Small World
2-5
8+
40+
Small World is a zany, light-hearted civilization game in which 2-5 players vie for conquest and control of a board that is simply too small to accommodate them all! Picking the right combination of fantasy races and unique special powers, players must rush to expand their empires - often at the expense of weaker neighbors. Yet they must also know when to push their own over-extended civilization into decline and ride a new one to victory.
image © Days of Wonder
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Small World seems simple to understand. There are many race banners and many ability banners which get randomly paired together to create a race/ability combination. This creates nearly limitless combinations making every game a different experience.
Players pick a race/ability combination and use the race tokens to spread out and conquest regions on the board representing Small World. Due to the size of the board, players are constantly conquesting each other’s territories while their race diminishes over time, until the owner decides it is time to put their race into decline, which is where the owner stops running their race and picks a new race to start playing.
Figuring out conquests is relatively simple. The number of race tokens you need to use to conquer a territory is equal to the number of cardboard pieces in the region (whatever they may be) plus 2. There are a couple pieces you can’t conquer, though, such as a dragon. Many players still have difficulty understanding this, however.
The part of the game that is difficult for players to understand and grasp is how every race/ability pairing works. Each of these have their own symbols to show what they do, so nearly every pairing players need to look up how the race or ability works. This tends to be too much information for players to hold.
There are many pieces and components to this board game and all with great artwork to them.
Now the strategy of the game seems very simple, you take your race tokens, and conquest other regions, score points, and see who wins. But to get into the advanced play, it is much more difficult, there is a lot of strategy to it, and it’s not nearly as easy as it looks.
This game is ideal for 2 players, but plays up to 4.
Pros:
-High-level of abstract strategy
-Relatively simple/straightforward rules
-Excellent artwork and design
-Map scales well to the number of players
Cons:
-Race/abilities are widely varied and need to be frequently referenced
-The strategy is far too abstract for most players to enjoy
-The scoring system is hidden, making it difficult to keep track of how well you are doing
Small World is all about taking land. The problem is there seems to be more people than land available, and that is where the conflict begins. Each player has a different race. These all possess different abilities as well as unique classes which are assigned randomly. All this allows for a game that is constantly changing and able to offer new experiences and challenges each time you play.
I found this game to be quite enjoyable. It has lots of variation…and lots of little cardboard pieces. The game does have a little bit of a setup time. Nothing as bad as Arkham Horror or anything, but just be aware of it. Even though you have tons of little cardboard pieces, they are pretty well done and the game provides a good way of sorting them and keeping them organized. Everything fits into it’s own compartment in the box which I was quite pleased with.
The game also provides 4 different maps. You get two double sided game boards. Each side corresponds to a 2 player game, 3 player game, 4 player game, or a 5 player game. This helps balance the game better than some games instead of trying to force a larger or smaller amount of players into something that it just doesn’t play as well with.
I just picked up this game recently but I have already played it multiple times and have really enjoyed every game. It’s not too heavy of a game, but it doesn’t feel like it skimps either. There is some light strategy and plenty of opportunity to use some smart tactics. There is very rarely a dull moment in the game as new races seem to always be moving in and out of the game and lands change ownership quite often.
Small World may not be my favorite game, but it has a good chance to see more table time than some of those. It’s not a bad setup, it has a good medium play time, it’s easy to teach and it’s just plain fun. I recommend this game to anyone that needs to fill a strategy gap in their game collection but just doesn’t feel like a multi-hour game or a set of complicated rules. Sometimes you just feel like destroying a hill troll with a flying halfling. Ooops, you forgot about the dragon master tritons. Goodbye halfling.
Small World is known in gaming circles as a re-theming of the classic game Vinci, but for many gamers, this will be their first exposure to the concept. This is a fun little game where players get to mix and match nifty powers in an attempt to kick their friends off the game board and scratch out as many points as they can.
The key component in Small World are the races; there are a number of different races like trolls and elves and wizards – typical cliche fantasy fare – each with their own special power. There are also a number of attributes – again with distinct special powers – that are randomly paired up with these races. So in one game you could have swamp trolls and seafaring elves, and in another game you could have seafaring trolls and stout skeletons, and so forth.
