need remember:
use additional game boards
From the start of round 6, you must also turn the additional game if you have
at least
Ruby mine

in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players

Harvest marker on the Round space where the new boards

Action space card is placed face-up. Leave the no harvest

marker on the grey rune space. Housework

If the Harvest marker shows a green leaf,

there will be a normal harvest at the end
of the round (seeandpage
/ or 9).
Round 2
There is a grey rune symbol on the back furnish
Stage 1
side of each Harvest marker, and a green a Cavern

leaf or red question mark on the front side. If it shows a red question mark, the harvest
will be played differently (see “Which
rounds end with a harvest?”, page 10).
no harvest
Slash-and-burn
7
 Example: A red question mark has been revealed: The or No harvest
“Harvest events” card determines which
event will affect the coming harvest. In this Round 6 Round 9
Ruby mine

example, it will be the event at the top of the Stage 2

Ore mine

StagePay3 1 Food
card. per Dwarf
instead of
harvest

Skip the
If you like the element of surprise, we Field phase
recommend you reveal the Harvest marker or the
Breeding phase
only at the end of a round.

Urgent
Family life Wish for children wish for children

Special cases when adding a new Action space Wish for children
Urgent
Wish for children
either Round 4
either
Dwelling
Round 4

furnish

:
Room for 1 Dwarf

The “Wish for children” Action space card will always come into a Dwelling

or and then
play in round 4. Initially, place it with the “Wish for children” and / or
furnish Drift mining
a Dwelling
side facing up on the game board. Turn it to the other side that Dwelling

or
Room for 1 Dwarf

says “Urgent wish for children” as soon as you add the “Family up to 2 new Grain and
2 new Vegetable fields

life” Action space card in stage 3.

That’s the way it is with small
In the 2-player game, the last round of stage 3 – round 9 – is skipped,
PLAYERS

families: Over time aand

wish
/ or for

2 as the “Exploration” Action space card was removed from the game (see
“Setup”, page 3).
children will become an urgent wish.

2. Replenish accumulating spaces

Logging
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 This is an accumulating space.
rounds. “3 Wood” and an arrow, for instance, indicate that you put 3 Wood on that Action space and then / or
every round.
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).
These Dwarfs have to be played in the indicated order.
Each Action space can only be used by one Dwarf in a round.
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 Urgent
wish for children
accommodate on your Home board may be converted into Food immediately (according either Round 4

to the conversion table on your Home board and on page 11).

furnish
Dwelling

Room

You can only place Dwarfs from your cave. You may not use the Dwarfs in your personal
for 1 Dwarf

a Dwelling
supply (as they have not been born yet, if you will, but they can be introduced later, see
“Family growth” on page 15). and then

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
or
actions. Adventure
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”). and then / or
Other Action spaces allow you to take any number of the available actions (“and/or”,
“and then/or”).
and then
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.

4. Return home
Remove your Dwarfs from the game boards and return them to their Dwellings.
Entry-level dwelling Dwelling

Details on returning home Room for 1 Dwarf

Room for 2 Dwarfs
It does not matter how you distribute the Dwarfs among the and 1 pair of
animals
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 Dwellings are indicated by the orange
opponents can easily see which of your Dwarfs have a Weapon and background color of their name tag.
what strengths these Weapons have.

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.) It’s 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 Entry-level dwelling

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 Room for 2 Dwarfs
and 1 pair of
accommodated on your Home board. (Baby animals and parent animals animals

may not be converted into Food immediately after the birth. You have to
accommodate them on your Home board first.)

Details on breeding The player in this example has built

a Stable in the Forest just outside his
You get all of your baby animals at the same time, not one by one. cave. Now he is able to keep up to 3
You can only get at most one animal per type in each harvest. Wild boars. (Animal husbandry will
Dogs are not considered Farm animals. They do not breed. be explained in detail on page 20.)
Therefore, his Wild boars can breed a
The animals breed regardless of where the parent animals are placed piglet (despite the fact that they currently
on your Home board. The parents may be in separate areas. 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. No harvest

In this example, the first

You will need a lot of Food for your hungry question mark has already Pay 1 Food
Dwarfs due to the high number of harvests in been resolved. When the per Dwarf
instead of
this game. On the other hand, you will collect next one is revealed, all harvest
crops more frequently and your animals will players will have to pay
breed more often. If you take the right steps to 1 Food for each of their Skip the
feed your family early on, it will not be as hard Dwarfs. Field phase
or the
as it seems. Breeding phase

