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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For a small world there’s certainly a lot in the box, in fact your first job when returning from the games shop will be to punch out lot of tiles. And some more tiles. And lots more.
Anyway, to the game itself. The game mechanic is very smooth, round one pick a race and associated special ability (these combinations change for every game), round two start conquering. If you’ve played risk you’ll be familiar with the mechanic, put two armies into an empty land, add some more if you face opposition or mountains – mountains can be tough, what with the climbing, and rocks, and cold winds.
The key difference between small world and risk though is that there is no dice rolling needed (so there will be no cursing the snake eyes staring up at you mockingly). Instead you have a finite number of armies (some races have more than others) so you can only go so far across the board, go too far and you’ll be spread thinly which may get you lots of points (the more areas you hold the more points you get) but will leave you horribly exposed when your best buddy brings his flying orcs rampaging across your lands.
And now we come to the crux of the game, how far do you expand your finite armies? Then when you’ve taken your wealthy elves as far as their pointy ears dare stray you retire them, send them into decline, the age of the coin hugging elves is over! This means on your next go you choose another race/ability combo and then begin conquering anew.
Every race and ability lets you benefit from conquering different areas, may give you more troops, more money or allow you to pop up from holes in the ground seemingly anywhere in the world. Its these abilities and combo’s that make the game, and it gets better the more you play and the more you learn what they all do (handy crib sheet provided).
The game also plays on a timer which means you all know how many rounds are left, from this you make your crafty decisions on declining races and getting new ones.
The games plays swiftly, its very easy, my seven year old can play it. The real trick is timing and understanding races and abilities so as long as i keep that crib sheet to myself i’ll be fine.
This game is easily one of the best games I’ve learned in the last year. There’s a great luck/strategy balance, and the risk and reward component in selecting races and when to decline is sublime. The competition is fun, the points are always closer than one thinks, and the artwork is stunning.
The replay value is through the roof, as different races and traits get lined up each time making just about everything viable at some point or another, even the lowly Dwarves (when they get stacked with enough gold)!
Admittedly, it’s a very gamepiece-heavy set that has a lot to keep track of at first.
In groups of three or more, this game is excellent for power gamers and casuals alike.
Small World is exactly what it says it is a world too small for everyone to live comfortably. You must conquer territory against other races as they rise and decline over the course of the game.
The game comes with 14 races and 20 special powers so there is many different potential combinations each game. This is what make the game fun for me is trying out different race/power combinations. One game you could be flying skeletons the next commando dwarves.
The artwork matches the gameplay perfectly. Small world is a light hearted fantasy game and the artwork captures that. It is a beautiful game just to look at.
The actual gameplay is relatively simple you conquer territories and in return gain victory points that allow you to win the game. However the different races and special powers give the game in extra push and adds a bit more depth to the game. As far as length of game I think it is paced rather well. The average game last about an hour.
Overall this is a fun light territory control game. If you are looking for a deep strategy then the game will surely be disappointed but if you are looking for a causal strategy game to occasionally play your friends and family this might be the game for you.
The bits are great with fun artwork and good quality, the main concern is the sheer number of bits needed to play the game and keep track of. Keep the tray that the game comes with! And, spend time before you start to really organize the pieces.
A composite board like Twilight Imperium might assist in replay value as then everything about the game would be random each time, but as is its still a great game that really focuses on strategy and long term planning.
Unlike say, Pandemic, The first game will definitely be a “throwaway” game as you’re learning the ins and outs of it. But each successive game will go much more smoothly and much faster.
In playing it a few times we’ve noticed, however that there are sometimes conflicts in the rules between the “abridged” rules everyone is given and the “full” rules in the rule book. A quick vote at the beginning of the game as to which one trumps aids greatly.
The fact that the race and attributes are separate and random each game really helps with replayability.
All in all if you’re in for a slightly complicated board game this one’s a winner! If you want something super easy then maybe take a pass.
I honestly found this game a bit boring after the first couple plays. You’re whole goal of the game is to acquire as much money/points as possible by the end of the game. You do that by placing a race you’ve selected onto the board and conquer territories. This varies each game as each race has a special power and on top of that, each race gets a randomly selected special power to further the variance from game to game. Sometimes this makes incredibly broken characters [flying sorcerers anyone?] and not that great of characters at times.
The problem I have with the game is that it feels like a lot of small math problems as I play. Each territory you can take over is a base of 2 + any additional units or pieces on it. So taking over a mountain space is 2 + the mountain tile. Add a player who’s only got one token on that same mountain space and now you’ve got a place that needs 4 to take over. It gets kind of boring after a while.
I do think this game is great to break out every few months and have a couple beers while playing it, but beyond that it really doesn’t have much else going for it. Races/Powers can become broken in the right combination and it’s all a giant math problem to me. I do think however the artwork and components are great and the insert is one of the best I’ve ever seen. It also scales well from 2-5 players. Not a game I would spend $50 on, but it wasn’t a complete waste of money. I would recommend this game to new gamers or people that want a fairly casual game without too much thinking involved.