Each player works to procure a race from the handful that are available, place their tokens on different areas of the game board, and collect money at end of turn for areas they control. This money is then used later to buy other races, and at the end of game to determine the winner. The races’ special powers may make it easier to conquer certain areas, or give a bonus for others, or allow you better attacks against other players.
When a new race is bought, the previous race goes “in decline” meaning the pieces generally stay on the board but that race no longer uses its power. Mostly it makes opponents work a little harder to get what they need, while you are off with your shiny new race grabbing points elsewhere.
Overall, I like the components in this game; all the pieces are good solid cardboard bits, and the artwork looks great. One chief complaint is that the way certain illustrations blend can make it harder to tell what type of area you’re supposed to be looking at. This information should be clear to everyone at all times.
The gameplay is simple enough to teach newcomers in a relatively short span of time. The lighter nature of the game may turn off more hardcore gamers, but for people who just want some good solid fun and good player interaction, Days of Wonder tends to provide these in spades. Small World is no exception.
What, you ask? Why is Smallworld the “7-Up of European games”, you ask? Because, like 7-Up claims to be, Smallworld is light, bubbly, and refreshing. Smallworld will never win any awards for being a triumphant example of tight, highly strategic boardgame design, but it sure as [beep] has for being light, easy to learn and play, and most importantly, fairly fun. It’s games like Smallworld, though, that I have the most difficulty writing about because the game itself has no major flaws that would allow me to desecrate its good name, but on the other side, myself and the folks I’ve played this with are not exceptionally keen on it either. In short, it’s a game with merit, a neat “mixed-up Mother Goose” mechanic to keep it fresh, but it’s not something I would pine for or beg to get to the table. The only downside of the game is that Smallworld propagates racial genocide, which hasn’t been in vogue for a while in Europe, or so I hear.
The concept of the game is that the players each play a race, or several races, of randomly drawn creatures with the sole desire to take over the world as best they can in a limited amount of time. The name “Smallworld” is derived from this concept, because the world is simply too small for everyone. Each race has its own racial special power, and to add to that, each has an additional, randomly drawn power. Further, each race and special power has a number of troops associated with it, and thus the amount of troops any given race/power pair has varies with the random draw, allowing for exceptional balance across the game. Each player takes turns placing troops or redeploying troops, all the while expanding the scope of their dominion. Eventually, though, the players’ newly formed empires will recede, and the players have the option, at that point, to stop using that race and begin again with a new race. The game is made up of rounds, and at the end of each round, the players earn Victory Points (VP) based upon their level of control of the world, and at the end of a set amount of rounds, determined by the player amount, the game ends with the most dominant player winning the game.
The component and art quality is really quite good, and although the art direction is a bit on the caricature, cartoony side for my tastes, the theme is consistent and very suitable to the game. All of the components are of good quality cardboard, with the exception of the exceptionally well-designed troop tray, which is made of plastic and has a nice cover to stop the natives from escaping, of which there’s 186. Other components consist of two double sided boards, a bazillion VP chits valued at one, three, five, and ten. Then there’s the meat of the game, which is made up of fourteen racial banners and 20 special power badges, along with a gaggle of special chits which can be used with some of the power badges during gameplay. There’s also a turn marker made to look like a 2-D crown, and a special die for use during some attacks. All in all, there’s a crapload of stuff packed neatly into the little Smallworld box, and all of it looks very nice indeed. Finally, there’s the game manual, which is very understandable and well laid out, and six player references.
Setup is a little more complex than other games, and takes a little longer than one might expect for such a light game. First, a board needs to be selected and flipped to the correct side, based upon the amount of players in the game, with the turn marker placed on the first turn on the turn track. Next, shuffle the race cards and select five of them randomly, and place them on the board in a column, and in the order you chose them. Although the game calls the race cards, “racial banners”, this is a political year, so I’m calling them race cards specifically to attempt to get you to tell other players on the table that they’ve played the race card when they use their racial powers in game. Yes, I digress. Anyhow, do the same thing with the power badges, which physically dovetail with the race cards to create one new, unified race card with an associated power. Once you’ve got five complete race cards, make a stack of the rest at the bottom of the column, as when one is used, a new complete race card comes into play at the bottom of the column. In essence, at the beginning of the game, you’ll have six races to pit against one another, with the sixth being the last of them and sitting on a stack of the remaining completed race cards. This acts to hide the identity of the racial mixes so you can’t plan racial jokes in advance, such as, “How the [beep] are the Dwarves Mounted? Who’s short enough to get behind them while they’re bent over?”