10
 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:
This is what Gold
You can buy Food with Gold. Pay one more Gold than the amount of Food you wish to get.
looks like
(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
And this is what Gold
In addition, you can convert animals and crops into Food. points look like
Sheep are each worth 1 Food, Wild boars 2 Food, and2 Cattle
Room for Dwarfs
3 Food. A single Donkey is worth 1 Food, butand 1 pair of
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. The Food conversion table on your Home board
Dogs and the building materials Wood, Stone and Ore are summarizes the Food conversion rules.
not worth any Food. (Nor are Dwarfs, by the way.)

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 Questions that will be answered Page(s)

How can I get twin tiles on my Home board?

1. Action spaces for twin tiles
12 to 14
(including the explanation of the “Sow” action)

How can Wish for children

2. Action spaces for family growth
I get more
(including the explanation of the “Furnish a cavern” either Round 4 14 to 16
Dwarfs into
action)
my cave?

or
furnish
a Dwelling
Dwelling

Room for 1 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 Ore mine Ruby mine
16 to 18
(including the explanation of Rubies)

How can I get animals on my Home board?

4. Action spaces for animals (including the
explanation of the “Build fences” and “Build stables” 18 to 20
actions and how to keep animals)

Strip mining
What are Weapons for?
5. Action spaces for weapons
(including the explanation of the “Expedition” 20 to 22
actions)

6. Starting player Who will be the Starting player next round? 22

What can I do when Imitation 4

an opponent has pay 4 Food to use

7. Imitation occupied an Action an Action space that is

occupied by an opponent 22
(except: Starting player)
space I wanted to
use?

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 “Cavern/Cavern”
the Stone tokens from the Action space when taking the action. twin tile
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. Entry-level dwelling Immediately take
1 Food as soon
If you place the new tile on one of the Room for 2 Dwarfs as you cover this
and 1 pair of

Drift mining Excavation underground

Starting player water sources, imme- animals space on your Home
diately take the indicated 1 or 2 Food board.
from the general supply. You start the game with two
occupied Mountain spaces.
The difference between the
and / or
“Excavation” and the “Drift mining” action is which side you may turn the twin
and / or
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

Imitation Growth “DriftOre mining Action space is countered by the fact
mining”
either that it will accumulate Stone faster than the Action
pay 2 Food to use
an Action space that is
occupied by an opponent
space “Excavation”.
12 (except: Starting player)
 Stage 1 Excavation
Starting player
Drift mining
Ruby mining
remember:
Details
if you have
on the “Excavation” and “Drift mining” Action spaces
Ruby mine use additional game boards
in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players with 2 players
only from
at least
If you have run out of adjacent empty Mountain spaces, you may not place any more twin tiles in your Mountain. round 3 on

In this case, you may not place a single tile instead when using the and“Excavation”
/ or or “Drift mining” action (on single Imitation

and / or
tiles, see “Rubies” on page 17 and “The
no harvest Expedition loot items” in the appendix). use an Action space that
is occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

In games
Housework with 5 to 7 players, there is an Action space called “Small-scale drift mining”. It provides 1 Stone and a Ruby mine

“Cavern/Tunnel” twin tile. if you have

at least

In 7-player games, there is an additional Action space called “Extension”. It also provides 1 Stone Extension

either
and a “Cavern/Tunnel” twin tile. Alternatively, Loggingyou may take 1 Wood and a “Meadow/Field” twin
Supplies Ore mining
Housework
tile
andfor / orthe Forest on your Home board.
Round 2
furnish
Stage 1
a Cavern
or
The twin tile with a Meadow and a Field. and / or

furnish
and then / or a Cavern
Ore mine

for each
The “Meadow/Field” twin tile will be explained next.
no harvest
Action spaces: Clearing, Sustenance and Slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn Clearing Sustenance
Wood gathering Slash-and-burn

and / or and / or and then / or

and then / or Round 3
Apart from the goods depicted on the1 “Clearing” and
Stage
“Sustenance” Action spaces, you can get a “Meadow/Field” up to 2 new Grain and
2 new Vegetable fields

twin tile there. This tile is also available on the “Slash-and-

burn” Action space.
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). Room
and
a
A close-up view of
the cave entrance

