Small World (board game)
| Small World | |
|---|---|
|
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| Game data | |
| author | Philippe Keyaerts |
| graphic |
Miguel Coimbra , Nicolas Fructus (4th adult) |
| publishing company |
Days of Wonder , Edge Entertainment |
| Publishing year | 2009 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 2-5 |
| Duration | 40-80 minutes |
| Age | from 8 years
|
| Awards | |
|
German Games Prize 2009: 5th place |
|
Small World ( Engl. "Small World", also called "Small World" written) is a strategic board game for two to five people, developed by Philippe Keyaerts and illustrated by Miguel Coimbra . It was released by Days of Wonder in 2009 and is based on an earlier board game by the author, Vinci, from 1999. In October 2009, it was one of the four board games played at the European Board Games Championship .
Game idea
The game is about the rise and fall of numerous peoples in the fantasy world Small World . The players act as rulers over the peoples, conquer and control regions with their help and thus collect victory points . One of the peculiarities of the game is that a player does this not only with a certain race; rather, he must deliberately let his old, weaker peoples perish and found new peoples in order to be able to be successful in the long term.
material
The game material of Small World is comparatively extensive. There is a separate game plan for every possible number of players. The game boards are divided into 20 to 46 regions, which for example represent forests, hills, mountains or swamps.
The races are randomly created combinations (sets) of races and special abilities. Each of the 14 genre-typical races ( orcs , elves , amazons , halflings , ghouls , ...) and each of the 20 special skills ("flying", "fearless", "diplomat", "seafarer", ...) has certain advantages. If a player controls "Mounted Dwarfs", for example, he receives additional victory points for regions with mines (property of the dwarves) and requires fewer troops to conquer farmland and hill regions (property of the special ability "Mounted").
The presence of peoples in individual regions is indicated by tokens , similar to the board game Risk . The total number of tokens available to a player for a race depends on the race and the special ability. Other tokens show defenses, heroes and a dragon , these can be used by peoples with certain characteristics.
The aim of the game is to collect as many victory points as possible. They are counted with the help of victory coins, which also serve as a means of payment for “buying” new peoples.
The game material includes:
- 2 game boards printed on both sides
- 14 race banners printed on both sides and 20 characteristics badges (results in 280 possible ethnic combinations)
- 186 tokens printed on both sides (armies)
- 109 victory coins
- 35 special tokens (fortresses, mountains, camps, heroes, dragons), relevant for certain properties
- Combat dice, round markers and instructions
Course of the game
At the beginning there are some tokens for long-lost tribes on the game board, they make conquering regions a little more difficult in the first rounds. The players choose one of the six national combinations on display. Depending on the combination, this can cost a few victory coins (and thus victory points). The population display is always increased to six by adding a new random race and ability.
The player then receives as many tokens (armies) for his people as indicated on the race and ability tiles. Armies are used to conquer new regions and defend occupied regions. Regions are, in turn, the most important source of victory points, so owning as many regions as possible is crucial for the game.
New races are always brought into play by conquering peripheral regions. In general, a region can be conquered if the attacking player uses enough tokens from his people. Difficult terrain, defense troops and fortifications in the target area require the deployment of more armies. A player can make campaigns of conquest as long as he can muster enough armies to do so. If the player lacks a few armies for a final campaign, he can try another attack using the die. This “last attempt at conquest” is also the only one in which chance plays a role.
After the conquest phase, a player may redistribute his troops at will, but at least one army must remain in each region. The end of a turn is the scoring phase: A player receives victory coins for all regions he controls at the end of his round. Depending on the race and special ability, certain regions bring bonus income and are therefore more interesting for the player (for example, the "humans" receive additional victory coins for controlled farmland).
In the course of the game, the armies of a people will be dispersed more and more or decimated by counter attacks, so that the people are no longer suitable for further conquests. The player can then decide to let these people perish. To do this, he chooses a new people from the display and receives new troops for it. Doomed peoples lose power, but continue to benefit their former rulers: Their troops remain, albeit decimated, in the previously occupied regions and therefore bring more victory coins until these regions are conquered by other peoples. The failure of a people costs the player a complete game round, the decision about the right time to give up a people is of great importance to the game.
A game is limited to 9 to 12 rounds, depending on the number of players, and lasts approximately 60 minutes. At the end of the game, the player who has accumulated the most victory points wins.
