Dewan

Dewan in Malay means "hall", and the boardgame Dewan has nothing to do with any hall. It's just the name of the game world. But I'm stuck with thinking "what the hall" whenever I say the name of the game. Dewan is a clean civ game. I am tempted to call it 4X, but it doesn't have all four X's, just eXpand and a bit of eXploit. No eXplore or eXterminate. You start with a little settlement, and you spread out to settle other lands and fulfil your destiny of greatness. The game ends when a player builds his 9th settlement. 

This is what a 3-player game looks like. There map tiles are randomly set up so there is variability from game to game. One key concept in the game is the region. A region is a set of connected hexes of the same terrain type. For example there are four grey regions in the map above. To complete objectives (here they are called stories), you need to have settlements in multiple regions. Normally you'd only place one settlement in a region, because if you have two, they still only count for one region that you have access to. 

On your turn, you have only two options. You either claim two cards, or you build a new settlement. You claim cards from a display of six (see above, lower row). You must claim adjacent cards. This is interesting. I can't think of any other game that has this rule. There probably are some. I wonder whether this will work with Ticket to Ride. My guess is it will be too frustrating. Here, it works well. 

To build a settlement, you pay cards. You must be able to trace a path from one of your settlements to a new empty site. For every hex your settler moves through, including both starting hex and destination hex, you must pay a matching card. Water cards are an interesting mechanism here. When you pay with a water card, you may move as far as the river (or lake) takes you. That's pretty thematic. 

The row of tiles at the top are your objectives (called stories). They give you points if you fulfil them. They require that you settle a specific number of regions of a certain terrain type, or that you control certain resources on the map, or that you have settlements on riverbanks, or some combination of these. You draft a story tile at the start of the game, and throughout the game you may claim up to three more. When you complete a story tile, you score points and also earn one free card. 

This is your player board. The settlements are placed along the bottom, and there is a reason for this. When you place your 2nd, 4th or 6th settlement, you unlock a story tile slot and you get to claim a story tile. When you place your 3rd, 5th or 7th settlement, you may tuck a card under your player board. These cards count as you having access to an additional region and possibly resource too. 

Those that look like star icons are berries. They are worth 2 points each. Other icons on the edges of hexes are resources you can gain access to if you build next to them. 

When playing the game, in a way you are just doing your own thing, planning how you want to expand and fulfil your story tiles, but at the same time, this is a land grab. Although you don't get to fight your opponents or steal their settlements, you are competing for a very precious resource - land. If you think they are aiming to settle a specific spot that you need, you'd better hurry. There is certainly some tension among players. It's not direct aggression, but you do have to watch what they are doing. 

Three of the story tiles I had needed red terrain. Getting story tiles which are similar saves much work. I use the cards I tuck under my board to help fulfil my story tiles. One nice thing about the component design is the story tiles are placed recessed slots. When you complete a story, you can slide the tile up to reveal a worship icon. It gives you a free card. 

The game I played against Han and Jon was mostly peaceful. I am not sure whether this is normal. We didn't seem to get into one another's ways too much. Possibly I got into their ways just that I was oblivious. 

Dewan is a pleasant family strategy game, at least based on my personal experience. I have a suspicion that it can be more cutthroat. I like that it is streamlined cleverly. You only have two options, drawing cards or placing a settlement. There are several scoring conditions you need to juggle at the same time. You want settlements that form groups, because groups score bonuses. You want to have more fires than others, because you get a bonus for that too. You need to manage all these while trying to make sure you can score all four of your stories. You probably should block your opponents sometimes, if it doesn't distract you too much from your own plan. 

Charge & Spark

Charge & Spark is a 2 player microgame from Jelly Jelly Games, Japan. I have just played another game that sounds just like this, Bahamut Dispute. Both are about reducing your opponent’s health from 4 to 0, but here the execution is a little different. Humankind is extinct. You are robots competing for supremacy. You win by destroying your opponent or by reaching the centre of the game board.

The players have the same set of cards when the game starts. Every round, you simultaneously choose and play a card. Cards let you shoot, block, charge your batteries, collect data and so on. The most recently played card is left face up in front of you. You cannot use the same card twice in a row. When you shoot, if your opponent also shoots, only net damage is inflicted, i.e. when one attack is of higher strength than the other. Attacking consumes energy. Different actions consume different amounts of energy. Some are free. If you fully charge your battery, it goes to 4 bars. Data works the same way as batteries. Some actions consume data, for example of being able to bounce the attack back at the attacker. You need to collect and store data in order to perform these powerful actions.