Immediately take 1 Wild boar from

The first “Meadow” and/or “Field”
the general supply when covering Entry-level dwelling
tile you place in the game must be
one of the Wild boar preserves in placed in front of your cave entrance
your Forest. You can accommodate Room for 2 Dwarfs
regardless
and 1 pair of of whether it is a single or
this Wild boar on your Home board animals
a twin tile.
or convert it into 2 Food immediately
(see the conversion table on your
Home board). 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 and then / or
provide Wood and crops, respectively. The “Slash-and-burn” Action space,
on the other hand, provides an additional “Sow” action.

up to 2 new Grain and

This is how
2 new you fields
Vegetable 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

Details on the “Sow” action contains 3 tokens, a newly
You cannot sow a crop, i.e. Grain or Vegetable, sown Vegetable field just 2
tokens.
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’
with 2 players
only from

Action space (in stage 3). Family life is what the next section is about.
round 3 on

Ruby mine use add

if you have in games w
at least

2. Action spaces for family growth

n
Housework
The Furnish a cavern action
The “Furnish a cavern” action can be found on the “Housework” Action space.
When using the “Furnish a cavern” action, choose one of the and / or
available Furnishing tiles on the supply boards. furnish
Stone carver
Pay the building costs indicated on the left below the name a Cavern
of the tile (most often Wood and/or Stone) and place it on an
immediately empty Cavern space in your Mountain.
every time you furnish
a Cavern or build a
Stable, you receive
Every Furnishing tile has an ability which is shown at the
a discount of
bottom of the tile. (The abilities of all Furnishing tiles are
Slash-and-burn
explained on page A3 of the appendix.)
Dwelling
Dwellings are special Furnishing tiles. They provide room for
additional Dwarfs.
Room for 1 Dwarf
Dwellings are indicated by the red
and then / or
background color of their name tag.
Entry-level dwelling

up to 2 new Grain and

Room for 2 Dwarfs 2 new Vegetable fields
14 and 1 pair of
animals
 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.)
Entry-level dwelling
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 Room for 2 Dwarfs
each Furnishing tile. The number of ordinary Dwelling tiles is considered to be unlimited and 1 pair of
This Cavern is
animals
(improvise if needed). waiting to be
furnished from the
The next action specifically addresses the building of Dwellings.
start.

Wish for children

either Round 4
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”). or
furnish
When using the “Furnish a dwelling” action, take a Dwelling tile, pay its building costs and a Dwelling
place it on an empty Cavern. There are 6 different types of Dwellings. Every Dwelling provides
Dwelling

Room for 1 Dwarf

room for one or two Dwarfs.

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 Round 4

The Family growth action

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

Room for 1 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. Entry-level dwelling
Dwelling Dwelling

Room for 1 Dwarf Room for 1 Dwarf

Room for 2 Dwarfs
and 1 pair of
Family life animals

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

Urgent
Wish for children Wish for children

offspring has to grow up first.) In the Return home phase

of this round, the new Dwarf has to be accommodated
and / or
in an available Dwelling like the other Dwarfs. This player’s cave has room for 4 Dwarfs but
only 3 Dwarfs are living in it at the moment.
up to 2 new Grain and
Look at this lovely pregnant Dwarf woman!
2 new Vegetable fields

15
 Details on the “Family growth” action Additional dwelling
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.) Room for the
sixth Dwarf only
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). The “Additional
You get only one “Family growth” action per Action space, but you may occupy more dwelling” provides
than one of them to grow your family faster. room for a sixth Dwarf.

Drift mining Excavation

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
and / or
different goods. We willandtalk
/ or about

Action spaces like this in the next

section.

3. Action spaces for goods and mines

Imitation Growth
Action spaces: Supplies and Growth either
pay 2 Food to use
an Action space that is

The “Supplies” and “Growth” Action spaces are available from the start. occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

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
or

fo
Action space: Ore mine construction
and then / or
The “Ore mine construction” Action space will become available in stage 1.
Clearing
If there are two horizontally or vertically adjacent Ore mine construction

ordinary Tunnel spaces in your Mountain, you may Ore mine

use the “Ore mine construction” Action space to place Ore mine

Forest exploration
an “Ore mine/Deep tunnel” twin tile on top of these
spaces. If you do so, take 3 Ore from the general supply. and / or
and then / or
Additionally or alternatively, you may undertake an
Expedition of level 2 on that Action space (see page 21).