Now that you’ve got the race cards sorted out, you’ll need to get into “Capitol Hill”, which is what I call the tray where all the races are intentionally segregated for the purposes of being pitted against one another later, and get out the “Lost Tribe” tokens to place them on their respective places annotated on the map by the Lost Tribe icon. Finally, hand out five VP tokens to each player, and you’re ready to start your fascist, imperialist aggression against your friends or relatives. There’s some token-placing which really seems like a waste of time, such as placing mountain tokens on spaces that depict mountains, but really, if the *ed board has a picture of the mountain on it, why the [beep] do I really need to place a big token shaped like a mountain, with an illustration of a mountain, on it? Total redundancy, because as far as I can tell, and as many times as I’ve played it, you can’t destroy the mountains, so this is a serious [beep] design choice. Anyhow, let’s skip that and just move onto how to play.
To begin, you need to select the first player, which is done by determining who has the pointiest ears. I’m not making that up…it’s in the rules. Assuming someone is more Vulcan than the rest, that green-blooded monster must pull a “Jesse Jackson” and choose a race card to play. To do this, one can simply take the first race card in the column, but if the person has some sort of bigotry against that particular race, they may choose any race they wish in the column, but as a penalty for being an unabashed racist, they must place reparations, in the form of a VP token, on any race card that lies above the one they chose in the column. Next, they must move all of the race cards up one space to fill in any gaps made by the player’s selection, which exposes a new race card for exploitation. As noted before, each race card and mated power badge has a value placed on it, and you simply need to add the two values together to get your starting army size, and once you’ve done that, simply head to Capitol Hill and snatch that value’s worth of the troops of your race.
To play, you may place your tokens on any space adjacent to water on your first turn, to represent a hostile invasion by sea. This is only on your first turn, as you can move your troops from owned territories to adjacent spaces in later turns. Anyhow, to take a territory, simply place two tokens on an empty territory as an occupying force, plus one token for virtually any other token in the space, such as a mountain, a Lost Tribe token, or an enemy token. There’s a ton of these little special tokens, but the rule is pretty hard and fast regarding the cost of a conquest, so it’s a pretty pedestrian matter to figure out how many troops are required to place in a potential conquest. In some sort of strange homage to Ameritrash, on your last declared conquest, you may roll a specially pipped die that has zero through three pips on it, and add that value to your attack value.
If you conquered an unoccupied space, nothing happens other than the fact you’ve occupied a space, but if an enemy or neutral territory was taken, that player sends one of their defeated tokens back to Capitol Hill and the rest are normally redeployed into one of their owned territories at the end of the current player’s turn. After spending all of your tokens, you can then redeploy your own guys to reinforce your territories to further expand your influence. At the end of your turn, you tally up the amount of territories you control, plus any racial or power badge bonuses, and take that amount of VP tokens. That, in short, is all there is to playing Smallworld. Well, almost.
As I noted earlier, when your race essentially runs its course, you may put them into decline. This consists of simply flipping over all of the tokens of that race to their dark side and removing all but one of those tokens from each occupied territory. Then, you remove the power badge from the race card, mercilessly stripping any power from the newly-subjugated race, and finally, you flip their powerless race card to the darkened side. Doing this costs an entire turn, and once you’re done putting your race into decline, you score the territories as you normally would. These powerless tokens, while not able to be deployed or used in any manner, still score points for the ruling player until they are conquered or until the same player puts yet another race into decline at some point in the future, where they’re arbitrarily removed and thus have failed as a viable gene pool. On your next turn, since you do not have an active race, you simply draw a new race as you did on your first turn, hoping this race will fare better than the last.