I am a big fan of this game. It has just enough strategy to keep more advanced players interested but it isn’t so involved as to scare off newbies.
Pros: Gameplay moves quickly and rarely gets bogged down during turns. The randomness of each game setup ensures interesting and mostly balanced replay value, with the occasional curve ball to keep things interesting. There are different game boards depending on the number of players involved as well, which is a very nice touch.
Cons: I will admit the game can be daunting at first. There is a lot to keep track of between the different powers and races.
I would probably not suggest this game to very casual players, but if you are looking for a fast paced and goofy strategy game I wholeheartedly suggest SmallWorld.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got Small World, but after playing it several times I can safely say that if you enjoy board gaming that you will enjoy Small World.
Each game gives the races and powers are combined randomly and each player has the option to pick the combo they think works the best. The players than try to take control of as much of the board as they can with this race. Once they feel that their race is spread to thin, they select another one and begin their conquest again. The game comes with so many races and powers you will see different powers with different races in almost every game. You’ll see the wealthy wizards in one game, and you may than see the wealthy ratmen in the next.
Small World is simple to learn and very easy to play once you get the hang of it. Its light-hearted art style is very inviting to new players. If you’re on the fence on Small World just buy it, you won’t regret it.
I write reviews for a game shop in Australia appropriately named The Games Shop. One of the first reviews I did was for Small World, because even though it’s become common knowledge for the most part, it’s still a game worth talking about.
This is an excerpt of the review below. For the complete article with pictures, visit: http://gameshop.com.au/blog/thegamesshopper/2012/07/10/review-small-world/
“Small World is played in geologic time, on a scale far longer than most war games. That isn’t to say that it takes long to play, oh no! No, no, you’ve misunderstood. The game is brief, perhaps 40-80 minutes. Certainly nowhere near the length of a game of Twilight Imperium. But each 45 minute game will span several centuries of existence in this small… world.
Rather than take control of one army and fight for dominance, in Small World you will control several great empires, watch them expand, and then witness their demise as they crumble into the history books and are replaced by a new fledgling society. It’s like watching a time-lapse video of Europe being swept clean by the Huns, who then fall back to make way for the Mongols, the Turks, the Moors, the Germans, and so on.
In fact, one of the first lessons in playing Small World is not to get attached. In the game’s 9-10 turns (depending on the number of players), one person can control up to 6 nations at the most prolific, with an average being around 3 or 4 in one game. But in Small World you can typically never replenish units, which means that if you hold on to one nation for too long, you’ll be unable to expand, desperately clinging to your territories with a skeleton crew (not literally, since the skeletons are one of the only races that can replenish.) But letting go of your nations? Letting them fall into decline while a fresh army sweeps the board? It’s hard! It’s hard because the races are the thing that make Small World so fun.
Each game, you have access to a jumble of races that become available in a random order. Each race possesses a unique quality, and is also paired with a power that is also randomly chosen. This means that every game, new combinations of races and powers emerge, and that is where the entertainment starts. The races and powers all have a whimsically cartoonish fantasy slant, which makes the game amusing to look at as well as more friendly for children (some controversy did follow the game’s release concerning the scantily clad amazons, but compared to most modern video games, Small World looks about as racy as a turkey sandwich.)”
Smallworld is one of my favorites. Huge variability between race/power combos lead to a unique fight each time. You can dominate with a combo one game only to have it fail miserably against its perfect defense the next. A large part of the game also involves knowing when to give up on a combo and move on, and which combo is worth moving on to.
The game itself is fairly easy. You pick a combo, then get a number of units equal to the sum of the 2 big numbers on the race and power tiles. Then you deploy. Two units takes an empty land, one more for each enemy unit on that land, one for any additional defenses on that land (mountains, forts, troll caves). Some races/powers can give additional powers, but all in all, that is the game. Keep going until the turn counter reaches the end, then total your coins. You get coins based on your actions that turn, how many lands you hold when you end your turn, and any special abilities from your race/power combo.
The game is hugely fun, and about as simple as I made it out. There is a bit more detail I could go into (going into decline, each race/power’s abilities, what are good starter/ending races/powers, what races/powers are good to chain together) but that you can find out from reading the rules, playing the game, and conquering your own Smallworld.
…now before you think I’m mad, I tried this.
Say you have some friends visiting, or staying after dinner, and they’re not much in the know about boardgames. They will probably know Risk (everybody knows Risk, just like Monopoly and Scrabble), they might even suggest playing it if you ask if they want to play a boardgame.
This is where you whip out SmallWorld. Pitch it as a “Risk where luck does not count, the game lasts much less, and nobody is ‘out of the game’ before the end because if you’re cornered you can come back strong and stab in the back your opponents.”
I tried this pitch a couple of times and it works like a charm.
They’ll learn of all the other cool features of SmallWorld while they play, it’s Ok. But the “kinda like Risk, but better” hook has worked reliably so far.
And once you make someone who likes boardgames in general know the modern kind of games… they’ll want more: Win!