Friday, July 22, 2011

Small World

It's a world of slaughter, after all! Haha!



Heather here.

Small World is definitely in my top 10! I love this game, everyone I play with loves this game, and everyone I know loves this game.

Small World has a fantasy theme where you are a certain race and have a special power to accompany it. Every time you play, the combinations will be different. I know you are DYING for me to tell you some of the races and powers so here we go:

Races:

1. Elves basically don't die. That's awesome!
2. Dwarves collect extra coins.
3. Ratmen have sheer number on their side.
4. Giants get to conquer areas for 1 less token.

Special Powers:

1. Seafaring allows you to conquer seas and lakes (which no one else can do).
2. Spirit allows you to keep your declined races on the board, if they don't die.
3. Beserk allows you to roll the die before each conquest.

Now you must be wondering, "What the heck does all this mean?" Good question!

Game Play for 1st Round:

1st: You start by picking the person with the pointiest ears to go 1st (which is always Michael). For your 1st turn you will pick a race and special power combo. Before the start of the game, you set up 5 combos, chosen at random. So on your turn, you pick one. You then will take all tokens that go along with your race and sometimes for your special ability.

2nd: Conquer some regions. You need 2 race tokens to conquer a region + 1 for every other token on that region. You can also redeploy your troops, trying to reinforce your regions.



3rd: Gain your victory points! You get 1 coin for each region your race tokens occupy, then add any extra that your special powers give you.

Game Play for all Other Rounds:

1st: Conquer new regions. (same as above #2)

2nd: Go into decline. You flip all your race tokens over, discarding all but one on each region it was occupying. Discard your special power (unless it states otherwise). If you already have a race in decline, you must discard all those tokens, leaving only one race in decline. That is your turn. So when it's your turn again, you'll pick a new race/special power combo.

Game End:

The game ends after the marker gets to the last round and everyone has had their turn. Count all your victory points and whoever has the most wins!

We do have some expansions to this game that add some cool races and special powers. It's just nice to have even more options and variety.

Why I Like This Game:

This game is fun because you get to kill people, conquer regions, kill yourself and get new characters, and get victory points after each turn. I like having some of the expansions to help keep this game from being monotonous. But even without them, it keeps me entertained because the race and special powers are never combined the same.

I do have to say that Michael and I went and demo'd (spelling?) Small World Underground, which is a new stand-alone game. The races and special powers are just about the same as Small World, but with underground creatures. I don't think I will buy it because it's just too similar. If you like more dungeony things, get Underground, but if you like more bright/outside things, get regular Small World. 

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