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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I happened upon Small World through a literal “gateway” experience… not from another, more accessible game making me interested in digging for weightier options, but from a gateway game literally pointing me to Small World and saying “you buy this now!” That game was Ticket to Ride. It contains a devious Days of Wonder sales pamphlet inside the box, and said pamphlet has Small World prominently displayed on the cover and on the first several pages. Of course, my feeble mind was no match for Days of Wonder, whose subtle mastery of mind control has yet to be understood by us lay-folk. Here are my experiences with the game I was coereced into buying:
Observed Set-Up and Play Time
Opening the box and preparing for play is a several-hour process. There are sheets upon sheets of cardboard to carefully punch (and I do mean carefully… the art on the pieces will rip off if you move quickly), and the rulebook, while well-written and reasonably brief, will need a thorough reading. After those few hours, the first game (for me, a 2-player game) took around 45 minutes with nary an error made. Follow-up games take around 5 minutes to set up and 45 minutes to an hour to play depending on the number of players. It’s simple, effective and fun from the first game, but holy cow cardboard.
My Learning Curve and Teach Time
The learning curve to the game itself is pretty small… one play-through should do it. But you really only become fluent at Small World when you no longer have to reference the wonderful skill/race sheets to understand how your new race will behave. If you’re using the base game with no expansions, it will probably take around 10 games for you to experience every race and skill and be able to know what they do immediately upon seeing them. To teach the game, I take 15 minutes before starting to slowly run through the basics; then we’re off.
Group Sizes and Dynamics
For some reason I have a very hard time getting non-gamers to play Small World with me. I would expect that the light theme and cute artwork would make this appealing… I am apparently mistaken. The biggest group I’ve managed to corral for a game was 4 players, all fairly adept at designer game play.
Objectionable Material
Small World is light fare, but at its essence is about conquering and dominating. These aren’t tenets to use as a foundation for your child. However, it is possible that point is lost in their minds behind simply wanting to “beat your Troll with my Amazon.” While there is no visual depictions of violence or use of adult language, and even the potentially scary monsters (ghouls, skeletons, etc) are animated comically, I would probably wait to introduce this to my kids until they are around 10.
Comparable Titles
First and most obviously, this game is an evolved descendant of Risk. It also has a bit of a distant cousin in Smash Up, a card game that allows you to combine two unique sets of abilities together and see how you fare (in Small World, a race and a skill; in Smash Up, a combination of two monsters). But in general, Small World is akin to the multitude of area control games currently available. It differentiates itself through its fantasy theme, providing respite for those of us who have had enough of war games yet enjoy the occasional conquering of a region.
It feels incomplete to comment on Small World without touching on the expansions, for they are many. There is a stand-alone companion game (Small World Underground) that plays identically but gives new races, skills and game board (complete with new land types); 3 expansions that simply provide new races and skills (Cursed!, Grand Dames and Be Not Afraid); one expansion (Tunnels) that allows you to connect the base game’s board to that of Underground; one expansion that changes the board to a Catan-style variable board (Realms, which includes Tunnels); one that attempts to add a story to the game through event cards (Tales and Legends); and one that allows an extra player to resurrect other players lost race tokens to use against them (Necromancer Island). I have used a good chunk of these (Underground, Tunnels, Realms and Be Not Afraid), and I feel that they add nothing to the game. Small World Underground is itself a good game… but it isn’t better or worse than the original, just a variation. And trying to connect the 2 boards through Tunnels is a disaster… I have given it 3 attempts, and it completely ruins the game for me. I purchased all of these within weeks of purchasing the original game, so it may be a case of “too much too fast”… but I wasted a lot of money on these, when the base game itself was sufficient.
Area control is one of the oldest mechanics in board games. Every war game, and especially the classic game Risk operate on this principle. Plenty of other more complex games have come along since Small World, but for my money, this is the best entry level area control game.
The game comes with a slew of the standard fantasy races, such as giants, elves, dwarves, etc. But, they go beyond the stereotypes of each race. It’s always amusing when someone gets Diplomatic Orcs or Mounted Dwarves. The combination of powers with these races gives this part of the game endless replayability. Obviously, some powers combo with some races better than others, such as Pillaging Orcs, and others not so much, but they make for amusement, like the ones mentioned above. You have to replay the game many times before you’ll normally see the same combinations of races and powers. Even within the same game, you won’t see the same combination twice, because there are more powers than races; so if the Wealthy Elves cycle through, the next times the Elves come out, they’ll be paired with a different power. It’s fun seeing the tension of do I go into decline now to play that great combo next round or do I hold off and risk someone else getting it first.
That mechanic of going into decline is one of the other strong points of the game. Most other games would have the player pick one race through the whole game, and it would be one of four or five races that are in every game. The fact that they force you to discard a race mid way through the game, and in many games, you’ll have to switch a second time, forces players to change their strategy several times through the game, both to adapt their own race to the situation, and to adapt to their opponents’ races. This is a great mechanic that few other games to my knowledge use.
The maps were very well done. They are well suited for the player counts so that it’s inevitable that you will come into conflict with your opponents. There is no way to play a “nice” game where I keep to my side and you keep to yours. The map(s), however, is one of my few complaints about the game. Maybe it’s not fair to expect some kind of modular board from the time, but unless you bend the rules, you always know that if you have x number of players you will be playing on this map. There’s no variation on that. Again, perhaps that’s unfair given when it was released, and it’s minor, but hey. I suppose one could make a house rule to put more Native tokens on the board or change their placement to change things up. I’ve heard that the expansions kind of fix this problem, and make replayability near infinite, but I haven’t played with them and so can’t attest to it personally.
The combat system, as it exists, is perfect for entry level games of this type. No dice (except at the end), modifiers, tables, or [b]complicated[/b] special rules. A simple case of attacker wins. This again, makes the game simple to teach. Obviously, the various races have different powers, along with the powers that affect combat, but it’s not like it’s a brain burner to do this math.
One area where the game was truly ahead of its time was with the insert. This game is a breeze to set up and take down. Every component has a spot in the box that is easy to tell and almost impossible to confuse, so I can easily reach into the box and know what is where, and know exactly where the same pieces go back in the box when we’re done. This game almost spoils me, as many other games I’m left using my own Ziploc bags to separate components, and then afterwards have to figure out which plastic bag held which pieces. And obviously, the more I separate pieces for storage, the longer it takes to break down. Not this game. The race pieces tray is perhaps my favorite piece of all in the box, even more than any piece actually used to play the game! They are neatly divided, easy to dispense to the players, and then put away as they go into decline and then clean up. No multiple baggies or endlessly having to separate the pieces for this game! They even nested in the boards nicely, and the rulebook says to use the leftover punch board skeletons to press the insert up against the box lid so you can store the game sideways without the pieces falling out! This was truly ahead of its time, and there are games coming out today that aren’t this easy to set up and store! There are games coming out today that aren’t this easy. They give you a box and that’s it, just supply your own bags or buy an aftermarket organizer that can cost as much as or more than the game itself. I will say the one downside to this wonderful insert is that it makes it near impossible to store expansions with the base game, which most people like to do, meaning if one gets them, they then need multiple boxes for this game.