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
An Ore mine is worth 3 Gold points. Room for 2 Dwarfs
and 1 pair of the Deep tunnel.
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
or
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.)
Ruby mine

Ore mine

Ruby mine
Details on the “Ruby mine construction” action
A Ruby mine is worth 4 Gold points. An ordinary Tunnel space has
Every (Ore and) Ruby mine can hold 1 Donkey (see been covered by a Ruby mine tile.
page 20 for details on animal husbandry). 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.

Ruby mining
If you have at least 1 Ruby mine, take 1 additional
Starting player
Ruby when taking the “Ruby mining” action. (You
Excavation Ore delivery
Drift mining

will only ever get 1 additional Ruby.

with 2 players
only from
round 3 on

Round 1
Stage 1
In the 2-player game only: No Rubies
SPIELER
and / or
Take 2 additional Ore tokens
2
and / or
remember:
use additional game boards
are placed on this Action space in the
from the general supply for
Ruby mine

Ore mine
if you have in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players
at least
for each
first two rounds.)
each Ore mine you have no harvest

when you take the “Ore

Logging
Supplies Ore mining
Housework

mining” or “Ore delivery” Ruby delivery

action. and / or
Round 2
furnish
a Cavern
If you
Stage 1 have at least 2 Ruby mines, take 1 additional

and then / or Ruby when taking the “Ruby delivery” action. (You
will only ever get 1 additional Ruby.)
Ore mine

for each

Ruby mine

if you have
at least no harvest
Slash-and-burn
Clearing Sustenance
Wood gathering

and / or
Rubies
and then / or Round 3
Stage 1
and / or

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
1 Zwerg in der Einsetzf
olge vorziehen

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).
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 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.)

up to 2 new Grain and When taking the “Ruby mine construction” action, you can
2 new Vegetable fields
spend 1 Ruby to get a single “Tunnel” tile before you place the
Ruby mine
Ruby mine on top of it (see page 17).

Ore trading
Depot Sm

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. Weekly market

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 and then / or
boar or Dog costs 2 Gold; Cattle costs 3 Gold; Grain costs 1 Gold and a Vegetable costs 2 Gold. only 1 token per type:

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 Hardware rental
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.
and then / or
You get change if you cannot pay the exact amount with the coins you have.

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields

4. Action spaces for animals

Sheep farming Donkey farming

Action spaces: Sheep farming and Donkey farming for for

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

They accumulate Sheep and Donkeys, respectively. Before taking the animals, and then / or and then / or

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
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.
and then / or
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 for

“Pastures”.) Pastures can hold animals (see page 20).

for
You have to pay 2 Wood to fence in a single Meadow space. This space becomes a Small pasture.
up to 2 new Grain and
2 new Vegetable fields

To indicate this, turn the Meadow tile to the other side.

+2 +2 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”
+4 twin tile on top of these spaces. (Large pastures are printed on the back side of the
Ore mine tiles.)
Eingangswohnhöhle

You can place a Large pasture on top of two horizontally

Platz für 2 Zwerge
or vertically adjacent Meadow spaces.
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
+2
with your “Build fences” action.

The Build stables action

Sheep farming

You can build Stables on the “Sheep farming” and “Donkey farming” Action spaces. for

Pay 1 Stone to build a Stable. You can place the Stable on any Forest, Meadow or Pasture space. for

Stables are permanent. Once established, they cannot be moved or removed. You can only build 1
for
Stable per action. Like Pastures, Stables allow you to keep more animals.
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.
On Pastures, you can keep Farm animals. Each Pasture space can hold Dogs wander around. You can keep them on any
up to 2 Farm animals of the same type. (For instance, Small pastures can spaces of your Home board.
hold 2 Farm animals, and Large pastures can hold 4.)

A Stable on a Pasture doubles its Each Ore or Ruby mine can

total capacity.
Ore mine
hold 1 Donkey.
(Small pastures with a Stable can
hold up to 4, Large pastures with Ruby mine

one Stable up to 8, and with two

Stables up to 16 Farm animals.)
You can keep up to 3 Cattle
Breakfast room on the “Breakfast room”
A Stable on a Meadow space Room for
Furnishing tile.
up to
can hold any 1 Farm animal. A
Stable on a Forest space that has
Entry-level dwelling
not been covered by a tile can
hold exactly 1 Wild boar. Room for 2 Dwarfs The entry-level room of
and 1 pair of
animals
your cave can hold 2 Farm
animals of the same type.

