Small World

Customer Reviews

I love Small World Review by KR

Price
Value
Quality

Small World is one of my favorite games. It's colourful, has very nice components and art work and it's just a ton of fun. I've heard many people comparing it to Risk. While I can see their point (the game is about conquering other players regions) I disagree with the statement. For one thing, I can't stand Risk, also you don't use dice to try to conquer your opponents regions. Also the them of the game is fantasy and its very rich.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is if your current race that you're using is running thin than you can choose to place your race into decline and pick another one to continue your conquering.

All in all, I love art, colour and components (there are a lot of pieces) and the game is just a ton of fun. (Posted on 12/15/11)

It's good..... but don't love it. Review by Jason

Price
Value
Quality

When I first got this game I was super excited. The ever changing characters is an awesome idea. But once I played it, I was a little let down.

Now to be fair, I have only played it with 2 players. I definitely see it being better as a 3-4 player game. The game goes by too fast, without ever feeling like you really accomplished anything.

It's a territory conquer game, but there's very little strategy.

However, this is a game that there are a hundred user rules for online, and some are very fun. Make the game your own and you will get the money out of it. (Posted on 2/24/11)

Great and whimsical fun Review by Charles

Value
Quality
Price

Ok, I don't use the word whimsical lightly, or too often for that matter! Bought this on a whim, and my wife and I absolutely love it. Love how it takes a well-established game mechanic (sort of like Cosmic Encounter) and expands on it with peculiar characters. I like this game, since it doesn't really take itself too seriously. Also love the fact that the different races have their own natural abilities, but these are then expanded up and changed with each game. Excellent value for the game, and fantastic production value. The packaging/storage alone is worth the price! (Posted on 2/10/11)

nice game Review by lilju0425

Price
Value
Quality

it will be a nice game to play lat in a day with friend.

C,est vriamnet un jeu génial pour jouer en gang, plus il y a de monde, plus la statégie qu'on doit déployer pour gagner et savoir quand se mettre en declin influence le jeu. A chaque partie tout est différent car les carte sont mise alléatoirement (Posted on 9/22/10)

Great if you have a consistent group, but can become repetitive Review by Murray

Price
Value
Quality

I got a great first impression from Small World, even with in the two player game. This is a game of conquest, but the winner at the end of the game is the one with the most money.

There are different races with different abilities and each are randomly assigned a trait at the start of the game. These traits also grant a different ability and the total of the numbers indicated on the race and trait will determine how many army tokens you get if you select that trait race. On your turn you get a selection trait races. You can take the bottom most one for free or pay money for each one that you skip to get the one that you want.

Start from any edge of the map, you can start to conquer the Small World. At the start of the game, there are natives that you conquer and, eventually, you will start to conquer other players. Conquering is simply a matter of putting down enough army tokens to outnumber the ones on the target area. Your traits and race may also grant you abilities to help in conquering. After you are done, you can shift around your army tokens in preparation for your next turn and collect money for every territory you control.

On your next turn, you can choose to continue with your current trait race or put your current trait race in decline and select a new trait race to use. When in decline, all but one army token is removed from the territory and you can no longer use that trait race to conquer new territory. You also cannot stack your new trait race with it, but instead must conquer it away from yourself if you want to use that area as a launching pad towards other areas.

The game ends once the turn marker gets to the end and the person with the most money wins.

The components for the game is mostly hard cardboard punch outs. The art and quality of the components are great. There are a lot of little bits to keep track of, however, so be careful not to lose any. There are different sized gameboards for different numbers of players. The larger gameboards offers a lot more variation and significantly are more fun. The smaller boards and the game overall can get repetitive over time despite the different trait and race combinations.

There is a lot of reading involved in the game as you will need to learn all the races and traits. There is a good amount of thinking, placing this game towards the lighter-medium range that is just barely appropriate for casual players.

Overall, a decent game that makes a great first impression. Whether it will continually come to the table or not depends on your personal taste in games. (Posted on 9/21/10)

A great game for fans of Risk Review by Andrew

Value
Quality
Price

Small World is reminiscent of Risk with less dice rolling, a faster pace, and a lighthearted fantasy theme.. Races are paired up with powers at random (e.g. “Forest Trolls” get a bonus for conquering Forest regions). Players select a pair and take turns conquering as much territory as possible.

The wide variety of races and powers is one of the strengths of this game, but it can also cause some confusion to new players as each race and power typically “break” the rules in some new way.

This is one of my current favourites. It's simple, quick to play, and highly re-playable thanks to the randomized race / power combinations.
(Posted on 8/9/10)

Attack…Attack…Attack!!! Review by Brian

Price
Value
Quality

This is a game of warfare plain and simple. If you like games like risk with a twist this is a good game for you. As with Risk you roll many dice, this is a game you roll one die once per turn. The game set-up is random each time you play so the game is different each time you play which is a good thing.