Overall, this is an excellent game, and while it may not scratch the area control itch of more hardcore gamers, it is an excellent entry level game, both for area control games and for hobby board gaming in general. And if you are an experienced gamer, if you’re looking for something easy, you don’t feel like thinking too much that night, this is a good game to play. It has some unique mechanics that are still pretty rare nine years after its release. This is one of the easiest games I’ve ever had to teach, making it easy to get new players further down the rabbit hole of hobby board games.
In Small World, you are controlling a fantasy race trying to dominate a world which is just not big enough for everybody. Eventually your race will become overstretched, but don’t worry, you can abandon your race and select another one!
So I keep changing races? How weird is that! How would that work? And why would I even want to?
Let’s go back to the beginning. The board for Small World is a map divided up into regions. There is a different board depending on the number of players. Why? Because it is designed to be just too small! Next to the board you will place a pile of race tiles, and next to that a pile of race modifier tiles. For example, the top race might be Orcs and the top modifier might be “rampaging”, so that makes Rampaging Orcs! Each race and each modifier has a special ability, meaning that when they’re combined you’ll get two special abilities. You take the top 5 combos and place them in a column below the stack, so you’ll have 6 combinations visible.
Each player is given some coins and the game begins. On your turn you’ll need to start by picking up one of the six visible race combos. You can take the first one (furthest from the stack) for free, but you’ll need to pay one coin for every race you skip. If you do that, put one coin on the race tiles that you pass over, because another player will get those coins if they choose that race later.
Your race tile will have a number on it, and so will the modifier tile that goes with it. Add these two numbers together, and that is the number of units you’ll be getting to go forth and populate the world with, so take that number of tokens (the tokens are specific to your race). Starting from a region at the edge of the board you capture regions by placing two tokens in the region, plus another token for any other tokens that are in the region (these could be tokens from other races, or mountain or lost tribe tokens that are placed on the board in certain regions at the beginning of the game). If you end up with too few tokens to capture your last region then you can roll the reinforcement die, which can add to the strength of your last tiles, so depending on that roll you may or may not get your last region.
After you have finished conquering you can redistribute your tokens around the board, then finally give yourself one coin for each region you occupy. Play then moves to the next player.
Where I might get attacked myself, right?
It’s not really a case of might, more will, remember it’s a Small World after all.
You had to get that in there, didn’t you?
Surely it’s obligatory! Anyway, if another player conquers a region you occupy, you lose one race tile, but any others are returned to your hand for you to use on your next turn.
Well that all seems straight forward!
Yes it is, but don’t forget that your special abilities might bend these rules, you might get extra coins for certain things, you might have to use less units to conquer, you might not lose tiles when you’re conquered, etc.
OK, but we just keep going at it until the game ends?
Not quite, remember you have limited tiles to use and these get more limited as the turns pass. Eventually your race will become more trouble than it’s worth, and you will choose to put your race into decline. Leave just one tile in each region you occupy and flip them over. You’ll still get a coin for each region that race occupies, but you won’t be able to conquer anything with them and you’ll lose that races special abilities. However on your next turn you’ll be able to select another race and start conquering at full strength! After 10 rounds the player with the most coins is the winner!
I get it now! So what makes this game great to play?
A number of things. The special abilities of each race make playing with each one unique, and the modifiers ensure that each race is slightly different than in the last game. The variety of special abilities is great, and they can bend just about every rule in the game, but never in a way that is confusing. There are many great decisions you’ll need to make during the game, such as balancing your desire for a particular race combo with how much it will cost to get it, or should you take a cheaper combo which may give you coins straight away if other players have skipped it? The major decisions you’ll have to make is picking the perfect time to put your race into decline – too soon and you’ll spend too many turns waiting around (remember if you put your race into decline you don’t get your new race until the next turn), too long and you’ll be stuck with an ineffective race who cant conquer enough. The only drawback is that when you start playing the game you’ll have to keep checking the player aid for what each race and modifier does, and you’ve got six combos to choose from so that can take a while, but you’ll quickly learn to read the symbology on the tiles and only have to check occasionally. In short this is a great game with loads of replayability and you should definitely give it a go!
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
I was a bit hesitant if this was a good game or not before I tried it out the first time. Territorial conquest games are not really my cup of tea, but I was really surprised in a positive way. Not only is the game very simple, they also managed to more or less completely get rid of luck. You have a bunch of tokens, and you use them to grab areas on the map. Some areas cost more people to conquer because there are more enemies, the defenders cover in mountains or something similar. Different players will gain different amount of points for different areas depending on what race/special power they play at the moment (more on that later), so figuring out how to use your forces in the most efficient way is a big part of the game. Quite often the final score can be very even (partly because this is a game that invites bashing the leader) so you really want to maximize everything.
A couple of things make this game highly dynamic and interesting:
1) Races + Special powers
You play a race combined with a specail power. This creates many more or less bizarre combinations (flying hobbits, underworld amazons or diplomatic skeletons just to mention a few odd combos). The race gives you some property (like getting extra points for fields or being really good at attacking from mountains), and the special power gives you another ability. The two also contains a number of units and these numbers added together makes up your total number of trigger happy citizens.
2) Decline
Normally you don’t get any new tokens for your race, so after a few rounds your forces have probably been a bit decimated. At this stage you can decide to abandon your race and let them go in decline. Next turn you simply grab a fresh race (with a new special power). When counting points you add the points from your active race and your old declined race (which simply stay passive on the board as long as noone attacks them). This creates some interesting choices. First of all, the optimal situation is of course to have a vital active race and a decent declined race that adds some points, But at what point do you give up your current race? It’s not fun to let them in decline, but on the other hand you may just be scoring badly and delaying the inevitable anyway. Also, if your declined race is really not helping you out, is it a good idea to let your active race go in decline to get more points? These are hard choices, and each time you let a race go in decline you miss a turn where you could have grabbed some fresh land.
3) Buying new races
The stacks of races and powers are shuffled, and a que is formed with combinations. The first in line is free to grab, but for each step up the chain you must pay one gold (victory points). Anyone grabbing a race with gold on it gets the gold, so you must really think twice if it’s worth the 6 gold to grab a really neat combination higher up the chain. Of course, if you’ve played it a few times you learn what combinations are extra good, but it’s still hard to know the optimal purchase.