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 The ‘Cave Farmers’ has many more options to
can keep one more Sheep on the Meadow or Pasture than there are Dogs keep animals than its predecessor ‘Agricola’:
on it. (For instance, 1/2/3/… Dogs can watch 2/3/4/… Sheep, respectively.) Dogs wander around or can watch Sheep. A
If you use Dogs to watch Sheep on a space with a Stable, you may not use Stable in the Forest can hold a Wild boar, and
the Stable.
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
Details on animal husbandry animals more often to optimize the available
You can fence in a Meadow space with Stable to get a Pasture room.
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.

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 Blacksmithing
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
and then / or
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.

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

20
 The Expeditions Expedition loot for

after Expedition all Weapons +1

Every Expedition yields some loot items as depicted on the “Expedition for

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 Dwelling

different levels (1-4). The Expedition level determines how many different for

loot items you may choose from the Overview card. (Choose the loot items Sow

one by one in any order.)

up to 2 new Grain and
2 new Vegetable fields

Each space with a loot item on the Overview card has a Minimum strength breed up to
2 types
value. When choosing an item from the list, you may only choose items with furnish
a Cavern
of Farm animals

a Minimum strength value lower than or equal to the Weapon strength of

the Dwarf undertaking the Expedition. The “Expedition loot” Overview card lists a
lot of different goods and bonus actions. Each
space depicts one loot item. Each such item
Expedition loot One of your Dwarfs with a Weapon strength
may only be chosen once per Expedition.
after Expedition all Weapons +1 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).

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.

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

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

Two Dwarfs are left in your cave. You

As a reminder: The play order of Dwarfs
would like to undertake an Expedition.
As mentioned on page 8, you have to place Entry-level dwelling Unfortunately, you have to place the
your Dwarfs in the order of their Weapon Dwarf with the Weapon strength of 3 next.
strength. You have to place unarmed Dwarfs Room for 2 Dwarfs
and 1 pair of
Obviously, it would be much more efficient to
first, then your armed Dwarfs in ascending animals use the Dwarf with the Weapon strength of 14
order of Weapon strength. instead.

You can spend a Ruby to bypass the play In the example, you could spend 1 Ruby to
order for a specific Dwarf (see “Rubies” on place the Dwarf with the Weapon strength of
After you 14 before placing the weaker one.
page 17).

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.

Detailed example on forging a Weapon and undertaking an Expedition

Blacksmithing
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
and then / or
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

Starting player Starting player
Excavation Excavation
Drift mining Drift mining

The Starting player token is not passed at the end of the round. In order to Strip mining
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
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 On top ofGrowth
Ore miningthe Starting player
Ore mining
token and
pay 2 Food to use
an Action space that is
some Food, you will also get 2 Ore or
either

1 Ruby depending on the player count.

occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)

Logging
7. Action spaces: Imitation and then / or or
Ore mine Ore mine

for each for each

The “Imitation” Action spaces are available in games with at least 3 players. andImitation
then / or
costs Imitation 4
0, 1, 2 or 4 Food depending on the Action space. Wood gathering
Clearing Sustenance
Clearing Sustenance
pay 4 Food to use
an Action space that is
When using an “Imitation” action, pay the required Food into the general supply and choose occupied by an opponent
(except: Starting player)
an Action space that is currently occupied by an opponent’s Dwarf. You may use this Action
Forest exploration

space as if you had placed your Dwarf there. The only Action space that cannot
and / or be imitated
and / and
or / or
Imitationandcost
/ or

is “Starting player”. (“apprentice’s 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 per Farm animal and Dog 1
per missing type of Farm animal -2
The game ends at the end of round 12. Use the scoring pad to determine the final scores.
per Grain
There are several different categories for which you can get Gold points. The player who (rounded up)
½
has the most Gold points wins the game. (In case of a tie, there are multiple winners.) per Vegetable 1
1 Gold per Farm animal and Dog: Each animal is worth 1 Gold point at the end of the per Ruby 1
game, even Dogs. (Dogs are not considered Farm animals.) per Dwarf 1
per unused space -1
-2 Gold per missing type of Farm animal: At the end of the game, you should have
Furnishing tiles, Pastures, Mines
at least 1 Sheep, 1 Donkey, 1 Wild boar and 1 Cattle. You lose 2 Gold points for each
for Parlors, Storages
of these types that you do not have on your Home board. (You do not need to have any and Chambers
Dogs.)
Gold coins and Begging markers
½ Gold per Grain (rounded up): Count all of your Grain tokens – both those in your
Total
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.
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