Whenever you advance on the board, you get to draw a new card. These are better cards which give you more action options. You can get at most two additional cards, because by the time you advance for a third time, you would win the game.

This game is very much about guessing the psychology of your opponent. If you shoot when he makes a move, he gets damaged and he will not be able to advance. If you move when he charges his battery, you will be able to safely advance and also earn an action card. The best thing is when you are able to choose to deflect his attack exactly when he chooses to attack. You do have some basis for making guesses. You know there is one specific action he cannot take because he has just done it in the previous round. Also, if he is low on battery or data, you know there are some actions he cannot perform. You want to have your battery and data sufficiently charged because it gives you more flexibility. In a way, this is advanced rock paper scissors. I am hesitant when saying this, because there is much more here than just simple rock paper scissors. Sometimes you choose an action for the sake of your flexibility in the following round. You know if you deplete your battery, next round it is easier for your opponent to guess what you are going to do. 

I played this with Chee Kong. I like that it is satisfying when you successfully guess your opponent's mindset and choose the right action card to foil his plans. It reminds me a little of Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. 

boardgaming in photos - Risk and Race for the Galaxy

In my work as a leadership trainer, I regularly collaborate with others in the industry - fellow trainers, coaches and training providers. Being in a business community called BNI, I regularly meet fellow members of the community and we help one another in our businesses. One of my friends Captain Fuaad has developed a training game based on Risk, and he asked several of us to help him playtest it. We did this at Bored boardgame cafe. It was a weekday afternoon so there was not much crowd. They let up take up a fair bit of space. The giant game board needed much space. I have my own giant boardgames which I use for training too. I am lucky to be able to integrate my passion of boardgames with my passion of helping others become effective leaders. 

I can't recall the last time I actually played Risk. It was probably Risk Legacy that I played, and that might be more than 10 years ago. 

It is an amazing feeling to see my games being promoted in a language I cannot read at all. Box & Brew Cafe of Thailand stocked some of my games. They bought from me in bulk when we met at the Asian Board Games Festival in the Philippines. 

If you are in Thailand, you can find my games at Box & Brew Cafe! 

We visited Xiaozhu's home and I took the opportunity to ask my friends to help playtest my Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦) game. One thing about this prototype that I did not deliberately plan for is the combination of 6 and 7. It's a thing that teenagers say now, which old timers find annoying. And also in Chinese (well, Cantonese) it can be misread as something... ahem... inappropriate. I have been thinking about changing the numbering system. Instead of 0 being the main character Jia Baoyu, maybe I should make him the 9. The reasoning is when I play sets containing him, I fan the cards in such a way that he will always be hidden from view, while the largest number of the set will be visible. Him being 0 means he is always the first card on the left, so he will always be hidden from view. How can the main character be always hidden from view? He should be the most visible. By making him the 9, whenever there is a set containing him, his whole card will always be visible. That is my rationale. Now that there is this coincidence of the 67 set, maybe I don't have to change it. Also if on the table I only see tons of Jia Baoyu, the game looks a little boring too. 

I also played this prototype with Pey Ling, a teacher who specialises in studying and analysing Dream of the Red Chamber - the true expert. One thing she shared with me was that Xue Baochai, one of the two main female characters, was probably a little plump. In one particular scene after some light exertion she was already panting hard. Hey you learn something new every day. 

Pey Ling's specialty is not just Dream of the Red Chamber. She studies and teaches all four of the major Chinese literary works. So we also played my Pilgrim Poker prototype, which has a Journey to the West theme. I showed her my Rebels of the Three Kingdoms prototype too. 

Sun 17 May 2026 I was at Kinokuniya bookstore at Pavilion Damansara Heights demoing my games. Currently they stock Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs. They invited me to do a demo session because they were running a promotion. Pavilion Damansara Heights is not a very busy mall, even on Sundays. Maybe it is because the place is spacious, the mall felt rather sparse to me. Kinokuniya itself did have some foot traffic. There were always people around. Most people didn't stop to examine the games, whether mine or others at the same table. They just took curious glances. Some did stop to ask, and I gave them brief overviews of the games. Very few wanted to sit down to play. I mostly just showed the game components and explained briefly how the games worked. Some were happy to buy after listening to the overview. Ironically none of those who sat down to play bought the games. 

