A dash of humor, competition, and fantasy and you get Small World. This game is all about fantasy races fighting for their place in the world. With the random combos that come up during each game fantasy fans will chuckle with descriptions like seafaring dwarves, flying halflings, and peaceful skeletons. Even for those that don’t like fantasy this game has plenty to offer in game play when it comes to strategy.
Game Play
“So far so good.” you think to yourself as you watch the other 3 take their 3rd turn. One player makes a surprising move as the expansive Swamp Ratmen are put into decline. The Fortified Trolls expand again while completing their 3rd fortress. Entering the board is the Commando Amazons and they quickly make short of the declined Ratmen. Now it’s time to play your 3rd turn, your Underworld Dwarves have been enjoying their peaceful times and have collected a fair amount of coin. However, you fear that the Commando Amazons are eyeing your jewels and you know you can’t stop their assault. Also you have a hunch that the Flying Sorcerers are going to be invading the land soon, and your Dwarves may switch sides. However, you think the trolls might be attracting a bit of attention with their fancy forts, and there’s a possibility your Dwarves could have another turn to collect more coin. But if they go into decline their glorious mines could beckon the Merchant Elves or the Dwarves could dig too deep bringing fear to the surface with Dragon Master Skeletons with your next turn. One last survey of the situation, you decide to go into decline. Your hunch was right, the Flying Sorcerers invade the land convincing a group of Trolls and Amazons to join them. They then decide to reclaim the land of the now calm Stout Orcs. After the Sorcerers collect their coin from conquest, the Amazons then take a Dwarven mine, get revenge on the traitors, and the Trolls repel their attack. With no hesitation, the Trolls go indecline and seek shelter from the Sorcerers. During that round you feel that the Merchant Elves are too timid for the ravaged land, and bring the Dragon Master Skeletons to the surface. With no effort at all the Dragon conquers a Troll’s fortified lair and your Skeletons tear into the Sorcerers then raise the dead to join their cause. Your battle for the Small World has just begun.
The Basics
The rules of Small World are easy to digest compared to other games similar in nature. Players choose 1 of six races to play with, conquer regions, redeploy troops for defense, collect coins, and can retire a race when necessary in order to choose a new one. The game ends after a number of rounds based on the number of players, and the winner is the one with the most coins at the end.
On each player’s first turn, they get to choose one of 6 races to play with. The races are placed in a line with the stack of races at one end. When a player chooses a race from the lineup, they start on the opposite end of the stack and place 1 coin on each race they skip. Each race has an ability, a special power, and a number of race tokens based on the combo’s total.
After choosing a race the players then begin to conquer regions on the board. Players must start from the outside edge of the board, unless an ability or power says otherwise. Conquering regions takes a different amount of tokens depending on whether the region is defended or not. The amount of tokens needed to conquer a region is 2 plus the number of pieces in the region. Conquering an empty region costs 2 tokens, while a single race token in a region costs 3 tokens, and a mountain with 1 token costs 4 race tokens. The following turn players pick up their tokens leaving 1 in the regions they want to hold and attack from the regions they occupy. Players may also choose to skip conquering during their turn if desire.
After the player is done conquering, they can then redeploy their troops to defend their territories. To do so the player picks up all tokens but 1 from each region and then places them however and wherever in the regions they occupy. Redeployment happens after every conquering phase of a player’s turn.
Once the player completes redeployment, they collect their coins for the turn. Players get 1 coin for each region they hold at the end of the turn. Some abilities and powers will grant additional coins provided certain conditions are met.
At the start of the player’s second turn they have to choose whether to put their race into decline. Doing so allows the player to choose a new race on their next turn. When a player puts a race in decline the player removes all but one race token in the regions the race occupies. Then flips over each token to indicate it is in decline. After that is all said and done, collect coins for the occupied regions of both active and in decline races. Players can only have 1 active and 1 in decline race at a time. When the player goes into decline a second time the first in decline race tokens are removed from the board.
Review
Small World is an excellent intermediate game that I play a lot of and recommend everyone should try even if they don’t like the fantasy element. I say it is intermediate because it isn’t a light game that you can pick up and play quickly but it is not overly complicated that it will take hours to play.
The best part of Small World is the high replay value. Each game is different because the races and special powers are always different. If you play enough games you may see combos reappear but this isn’t a game where you’re likely to play it twice in one sitting. In addition to the different combos of races and special powers, there is a lot of depth to the game when it comes to strategy and tactics. A player has to choose how to best utilize their active race’s abilities, choose where to defend on redeployment, then when it is a good time to decline their race or if they should, and what race to follow up with.