Awards
At the awarding of the German Games Prize 2009, Small World came in 5th place. It received the “Games Hit for Experts 2009” award from the Vienna Games Academy . Furthermore, Small World was nominated for the International Gamers Award 2009 in the category “General Strategy Games - Multiplayer”. The US gaming magazine Games Magazine named Small World for "Game of the Year 2010" (category Board games). The French game site Tric Trac awarded the game the "Tric Trac d'Or 2009" award. At the awarding of the French As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année critics' award on March 4, 2010, the game received the special prize of the jury (prix spécial du jury) .
Extensions
At Small World so far nine extensions have appeared. In addition, various promo expansions were distributed or sold free of charge as goodies at the game in Essen.
Some of the races, special abilities and new game elements contained in the expansions are based on contributions to an ideas competition for the game organized by Days of Wonder in summer / autumn 2009.
The expansions released so far:
- Leader of Small World (2009) (English title: Leaders of Small World ) is an extension developed by Michael Ormesher from Great Britain as part of the ideas competition, which was awarded to the participants of the competition and has been available exclusively from BoardGameGeek since November 2009 . It adds a leader for each race (including the races of the expansions), who acts as a special token in the game.
- Frauenpower (2009) (English title: Grand Dames of Small World ) contains three new female races (Priestesses, Gypsies and the White Women) as well as two new special abilities.
- Cursed! (2009) (English title: Cursed!; By Phil Walker-Harding ) contains two new races (goblins and goblins) as well as five new special abilities, including the eponymous negative trait "Cursed", which has no advantages and skipping them for additional gold when buying costs.
- The Island of the Necromancer Island (2010) (English title: Necromancer Island ) is a limited expansion that is available from some retailers as a free addition to the purchase of a Small World game. With the expansion, a player can take on the role of the eponymous necromancer, who plays according to modified rules and creates his army, the spirits, among other things from discarded tokens.
- Fables & Legends (2010) (English title: Tales & Legends ) was published in July 2010 and was developed by Laurent Verrier, the winner of the ideas competition, with the help of game designer Keyaerts, this time Nicolas Fructus was responsible for the graphic design. The expansion comprises a total of 54 event cards, one of which is revealed at the beginning of each new round. The event cards each show a special rule for the respective round, for example that certain regions in the round cannot be conquered or even have to be left or that a certain way of playing earns additional victory points.
- No panic! (2010) (English title: Be Not Afraid… ) contains five new races and five special abilities as well as a sorting insert for all previous expansions.
- Tunnel (2011) makes it possible to combine the boards of Small World and Small World Underground into a single board for six players. It was initially distributed as a promo expansion at Spiel 2011, but was then given to retailers as a free goodie to share with the main game or other expansions.
- Royal Bonus (2013) is a mini extension which was initially only available for supporters of the Small World 2 app for Android , Windows (via Steam ) and iOS , but is now also available for purchase. It contains the new races Faune, Igors and Tree Beings as well as the new special abilities Fireball, Water and Colossus.
- Small World 6-Player Board (2013) The board included in this expansion can be played with the main game Small World (front of the board ) and the Small World Underground (back of the board) released in 2011 with six players. New races or special abilities are not included, but 1 mountain range, 2 black mountains, 1 vengeful token and 3 lost tribes tokens.
- In the Spider's Web (2014): This mini expansion contains three new races, Ice Witches, Skags and Slingshot People. There are also three new special abilities, Imitator, Lava and Revitalizing.
- River World (2016)
- Sky Islands (2017)
- Small World of Warcraft (2020)
Small World Underground (2011)
| Small World Underground | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Philippe Keyaerts |
| graphic | Miguel Coimbra |
| publishing company |
Days of Wonder , Edge Entertainment |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 2-5 |
| Duration | 30-90 minutes |
| Age | from 8 years |
Small World Underground is a standalone game that was released in May 2011, but it is largely based on Small World and its rules and game mechanics are almost unchanged. Many elements of Small World Underground can therefore be combined with those of its predecessor and its extensions. Apart from the innovations described below and the associated rule modifications, the course of the game corresponds to that of Small World .
Thematically, the battle for regions is now taking place under the surface of the earth and is being fought out by 15 new peoples living underground. There are four redesigned game boards (one for each number of players), whereby the terrain types are mostly just modifications of the predecessor (“mushroom forest” instead of “forest” etc.). The innovations include impassable chasms and a river that divides the world into two land masses and replaces the sea regions of the predecessor.