Boardgames is still very much a niche hobby in Malaysia. This afternoon at Kinokuniya reminds me of that. At boardgame events, yes, we attract people who are already interested, and we get the impression that hey there are so many fellow boardgamers in Malaysia. Half a day at a regular bookstore reminds me that we as the boardgame industry still have a lot of work ahead of us to promote the hobby and to create awareness. Although it was a little depressing to be idle for much time, especially compared to when I booth at boardgame events, I am still happy that I'm doing a little bit in introducing tabletop games to the public. Keep hustling! 

I did a five player game of Heat on BGA. This is such an enjoyable game, and I'm happy that it is doing well. It has many expansions. I don't own a copy, but if I were new to the hobby, I would have purchased one. 

I'm super happy to be assigned green, my favourite player colour.

I'm don't have a paid account on BGA so my colour assignment is random.

This part of the board is challenging - several consecutive corners with low speed limits. We played with some expansions - just a few extra rules here and there. In some ways Heat is a push-your-luck game. How far are you willing to push your car to get that extra bit of distance by paying the price of clogging your hand with heat cards? Movement is often deterministic, only occasionally you roll a die, and usually you are the one deciding when to take the risk. The decision of whether to discard cards and hope to draw better ones is not always easy to make. This game should be in some hall of fame. 

I did a two-player game of Molly House with Han. This time I was pretty determined to help the mollies (i.e. LGBTQ community) survive and gain acceptance. They have never survived in all the games I played. This time I approached the game like a cooperative game. I tried to keep track of the cards in the gossip pile. I worked hard to help the community score points. As the game progressed, Han outscored me by a lot. I was arrested for indecent behaviour and I had a major indictment which might lead to a death sentence. My resolve shattered, and I decided to betray my comrades. I became an informer. Eventually the community was infiltrated and shut down by the authorities. Han was hanged for sodomy. I won the game, but I felt so dirty. Aaarrgghh! 

Having played several games of Molly House, I now conclude that it doesn't quite work for me. It is a design I admire for how bold it is, and I like the premise. I don't like the memory element. Because the game mechanisms are unusual, I find the game hard to learn and to play. It feels like a lot of work. After having played several games, I still don't feel I know how to play it. 

I have been enjoy my ongoing plays of Race for the Galaxy with Jon and Yasmin. When I open up my browser tab of BGA games, this is usually the game I most look forward to to take the next turn. 

I completed a game of Signorie on BGA. I have played this before but I have forgotten most of the rules. I had to relearn. I continue to suffer the consequences of my own laziness when playing games on BGA. I do play the tutorials, and I download the rulebooks in case I need to refer to them. However since BGA handles most of the game mechanisms, I usually end up being too lazy to learn the game rules properly. I just click without fully understanding the consequences of my actions. It's not the fault of BGA. It's entirely mine. 

I read up my previous blog post about Signorie, and one thing I did differently this time was I tried to set up many bonus actions in the early game. Investing in this gave me extra actions throughout the game. I didn't do as badly as the first time I played the game. I didn't do particularly well either, since I didn't really understand some parts of the game. 

Signorie is a decent game and I should learn it properly. 

I might be losing the appetite for more complex games. Many of them feel convoluted and tiresome. 10 years ago I would not have imagined myself saying this. Heavy Eurogames is supposed to be the pinnacle of boardgaming for me. 

Splotter Games announced Bailiff of Boscoop. For many years I had this rule: when Splotter releases a game, buy it. Don't wait and see. Just buy it. I like almost all their games. But now I am discarding this rule. I am certainly interested to try the game, but I might not buy it. I bought Horseless Carriage. It is a good game, but I have only played it once. Till now I have not made time to play it again. 

Bahamut Dispute

Bahamut Dispute is a microgame from Japan. It is a 2 player game about two kings trying to defeat the other by setting a dragon on their opponent. The structure is simple. On your turn you draw one card, and you may play up to two cards. You need to discard only if you exceed the hand limit. You start with 4 health, and your goal is to reduce your opponent’s health to zero. So far, nothing unusual. What makes this game interesting is the card powers and the deny mechanism. 