The rules are very simple, but the combinations and the players choices makes the game very hard to figure out. I have no clue how the gameboard will look next turn.
I don’t think everyone will enjoy this game, but most people we’ve introduced it to have found it really fun. The artwork is great, different maps make the game scale very good for different numbers of players, and the combinations themselves always makes us laugh. I definetely think you should try it out!
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.
Smallworld is a light hearted territory control game that uses simple mechanics spiced up with a variety of special powers and combos to keep things interesting.
The play of the game is pretty simple. On your first turn you pick a race and get some tokens to represent your troops (usually 9-10). Each race has its own power and an additional randomly assigned special power creating new combos each game. One game might have Berserk Orcs while in the next game they might be Diplomatic Orcs.
You then place tokens on board spaces to take over territory. To take over an area, you simply place two tokens + 1 additional token for every obstacle in the space (mountains, enemy troops, etc). At the end of the turn, you grab a victory point token for every space you control. On following turns, you pick up all troop tokens except for 1 on each space and continue to take over more territory.
The only additional consideration comes from going into decline. After your troops begin to get spread thin, you can choose to put them in decline. You skip a turn and no longer get to do anything with those troops but they still score points for you as long as they are on the board. On the next turn, you get to pick a new race and start taking over even more territory. You earn points for any space your active or in decline race controls.
Smallworld has several great aspects. It plays fairly quick for a territory control game and technically you can never be knocked out of the game. The race/power combos add a lot of variety to play and the fight mechanic is simple enough that my six year old loves playing this game. The first several games you play of Smallworld will prove to be a lot fun. The fun, however, doesn’t last forever.
The simple mechanics make the game easy to learn and play but also present an inescapable problem. Eventually, the races and powers begin to become overly familiar and even a bit stale. After this point, you’re left with a game that’s as complex and intricate as basic arithmetic. Smallworld plays fast for a territory control game but it still doesn’t play real fast for a game with such simple mechanics.
Smallworld is a great choice to introduce casual gamers and young family members to war gaming. It can even entertain a more seasoned gamer in short bursts. However, Smallworld doesn’t have the depth to keep a serious strategy gamer engaged for long. There are no deep strategies to discover and no advanced moves to master. Because the powers and available races are random each game, you can’t decide to try out any specific ability or combo. The play is fun, but it fades fast.
Quick Summary
Small World is a game based on variety and extracting and executing strategy from that variety. You take on fantasy-based races that have a racial ability and an additional bonus powers and over the span of “ages” to conquer tracts of land to earn victory points.
Primary Mechanics
– Area Control – The basic premise is that players earn victory points by controlling areas on the board. The board is laid out with several different types of terrain types and environments. To conquer an area, you need to send a specific number of armies in. This is basically 2+ the number of cardboard pieces there are. So if you’re going in to an empty space, you need 2 armies. Empty mountains? 3 armies. A mountain with 3 enemy armies? You’ll need 6 armies. It’s a very elegant combat system that makes the numbers your race & bonus combos provide very important.
– Variable Races and Bonuses – This is where the game shines. the Area Control mechanic is more of the canvas while the racial abilities and power abilities are the paint. The game comes with 14 different fantasy races and 20 bonus powers, all are different, and all randomly get combined together for 280 different potential combinations. They all provide bonuses and benefits that cover all the aspects of the game. This is where the complexity and depth of the game comes out, because you have to figure out how Merchant Skeletons can take on Fortified Trolls and Flying Halflings.
– Bidding/Drafting – Since there is a huge range of combinations, it is inevitable that some combinations will be weaker or stronger than most. So the game has this bidding system in place where you spend your points to skip over combinations you aren’t interested in. The points can then continue to accumulate as players continue to pass on the race. This can often lead to weaker races being taken because they come with a large accumulation of points. That lump sum can often be a significant moment at the end of the game.
– Races going In-Decline – Over the course of the game, either due to attrition, or strategic maneuvering, you’ll get to spend a turn to send your active race in decline. They’ll stay on the board and continue to earn you points as long as they remain. But you’ll no longer be able to use them in combat. You’ll then begin your next turn by picking a new race/power combination.
Balance & Difficulty –
The game has a nice feature where there are 4 different boards to play on for the different number of players. This insures conflict and player interaction regardless of the player amount, and they also scale the number of players, so when there are a larger number of players, the game doesn’t drag on for too many rounds. The game is pretty simple overall, but it has some good level of strategy. Some of the combinations may seem a bit complex or confusing to players new to board games. But overall, it really is quite easy.
Theme
The theme is standard high fantasy, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s hard not to chuckle when Flying Halflings show up, or Diplomatic Orcs are on the table. There’s nothing that really seems to detract from the theme, but the mechanics don’t really seem to support the theme either. In fact, the game is a reimplementation of Vinci, a game made in 1999 by the same designer.
Components
– Main Boards – I love that there are different boards for different players. The quality of everything is top-notch with the board. The only thing that is difficult is to keep track of the turns. I’m sure I’ve played many games where we went 2 or more rounds than we should have because we forgot to move the round marker.
– Race & Power Tiles – These are great quality as well. Nice thickness. Nice feel. Nice print quality. They are shaped well so the Power Tile fits nicely within the Race Tile.
– Die – The game has one reinforcement die. It’s very clear and light. It has nice rounded corners so it isn’t made to roll across the table, but just to localize the roll in front of you.
– Chits – There are an absolute TON of cardboard chits in this game. 168 just for the races alone. There is no secrets with these chits so if some have a little tearing when punching, it’s okay, but the quality of everything is so top notch, that it shouldn’t be an issue.
– Insert – The insert is a plastic extruded insert which works pretty well, but it does have flaws. The race chits can be very difficult to put in and take out of their spot in the insert. The victory point chits have a similar problem, and will fly all over the place without something that can stay on top of them. While I love plastic inserts that keeps things safe and organized, the insert in this one does fall short for me. I know Days of Wonder can do better with this.
– Rulebook – The rulebook is pretty straight forward and easy, but I do think it lacks some information and clarification. For as long as the game has been in print, there should be a whole appendix with clarifications. The race and power combinations will create questions, many of which have been answered online, but that has never translated to the rulebook.
Art
While I’m not a particular fan of fantasy, the art is very whimsical and stylized with vibrant colors. It is a really nice looking game. The race art is really spectacular. And while most fantasy art has a tendency to be dark and sexualized, this game is so bright it’s almost ironic for what could be considered almost a war game.
