Game Tips for Small World

6

Andrew Chatfield {Avid Gamer}

Apr 24th, 2012| Strategy

21 of 21 gamers found this helpful

“Pillaging (Especially Ratmen)”

Making use of the pillaging power to gain an extra point for each time you conquer a non-empty region you can play a particularly aggressive game.

At the beginning of each turn when you collect your tokens to begin conquest, abandon all of your territory and take all of your tokens in hand, then find the weakest race and begin to charge headlong into their territory. Each territory you capture from that race will be worth 2 points at the end of the turn rather than 1.

In addition to scoring 4, 6, or even 8 points a turn from your active race, you will still be scoring a few points from whatever race you have in decline.

This will also cause your opponents to consolidate their defenses in fewer territories in order to defend against you and thus score fewer points per turn. Once all of your opponents are closed up in small, well defended areas and you have reaped many points from your pillaging, feel free to go into decline.

2

Zero Reason {Avid Gamer}

Aug 15th, 2011| Tip

23 of 24 gamers found this helpful

“Storage strips”

Getting those tokens out of the box is a nightmare. But it you make up some small strips of paper and lay them inside the partitions it makes life easier. Just tape one end in and leave the other poking out a bit. Then pull up the loose end to raise up all the tokens in that section.
This alone has increased the playability of a great game.

8

drsoup {Avid Gamer}

Jun 25th, 2012| Strategy

16 of 17 gamers found this helpful

“Can Play 6 Players If You Can Find The Necromancer Island Expansion”

One of my gaming groups is a group of 6 people, which can sometimes limit which games hit the table when the group meets. Small World is probably one of my favourite games, so I like to introduce it to a lot of the new people I play games with. Since Small World usually only plays up to 5 players, the Necromancer Island expansion is a nice way to get in a 6 player game. I also like the fact that it gives the other players something else to watch out for, as the Necromancer can end, and win, the game early, if he manages to get all of his race tokens on the board at the end of his turn.

3

Isel {Avid Gamer}

Aug 15th, 2011| Strategy

21 of 23 gamers found this helpful

“Quantity vs. Quality”

Note: this strategy has only been applied to 2 player games

I have often found that choosing races that start with many chits (such as the Ratmen) have contributed to a more successful game. Start with smaller races and finish with races that have a bunch of race tokens available at the beginning of that race.

A preferred preferred progression would be Amazons > Halflings > Ratmen.

2

kamus73 {Avid Gamer}

Aug 14th, 2011| Tip

18 of 20 gamers found this helpful

“Not just who and what, but when”

It’s really easy to look at the available races and powers, think one makes for a great combo,and then slap down coins (if necessary) to reach it. But I think one of the subtleties of this game is not just in having a good race/power combo, but in when it arrives on the board and how it will fare in relation to the competition. One small example: the “Flying” special power, even when paired with a race that is perhaps nothing special, can accomplish a lot on a crowded board near the end of the game.

6

Jeremy Lennert {Power Gamer}

Apr 10th, 2012| Strategy

21 of 24 gamers found this helpful

“Timing of Powers”

Different races and special powers become more or less powerful depending on the stage of the game.

You’re going to want to decline your first race as fast as possible so you can start collecting points from two races, so it’s preferable if your first race expands quickly or has an ability that works while in decline.

If either of your first two races have the Spirit power, then they’ll both want to fit this mold so you can get three races into play.

A good middle-game race should be more versatile. You’ll usually want to be able to do strategic damage to other players, defend your borders, and maintain good point totals both while active and (later) while in decline. Races that acquire more race tokens over time often do well in this phase, since they’ll have more turns to take advantage of them.

Usually you’ll take your final race during the last turn or two, which of course should be a quick cash-in to get as many points as possible under the wire. You won’t decline your last race, so how it performs in decline won’t matter. This tends to be the best time to take those abilities that give you straight victory points, whether as a one-time bonus or an ongoing effect.

4

Justron {Avid Gamer}

Feb 18th, 2012| Rule

15 of 17 gamers found this helpful

“Allow Vetoing of Powers & Races Before Playing”

When we play we sometimes take out certain powers and races from the game. These decisions are based on our group’s previous plays, and not on any “unbalanced” powers or races.

For example: Peace Loving is a pretty dull power, so we usually play without it. Some players hate the Trolls, so we sometimes leave them out. If the Tritons did particularly well in the last game we may remove them for one play out of spite.

This does minimize the effect of having to pay to skip over a power+race combo that you don’t want, but can make people a little more satisfied as a whole.

6

Lebo {Casual Gamer}

May 28th, 2012| Strategy

15 of 17 gamers found this helpful

“Go in for early ghouls, even better with stoic”

If the ghouls are available early on, it would be advisable to pick them up. Even better if they are stoic ghouls: you can decline on the same turn you attacked, but you don’t lose your momentum as ghouls don’t diminish in number after going into decline. Other good combos are:

Flying Giants: Fly to those mountains and step down from them. You’ll have lots of easy points from that.

Commando Elves: This are scary. They can cover a lot of ground, and they don’t lose momentum ever.

Diplomatic Skeletons: They grow in numbers quickly. You’ll have lots of momentum all the time as you don’t have to focus on two fronts. Use that to your advantage.

7

unclebusu {Casual Gamer}

Aug 11th, 2012| Strategy

19 of 22 gamers found this helpful

“Get Out of Sync w/ Other Players”

So far, I’ve played Smallworld about a dozen times and from what I can tell, I am most successful when I can get out of step with everyone else as far as declining my races and picking new ones. Everyone generally plays a race 2 turns and then declines. This leads to maybe 3 races over the 10 turns. I try and decline early and often and then set myself up for a decline in round 9 so I can pick a new one in 10 and grab those final coins.

9

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Aug 15th, 2011| Rule

34 of 41 gamers found this helpful

“Variant - Buy races and powers separately”

To add some additional decision making to the race/power combination, consider trying the following variant.

At the beginning of the game, give each player 10 coins instead of 5.

Set out 5 races (as normal) at the beginning of the game. Instead of pairing a power with each race, set the powers up separately (still 5 as normal, just not linked to a race).

When you normally would choose a race/power combination, you now choose the race and power separately. The rules for selection are the same as before, (if you bypass something put a coin on it), but you’re buying the race and power separately.

This variant allows people to better strategize their selections. Is it worth spending 3 coins to get the fourth ability, and another 2 to pair it with the third race to make a super combination? Or should you grab the less powerful first of each that have been accumulating coins? You’ll never feel like there are no good combinations again (but are they worth it?)

Small World - Tips & Strategies

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