The Special Places and Honorable Old Towerers are new in terms of playing technique . They are drawn at random and placed on the game board as soon as a player conquers a region occupied by monsters (a new neutral game party). Places and antiquities can change hands by conquering the corresponding region and bring it certain advantages in the game: For example, the "Scepter of Greed" can double the victory point yield of a region once per round, the "Iniquitous Pentagram" enables the use of a powerful monster when conquered . Places and antiquities differ from one another only in that the antiquities have to be moved to the corresponding region for their use, whereas special places remain in the original region for the rest of the game.
Small World Realms (2012)
| Small World Realms | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Philippe Keyaerts |
| graphic | Miguel Coimbra |
| publishing company | Days of Wonder |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 2-6 |
| Duration | 40-80 minutes |
| Age | from 8 years |
Small World Realms is an expansion for 2-6 players released in May 2012 for the two main games Small World and Small World Underground, which uses game mechanisms and rules. At the same time, a few new ones, such as B. introduced the introduction of peaks and river restrictions.
The expansion can either only be played with the main game, only with the expansion Underground or (through the mini expansion Tunnel) with both the main game and Underground in combination.
The specialty is that the game board is no longer built up statically, but is put together in a modular way by combining a total of 26 hexagonal landscape modules - on each of which 1–3 regions are printed. The game instructions contain several design suggestions or scenarios for 2–6, 3–4, 3–6, 4, 5 and 5 players. In addition, there are rules that allow a completely free design. The front of the landscape modules is printed with regions from Small World, the back with regions from Small World Underground . There are also seven mountain tiles (+1 defense), four summit tiles (+2 defense) and six canyon tiles (area not accessible). Seven creature and object tiles are included to add additional scenario features or variance to the scenarios printed in the game instructions and created by yourself. In order to separate individual river regions from other regions, there are still six river boundary markers and a new round bar in the box.
Tiles with water regions can be used as rivers, lakes or seas.
Digital editions
Small World has appeared across platforms. Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android and iPad are supported.
iPad
At the beginning of April 2010, Small World appeared for the first time as an implementation for the Apple iPad . Graphics, game play and rules correspond to those of the board game, but in the iPad version only two players compete against each other. Version 1.0, released in July 2010, added a computer opponent for single player mode and sound effects. Originally only the races of the basic version were included in the game, in August 2010, together with an update to version 1.1, the three expansions Verflucht !, Frauenpower and Don't panic! offered as downloads to be purchased separately.
Web links
- Small World in the Luding games database
- Small World in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
- Small World on the Days of Wonder website
- Small World Underground in the Luding games database
- Small World Underground in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
- Small World Underground on the Days of Wonder website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Small World on BGG. Retrieved August 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Winner of the German Games Prize ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the homepage of Friedhelm Merz Verlag
- ↑ Spiele Hits 2009 on the homepage of the Austrian Games Award
- ↑ Homepage of the International Gamers Award (English)
- ↑ 2010 Games of the Year and Other Awards ( memento of the original from May 2, 2015 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Games Magazine (English)
- ↑ Et le Tric Trac d'Or 2009 est ... at Tric Trac (French)
- ↑ As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année 2010 , homepage of the Festival International des Jeux (French)
- ↑ a b Press release from Days of Wonder: Winners of the Small World ™ ideas competition will be announced from September 14, 2009
- ↑ Blog entry on Days of Wonder: Leader of the Small World available now on BoardGameGeek.com December 7, 2009
- ↑ Blog entry at Days of Wonder: The Necromancer Island from September 27, 2010
- ↑ Article in Days of Wonder: Small World Fables & Legends from May 17, 2010
- ↑ Blog entry at Days of Wonder: Small World - Don't Panic! dated September 9, 2010
- ↑ If you are in a tunnel, keep digging! , News from October 3, 2011 at Days of Wonder
- ↑ Steam edition 'accessed on Sunday, October 5th, 2014
- ↑ Humble Bundle PC and Android 11 ( Memento from September 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) from September 30, 2014 accessed on Sunday, October 5, 2014
- ↑ Test of the iPad implementation at RPG.net on July 28, 2010
- ↑ Small World for iPad 1.1 - Now even more populated! , Posted August 16, 2010 on Days of Wonder