Replay Value
The game presents a lot of variety with the combos. And trying to maximize the benefits of the races to reach for the most victory points does have replayability, but over time, despite the variety, I’ve found the replayability to die out a little bit. The races do have difference, but a lot of them tend to be different takes of the same thing. Dwarfs want places with mines. Wizards want places with magic. Humans want farms. That’s where they get their bonus. Some races and bonuses are a lot more exciting, but they’ll get played out.
Who May Be Interested in it?
Small World is a good gateway game that can lay the foundation for Euro games and modern games in general. It is something that can add to an avid gamers collection and will have a broad appeal for families, casual players, and strategy gamers. You could probably even talk Power gamers into it for time to time.
It’s a good, all around introduction to modern board games.
Who Should Avoid it?
But it does often play a bit dry. It’s often cited as being the Euro-version of Risk, with the area control, but the victory point aspect really is a drastic difference than player elimination. Goals and strategy have to be set different. It’s too light for power gamers. It’s too complex for party gamers. I also think it will get a bit stale for avid gamers over time. They may want to have it in their collection for other players, but may eventually look to trade it off too.
Final Conclusion
This was the first modern board game I bought. I had a lot of fun and played it a lot when I first got it. But as time went on, the strategy just started feeling very similar. It’s not a game for everyone, and it’s a game that left my collection because the strategy just ended up feeling very similar. I think it’s a good game. I think it’s good what what it does. It’s a game I’d recommend to lots of people, but it eventually left me wanting either a richer experience, or a quicker experience. Still, a solid design. Great production. Lots of variety. I’ve found the game experience is improved by many of the expansions.
About my reviews.
The purpose isn’t to teach you how to play the game. This review isn’t to reinforce any type of confirmation bias. I try to judge the game as it is designed. (No house rules, variants and expansions are reviewed separately). While I may apply a numeric rating, it would be my desire you ignore that number while reading my reviews. What I want to do is highlight notable aspects of the game and critique the game to help you decide if you think it may be something that interests you. I don’t believe it is good for people to make uninformed purchases. Thanks for your time.
Basic Idea: You control a series of fantasy inspired races with special powers as you quickly gain power, spread yourself too thin, go into decline and take up a new race. It’s “Risk-Lite” with a supernatural twist that keeps the game fun and lighthearted.
Game Play: Powers are randomly matched with races at the beginning of the game. Players take turn making their first choices for the species they plan on sponsoring first. Races include all the fantasy favorites, such as elves, dwarfs, rat men, wizards, amazons and plain ol’ humans. Meanwhile some of the powers you might get include flying, seafaring, berserk and dragon tamers. Each player gets a handy cheat sheet that explains each race and power as well as the turn set up and types of land available. The sheet is a little too large to sit in front of you, but very in depth. On a players first turn, they’ll choose their race/power combo, get the amount of race tokens according to that combo and start placing them on the game board, with the goal of getting at much land as possible. In order to take over a piece of land, you need at least two tokens, plus one for every mountain, race token, lost tribe or “piece of cardboard” already on that spot. When you run out of tokens, your turn is over and it’s the next player’s turn. You collect a victory point for each piece of land you occupy plus bonuses for your race and power. When your turn comes around again you can pick up all your pieces but one for each piece of land and start expanding again. You can keep doing this for as long as you want, but when you run low on tokens or get bored with your race, you can go into “decline”. Your race looses its power and you can’t expand, but you get a whole new race to play with. Sometimes you can even go into decline 3-4 times in a game. The amount of rounds changes based on the number of players, but once you reach the last round, the game is over and players count up their victory points. The one with the most points wins!
Thoughts: When I first started Small World, I loved it. I was definitely my gateway game. I loved the fantasy theme and the different boards for the number of players. And the expansions were great as well. But over time it’s definitely lost its luster. If other people want to play, I definitely will, but I won’t go out of my way and won’t request to play it. It’s a wonderful gateway game though and I would really recommend it for new gamers or people who thought Risk was too long and didn’t have enough rat-people.
Two to five players, well-balanced for all.
About an hour-and-a-half to play, depending on the number of people (more people, more time).
I’m always looking around for good strategy games. I love to play them, but I’m terrible at them, so I’m trying to find one that I don’t always lose. I also play most of my games with only a single other person, whether my wife or a friend over for the evening. Strategy games almost always need a third player to hold the game’s triangular shape, which makes it complicated. Risk, for example, places neutral pieces on the board if you’re playing with two.
Small World fills my constraints wonderfully. There are multiple boards for rebalancing from two to five players. There’s a huge amount of replay value in the mix of races and classes you can choose for your armies. There’s an automatic neutral army mechanic that allows two players to play an interesting game. There’s an ingenious catch-up mechanic based on dwindling resources that makes for interesting decisions throughout the game, as well. I’m slightly ahead of myself, though.
The game plays like Risk, with several major differences.
First, attacking is a simple comparison, with at most one die roll. As in Diplomacy, whoever has the most units wins, but Small World also allows you to roll a die to add a random number of units to your attack. (EDIT: Most of the time, you can only roll this die on your last attack, and then only if you don’t have enough units to succeed without it.) This means that each turn moves fast, as most of the time is spent deciding where to send your units, and not resolving a dozen die rolls over a single attack.
Second, your army has a race and a class, which you get to choose. Races (like Elves or Humans) are paired with classes (which they call “special powers,” like Heroic, or Seafaring) randomly each game, and shuffled when you run out. Some combinations are downright broken (Commando Amazons? Good night!), but they come up so infrequently as to not be a problem, and can only last a few rounds before dying out anyway. The queue of upcoming pairs is visible on the side of the board, in order. You can choose the next pair in the queue for free, but must pay one VP for each pair you choose to skip. This balances the more powerful pairs, and also provides compensation (you get all coins paid for skipping your pair) for the person who eventually chooses the underpowered pair.
The most important difference is that you don’t get reinforcements. When you get your army initially, you have a limited number of units to use for attacking. You need at least one unit occupying an area to control it, and you get VPs based on the number of areas you control, which creates a difficult decision. See, at any time you can choose to put your existing army “in decline,” which allows you to choose a new army. However, once an army has gone into decline, they only maintain a single unit in each area, you can no longer attack with them, and you lose your next turn. This means that the choice as to when you go into decline has a huge effect on the game.
If you go into decline too early, you lose out on VPs you could have gotten by expanding farther, because any extra units you’re using for defense go away. If you go into decline too late, you might miss a great race/class pair that just appeared in the queue. Too early, and the ratio of active turns (where you’re gaining territory) and inactive turns (where you can’t attack) starts to get low. Too late, and the amount of territory you can gain each turn diminishes to uselessness: since you don’t gain any more units to attack, there comes a point where you cannot gain more territory — diminishing returns.