Now, that’s really all there is to Smallworld. It’s a very, very simple game, as I said initially, but that doesn’t mean it’s not full of strategic choices, because it is. It’s almost a wargame, except that it’s actually an area control game masquerading as a wargame, in my opinion. There are a lot of really neat pairings for race cards and power badges, and some make for interesting and fun “master races” that are generally more powerful than most, such as the Commando Amazons, which only require one token to occupy a territory due to their Commando power badge, start with 10 troop tokens, and get to play 4 additional troop tokens per turn for the purposes of conquest but which are removed at the end of your turn. The balance between the power badges and races is actually really well done, though, so there’s not much in the way of Kingmaking, so to speak.
Now that you’ve learned about the basic gameplay and what the game’s about, let’s talk about the all-important fun factor. There’s not a game that’s quite like this out there, with so many neat little qualities all stuffed into one package, but at the end of the day, I just didn’t have all that much fun playing it the first or any subsequent time, and neither did anyone I’ve played this with. I’m not saying it’s bad or boring, so save your nerd rage for someone else, but I am saying that it’s just not a super-compelling game. I like the fact that it’s a pretty short game, playable in under an hour in almost all instances, and I also like that it’s got very few rules, so it’s easy to learn and play.
The problem is that it’s pretty redundant, and the choices allowed you on any given turn are pretty much obvious; there’s no “masterstroke” plots within plots you’re going to pull off. Further, the endgame is pretty anticlimactic, with one guy usually saying, “yep, I won” and that’s about it. El Grande, Cave Troll, or any number of games do Area Control better, and there’s a bazillion games that do wargame better. There’s a bazillion games that do variable player powers better, too. There’s just not a lot that seem to pack them all into one little package, and do it so pretty, so it’s clear that the game has a lot of merit. It’s just not for me, that’s all.
There’s a bunch of expansions out for Smallworld, too, that have a bunch of new races and powers, and the latest one I know of has evil Necromancers or something and a new, bigger Capitol Hill tray that will hold all of the original races as well as all of the expansions. [beep], that must be the U.N. Building.
What Makes Smallworld Bigger Than Elvis:
- Neat art and a wonderful theme
- Brisk gameplay and easy rules allow a low barrier to entry for everyone, including the “Powerful Bilt Yoot Fa’Merica”
- One of the best chit trays, ever
- It allows you to be an overt racist without offending most people at the table
What Makes Smallworld Smaller Than El Vez:
- It’s not incredibly compelling, and a bit on the repetitious side
- Fiddly as “The Devil Came Down To Georgia”
- “Jack of all trades and master of none” game design
Overall:
The fact that it’s sold incredibly well and is way, way up in the Boardgamegeek.com charts indicates that it’s a good game, and I’m here to tell you that I agree with that assessment. I think the game has some merit, but it’s just a lot on the dry, repetitious side for me. I guess the best analogy I can put out there is that it’s a fairly cut-throat pseudo-wargame for people who like Eurogames and don’t dig Ameritrash-style wargames. There’s lots of player interaction, which is great, but all I can say is that I just really didn’t like the game all that much. I’d play it if I was at a buddy’s house, and I’d be fine with it, but I know that I’d be wishing I was playing Cosmic Encounter instead. I recommend that you either try Smallworld, or research the * out of it, before taking the plunge, because you and I both know your OCD will make you buy all the expansions too, and that’s another $80.00 on top of a $40.00 price tag, and if you don’t like it, you’ll kick yourself.
Rating:
3.5/5 Stars
For those of you interested in Smallworld, go ahead and check it out at Days of Wonder’s site here: http://www.daysofwonder.com
I find these days I gravitate towards two types of games–those that play quickly and those that you strap in for the long haul. Small World is of the former.
Small World is pretty simple in its mechanics, and it comes with lots of pretty cardboard to manipulate around the board. You really only have one major and simple rule to bear in mind: cardboard + 2. You choose a race (each has a special ability), get a certain number of cardboard pieces representing your race, and then enter from a side of the board by, you guessed it, placing cardboard + 2 of your pieces into a territory. This means if a territory is empty, you need 2 of your cardboard people to take it. From there you spread out, earning a victory coin for each territory you occupy at the end of your turn (plus any bonuses).
