Review: Small World

Game Name:	Small World	Published Year:	2009
Game Publisher:	Days of Wonder	Player Scale:	2 – 5
Game Designer:	Philippe Keyaerts	Run Time:	40 – 80 mins

In this game of area control, you’ll ride high as one of many special-powered fantasy races, building up your dominion over the fractured land until you overreach and are forced to decline and resign your race to the annals of history.  And then you start all over again with another special-powered fantasy race, smashing through your opponents defences to claim their lands, and maybe trampling your own previous, now almost extinct race.

Small World is a fast paced, light-weight and light-hearted strategy game with immense replayability (especially with the many, many expansions), and above all else, this is, quite simply; fun.  Proof you say?  Examples.  Okay.  Two words for you: Commando Halflings.

The game is simple too.  To enter a Region you’ll have to deploy a base cost of two of your troops (your supply of beautifully illustrated Race Tokens), for every existing troop, defence or obstacle present on that Region (all represented by other little cardboard Tokens) you have to match it. An empty Region will cost you two Tokens, a mountain will cost you three and so on.  At the end of your turn, you’ll receive Victory Coins for each Region you control.  Easy, and maybe so far not sounding too exciting, but wait, I haven’t told you about the Race Abilities or Special Powers.

You’ll shuffle the cardboard Race Banners and also the separate Special Power Badges and stack them next to one another at the side of the board, these are now your game specific Race/Power Combos, and with fourteen races and twenty powers, that’s a unique mix of two-hundred-and-eighty possible combos.  This is where this game really shines, the variety and differences between the Races alone is great; Humans get extra Victory Coins for every Farmland Territory they occupy, Orcs get extra Coins the more fighting they do (obviously), Halflings have impenetrable burrows or “Halfling Holes” (they also don’t have to start at the board edge either- which is very handy for surprise attacks).  The Power Badges then add an extra boost, for example Dragon – you have a pet dragon to help you conquer new Regions, or Fortresses, which allows you to build (guess what) fortresses to increase your defensive value and so on.  How these Powers and Races interact drastically change the flow of the game and will appeal to players of different gaming styles.

Because of all the different play styles potentially available, the beautiful cartoon artwork (from Miguel Coimbra), the light-hearted nature and the very simple rules this is a very easy game to pick-up-and-play.  As with many area control, fighting games there is plenty of strategy and tactics in here, but it is light enough to be understandable and engaging to younger or less experienced players.  The box also boast two dual-sided boards, one for two or three play games and the other for four and five player games – so this game scales great between two and five players seamlessly, of course, there is nothing stopping two or three players duking it out on a larger board, you have the choice.  Regardless of how many players there are though, this is a quick game.  Turns can be taken in mere seconds when you’re reaching the end of your Race’s time, so your phone should probably stay away from the table less you miss something crucial.

There is a great blend of chance and strategy in this game, the Race and Power tiles make a great mixture, which will see a great variety of combinations, some will work better than others, and some will work to your style of play and be more or less beneficial at different stages of the game.  But this is a careful consideration, as to where and how you attack, not to mention how you defend those hard won Regions.  A pivotal point for each player in this game is when they choose to select a new Race and resign their current, over-reaching one.  This is probably the hardest thing for a new player to learn and master, but the learning curve is gentle and quick.  By game two you’ll have mastered the basics, made you “mistakes” and be ready and willing to see which combinations come out next game.

Days of Wonder produce great quality games, all the components are all very high quality, with, as mentioned, great artwork.  Even the inlay for the box has been well thought out and there is a dedicated space for everything.  The Token tray is a particularly great organisational tool (and in the later expansions you’ll get an extended version to store all the additional Races) which also make the game very quick and easy to get it to the table.

This game is all about combat, about stomping on your opponents, so player on player interaction in this game is high, it won’t take long before you are forced into a combat situation – there should be no real hard feelings about this, because it is the nature of the game, and in fact, you need someone to diminish your troops if you’re ever going to Decline them and pick another.  It is also a lot of fun raining down a storm of Flying Ratmen, or charging across the board on your Mounted Giants.

Small World will make a great addition to any gaming shelf, it is fun, beautiful and simple so it is great if you don’t have hours and hours free, and is great for new and younger gamers.  If you are looking for something more gritty, serious and deeper this won’t be for you; but is still definitely worth a play, after all, how often do you get the chance to play as a Commando Halfling?

Interested, you can treat yourself here.

Welcome to Board Game Basics, it’s the part of the site where the focus is on getting started in the hobby of playing table top games.  So, whether you’re looking for a game to buy or play as part of your budding repertoire, or if you’re just looking for some how/what/and why to for some classic’s you may never have experienced, this area is for you.

 

You’ve crossed the threshold of the Gateway Games and you like what you’ve seen, the question however remains; what next?  Here I aim to advise you in making your next great gaming decision in what I’m calling:

5 Great Pathway Games

Pathway games, Level 2 games, Next Step games, call them what you will, but the point is much like the previous post in this series, these are just 5 great games (in no particular order) that are perfect if you are looking for something a little more.  These all have a few key things in common which I think make for great Pathway Games:

1. These are all ‘Big Titles’ so should be readily available in your Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS) or on-line – unlike Gateway Games these probably won’t be on sale in toy and book shops.


2. Reasonable price tags, these games may be a little bit more expensive than a Gateway Game but won’t cost you much more than £40/£45.