The final major difference is two-fold: semi-hidden victory points and a turn limit. Recent versions of Risk have a turn limit, but the “victory points” are purely determined by the number of countries controlled, which is public information. Small World’s victory points are semi-hidden, by which I mean that you have a stack of them on the table, so people can generally tell whether you’re doing amazing or not with a glance. However, you’re allowed to hide the exact number of VPs you have, and are not required to answer any questions about how many are in front of you. This means that quite a few games end with loads of tension while people count (Dominion does this very well).
If you’re looking for a quick, lighter strategy game, Small World definitely fits the bill. I’ve never had a game last more than two hours (even when teaching it), and most are much faster than that. You can play it quick-and-dirty, just attacking where you feel, but the choice of when to drop into decline makes skill and thought a major factor in victory. Expansions provide new race/class pairs to shuffle into your set, but the base game provides enough variety to keep it interesting for a long time.
I’ve been playing quite a few different card/dice games lately, and as I have been introducing my wife to the wonderful world of gaming, I decided to add a little bit more to her arsenal of games by playing Small World. To be honest, this was the first time I’ve played an area management game like this and I have to say that I have had such a wonderful time playing it.
First off, I want to preamble this by saying that the edition I am playing is the iPad edition, so this review won’t touch base on the actual packaging or components of the game in and of itself, and will talk about a couple of other different things. First off, the objective. The person who has the most victory points at the end of the game wins, so its relatively simple. You gain victory points by having your race control spots on the map, each spot giving you at least 1 victory point. At the begining of the game, a race/adjective(?) in which you would then put on the board. As the game goes on and you gain more territory, you will be running out of units because you must keep 1 unit on your territory at all times and through your opponents invading your territories, so you will be able to put your race on decline. When you do this, you get to choose another race and continue.
The gameplay is super easy to understand and explain, but with lots of depth that makes it interesting. Ever since getting the game, I’ve played about 11 games of it against the ai on the Ipad so that I can get a feel for the game, and I can win only about half the time or so. The reasoning for this is through bad placement on my part, but the randomness of race/adj. makes for good and horrible pairings. There is a bit of luck in this randomness, but it offers a lot of strategy. I find one of the reasons I’ve kept playing was to see what combinations would appear.
The art in the game (from the race design to the map design) is really good. Its has a light-hearted fantasy feel to it, with some bright and cartoony colors that would appeal to some people. I can see that the art stylings may not appeal to everybody, especially for a fantasy genre, but I found it to be quite terrific to my own tastes.
My verdict? I love the game more than I thought I would actually. My first few play throughs we are a bit difficult (I got my rear end handed to me my first game) playing through it shows that it has a real intuitive play style. Its definitely a keeper game, I think. Who would I recommend it to? People who enjoy the kind of area management/strategy games like Risk would definitely want to check this game out. Its quick and easy to pick up and doesn’t take a huge chunk of time like most games of Risk I have played. People who are new to the hobby would like to check it out because its not very intimidating in the least. I think people who want a serious game would want to avoid it, and perhaps the hard core gamer wouldn’t enjoy it. The randomness found in it could possibly make them dislike it simply by virtue of the fact that you can’t plan ahead so easily. Overall, being an avid gamer that I am, its definitely a keeper and one I would love to introduce to my friends and family down the line.
Small World is a military strategy game in its core, but outside of that grizzled interior contains a whimsical fantasy gooey shell which will have you falling in love with races like Flying Trolls, Swamp Dwarves, Dragon Master Halflings, or Seafaring Skeletons, only to abandon them halfway through the game for a completely new race. Small World doesn’t constrict you to one race like in Risk, so if you find yourself being stepped on or have stretched your troops thin, you can always put your current race into decline and start all over again! It is completely up to you as to how you play this game, just make sure that after 9 rounds you have the most Victory points!
To earn Victory points all you have to do is conquer and hold territories. When you initially choose your starting race you will be given character tokens according to the corresponding numbers on your special ability and race cards. With these tokens you will then begin your conquest. It will cost you two tokens to conquer an empty region. For every other unit on top of a region, whether it be a mountain, Lost Tribesman, or another player, it will cost you one extra token per unit. At the end of your turn you get 1 Victory point for every piece of land you own. On top of this, if your race has a special ability such as “Forest”, you get an extra Victory point for every forest you occupy. From here on out it is a mad dash to conquer as much as you can and rake in the points.
Eventually players will begin to bash heads and will inevitably start to attack each other. When you take over someone’s region they get all their tokens back except for one, which gets placed back in the game tray. This makes it so players will start to lose more and more units, thus making it harder to conquer new regions. Lose too many units and your ability to hold your regions will grow harder as well. Don’t get too attached to your races though, because I guarantee that you will go through 2-4 races per game. When you think your race has over-exhausted itself you can put it into decline. What this does is flips over all your tokens leaving one token in every region you control. You still earn points for holding these regions and on your next turn you get to start out with a whole new race and begin your bloody conquest all over again.
The best part about Small World is that every time you play it, the game changes. The races and special powers are completely random so one game you can play as the Hill Elves, then in the next game you can play as the Fortified Elves. This is the reason I keep coming back to Small World. Every time I’ve played I’ve been a different race with a different power. I’ve looked at the board in brand new ways every time I’ve played because my strategy changes with each new round. With 14 races and 20 special powers the combinations are limitless. Currently there are 4 expansions for Small World, including a stand-alone game titled, Small World: Underground, which takes the action below the surface with Gnomes, Cultists, Drow, Mummies, and many more.
Small World comes with two reversible game boards that change depending on the number of players. The two player board is half the size of the five player board to ensure that you will be at each other’s throats no matter how many players you have. Small World should take you between 40-80 minutes, is perfect for 2-5 players, and is rated Ages 8+. It has won awards such as the Meeples’ Choice Award, Games Magazine’s ”Game of the Year”, and the Golden Ace. If you are looking for a fun, strategic game to play with your friends, I can’t recommend Small World highly enough. Never has murdering Elves and Giants felt so good. Game on!
Bottom line up front: You owe it to yourself to check out a game so immensely popular and highly recommended. I thought this would be perfect for my family when I discovered it. There is great theme, it’s easy to learn, and few flaws I can identify. I think I should love this game, but so far I only think it is “pretty good” and a little bit overrated. Please don’t put too much into my rating “number” but look at my observations and see if you can get past the issues I had.
I understand it contains a lot of similarities with the designer’s previous effort, Vinci. I have not played Vinci so I unfortunately can’t help with comparisons there.