In the deck of 16 cards, there are only three creatures, i.e. cards you summon and keep in front of you. The dragon (Baleful Bahamut) does 4 damage, which means if you can summon it and it stays in play until the start of your next turn, you will one-shot-kill your opponent. The tricky thing is you can’t just play the dragon card. It can only be summoned by certain spells. Spells are another type of card. There is a baby dragon which deals 1 damage per turn. Not so glamorous but it is slow and steady. And then you have the goblin which protects you from attacks, except for attacks from the dragon. The rest of the cards have various abilities, for example dealing damage, letting you draw more cards, forcing your opponent to discard a specific card, and so on. 

You start the game with two deny tokens. Whenever your opponent plays a card, you can spend a token to cancel the power of the card. This can be a life saver. However when you do so, your opponent may spend two tokens to cancel your cancel, and you can't cancel this cancel of your cancel. It’s not always easy to decide whether to use a deny token. If it is life-and-death, then of course you'd spend it, but often the decision is not so straight-forward. Is the current situation dire enough to warrant spending a token? Should you save your token for a double-token spend on a later turn to force an attack through? You might be thinking of spending a token to lure your opponent into spending both of theirs, but what if that backfires and they decide not to cancel your cancel? You'd have one fewer token. And if you have the opportunity to spend double-token, should you do it? How critical is this card play to winning the game? If your opponent is desperate enough to spend a token, maybe it's worth your while to spend both of yours. Or might that be a trap to trick you into spending both your tokens? This is such a simple mechanism, but it creates much angst. This is the kind of game which appears simple, but there are moments when you realise there is something more and you go "waaaiiiit a minute..."

Still, this is a short game. You will probably run through the deck and need to reshuffle. The game becomes more strategic when you get to know the cards better. You know what to look out for and you anticipate your opponent's moves. 

Bahamut Dispute is quick and clever. It is one of the top-selling titles from Jelly Jelly Games. It is portable. We played it on a small Starbucks table at the Manila airport. 

Pilgrim Poker - a tease

 

I am planning to launch my next game from Cili Padi Games in August at the Asian Board Games Festival in Penang (Malaysia). The art for Pilgrim Poker is all done. We are in the process of finalising all the graphic files and submitting them to the manufacturer. I love the art my artist Edwin Chong has created for this game. One of my favourite characters is this Bull Demon King (牛魔王), who has become a tired salaryman on a train. I am doing something I have done before with Snow White. I'm putting fairy tale characters in a modern day setting. The Bull Demon King is going to be on most of the cards in the game. Cards are numbered 1 to 13. Cards 4, 8 and 10 are special characters. The rest are all common cards. When I made my prototype, the placeholder art I used was the one below. I just needed some minor demons for the common cards. The Bull Demon King is certainly no minor demon. But I think that tired salaryman role is fitting. 

My Grand View Garden - a game about Dream of the Red Chamber

This game My Grand View Garden (我的大观园) is made by the Dream of the Red Chamber Society of University Malaya. I recently met a teacher Pey Ling who specialises in the four major Chinese literary works and runs courses analysing them. She is planning to great boardgames for them, to make her lessons more interesting to her students. She contacted me after reading about my blog post on my prototype for Dream of the Red Chamber. She was interested to meet up and exchange ideas. She had a copy of My Grand View Garden, which she hadn't had the chance to play till then, and we gave it a go when we met up. 

This game has already been produced properly. I am not sure how many copies. It has a proper box and production components. The game is in Chinese and Malay. No English. This is a Malaysianised version of Dream of the Red Chamber. The characters are in Baba and Nyonya costume instead of traditional Chinese costume. The Baba and Nyonya are Chinese who came to Malaysia centuries ago and have since developed a unique culture. Most of them are in Melaka. 

The game is a simplified version of Monopoly. Up to four players can play. You start with some money. You roll dice to move your pawn. You will have opportunities to buy land, build houses and collect rent. The game ends when one player goes bankrupt. Whoever is richest by then wins. Alternatively you can agree to play for a fixed amount of time. 

The board is double-sided. One side is Chinese and the other Malay. It's not actually a board. It's poster paper. Most spaces feature specific buildings from the book, which is nice. Some spaces trigger mini games. You can test one another's knowledge about the novel. One mini game even requires singing. 

