Dewan, from designers Johannes Goupy and Yoann Levet and published by Space Cowboys, is an attractive, thematic strategy game that blends straightforward yet crunchy mechanics with a gentle post-apocalyptic story.
It’s clean, elegant, and intuitively understandable, yet the decisions it presents are consistently interesting. What elevates Dewan beyond a typical spatial puzzle is the way that it layers its simple hand management and racing elements alongside random setup rules and scenario‑specific twists to create a game that feels fresh every time you sit down with it.
At its core, Dewan is about placing your camps in the varied landscape to satisfy a shifting set of conditions shown on Story cards (more on those later). The basic rules are extremely approachable. On your turn you do exactly one of two things: You either take two (strictly) adjacent cards from a shared display and add them to your hand, or you use cards that you already have to take a camp from your personal board and put it onto the map.
The placement of camps is relatively intuitive and replicates a journey outwards from an existing camp. In short, you choose the camp you want to start from and play a card that matches its terrain (starting camps are wild). You then spend one more card for each terrain you want to move through including the one you want to finish on, and then you place your next camp. It’s a simple design that takes only a few minutes to teach, but rewards careful planning and a good eye for patterns.
The story cards that I mentioned before drive these behaviors. Worth between two and eight points each, these thick tiles will form the basis of your scoring. Some are low scoring and demand just a few camps, perhaps alongside a couple of the gem or artifact symbols printed on some tiles. Others require multiple camps of the same terrain but — in a twist that I have found adds a bit of confusion for some players — these camps must be in separate zones (where a zone in this game means any number of connected spaces of the same type).
This isn’t an issue for players who are into their second or third game, but at first it can be quite hard to process, to some extent because in some configurations (especially at two players) there may simply not be enough zones of a particular kind to fulfill certain story tiles. This is because setup always comprises a random selection of tiles that are placed together in random orientations, albeit in a fixed pattern based on the scenario. There will always be a choice of five face up story tiles (plus the option to take a face down one) to choose from, but the reality is, Dewan occasionally forces players to take a story card that either cannot be fulfilled, or which is nigh on impossible to fulfill.
Despite this relatively infrequent drawback, what really makes Dewan shine from a replay value perspective is its scenario system — especially alongside the random setup features and short play time. Rather than offering a single puzzle that risks becoming repetitive, Dewan includes multiple scenarios that dramatically alter the setup, scoring conditions, and sometimes even the map itself. Some scenarios introduce new constraints that tighten the puzzle, forcing you to think more rigidly about adjacency, or pushing you to race for certain spaces even more than the base scenario. Others feel a little more open, with a feeling of more space than the standard layout.
This scenario variety gives Dewan remarkable replayability. Each scenario feels like a distinct challenge, and the game encourages experimentation to meet the current requirements — albeit within the familiar overall frame. You finish one scenario and immediately want to try another, not because you’re chasing a higher score, but because the puzzle itself feels different. I felt that Dewan was materially enhanced by its 30 to 60 minute playtime, which means that at all player counts (but especially lower ones) you can get multiple games in, trying new scenarios without needing to teach a ton more rules. Two players who’ve played a game or two of the base scenario can easily work together to set up and enjoy multiple follow-on scenarios.
Within this concise playtime, the pace of turns is another strength. Dewan plays briskly, with turns that are quick and satisfying. Examine the cards, see if you can already place a camp, decide if you even want to (as placing a camp can trigger the mandatory pulling of a Story card), push towards this Story or that, and before you know it, the game is over. Yet despite the speed, Dewan’s decisions feel meaningful. You’re constantly evaluating trade‑offs: do you place a camp that seems to fit perfectly now, or do you take cards to reach further and unlock a bigger scoring opportunity later? Do you focus entirely on your own plan, or glance at your opponent’s story cards and see if you can block them? These are small decisions, but they accumulate into a puzzle that feels pretty rewarding.
The production quality is exactly what you’d expect from Space Cowboys and perhaps even deserves bonus points for both its art, its eco-friendly production and the excellent insert. Dewan is clean, polished, and thoughtfully designed with a premium feel to key pieces like the player boards, map tiles and camps. The map tiles are thick, the artwork is pleasant and thematic, and the overall presentation supports the mechanical aspects. Dewan is a game that looks inviting on the table, and the tactile satisfaction of taking camps from their slots on your board and placing them onto the map is nice.
Another nice thing to know about Dewan is that it’s available to play for free on Board Game Arena. This is a huge advantage for a game like Dewan which is intended to have broad appeal. The digital implementation is smooth, intuitive, and handles all the fiddly bits automatically — perfect for learning the rules or exploring the scenarios without worrying too much about setup or scoring. It also makes the game accessible to a much wider audience, and it’s an excellent way to introduce new players before bringing the physical copy to the table. For a game built around precision and spatial reasoning, having a digital version that reinforces the rules and structure is a real asset.
What I appreciate most about Dewan is how it balances clarity with challenge. The rules never get in the way, but the decisions are consistently interesting. Playing at three or four players evens out the hump of having inaccessible Story tiles a bit, but the head-to-head puzzle is still fun and simply changes the nature of the challenge. Dewan is a game that rewards careful thought without ever feeling too punishing, and the scenario variety ensures that it stays fresh long after the first few plays. It’s the kind of game you finish and immediately want to try again because you’re convinced you can do better.
Space Cowboys has a reputation for producing polished, thoughtful designs, and Dewan fits neatly into that lineage. It’s elegant, replayable, and quietly addictive — a puzzle that grows with you as you explore its scenarios and refine your strategies. Whether you’re playing the physical version or diving into the digital implementation on Board Game Arena, Dewan offers a rich, satisfying experience that’s easy to recommend to anyone who enjoys clever, compact strategy games.
You can find out more about Dewan on the Space Cowboys website.