COMPONENTS: Very nice art throughout. Creatures are nicely stylized so they can be appreciated by older players and not too heavy for younger players. There are plenty of pictures and inventory lists on or linked to this site, so I’ll just give a few impressions. The best thing about this game is that the designers give you 2 double-sided gameboards. We get an optimized board for each interval of 2 through 5 players. That’s great. The head scratcher of the package is the inclusion of 2-D mountain tokens. You place those on the areas already clearly depicted as mountains on the gameboard artwork. They are to remind you that they are mountains (game implications for defensive value). They are easy to set up because the appropriate areas already look like mountains. There are no tokens to remind you that water areas are water as that would be unnecessary. No negative bearing on the game, however. You could leave them in the box. I actually appreciate the though experiment and the “just in case you wanted this, too” type of inclusion.
I believe there have been multiple designs for the packaging and insert. I think I have the newer version. I can tell you that after you remove all cards, tokens, and chits from the sheet stocks; the included insert and removable army token organizer will provide an absolutely brilliant and elegant storage solution for 93% of the games contents. You are entirely on your own to figure out what to do with the remaining 7% (and any expansions).
GAMEPLAY NOTES: “It’s like Risk, except… well, yeah, it’s like Risk.” That is how I explained this previously, admittedly tongue in cheek. The truth is that there is a lot less luck involved than risk. Attack results are often predictable. The attack value/army number needed to win a battle apparent prior to the attack and only the last attack of a player’s turn involves the rolling of custom die to what “reinforcements” are available (additional attack value). That custom die has three faces blank so 50% of the time you “are what you are”, there is also a possibility to role for an additional 1, 2 or 3 reinforcements to boost your attack value. This is nice. A little luck can be available, but not at all required. You will be rewarded for managing your armies well.
Randomizing creature race and class gives many options (280??) which add to replayability. The trade off (completely acceptable here) is that you never get excited about a particular group and personally connect with them. You go through “wealthy trolls” and “flying giants” and then “mounted ghouls” using each for your purposes and discarding them in a few turns to move on to the next random race-power combo. That’s the fun here. But if your kid just watched “The Hobbit” and wants to be the dwarves, that is not really how this game works.
The game never goes too long. There is a round counter and when you are out of innings, the game’s over. Usually 40-60 minutes. I often play with kids and reduce rounds rather than go long to give them the time they need to manage their turns. You always know how many rounds are left.
You earn VPs each round for occupying territory and applying modifiers based on race and class being used. These get tallied at the end to determine winner. The totals are hidden so you have an idea of how each player is doing, but there is no official score until the end. In 3 or 4 player games, prepare for the attempts to convince you to attack the other player. Everyone likes to let you know they are not doing well. Actually, for a number of reasons I think Small World works best as a two player game. I appreciate how this takes out that negotiating/coalition building aspect (good qualities in other games, but not always in Small World).
Personal Observation: I do wish it was more satisfying to conquer an area on the map. This is personal and hard to express, but I think the lack of either of two things makes it a less significant event. First, I’ll admit I like miniatures in my fantasy themed boardgames. If I attack your dwarves with my trolls, I’m not ashamed to say I like to see little painted creatures walking around (been painting a lot of boardgame pieces this year). Secondly, the terrain areas are very anonymous. With Risk, I could feel satisfied that I just conquered the Australian west, for example. Zero impact on gameplay, but while the types of terrain may have gaming characteristics, there is no real theme carried over to the individual pieces within that type. This is very subtle nitpicking. I am really working hard to figure out why I “only like” the game.
SUMMARY: It’s very popular. Great theme and art. My family will play it. Game time hits the sweet spot. Good value. I should love this game. It seems on paper that it was made for me. Ultimately I think it’s good in itself but doesn’t live up to all of the hype. I wanted to love this (I bought the iOS/iPad version to learn rules waiting for it to arrive). Maybe it tries too hard for me. Like that perfectly nice and attractive person that was really interested in you but you didn’t reciprocate. Their only flaw was having that much interest in you (unforgivable, really).
It is good enough for me to play through once in a while. Maybe one day it will completely click for me, too.
Regards,
Small World appealed to me because I had read some reviews detailing how the fighting occurs. It sounded like it could be tactical like risk but without the luck of the dice roll.
Interesting , right?
This didn’t put it up high on my radar though as I have been very busy trying out many different game styles and didn’t think I needed another strategic war game in my collection for the minute. Then when I was browsing a site, i saw a second hand copy for €25 and made an offer of €20 and, voila, I had a copy in my hands.
I opened it up with my league buddies and we all OOhed and AAhed at the colourful art design and beautiful boards. We read the rules, quick and easy to understand. We also watched a video of it being played just to make sure any minor quibbles were addressed. before we started. It should be pointed out we still did not have one or two rules correct for the first 2 play-through’s, but nobody minded as we quickly got into the spirit of the game. Each time it ended we wanted to go again and see what type of armies would become available, every game was different and we enjoy that immensely.
There are 14 races in the game with 20 possible powers. These are both shuffled and then joined to create the races available for the game. You could have flying zombies, that could attack… anywhere on the map!, Dragon Master Giants who… own a dragon, Mounted Trolls who… gain advantages attacking from hills etc, the list goes on and it changes every game! Excellent!
There are 4 boards available, one each for whether you are playing with 2, 3, 4 or 5 players. This, coupled with the fact that the number of turns changed depending on how many players are involved, creates balance. Cool!
Play style generally boils down to taking your army tokens, the amount varies depending on race and power combinations, and placing them in a territory at the edge of the map. You can then attack or spread from this one zone to any that are linked in zones you occupy.
You want to take an enemies territory? You place the same number of tokens in there zone plus two and its yours. Easy!
The true strategy in this game, however, relies on being able to see when your race isn’t going to be pulling in so many points for the territory’s they control anymore and then putting them into decline. This has to be a smart move as you miss a turn but collect a new race to do it all again on the next go.
You get a coin for every territory you control at the end of your turn, plus any bonuses assorted with the race and/or powers you have.
We have found that no matter how well you think you are doing it is always a close game for first. Great!
Go out and get it.
Replay Value: Easy to learn in a bright and colourful rulebook. and race/ power combinations keep the game fresh and interesting.
Components: Lovely artwork and presentation, as is the days of Wonder way. My only grumble is no miniatures., but the box would have had to be enormous then, so can see why.
Easy to Learn: Yep. really, it’s not rocket science and it’s nice and breezy. Highly recommended.