The two types of cards are fate cards (pink) and chance cards (blue). If you land on a fate or chance space, you draw a card and do what it says. The fate cards feature many characters in the book. This is one way you learn about and discuss the book. 

The chance cards feature other elements in the book, for example objects and poetry. 

Each space is numbered (in Chinese), in the top left corner. This is helpful when you play the game. The land titles, houses and rent work differently from Monopoly. When you land on an opponent's property, the rent you have to pay is the same as the price of the property. So your return on investment is fantastic. The rulebook is not precise about how all this is handled, but we interpreted it this way. 

We had a group of players with very different experiences. Other than me, we had one highly experienced gamer, one moderately experienced gamer, and one non-gamer. For those of us experienced with modern boardgames, My Grand View Garden is clearly designed by inexperienced game designers. And that is no surprise. The society is of people who study literature, not people who study game design. We shared with Pey Ling our suggestions for the game, so that she could give this feedback to the society. One problem we found was people went bankrupt too easily. We didn't start with much money, and just a few bad events can make you lose all your money. 

These are the land title cards. Gameplay aside, the game does contain many elements from the novel, and thus can be a useful tool to learn about the story and trigger discussion about the characters. 

These dice are not for movement. These represent the houses you build on your land. When you build your first house, you place one die showing the house. When you build more, you turn the die to the appropriate number. 

One gameplay suggestion we gave was removing this fate card on the right. The card effect is to draw another fate card. From the gameplay perspective, there is no meaning or value. I am not familiar with this character on the card though. Maybe there is meaning behind this. 

It is encouraging to see people interested in creating boardgames. It means there is more and more awareness in Malaysia. 

On a separate occasion, I-Van (HR Game), Jon (King & Peasant) and I had a chat with a history lecturer who is thinking of asking her students to create a boardgame as their assignment. Now you can easily use AI to write long essays for you. Assignments in the form of essays may not be very effective. It is not easy to get students interested to properly do their research. So creating a boardgame might be a more engaging way to get students interested in the subject matter. 

Selamat Hari Raya Haji

 

Happy holidays everyone! I always get excited about public holidays, because it means I get to share another piece of art from my upcoming game Malaysian Holidays. I enjoy making these teaser posts. The game is expected to be released by early July. If all goes well, some early copies will be available at the Sabah National Tabletop Con mid June. 

Trishaw Frenzy

Trishaw Frenzy is a Malaysian design. The designer is Ewe Boon How, and the publisher is LUMA. This is a game about trishaws in Penang. It is a simple game, and I'd even consider it a children's game. 

One easy way to describe the game is modernised Snakes & Ladders. This is a roll-and-move game. The board is made up of nine tiles randomly placed and oriented. The squares on the tiles are not numbered so you don't use such numbers to determine your route. Instead, you use a randomly drawn route card (see below). You roll a die to move your pawn. The first to reach the end wins. 

There are a few location types on the board. Depending on where you land, you perform certain actions. One type of location lets you rotate a tile. You draw a card to see which tiles you are allowed to rotate. Rotating a tile can have huge implications. You might set your opponent back, or you might put yourself ahead. Some locations are portals, and they teleport you to another portal. This is the snakes and ladders part of the game. Sometimes you draw a new route card. This can dramatically change the situation. A leading player might find himself far from the new finish line. A trailing player might find himself only a few steps away from winning. 

It's a simple game, and it is roll-and-move. For seasoned gamers, "snakes-and-ladders" usually means "stay away". In Trishaw Frenzy when you get to rotate a tile, you get to make a meaningful decision. So this is not a passive and 100% luck-based game. There will be dramatic twists of fate. You never know what surprise awaits at the next corner. This is a casual and light game that's easy to learn and relaxing to play. And this is such a pretty game! 

Japanese media

Mice Times Japan just published an article about the Asian Board Games Festival in the Philippines, which happened earlier this month. I was a little shocked to find my face on the cover photo. I was just one of many exhibitors interviewed. I am guessing they picked this photo because of the chilli on my head. I'm happy the Malaysian title, Jon's King and Peasant, is featured in the photo too. 

Original article: https://micetimes.jp/asian-board-game-festival2026/

Google Translated: https://micetimes-jp.translate.goog/asian-board-game-festival2026/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp