Covenant

👥 A game for 1 – 4 spelers
⏳ Play time is around 100 minutes
🏢 Publisher is Devir Games

Introduction

In Covenant, you are the leader of a dwarven clan tasked with reclaiming the ancient mountain of Karrak-Sur-Kazar from dark forces. Over the course of three major Eras, you send out your dwarven workers to dig, fight, build, and transport. Along the way, you forge new tools, collect relics, improve your clan, and try to earn the favor of the king.

Let’s get it on the table

The game is a tactical worker placement game. Your workers have different strengths, and your tools determine which actions you can perform at all.

Each Era consists of:

1. Four turns per player. In each turn, you send one dwarf from your tavern to a tool on your clan board.
2. A shared Council Phase, where rewards are distributed, enemies are resolved, and points are scored.

After three Eras, the final scoring takes place, revealing which clan has earned the most glory.

You have four turns per Era, and in each action you want to achieve as much as possible. Every turn feels like a mini puzzle. You choose a dwarf, select a tool, and perform the action with the strength that dwarf provides. It sounds simple, but the timing, order, and combinations make it strategically rich.

1. Choose and assign a dwarf

You take a dwarf from your tavern and place it on a tool on your clan board. Physically, you place the wooden dwarf on the top space of the tool, covering the action icon.

The dwarf’s strength determines how powerful the action is. A strength-3 dwarf on a Transport tool? Move three goods. A strength-1 dwarf on a Skirmish tool? Good luck with that fight…

2. Use support (optional)

You may place one support token (+1 or +2) next to the dwarf to temporarily increase its strength. Physically, place the token beside the dwarf and discard it at the end of the turn.

3. Use the tool

Each tool has two possible effects: the action itself (Dig, Skirmish, Build, Transport, or Read) and/or the effect of an inserted jewel (if present).

You may choose the order in which you resolve these two effects.

DIG
You perform the Dig action in the Mining Area of the board, activating rubble tiles. You gain the resources shown on those tiles, depending on your dwarf’s strength. Resources are the engine of the game: you need them for tools, jewels, building, and transport. Dig is often your first step toward larger plans.

SKIRMISH
You choose an enemy in a hall and compare your dwarf’s strength to the required strength. You remove enemies from the mountain, creating space and often gaining rewards. Enemies block hall tiles and can cause problems later during the Council Phase. This action also frequently grants immediate benefits.

BUILD
You take a building from your forge and place it on the board. Buildings provide structural advantages, such as improved actions or extra points. You build to strengthen your engine and to complete Monumental Constructions, which are important for scoring.

TRANSPORT
You move resources from your storage to the King’s Throne or other destinations. Delivering goods often grants prestige, court benefits, or immediate points. Transport is essential for advancing tracks and scoring projects.

READ
You use a Book tool and choose one of the four other actions. This gives you flexibility exactly when you need it. Books are extremely valuable in the late game, when timing is crucial.

Forging tools
By forging tools, you gain stronger actions and additional rewards, making your clan feel more powerful and developed:

• strengthening dwarves
• gaining support tokens
• increasing storage
• double-key tiles
• advancing on tracks

Inserting jewels
You pay a resource, immediately gain Glory Points, and place a jewel on a tool. These jewels provide extra effects that make your actions more powerful. It’s a subtle but important engine-building element.

Tracks (Court, Prestige, Mining)
Each track provides access to relics or coins, rewards along the way, and achievements. It’s both a race and a puzzle: which track best fits your strategy?

Relics
One-time, powerful effects that you use at exactly the right moment. They remain visible and provide points at the end of the game.

An Era ends once all players have no dwarves left in their tavern. This is followed by the Council Phase, in which:

• King’s Coins are activated
• enemies in dungeons are resolved
• projects are scored
• rewards are distributed

It feels like a “reset,” but also like a moment of tension: have you done enough this Era?

The game ends

At the end of the third Council Phase, final scoring takes place. You gain points for:

• Glory Points you have already collected
• Achievements on your clan board
• Relics (number of different types + tools in matching columns)
• Project tiles
• Buildings and Monumental Constructions
• King’s Coins and their effects

Final Conclusion & rating

Weight: 3.71/ 5
Replayability: 8
Our rating: 7,5 out of 10 dices

Covenant feels like a game dwarves would design themselves: sturdy, strategic, and with a deep appreciation for well-crafted tools. It’s a heavy expert-level game with a very strong theme, and that theme immediately got us excited. It looks impressive on the table right from the start, and that feeling only grows as you play. You gradually uncover more of the board, flip tiles at the gates, place different buildings, and work your way along three tracks where you collect points and bonuses. From start to finish, it really feels like you’re building something meaningful.

Under the hood, it’s a tactically rich Eurogame with plenty of puzzle elements, but without ever feeling dry. The worker placement has an interesting twist thanks to the different strengths of your dwarves and the tools that determine which actions you can even take. Every turn feels like a small puzzle where timing, order, and combinations are key. The interaction is present but never frustrating, mainly noticeable through the race on the tracks, removing tiles, and transporting resources. The Council Phases also provide a satisfying rhythm, with each Era building toward a shared moment of tension and resolution.

That said, this is also where our biggest concern lies. The game only lasts a limited number of rounds, and that feeling really sticks with us. It often feels like there’s just one Era missing, as if your engine is only just getting going when the game is already heading toward final scoring. We played it multiple times to see if we were missing something, but that feeling kept coming back.

If you were to compare it, it strongly reminds us of The White Castle, which makes sense given they share the same publisher. Here too, you perform powerful and interesting actions while building an efficient engine. However, where that game feels perfectly paced for us, Covenant seems to end just a little too soon.

That makes it all the more unfortunate, because this game has everything it needs to become a true favorite. It looks fantastic on the table, offers a wide variety of actions, and gives you plenty of ways to enhance them. Despite our slight concerns about the game length, it remains an impressive and well-designed experience that is absolutely worth playing even if we can’t shake the feeling that there could have been just a bit more to it.

Thanks to Devir Games for this review copy and the opportunity to write about it..