Caverna: Frantic Fiends - Expansion Review - Beyond The Base Game

Surprised to see Rosenburg go this route with this expansion. Indeed a baffling decision to exclude forgotten folk. Appreciate the honest review

Been waiting for a review of this expansion. Think I'll give it a miss.

Thanks for saving me the $. This expansion has all the things I don't want in Caverna.

Hmmm....for some reason I now want to go play Vindication.

Total bummer. At least I got to see my dear sweet Fizzgig. And hearing you say "Caverna" the way you do made me smile! (luv ur accent)

Sounds like it addresses common problems with Caverna, but in a very weird way. Orc tower defense sounds... unexpected, to the the least. I'm definitely interested, but cautiously.

Yet I love Caverna less with each play. It's simultaneously bloated with content and stale with the same play patterns. It's even completely "solved" in solo mode. I considered houseruling room market similarly to the way this new expansion does. Forgotten Folk is a lot of fun, but it's like a temporary fix while novelty lasts. There's a reason Agricola persisted for so many years, because it has near endless variability with cards.

Uwe is still my #1, though in the long run, Arle and Odin outshined my initial fascination with Caverna.

Thanks for the review. I'll pass on this expansion. Frantic Friends takes Caverna in the wrong direction. I'll spend my entertainment funds elsewhere.

Oh no no no. What a shame.

Was that first isle of skye expansion, journeyman? It soured the game so much I never played Isle of skye again.

This confirms all the concerns I had with this expansion. I think I could live with the tighter gameplay if the rest was good, but the random movement cards just seem awful.

Well done! Thanks for testing the waters with it. Good to know.

I agree with your opening ‘marmite’ statement but I think you completely miss the point with the rest. For many years my number one game, I played a 7 player for my 50th and 51st birthdays, played lots of forgotten folk during lockdown. The game then sat on my shelf unplayed with lots of memories and we went back to Agricola for its variety.

This expansion has made us excited to play again because it does offer something so different, but still in the caverna world.

Such a shame that you couldn’t see it for what it is, there is a lot of angst filled fun in here, you read the rules and look at each other in agony as you think how impossible it looks. Then you play, this game delights you in ‘just’ allowing you to deal with things coming your way. You teeter on the edge, the balance utterly delicious and gives a real sense of achievement. The various bonuses from despatching orks allow you to tweak your engine and allowing new strategies to form. Now building a room and making a baby early is hard, really hard. Before it was a known pattern and a must do, now there is variety, choice, tough strategic decisions to make and not just tactical ones.

Yes this does mix things up hugely and puts it firmly in the ‘expert’ mode, it also brings a lovely and massively enjoyable challenge. The variety is the overwhelming benefit for me, the vast array of building with its known hierarchy is gone, as is the ‘usual’ pattern. Instead something fun, challenging and new to a much loved system. Excellent.

I’m one of the weirdos who likes Agricola and Caverna equally. They’re the only games I currently have as 10/10s. Excited to try this one but also have some reservations..we’ll see how it goes.

Thanks for the review by the way! Had been really looking forward to it.

I pre-ordered it like 14 months ago (Having no idea it could not be added to the fantastic FF Expansion) , that is such a shame, I will give it a try as ive spent my pennys on it already. Their has been very little press about it, i wonder if they where some waht concerened with its limitations, they may errata it so you can Shoe Horn the FF expansion in at some point. (Hopefully)

I love base game Caverna. I haven't tried it with Forgotten Folk, but sounds like I need to.

I like the Journeyman expansion. It’s great at lower player counts.

This may make Caverna a better solo game. The base game solo wasn’t much fun for me because the only randomness is the order the actions spaces come out.

Wish I had watched this before I bought Frantic Fiends...
Much like you Luke, I like Caverna a lot better than Agricola and for the same reasons.
I've played Forgotten Folks a couple of times and I like that.
If I had known that you couldn't combine them, I would probably have passed on this expansion. Oh well, gotta give it a try at least.

Uwe is by far my favorite designer with 3 games in my top 10. I love Caverna, and some of the elements of this expansion seem neat. But with all that rules overhead they should have just made a new game.

I appreciate your hard work in making this video. Would like to see more of the game.

Orcs moving completely random is thematic.

No gameplay? With the new expansion of caverna frantic, because i didn't find any videos gameplay,

Thanks for the review

Agree on the enemy cards. They add a level of randomness that break the "fairness" of the game and ultimately kinda ruin the value proposition of the expansion for me.

But I actually really like the tighter, more variable gameplay. And my whole group agrees. It breaks up the impulse to go the "safe" route and diversifies strategies between games. We were already house ruling a more limited selection and a starting tile.

love the base game, gonna be trying this expansion this week

Been waiting forever for this. Didn't even know it had come out until I saw it in a board game store. Disappointed it's not any good.

My basic problem with Agricola is having to sort through 14 cards before you even start playing. The tightness of Agricola isn't the issue, it's the learning curve.

This looks like it satisfies that middle ground between Agricola's high learning curve and Caverna's 'looseness.' The game is tighter but the setup is open. Caverna's strength is that you can just start playing and discover the game as you play it. Agricola demands you learn the game first and it's work. Having Caverna's open setup but with a tighter experience should hit the right balance. I have my copy of FF incoming.

I like it precisely because it isn't more of the same. I mean, if you wanna play regular Caverna just play it again, but now we have an option to play it differently. No problem with the random orc movement either, if someone is attacking you sometimes you get lucky, sometimes not, it's even "realistic" actually and adds fun IMO. My only gripe is not being balanced to use with the 1st expansion, but I guess it's fine to use it with non-outdoor people.

In my table we use this expansion on a "mini campaign" mode: 1 regular match, then a frantic one (the pillaging season), then another regular, and then we sum the points. We also carry a chosen resource from the previous match to the next!

So, did you like it?