Dewan

The board game Dewan, by French game developer Space Cowboys, has been on the market since January this year. However, when it turned up at my local post office last month, I hadn't heard a word about the game. Dewan is a fast-paced strategy game in which several tribes compete for limited resources and territories. The question is whether you'll have time to sort out your strategy before the last camp is placed on the game board.

Everything you'll find in the board game box.

Parts of Dewan's gameplay will feel familiar to anyone who has played Space Cowboys' Splendor, the strategy game where you trade in jewels and try to amass the most prestige. Dewan also shares certain similarities with Ticket to Ride through its elements of collecting and building, whilst at the same time recalling the classic Settlers of Catan in its focus on expansion and community building.

Whereas Splendor is primarily about building an efficient engine to generate resources and Ticket to Ride focuses on securing key routes, Dewan combines both these ideas with a much more direct battle for the board. The result is a game where every move affects both your own progress and your opponents' chances of achieving their goals.

The game feels both well-designed and well-produced. The various components in the box feature artwork and design that, for me at least, brought to mind Guerrilla Games' Horizon Zero Dawn. The warm colour palette adorns high-quality cards, tiles and wooden components. Each tribe also has camps in unique shapes and colours, which offers a refreshing change from the more traditional colour schemes often seen in games such as Ludo.

The game's warm, colourful palette reminds me of the Horizon series.

During each round, you draw cards or strategically place a camp to outwit your opponents. The choices you make are partly influenced by the mission - or 'Story Tile', as it's called in the game - you've chosen. The cards you collect represent various resources and terrain types required to expand your tribe across the game board. The more cards you collect, the more opportunities you have to place new camps, but at the same time you risk falling behind if your opponents choose to expand more quickly.

The placement of the camps is at the very heart of the game. Each new camp must be connected to your previous settlements, meaning you constantly need to balance long-term planning against short-term gains. Should you continue building towards an area that yields lots of points, or block an opponent who is about to do the same? As resources are limited and the game board gradually fills up, every decision becomes increasingly important as the game progresses.

Story Tiles also give each player their own objectives to strive for. Some missions reward expansion across large areas, whilst others encourage more concentrated building or control over specific types of terrain. This means that two players rarely pursue exactly the same strategy, even if they're using the same basic game mechanics.

Each player has nine camps, one of which serves as their starting point. Once a player has placed all their camps, the game ends and the scores are tallied. This creates an interesting balance where players who are trailing can try to drag out the game to gain more points, whilst the player in the lead often wants to hasten the end by quickly placing their final camps.

A games night with three friends.

Both my partner and I are big fans of both Splendor and Ticket to Ride, and we immediately felt at home with much of Dewan's game mechanics. The collecting and building feel intuitive, but the strategies and choices offer something new. The game can be approached in many different ways. You can focus on rapid expansion to end the game early and hope your points are enough to see you through. Or you can plan every new camp down to the smallest detail and use its placement to disrupt your opponents' plans.

Dewan also changes noticeably depending on whether you're playing with two, three or four people. The pace is faster in two-player mode, whilst the challenge increases when there are four of you around the table. The dynamic game board adapts to the number of players. With two players, two starting tiles and two playing tiles are used, whilst the number of tiles doubles when playing with four players. This makes the game not only more crowded but also considerably more unpredictable. Areas that looked safe just one round ago may suddenly be blocked by an opponent, forcing you to quickly rethink and adapt your strategy.

I tried the two-player mode with my partner.

This is a game for both board game enthusiasts and more casual players. The rules are simple enough to learn in a single sitting, yet the game has a strategic depth that means it gets more rewarding with every play. Dewan also offers four different scenarios that alter both the game board and the scoring system, giving each round its own unique character. Dynamic events gradually change the game board as the game progresses, forcing players to adapt their strategies. One game might unfold in the shadow of a volcanic eruption, another during persistent rain, or amongst villages built around lakes. Taken together, this gives the game a high replay value and ensures the contents of the box will last a long time.

When I'm asked to recommend board games, I usually ask what sort of games the person usually plays to get a feel for their skill level. Dewan, however, is one of the few games that I can recommend to almost anyone without much hesitation. The contents of the box allow you to customise and vary the gaming experience to such an extent that the entertainment value quickly exceeds the game's price tag. It's easy to get started with, whilst offering enough strategic choices to keep players coming back time and time again.