Weaving parlor
Bonus points for the Weaving parlor, Milking parlor, Fodder If you have the Weaving parlor,
you will get points for Sheep
chamber, Food chamber and Treasure chamber are awarded
imme- twice: in the category “1 Gold
as “Bonus points” (even though you could add them to other diately +1
per
per Farm animal” and in the
categories). Minus points prevented by the Writing chamber per category “Bonus points for
have to be adjusted in the respective categories. Parlors”.
As with the Writing chamber, Bonus points for the Hunting
parlor, Beer parlor, Blacksmithing parlor and Spare part If you have the Writing
Writing chamber
storage are not awarded as “Bonus points” on the scoring chamber, your minus points in
pad. These tiles allow you to exchange goods for Gold the “-2 Gold per missing type
before scoring. (If you forgot to do so but notice it just before prevents up to of Farm animal”, “-1 Gold per
scoring, you may still do it.) 7 negative unused space” and “Begging
points 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 Harvest time

Drift
1.) Fieldmining
phase
Excavation
Starting player
Ruby mining Blacksmithing Developing wish
for children

2-player game and cover some 2.) Feeding phase

with 2 players
only from
round 3 on
Round 4
Stage 2

of the Action spaces with per

3.) Breeding phase

per

and / or
Round 1

and Stage
then /1or
Wish for children

either Round 4
Round 7
Stage 3
Round 10
Stage 4
and / or

Overview cards as indicated in

or
play 1 Dwarf out of order
remember: furnish
a Dwelling
use additional game boards Wohnhöhle

if you have
Ruby mine
Use this card in the
Platz für 1 Zwerg

in games with 3 and 5 to 7 players solo game to cover

at least

the following illustration.

Wish for children.

pay 1 Food
no harvest per Dwarf
Housework
Suppliesloot
Expedition Ore mining
Logging
after Expedition all Weapons +1

and / or
Round 2 Round 5 Round 8 Round 11
furnish
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
a Cavern
and then / or
Ore mine

for each

furnish
a Cavern
no harvest
Slash-and-burn
Clearing for Sustenance
Wood gathering Skip round 9

for

Dwelling

and then / or Round 3 Round 6 Round 9 Round 12

for

and / or and / or Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4

Sow

up to 2 new Grain and

2 new Vegetable fields 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 10 Ore trading

8 Family life
2 Sheep farming 5 Donkey farming (Wish for children 11 Adventure
Urgent wish for children)

3 Ore mine construction 6 Ruby mine construction 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 Donkeys 11, 18, 20 Harvest (event) 2, 9, 10, 24 Single tiles 5, 17
Action space card 3, 7, 24 Dwelling 2, 9, 14 Harvest markers 2, 7, 8, 10 Stables 2, 5, 10, 19, 20
Agriculture 5, 14, 18 Entry-level dwelling 2, 4, 10, 15, 20 Imitation 12, 22 Starting player 2, 8, 12, 22
Animal husbandry 4, 5, 20 Expedition 21-22 Landscape tiles 3 Tunnel/Deep tunnel 16
Begging markers 10, 23 Family growth 11, 15, 16 Mines 5, 12, 16, 17, 23 Twin tile 11-13
Breeding 10 Farm animals 10, 12, 20, 23, 24 Minus points 6, 12, 23 Two-player game 2, 3, 6, 8, 17
Building materials 8, 11 Feeding the family 9, 11 Ore 5, 12, 16, 18 Weapon (strength) 5, 12, 20-22
Cattle 11, 17, 20 Fences 4, 19 Parent animals 10 Wish for children 3, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16
Caverns 4, 11, 13, 14, 17 Food 2, 9, 11 Play order of Dwarfs 8, 17, 21 (and after the game)
Dogs 10-12, 20 Forge a Weapon 5, 20, 22 Rubies 4, 5, 11, 12, 17-19, 22-24 Water source 12, 13
Gold/Gold points 11, 23 Scoring 6, 23 Wild boars 10, 13, 20
Grain/Vegetables 11, 14, 23 Sheep 11, 18, 20
24