In my experience playing Small World the game pace can vary depending on who’s playing and how many players there are. If you are playing with others familiar with Small World you can expect it to play within an hour or so with 4 or 5 people. Playing with 4 or 5 people that aren’t familiar with it can take up to 2 hours because of all the reading and choices. The downtime that players have during Small World is dependent on how much one has to read during the game to understand their race or next race to choose. That alone can greatly affect the pace and experience of the game.
Small World’s complexity does not come from its rules, but the game play, races and special powers. Game play is complex because of all the decisions the player has to make and react to. There are times when you get stuck with choosing the best of the worst and get to a new race quickly. You have to pay attention to how many coins other players collect and if it’s more, then figure out what you can do to change it. Then there’s the races and special powers. Each race has an ability and is designed to play a certain way. While special powers can greatly affect each race combo by either synergizing, contradicting, or being neutral with the race’s ability. You have to be able to recognize what combination will work well and possibly counter your opponent the best. Which only comes with repeated play.
There are some downsides to Small World that can turn people off. First of all the learning curve really hinders an immersive game play which is due to the reading players have to do. For new and unfamiliar players having to read what each special power and race does can become tedious and overwhelming at times. Especially if you are a slow reader and do it between your turns. You end up missing out on what the other players do. Depending on the number of players certain race combinations are over powered and potentially game breaking. For instance in a 2 player game, the Diplomat special power lets you claim peace with another player that you didn’t attack and that player cannot attack your active race. As long as the player with Diplomat doesn’t attack the opponent’s active race, they can severely limit what area the other player has access to. Another downside is that setting up the game can take several minutes with having to count race tokens, distribute starting coins, setup the board and what not. It can take an equal amount of time or more to clean up.
Intimidation Factor
Depending on who you want to introduce Small World to will either be intimidated or ready for the challenge. For those new to the hobby of board games or with limited experience may shy away from Small World. Players that want to try more complex hobby games would be ready to play nor shy away from it.
Small World is not a good gateway game for introducing newcomers to the hobby. For new players Small World can look quite intimidating with all the different pieces, large player guides, and the unfamiliar graphics. New players should be able to learn the rules quickly but may feel lost when it comes to choosing a race to play with. When new players feel lost in Small World they end up reading a lot and perhaps even second guessing decisions or feel they don’t quite understand the game. On top of that the game session can last anywhere from 1 to 2 hours and if a new player loses interest that can be a long time.
On the other hand, Small World is a great game for new players that want to try something a bit more complex. If players have experience with other hobby games or euro style games then it is less likely they will be surprised or even intimidated by all the pieces to the game. The only thing that will be a hinderance to them will be grasping the race combinations.
Components
The components to the game are excellent and high quality. All tokens, player guides, and boards are double sided and have top notch illustrations. The tokens are thick compressed cardboard that hold up well after many games and have a nice rounded edge. Small World comes with 2 boards that are used depending on the number of players. There is a board for 2, 3, 4, and 5 players. Player guides are large, layed out in an orderly manner and have a nice size font for easy reading. The conquest die is a little bit larger than a standard die has nice rounded corners and is made of wood.
The only complaint that many Small World owners have is the insert, in particular the race token tray. Each slot in the race token tray has a flat bottom and just enough room for the tokens. That’s great to protect the tokens, however getting them out is a pain. Especially when a token or 2 fall flat in the slot. The flat bottom and slot size makes it extremely difficult to get the tokens out without dumping the tray.
Mechanics
Small world has four different mechanics that make the game what it is. The main mechanic is Area Control, which is at the core of how players score points. In an area control type game players will often have to choose what territories to acquire and how to go about doing so. After attacking or acquiring territories the player then had to choose how to defend his area from would be attackers.
Area movement is used to control how players reach new areas of the board and within the area they already have access to. This mechanic is often combined with area control games because it informs players on how they can attack and defend. In the case of Small World this mechanic even tells how players come into the board.
The mechanic, Variable Player Abilities is the main reason why Small World has such a great replay value and adds to its complexity. Some games may have multiple characters with fixed abilities and very little randomness. However the designer of Small World used this mechanic to increase the random chance of what race combos appear for the players to choose. This induced chance in what turns up makes Small World replayable because every game will be different.
Dice rolling in Small World is a small mechanic that may go unused by players during a game. Players encounter dice rolling when they make their final attack if they don’t have enough tokens for a successful attack. The dice is used to give players to take a territory with their remaining tokens during the attack phase. However the chance of success diminishes quickly if a player needs more than a 1 on the die. There are only 3 numbered faces on the die and 3 blank faces.