Small World Board Game – Review, Gameplay & Insights

 

Small World at a Glance

Game Type Fantasy, Territory Building, Area Majority / Influence, Area Movement, Dice Rolling, Variable Player Powers	Play Time 40 - 80 mins	Skill/Complexity (2 - 5) Light - Medium
Age 8+	Publisher(s) Days of Wonder	Published 2009
Categories Family / Strategy	Players 2 - 5	Cost $44.99
Our Rating 7.2/10	Related Small World Underground

 

 

Small World, The Fun, Zany, Light-Hearted Civilization Board Game
This is how the guys from the publisher, Days of Wonder, officially describe the game. And, from our personal experience we couldn’t agree more.

But first, let us add our own, it goes like this:
A Small World, Yet So Many Races……Not Everyone Fits This Place, For This is a World Too Small To Coexist

Now, let’s begin our take on this fun, zany, light-hearted civilization type board game.

About – Description

Small World recreates, in a pretty enjoyable way, the occupation of a small world by the many races available in the game (humans, giants, elves, etc.). While each are controlled by a player, races arrive at this small world almost always from the board’s edge or along the coast and expand to conquer one territory after another.

This occupation is carried out through pure numerical superiority (Somewhat similar to Risk). To put it simply, to invade you take the unit count the defending territory has, then sum it by 2 to ensure the invading parties superiority. Furthermore, there’s more than just depending on raw numerical superiority. Some special abilities and bonuses affect the chances of conquering a territory, like having flying troops or geographical defenses, including tall mountains.

Although there are some strategic decisions to make, such as where to start our conquest, where should we finish it, in what territories are we more or less interested in, and which troops should we leave defending our borders, the truth is that we cannot really consider it as a strategy game per se.

The ultimate goal is to accumulate wealth, where the profit is generally proportional to the number of conquered territories, and by unique traits each race has. For example, magicians get extra coins from regions with magic markers, dwarves from mines, humans from farms, and so on.

Something that we must point out is the fact that each player’s wealth is hidden during the game (to torture you with uncertainty, of course). Though we can see what everyone wins, coins must be placed face down, so as you reach the final turns you may get a glimpse of who might be winning, but always with that doubt in mind.

Who’s it best suited for?

Small World is a great game for all ages, ideal for taking out at family dinners and for the younger ones to play alongside grown-ups. In other words, it is a sweet and simple game to introduce friends and family into the world of board games.

Skill – Complexity

First of all, this game is accessible for almost everyone (Ideal for 8 years olds and up). There’s not a background story (which, for other games, is important for playability) and the mechanics are simple, concise, and straightforward. The learning curve tends to be very fast, with a low-medium complexity level, and also the assembly is not tedious at all!

Small World lends itself to having high replayability compared to other titles that could be obtained at the same price as, let’s say, Bunny Kingdom. In essence, if you are looking for a fantasy game, accessible for any age, with simple mechanics, easy to assemble at home and that lasts several plays, this game is the ideal choice.

Gameplay – How it Plays!

Here we’re just doing a brief summary of what this game’s mechanics are all about, so take this as a first glimpse. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend that you check out the official manual if you want to dig deeper into this game’s mechanics.

I. The First Turn

During the first turn of the game, each player:

• 1. Picks a race and a special power combo.
• 2. Conquers some regions.
• 3. Scores some victory coins.

II. Following Turns

In the following turns, the first player moves the turn marker up one spot on the track, so it continues clockwise throughout the game. Throughout each turn, the player must now either:

• Expand the reach of his race through new conquests or
• Put his race in decline to select a new one.

Once the turn marker has reached its final spot on the turn track, and all players have had a chance to play their last turn, then the victory coins held by each player are revealed and tallied.

III. End the game

The player with the highest score wins. Supposing there’s a tie, the player with the most race tokens still on the board is the winner.

Preparing the setup is straightforward stuff, just take from the box all the tokens you need to distribute. Then, and with no haste, you can get everything ready to play in less than a blink of an eye (Well, it’s less than 10 minutes but you get the point). The number of game components will depend mainly on the variety of available races.

And that same diversity of races and skills makes for an excellent replaying experience, generating many possible arranges and approaches. It’s a matter of testing strategies to score more points than others, and let me tell you, there are many great combinations you can come up with.

Other Versions, Editions or Expansions Available?

Many editions in various languages are available and to date there is 18 expansions. Soon there will be a Small World of Warcraft which is now available for pre-purchase. If you’re a true fan of World of Warcraft, don’t let this one miss a spot in your collection.

If you and your co-players are older than 12, we personally recommend Small World Underground. With its unique aesthetics, it adds a kind of a darker and edgier feeling to the whole playing experience.

Likes & Dislikes

• The game is mostly strategy (although not as much as other board games) and with just a little bit of randomness. For instance, there’s some randomness during races distribution and when having the possibility of throwing the dice during the last conquest (We have only achieved it twice in all of our playthroughs).
• Its simplicity hides a tremendous strategic burden, and you have to think well about which territories you should conquer at a given time, observe the movements of your opponents (Points are hidden until the end of the game, so surprises can always blow up in your face), getting that race you’re interested in, and, above all, identifying the best moment to change your race.
• Expansions and supplements: You get a wide expansion catalog to enhance your gaming experience.

• The basis of the game is one of resource management and accumulation of wealth, which is ok, but the issue here is it being too easy and not challenging at all.
• Monotonous matches. Yes, we just said there are many combinations, but it does not really vary much between one turn and the other. Although there are several extensions available that add extra dynamics to the game, you have to get them separately.
• This might be just an aesthetic and subjective appreciation of the game, but there’s too much cardboard! Our main issue is not the fact that the troops for every race are cardboard tokens, but it’s quite disappointing that the terrain tokens such as mountains, fortresses and, even the dragon itself are simple cardboard drawings. It would be much more striking, visually speaking, if at least the dragon was a miniature.

Final Thoughts

In many reviews and forums, there’s a common tendency to compare it to the classic Risk game by associating two common game mechanics:

• The accumulation of troops in a territory adjacent to the enemy’s (whether if it’s for defending it, or for occupying the other one.
• The chain expansion that happens when conquering territories.

But, as this review’s final thoughts, we think it’s important to summarize why Small World excels as something much more than just a Risk lookalike. The following are the main three aspects:

• 1. When you play, you won’t take a country, nor a faction, not even a race. What’s interesting about Small World is precisely the fact that we switch to another race to get more benefits, so feeling identified towards any race is not really there.
• 2. There’s almost no randomness. Small World players win for their ability to adapt to their situation and strategize throughout the game. Dice rolling is not something crucial for winning the game at all.
• 3. Every playthrough is different. In other Risk-like games, playing with a certain faction tends to always be the same strategy, but not in Small World. Remember that each race has unique abilities and, because you don’t know what your rivals might have, it becomes trickier.

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