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Tips & Strategies (7)

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4
Noble
Amateur Reviewer
14 of 14 gamers found this helpful
“Deceiving and Tricking”

If you want to win this game, you need to keep low profile.
You don’t want the other players to see you as a threat from the early stages of the game. Just play good, but not noticeable. Open your bag of mind-fooling-tricks and let another player take the heat. By doing this, they will focus on “sabotaging” him/her and then it’s your time to shine!

I personally think this is a tip for most board games: “Not only play the game, play the minds of your opponents.” It sounds so serious but it isn’t. It’s a lot of fun if you are playing with the right people because everyone wants to do this.

Try to look weak, people will mostly target the strong player, especially in this game.

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4
Noble
Amateur Reviewer
Amateur Advisor
30 of 32 gamers found this helpful
“Get The Artifacts”

At the beginning try to take a race that can expand rapidly. That way you can take over the zones with artifacts faster than the other players. These artifacts are quite powerful and should not be underestimated.

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6
Denmark
Paladin
9 of 9 gamers found this helpful
“Shadow Mimes ”

Another fun way to play the Shadow Mimes (and staying a little closer to their nature) is instead of letting them choose a special power among the upcoming six special powers, they have the ability to mimic the racial power of an active neighbouring race on the board at the cost of one VP to that player.

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8
Canada
El Dorado
Professional Advisor
Senior
10 of 11 gamers found this helpful
“Race and power”

When I play wiht my daughter, the family or new player, I only put on the table the same quantity of race and power as number of player. I then take the time to explain only the available race/power.

During the game, the race/power are picked randomly from the box.

So players don’t have to go throw all the available power/race cards to make a strategic choice…Its simpler for them and makes the game faster.

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2
Supporter
13 of 15 gamers found this helpful
“Go for combos over pure expansion”

The best way I’ve seen to win at this game is to concentrate on using Race/Power combinations that complement each other if they become available. Stacking on bonus victory coins at the end of the turn will turn the tide against someone just going for pure expansionism.

To go along with this, if you’re regularly collecting 15+ coins a turn by holding on to territories, it would be better to sit back and relax rather than expand or to go into decline.

Ending a turn with ten victory coins collected or less is a sign that things are going poorly.

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5
Canada
Rated 50 Games
Tinkerer
19 of 23 gamers found this helpful
“Cutting Down the Tallest Poppy”

Good communication (or deception) can mean the difference between winning and losing.

Small World has an under-appreciated social element. Under-appreciated in that it can be a big part of the game, and also that some people don’t appreciate it…

Because players can directly affect each other’s armies, and therefore the points they’re raking in, it’s everyone’s responsibility to recognize when someone is running away with the game and keep them in check. For example, if someone’s in-decline race is still getting them 9 points a turn, consider mopping those up.

This sort of targeting can feel unfair, especially if you’re the one being targeted and you know that someone else is doing better than you! If this is the case, you should let the table know who they should be targeting instead.

Players can use communication, or the lack thereof, to their advantage. Sneaky players can try to take their turn quickly and not disclose out loud how many points they earned, or draw attention to other player’s high scoring rounds to draw other’s attacks away.

The more games we play, and the better we get at the general strategy, the more we find that this social element keeps the game fresh. Some tables might not appreciate it though, so point your fingers wisely.

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2
14 of 28 gamers found this helpful
“Stay active in the game outside your own turn.”

When it’s not your turn:
– Take time to learn about the races and powers
– Plan out a strategy that works

When it is your turn:
– Play the game

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