Covenant
- Designer: German Millan
- Publisher: Devir
- Players: 1-4
- Age: 14+
- Time: 100 minutes
- Played with review copy provided by publisher
Heavy games…require effort. They command our attention and patience as we attempt to digest the rules. They demand our time as we set them up, take those first tentative turns, and work our way through the choices provided. Sometimes they shine and you know that the effort was worth every moment; other times they fall flat and leave you frustrated that you spent the time required.
Covenant, designed by German Millan and published by Devir, winds up somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. In this big-box game the players are dwarves, attempting to reclaim their ancestral home and gain the most glory in the eyes of their king. Over the course of three ages (12 turns) players explore mountain caverns, build up strength to vanquish monsters, construct buildings and monuments, gather tools, and ultimately score more points than their competitors.
Each round players have 4 dwarves to use for their actions. These dwarves start at a strength of 1, though they can be made permanently stronger (up to 4) by triggering a “Strengthen” symbol OR temporarily stronger by using a “Support Piece” also known as consuming a pint of ale. Standard tools then provide the possible actions one can take: Dig, Skirmish, Build, or Transport.
When a player Digs (using the pick tool), they do so at the strength of their dwarf, removing ‘rubble’ to gain rewards, and then flipping over one of the hex tiles or ‘halls’ that make up the mountain. Those tiles provide some other icon reward (like the ability to strengthen a different dwarf) and then may require the placement of monster tokens that are drawn from a bag, as well as providing some type of resource.
If Skirmish (the axe tool) is chosen, your dwarf fights those monsters, taking out a number of goblins, orcs, and trolls – again depending upon the strength of the dwarf in question. Rewards for different vanquished bad guys are once again earned. Those bad guys are placed in your dungeon and you will earn points if you’re able to hold them from round to round.
Transport (the cart) requires players to cough up resources that have been collected. Iron, emeralds, gold, and mythrall are available, and get returned to supply in exchange for a monument (pillar or gate) and victory points. Any extra items delivered beyond the requirement of a particular site go to the king’s throne for an end-game scoring.
Finally, the Build action (compass tool) allows players to put those buildings or monuments out onto revealed mountain tiles or across two tiles, OR at the vertices of three. These set you up to get those resources, or provide you with other benefits going forward.
Along with all of these actions, you can forge new (better) tools, add gem inlays to get more benefits from an action, and even add those tools to specific columns on your board for better end-game scoring.
The action turns are then followed by a Council Phase which establishes turn order, provides more benefits, and determines which baddies get to stay in your dungeon to score.
Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Well, there are also tracks to move along with each action, and if you don’t get far enough along those tracks cumulatively, you won’t be able to score end game objectives. More penalties come from the bad guys who are still left on the board in places where you have built structures and monuments.
My Thoughts on the Game
Slogging through the ruleset for Covenant was not the most enjoyable use of my time. Yes, this ruleset is better than some of Devir’s past attempts, but I still found it a struggle in places. Why is the player set up before the general board set up for instance? We even missed an entire rule about how relics, which get placed along the mining track, are meted out. In fact, I just went through the rules again, and though there’s an entire section devoted to “Relics”, I can’t find the spot that says when/how to GET those relics.
That said, Shelley and I enjoyed much of this game. With only 12 turns, your work is cut out for you, but those turns snowball, with A leading to B, then C, etc. and make for a satisfying action every time. We spent some time talking about it more fully in Episode 1018 of our podcast, and even did a video review over on our YouTube channel.
Millan and Devir have teamed up previously on games such as Bamboo and Bitoku, two games we still have in the collection, though BItoku’s ruleset still gives me chills when I think about it. This game fits into the “happy to play, but don’t need to own” category, as re-learning it after it sits on the shelf for a few months would involve some pain. For those who love a heavy game, especially those who enjoy a fantasy setting, this game will appeal and will be worth the effort it takes to get it to the table.
Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers
Patrick Korner: Covenant was… not for me. I liked the theme, even if it did feel a bit like a funhouse mirror version of Moria (clearly the license was not available, so this is… not Moria. Maybe it’s the Mines of Mooria?). There is much to like about the way you can build up your board, unlocking more opportunities to take actions, procure buildings to place, etc.
Unfortunately, those interesting things are buried in a game with severe downtime issues at higher player counts, since most / all of your decisions can really only be made on your own turn. There’s no point in hoping for specific resources / items / etc. since they might not be there when your time comes, and what others do is really only relevant to them (sure, someone might place a building where you wanted to, but that’s pretty much the extent of direct player interaction). This can lead to you waiting patiently for ages while others run their “one action but it’s really a whole slew of chained actions that take time to optimize” turns, after which it’s your turn to make them wait while you puzzle out the optimal path.
I would play this again as a 2p game only, and only if a copy of another game with a similar ‘feel’ wasn’t at hand.
Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
- Love it!
- Like it. Doug G., Justin B.
- Neutral
- Not for me… Patrick K.
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