To reinforce the cardboard + 2 rule, the game gives you lots of cardboard to place on the map. For instance, even though there are mountains printed on the beautifully illustrated game board, they give you cardboard mountains to place in those mountain regions. This way you can tell new players they need cardboard + 2 to take over a mountain territory (the cardboard mountain is 1, plus 2 means you need 3 cardboard pieces of your people to take a mountain region).
The game of course throws some spice into the mix by having a random special ability that is assigned to each race at the beginning of the game. These abilities do all kinds of things like award you bonus points for certain types of land or for conquering regions that are already occupied etc., and a lot of the fun of the game comes from the interaction between racial and special abilities.
The game is easy to learn and I’ve had success teaching it to casual gamers. It generally gets positive feedback but from the non-gamer perspective I’ve yet to have any non-gamer family or friends ask to play it again (whereas they often ask to play Ticket to Ride or No Thanks or Incan Gold). As for me I enjoy it. There are other area control games I’d rather play but the lighthearted nature of the theme and the quick play time are big positives.
Small World Details:
No. of players: 2 – 5
Time to play: 40 – 80 minutes
Age:8+
Set-up: 10 minutes
Small World is a board game published by Days of Wonder and designed by Phillipe Keyaerts. This game of world conquest features an cornicupia of fantasy races — Dwarves, Giants, Orcs, Wizards and more as they battle for dominance of a world that is just too small.
The game is designed to have appeal to both gamer and non-gamer alike. It is playable as either a light-hearted fun 3-5 player family game, or as a more confrontational 2 player battle of wits. The easy gameplay and fun graphics ensure that Small World is accessible to the vast majority.
Small World has several small expansions and a reimplementation in 2011′s “Small World Underground.”
A Brief Overview
Small World comes with four different maps, each one varying in size and layout based on the number of player that will be playing. However, all of these maps share one thing in common: the world is just too small.
In Small World, you claim victory points by occupying any of the various territories on the map. The map itself is beautiful, depicting grassy knolls, sparkling lakes, crystal mountains, and more.
Throughout the game, players will play as one of the interesting races, each with different powers. As play continues you will have the option to change races in an attempt to always stay one step ahead of your opponent.
Gameplay Mechanics
The rules in this game appear extraordinarily simple yet, stilll providing compelling gameplay. Each turn begins with two options:
Conquest or Decline.
Your race will be represented by cardboard tokens, each beautifully illustrated. You place the race tokens on the map. Areas that are occupied by enemies or other obstacles such as mountains or the native Lost Tribes of Small World require more tokens than empty territories. In order to conquer a new area you must enter with a force that’s greater than the opposition by 2.
While each race has its own special skills that makes for interesting gameplay, in addition each race also has an additional special power badge as determined by the adjoining token. These special power – race combinations change every single time you play, so no two games are alike.
At the end of each of your turns, you will acquire an amount of points equal to the number of areas you occupy. The game ends after a designated number of turns which is determined by the number of players in the game.
Small World’s most Strategic move: Knowing when to Decline!
This is where it gets really interesting. Instead of choosing to further your race’s conquest, if you feel you have conquered all you can with your current race, this your chance to go into decline. Now, come back as something totally different. A fresh start.
Who will play Small World…just about everyone. It’s a game that may not be a favorite of everyone but it’s also a game that just about everyone will play. For me the game is a favorite for it’s constantly changing race and special power combinations. Small World is a game that is accessible to everyone but will also appeal to those that consider themselves avid game players. That’s a rare combination.
Small World is in every game shop I have been to and it seemed like the “must play” game in recent years, so I just had to try it. It took a lot of reading and a few viewings of Wil Wheaton’s “Tabletop” to get the hang of it, but once I did, I wanted more.
REPLAY VALUE
There are 14 different races and 20 different characteristics resulting in 280 different creature/power combos. This leads to tremendous replay value with any number of people, because this game scales very well from 2-5 players. I could play this game again and again and not get bored.
COMPONENTS
Cardboard. Cardboard everywhere. The two 2-sided boards, each of the races, races banners, and so many other things are printed on nice cardboard. This can be super overwhelming for new or novice players. But once you have a handle on what goes where, things go fairly smoothly from then on.