At first glance smallworld seems a lot like risk with a silly fantasy themed twist. I feel that this is a good candidate for a gateway game for those that like lots of interaction between players. It can seem somewhat overwhelming to newer players the first time through, but most will have a good sense of the rules by the time they are finished their first game.
Depending on the number of players you will start by selecting one of the several maps included in the game. The various sized boards does a good job of keeping a sense of urgency and interaction depending on the player pool. Besides setting up the board the players randomly shuffle the race boards(each with their own ability) and separately shuffle the power boards(with a separate game changing ability). These are randomly put together to make new and interesting combinations each and every game. Although it may not be great for players that like deep strategy it will be good for those that like quick fast paced action.
Each player starts by choosing one of the race/power combos on the board and takes the correct number of tokens. They then use those race tokens to capture and control regions on the game board. Each space starts by needing two to capture but this goes up with the number of opponents, special abilities or the presence of mountains. This continues until a player feels they cannot further their races domination and chooses to go into “decline”. this means they forgo their turn but on the next turn will get to choose a entirely new race/power combo. Players will continue to do this until the number of rounds indicated on the map is over.
I will not take the time to go into reviewing the various races and powers but I feel days of wonder did a good job of balancing this by adding or subtracting units depending on the combination. One issue we found was that after multiple plays their are some standout races and powers that seem to be more effective than others.
Although the game works fairly well with two players it really shines with multiple players as each and every turn you can see your small progressed crushed under your opponents feet. This constant back and forth and ability to start again with a new race keeps the game fresh round over round and prevents one person from dominating the board (even if they do dominate points).
I find the artwork and theme to be strong which really helps add the the value of this game. The combination of races and powers does make it harder to have any deep strategy going in but keeps each game feeling slightly different. In the long term I find the games does lose some life as your group learns which powers and races are better. I have not played the expansion but I have heard that the standalone expansion “smallworld:underground” helps solve this with new rules and additions. I like that Days of Wonder also has some smaller expansions that add a few races each(similar to the carcassonne mini expansions). This helps add some life to the game without breaking the bank.
Our group has found Smallworld to be a fun and light skirmish game that adds a lot of excitement without a long time investment. This is an excellent gateway game but may not be suited for those that are looking for a deeper strategy or a more involved war game. The light silly theme also helps the game as I never would have thought I would say “flying ratman” with such annoyance.
A new land awaits, ripe for colonization. It has everything a people looking for a new land could possibly want; prime farmland, rolling hills, lush forests, mountains that touch the sky, even a native population to eradicate.
Yes, a great new land to explore and exploit. So great, others have found it and want a piece for themselves as well. Sadly, it’s a Small World, and there just isn’t enough for everyone…
Welcome to Small World, a game for 2-5 players. The ultimate goal of the game is to be the player with the most victory coins at the end of the game. To accomplish this, you will lead your chosen race to take as much territory as possible in the Small World, and hold it as long as you can. That is, at least, until your chosen people just are not making you rich enough, so you abandon them for a new people to lead.
To begin, lets take a look at what you get for your money.
2 game boards, double sided
35 cardboard game pieces
14 cardboard race banners, double sided
20 cardboard power badges, double sided
109 cardboard victory coins
1 cardboard game turn marker
1 custom six sided die
168 cardboard race tokens
18 cardboard lost tribe tokens
1 rule book
6 player reference sheets
Everything seems made well enough, as in my house the components have all stood up to many plays with minimal wear. I am not a fan of the plastic cartridge that the game comes with. It is sturdy enough, and keeps all those race tokens in place, but it is a pain to get the suckers out. Some small Ziplocks or coin envelopes would possibly be a better fit. I remove the plastic mold that holds the rest of the bits and put them in Ziplocks to get things in and out easier.
OK, so, as outlined above, there is a bunch of stuff in the box. What are we going to do with all of it? The first thing to do is determine how many players you have. One of the great things about this game is that there is a different board for 2, 3, 4 & 5 players, guaranteeing that carnage will commence during the course of the game. Pull out the proper board and turn to the proper side, and begin by giving 5 victory coins, all ones, to each player. Mix up the race banners and lay out six of them on the side of the board, and determine which one will be first. Then mix up the power badges and put one with each race banner. These will be your starting race/power combinations.
Each race has its own unique ability. Humans, for instance get extra victory coins for each piece of farmland under their control. Tritons need less troops to take territory adjacent to a lake or sea. Trolls get a lair placed in every territory they take, making it harder for other players to take that territory away.
The power badges grant similar boons. Some add victory coins either right away or each turn based upon certain conditions, some make it easier to take territory, some make it harder to let others take it away. Every game you will have different race/power combinations available, so every game will be different.
Put the Lost Tribe tokens on the board where marked, and mountain tokens on the mountains (if you want) and put the game turn marker on one. Determine who goes first (the game recommends whoever has the pointiest ears, but whatever)and get ready to play!
The first player is going to look over the available race/power combinations and decide which they want. If they want the first one, they just take it. If the want the second, they need to put a victory coin on the first and take the second. If they want the third, put a coin on the first and second… I think you get the idea. Move down the rest of the combinations to fill in the hole and put a new combination in the sixth slot.
The first player then takes the appropriate number of race tokens, determined by the number on the race card added to the number on the special power badge. These will be the available units you control while using this race. There are a couple of races who can add to the number as you play, but, for the most part, this is what you get.
Unless you are flying, you choose a spot on the edge of the map or shoreline and take over that spot. Essentially, the way it works is a completely empty piece of territory will take two units to conquer. Mountains take three. If there is anything or anyone occupying a territory, it takes one more unit than two for each thing occupying it. If the territory is occupied by a lost tribe, it takes three. If there are two units belonging to another player in a territory, it will take four. Two Amazons and a fortification? That will be 5. You continue conquering land until you do not have enough units to continue. Should you have one left in hand, you can roll the reinforcement die. There are four different symbols on this die, none (or lack of symbol I guess) 1, 2 & 3. If the roll shows enough pips, added to the units in hand, to take a territory, you get to take it. If not, then those units are just used as reinforcements. Now, you count up how much territory you own, and claim one victory coin for each piece. Then you add any bonuses.
You can now reinforce your territory. You can put as many tokens as you like on each piece of land, just so long as you leave at least one on each one. If you have a piece of territory that gives you a bonus, you would want to move more units there if it is in jeopardy of being attacked by another player. This will now end your turn.
The next player looks at the available race/power combinations and once again chooses which to take, paying for ones beyond the first in line just as the first player did. Play continues as it did for the first player. The second player could either take a different side of the map, or jump right in slaughtering the first player. The choice is theirs.
If a player successfully attacks another player, then the attacked player will permanently lose one unit. If there were units beyond the one they lose in the territory, they may hold on to those units until the reinforcement phase and put them where they like in territory they still hold.