For the most part the Races you play with are balanced except for a few combinations that could turn up although the combinations are balanced more than skewed towards the extremely powerful or weak. I like this game although it could use a little more dice rolling during the game for my blood.

It is a relatively short game when played with 2-3 players so you don’t have to invest too much before you can play again. So in short if you enjoy fantasy battle games this is the game for you, if you like games with more planning for a large assault or dice rolling look elsewhere. (Posted on 5/6/10)

Small World equals Big Fun.... Review by Austen

Price
Value
Quality

First off this is a beautiful looking game with quality components. The theme is super fun and all of the different races makes for a fun multi player experience. I have played several games now with a wide range of different people and have found that it is one of those games that people either love or are indifferent...I personally love this game.

What do I love about this game. It is a highly interactive game that allows for waves of action. It has great re-playability as you mix and match the races with the special powers. The game does a great job of balancing out the races, but it is still possible for a super powerful combination to pop up. There are different boards for 2player, 3 player, 4 player and 5 player games.

So what are the pit falls or stumbling blocks to this game.

1.Until you have played it a few times and got familiar with the difference races and powers it can overwhelming to some new players as there are lot of different combinations.

2.Conquering can give some people fits trying to understand. It is really simple once you break it down to this, it always costs 2 tokens to enter a space. Then it costs 1 token per piece of card board on the space. So to enter a space with 1 token and a mountain it costs 4 of your tokens.

3.One of the other hard things to figure out in your first couple of games is when to go into decline. Each player board has a set number of rounds. The trick is expanding as quick as possible into spaces that benefit your race and then go into decline. The Berserk power is super strong as it allows you to go into decline after your turn meaning you don't have to wait a turn to choose another race.

My only knock on the game is that I think the Mountain tokens are pointless and just take up room, but when ever I teach the game I use them as it makes it easier for people to remember it costs an extra token for the mountain. I find that in most cases the scoring is very balanced. (Posted on 4/26/10)

-Small & Pretty- Review by Maxime Yazz

Price
Value
Quality

Smallworld is a beautiful little game, the rulebook leaves a few details out but all in all a fun ride (Pun intended). The races and power combos are funny and keep the game different every time. The box comes with 2 boards that are very gorgeous. BUT this game is unforgiving if you make a mistake you will have a hard time to recover. Not the best game I played but a very amusing one that keeps things fresh. (Posted on 3/16/10)

My Merchant Skeletons against your Flying Ratmen! Review by MTWC

Quality
Price
Value

Smallworld is a fairly casual 2-5 player conquering game set in the Fantasy setting. The basic idea of the game is that you choose races to take over territories on the map to score points. Over time though, you'll have to put your race in decline as you may have stretched yourself a bit too thin. When you do though, you start over and choose a new race to take over more territory.

One of the great things about the game is that there is a great amount of diversity when choosing your race. Each race chosen comes with a special power badge, which gives your race a special ability in addition to the race's own ability. This can range from bonuses to conquering territory or victory points. The core game comes with 14 races and 20 power badges so it's rarely the same old race/power combo. While large number of race combinations can be overwhelming at times, there are player summary sheets that come with the game that lists what the badges and races do.

When you conquer territory, the number of units you get is the sum of the power badge and race numbers. Taking over territory itself is not too difficult as you just need to count the number of units required to take over the territory. At the end of your turn, you score points based on your active and decline races on the board. If you find your race has been overexerted, you can turn your races over in decline, then wait a turn to choose a new race to wreak havoc on the board. Again, the player summary sheet goes over the game mechanics quite nicely so it helps when you're first learning the game instead of having to continuously flip through the instruction manual.

Another nice feature is that the game comes with two map boards: one for a 2 and 3 player game, and another for a 4 and 5 player game. The great thing about this is that you and your other fellow players play a map catered to how many people you have. Depending on the number of players involved, a regular game is completed in 8-10 rounds, which takes an average of probably an hour or less to finish once you know how the game plays.

The major downside with the game is that it is a little pricier on average compared to other board games. However, that being said, you get what you pay for: very visually appealing artwork, beautiful and robust cardboard tiles, and a plastic tray where you can easily sort out all the tiles. Seriously, with the almost 200 race tokens that comes with the game, the tray helps out A LOT for sorting. You really do get what you pay for.

Small World is a great game that doesn't take itself too seriously compared to other games like it. It's fairly accessible to a diverse group of players and isn't too wordy on rules. It's great to look at and simple to play once you know how it works. Very recommended. (Posted on 1/25/10)