3. Weight, I don’t mean the of the box, this is the term we used when describing the complexity of the game, these game are all of a low to medium weight, meaning they are a little more complex then Gateway and party games, but it won’t take you hours to go through the rule book, and once you’re playing and in the swing of it, you probably will only need to reference the rule book a handful of times.


4. The runtime on these games is around that of a good movie, this can climb upwards with more players but one of these games can easily replace “What shall we watch tonight?” moments when you have nothing to do.


5. Depth (Tim Pinder did a great blog post about this over on the ITB website if you want to know more – it’s well worth a read), although the pieces/components and rules are all very straightforward in these games, getting a lay of the land at any one point (board complexity) and trying to figure out what your opponents or you are going to do next and the ramifications of those choices (strategic complexity) are all a bit higher than in the likes of Pandemic, Splendor etc. which I talked about before.

 

Game One: 7 Wonders

by Antoine Bauza

This game has won a lot of awards.  A lot.  And you’ll clearly see this from the box alone.  Once you open it up you’ll be confronted by three decks of cards, some coin tokens, some military tokens and the all-important tableaus, that’s it, it’s a pretty lean game in regards to components.  Your tableau will represent which of the great ancient civilisations you play as, and which of the famous 7 Wonders of the Ancient World you’ll be building.  This game uses a mechanic known as Drafting; each player receives a hand of 7 cards and you’ll pick one to keep and pass the rest along to your neighbour.  This creates a fantastic dynamic, because obviously you don’t want to hand them anything they are really going to want or need, but you also still need to take a card that you want or need.  And then, of course, you have to think about the cards they’ll pass on to their neighbour.  What’s more is that this all happens simultaneously, which means once you’ve got the hang of the game, they go pretty quickly.

Read the full review here.

Game Two: Imperial Settlers

by Ignacy Trzewiczek

In this game players become one of four ancient civilisations or Factions; Barbarians, Japanese, Egyptian or Roman, and having discovered a new land with abundant resources you’ll set out to build your kingdom up to be crowned the winner if you have the biggest and best civilisation at the end of five rounds. This is a beautiful looking game with great artwork and lots of attention into the playing pieces, small little apples for food, little wooden logs for wood and so on, making just handling this game a delight.  Added to the beautiful appearance of this game, at its core it is pretty simple.  Lightly balancing a few different mechanics from card drafting, worker placement and engine building, giving relatively new games a taster of all of these elements, and it does all of these things whilst allowing some serious strategic depth. With a large deck of Core Location cards, and a decent sized deck for each of the very different Factions (which all play very differently) and even a solo player and campaign mode, this is a great game to check out.

Game Three: Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King

by Andreas Pelikan & Alexander Pfister

This game is pretty new, arriving on store shelves in 2015 and then going on to pick up numerous prestigious awards including the Kennerspiel des Jahres (which is basically the Gamer’s Game of the Year award in the board game equivalent of the Oscars).  In this game, you are a clan leader striving for ruling all the islands of the Scottish archipelago.  To do this you’ll be placing tiles to create your map, but of course you’ll have to pay, and you can also buy your opponents tiles too, likewise, they can buy yours so you have to be prepared to pay more than any of you rival chieftains.

The winner is the chief who score the most victory points, and this is one of the great things about this game, the scoring conditions use four of sixteen ‘Scoring Tiles’, which depending on their order, and what they are, completely change the way around, and indeed a game is played.  This leads to a fantastically high rate of replay-ability (and for less than £30) making it a sound choice for any game shelf.

Game Four: Lords of Waterdeep

by Peter Lee & Rodney Thompson

This is a big game, with a big box and with lots of pieces of cardboard that need to be popped and double popped (you’ll see what I mean), lots of cards, and plenty of meeples.  In this game, you take on the role of a hidden Lord of the city. You will use your limited pool of agents in a Worker Placement system to recruit rogues, adventurers and so forth to take on difficult and dangerous Quests to help further your advancement and power.  You’ll construct Buildings to increase a number of places your agents can go, you’ll take Intrigue cards to hopefully smite your opponents all the while completing Quests which ideally align with your secret Role to give you a great big surprise victory point boost at the end.  With lots of player-on-player interaction and a host of different Buildings, Quests, Intrigue and Role cards; no two games will ever be the same.  If you’re a fan of Dudgeons & Dragons you’ll get a real kick out of this tie-in, and if not; you’ve got a great game on your shelf.

Read the full review here.

Game Five: Small World

by Philippe Keyaerts

Another award winning game –As d'Or Jeu de l'Année Prix du Jury (or Golden Ace Jurry’s award), amongst many others.  This is probably the most outwardly competitive game on this list, with a high level of Player-Versus-Player, it is a strategy battle game, where players will choose one of five available Fantasy Race (each with a unique Trait) and Power combos (the Race and Power cards are shuffled each game creating different mixes and combinations with every play).  Play then commences by invading the Regions of the map until players are Conquering one another and vying for dominance and Victory Points.  A key feature of this game though comes down to when you make the decision to resign your race to the history books and pick a new Race/Power combo to once again Conquer Regions and let slip the Flying Dwarves of war!

This game scales nicely between two and five players, as always the more player you have the frantic the game will be, and this game has a lot of replay-ability with Race/Power combinations keeping it a mainstay on any gaming shelf/cupboard.

Read th efull review here.

And that’s it.  If you're unsure about any of these games, or just want to know more then get down to you friendly, local gaming store and pick one up, or if you’re lucky enough, sit down and play (and a thank you here for Tim and Jean from the Games Den in Leamington Spa for helping me come up with this list)

Think I’ve missed one or five?  Let me know .

Thanks for reading folks