As the game progresses, and players begin to engage one another in battle, the number of units you have available will begin to dwindle. There comes a point where you are losing territory with no way to reclaim it. What do you do? Abandon those useless creatures you once found favor with! At the beginning of your turn, you may declare that you are going into decline.
When going into decline, you turn over your race banner and power badge. Most races loose all of their powers, abilities and/or bonuses when in decline. You will take all but one unit from each territory you still control, and turn over the remaining unit in each to show the race is in decline. You will still get victory coins for each piece of territory your race in decline holds, but they cannot take any more (well, unless they are ghouls)
On your next turn, you will choose a new race/power combination as you did on your first turn. Then you enter the land as your predecessors did and claim as much as you can.
Each time the first player begins their turn, they move the game turn marker to the next turn number. Once turn 10 is complete, the game is over, and whomever has the most victory coins wins.
So, that is Small World in a nutshell. With the race/power combinations changing every game, every game is going to play out very differently. I really like that the game uses a different board for each possible number of players, so if people want to play the game, you never have to say that the game isn’t really good with x amount of players.
There are some bogus race/power combos, like Merchant Dwarves (they get a whole 5 units) but there are always enough combinations available that something should be useful to anyone. Strategy comes into play when presented with a combo that may get additional victory coins for holding certain types of territory. You will have to look at the map and see how hard it would be to get a hold of the most of that type. Some races/powers get bonuses for every territory they took that had something in it to kill. How tough a nut is your opponent to crack right now? Do they have a race in decline just waiting to be annihilated, or does every territory they hold have 3 units in it? There is enough thought that goes into the game that I do not get bored, but not so much that if the folks I am playing with have had a bit to drink, they don’t stand a chance. Added to this, this is my wife’s favorite game, so I get a good bit of use out of it.
All in all, while it may indeed be a Small World, there is room in it for me, and if you like what you see, there is room in it for you too.
What is Small World?
Philippe Keyaerts’ Small World is a game of conquest in a world that is much too small for the grand ambitions of its inhabitants. As the player, you control different fantasy races (one at a time) with their (randomly assigned) special abilities and attempt to expand your empire across the map before they fall out of power, only to be replaced by your next race of creatures.
How does it play?
In the beginning of the game, you determine which board you will be using to ensure that the world is indeed quite small for the number of players you have. Then, you’ll set-up the board with impediments to your civilization’s expansion (in the form of mountains and Lost Tribes) where it instructs you to, and then (finally!) you’ll get into purchasing your starting races! Every player starts the game with a small handful of coins which are then used to purchase races throughout the game (those leftover at the end become your victory points!) and are gained by holding land.
Alongside the board is a deck (of paired race and ability tiles) with a few of them face-up on display to be chosen from (though it’ll most likely cost you some gold). Once each player has picked up the race tokens from their chosen race, the game is ready to begin! Each player will enter from the outside of the board and conquer the surrounding tiles until they eventually choose to go into ‘decline’ (make your current race inactive and pick a new one next turn).
What makes Small World a unique experience?
The act of putting a race into decline is what really gives Small World its unique flair. This “feast or famine” style of play creates an additional layer of complexity and strategy as you must determine when you should put your race into decline and where you should enter the board to maximize your empire in the small world–-not to mention which race/ability combo you’re currently playing or going to bring in.
Final Thoughts
One of my small, but (personally) significant grievances with Small World comes from how underwhelming it feels to conquer Lost Tribes in the base game. Fortunately, that problem has already been addressed in the standalone expansion (Underground) with the addition of “relics”.
Overall, however, Small World is a great for what it is–a gateway game into modern boardgaming–but, the randomness of the game might take a bit away from its longevity. The game does not draw from a deep well of replayability due to the fact that you can’t play again to try a different strategy since all of your strategies are developed on the fly due to the random race/class combos. A House Rule that allows you to select which Race and/or Class you want to play (at an increased price) might put more emphasis on strategy and less on luck of the draw. That change would allow for brainstorming out of the game (and thus more cravings to play the game).
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.
Luck:
In Small World there is only so much room to expand, hence the title, so the game requires careful planning and a bit of luck. Not a lot mind you, as the game doesn’t throw many random variables at you other than the random combinations of the races and special powers, and while these effect the game to some degree, each game of Small World will be won through decision making, not luck.
Strategy:
As we mentioned the game uses a board that only just fits the players onto it and for a purpose. The idea behind Small World is that there is only enough room for a handful of races so the game is a constant game of King of the Hill. You might think you are doing well until you realize your Commando Giant neighbours are knocking on your door and taking you out easily with carefully placed tiles. The game comes with helper sheets for each player and they are awarded for studying it and knowing what any combination can do and which have more value.
Complexity:
At first glance the game can come across as more difficult than it really is. The most complex aspect of the game tends to be explaining how conquest and redeployment works, I have found some players struggle to understand the difference between the two actions and when to do them. Players may also find the combination of all the different races and powers overwhelming in there first play through.
Replay Value:
The key feature to Small World that makes it so replayable is the randomization of the roles. No one game will be the same with so many possible combinations. The game does go for a fairly long time so this won’t be one that you are playing over and over again. However Small World is a classic and should be in everyone’s collection.
Components:
As is expected from Days of Wonder, the game components are fantastic. The art is adorable and really gives off a Disney-esque theme which is fitting for the name (while probably not the intention). As the game scales in player count, as does the board and while they could of gone the Blood Rage route (requiring you to simply ignore part of the game board), it is admirable that they included multiple boards to accommodate this. Everything in the box is well crafted and beautifully detailed.
Learning Curve:
Learning the game is pretty easy, once players have a grasp on the goal of the game and begin to understand how Decline and all the powers work the game actually becomes easy to understand. Players will need to often refer to the player reference through out the game but this is exactly why it was included, it’s clear and easy to understand at a glance.
Scaling:
The game was designed to scale and it does so with gusto, that being said the game becomes considerably longer when a fifth player. The game is at its best with 3 players, this brings enough pressure to force players to carefully consider there actions while not making the game unbearably long.
Theme:
The games theme is wonderfully played out with the game mechanically. The idea here is a small world that cannot accommodate all that wish to inhabit it, this is fleshed out in the gameplay as players fight to even stay on the board. The artwork and zany combinations add a fun aspect to the game that really makes it a delight to play.
Final Thoughts:
Small World is a wonderful Civilization game with a wonderful twist that makes it approachable by all. This game should be in everyone’s collection. If you have ever felt the itch to play a game like Risk or Twilight Imperium but want something a bit different, check out Small World!
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.
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.