The case that holds everything, however, is a huge hassle. With so many different pieces, things shift around and go missing. Be careful and think about investing in some plastic bags.
Another small gripe I have with the races tokens is that they are too detailed. That’s right. Too detailed. It is hard to get a quick view of who is where or what is going on. Those with bad eyesight (like me) have to keep their eyes two inches away from the board to figure out who is who. But this is a very small issue.
EASY TO LEARN?
This game has a very large, very detailed rule book. It is recommended that every player has access to it throughout the game, just to double check moves and turn order. There are sheets that are handed to each player, but they are enormous and cumbersome. I had a tough time teaching my family this game, but I am probably just a terrible teacher. But this game is a little more complicated than Candyland, for sure.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I have really enjoyed my time with Small World. They fantasy elements and special powers are cool and fun to use to destroy your enemies. It does take some time to set up and take down, but it is definitely worth it. It may be a Small World but you will have large amount of pleasure from this game.
This game is OK. I know there are a lot of people who love this game… including my son. I can understand why some people love the game even…
Pros:
1) Beautiful artwork and fun theme.
2) Variable Player Power means a different game every time (to some degree).
3) Area Control Games are fun!
Now, the problems I see are…
Cons:
1) The game is one of the most fiddly I’ve come across… and it’s a family game! I have carpal tunnel from picking up all the pieces and putting them in their little spots… and OH how I love it when they fall sideways.
2) You can have a runaway leader, and it becomes dull for the player/s waiting for the end.
3) The game sometimes seems longer than it is fun. If it took half the time to set up and play… I’d be happy.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Days of Wonder’s quality family games. The components and execution of this game are fantastic! It’s a great game for kids, and your kid will probably love it. I’m just not into it anymore, and my kid pulls it out like its coated in candy.
The expansions are cool though.
I’m a sucker for expansions.
My buddy bought this game a while back, but we hadn’t gotten around to it by the time the Table Top episode went live. Not sure how I would’ve felt playing it without seeing that video, but because I did, I learned a lot about the game play going into my first play and had, what I considered, a much better grasp on the mechanics.
First off, the design and illustration is awesome! I love the look of Small World. Secondly, the combining of races with powers and the randomness of it makes for super interesting combos and is a major part of your strategy. Going into decline, balancing that with powers and rounds is huge. I failed to notice what round I was on once and it lost me the game, so paying attention and taking advantage of the combos is key.
Second, because of the way the game reshapes itself, I find it tremendously replayable, bordering on addictive. After our first night with the game, I was jonesing for more and picked up the Underworld variation so we had both versions. There are also some expansions to keep it interesting.
Third, I love that a strategy game like this can be played by 2-5 players and that the game board changes based on the number of players. Try and play Risk with 2 people and you’ll never finish, but with Small World, they give you the option to “shrink” the board to make game play faster. You can even play on the 3 person board if you want to make it more intense.
Like I said, for me it is an addictive system. Lots of options to mold the game to your liking and all the great elements of fantasy gaming we love. Top 5 for me.
SW is an area control / variable player power board game with 14 armies with 20 special power modifiers that supports 2 to 5 players, ideally at 3/4 players clocking in at 75 minutes. Requires minimal gaming experience; mechanically shares concepts with Risk but the “hook” of the game are the races with ability modifiers which provides distinct armies over many iterations of play. This can be a double-edge sword as new players will be referencing the manual often to review each armies abilities and bonuses. AP (analysis paralysis) is limited to army selection as the area control phase is straightforward…like Risk.
Primarily gaming with my 6-year old, this game is currently the flavor of the past two months – art is definitely appealing for the family gamers and the variable-power mechanic is the major plus. We can easily play a game in 40 minutes. Luckily, Daddy gamer is able to navigate Junior gamer through the “Can my Dragon Master / Elves attack your Flying Halfings if it has a Hole-in-the-Ground marker; Hold on, let me check the rules…”….it happens but not too often. I also highly recommend the Cursed/Dames/Be Not Afraid expansions – adds even more armies. Underground is still waiting to be unboxed.
Highly recommended if you are looking variable-power, family oriented, “got an hour to kill before bedtime and I don’t want junior bugging me about playing my iPad or Xbox” game.