Smallworld expansions comparison and review

Today I am comparing the various expansions for Smallworld. These include "Be not afraid" "Grand Dames of Smallworld" "Cursed" "Tales and Legends" and finally"Smallworld Realms." I'm not going to compare Smallworld Underground today because a) it's a stand alone game and b) I still don't own it.

The expansion Be Not Afraid was the first expansion we picked up. The rationale for us was that it included a tray to hold the all the expansion races. There are a lot of extra pieces in the expansions so you will need to get this if you plan on carting around your game to game nights or purely for ease of storage. In terms of races the most interesting for me are the Homunculi who's special power is if they are bypassed in selection add a coin and an extra race token for when they are eventually picked. I also like the barbarians and the pixies for their high numbers. The pygmies have an awesome racial ability where if a token is returned to the tray roll the die and take as many tokens back as rolled. So one killed Pygmy could become three returned to you. For special powers everyone loves to get corrupt. Whenever someone successfully conquers your region they pay you one victory coin. The other powers are fairly standard and fit well in to play with the exception of catapult. The description seems to confuse a lot of players and leads to arguments over it's use. The expansion also includes one blank each of race and power badges. Great for making up home brewed additions. I would recommend this expansion for the interesting races and if you are wanting to purchase multiple expansions, as you will need the storage tray.

The Grand Dames of Smallworld expansion is one of the popular expansions at our table. Smallworld is rather male dominated with the Amazons being the only female depicted race in the core game and the ladies are represented well in this expansion. There are three female races included. The most popular race are the gypsies, who gain victory points for each region they abandon on a turn. The white ladies power of being immune to attack and other races powers while in decline is fantastic for various tactical reasons. The priestesses are also great for their in decline power of creating a powerful white tower in a single region. The two powers are interesting. Peace-Loving who gain more coins for not attacking active races can  blend strangely with certain races (I'm thinking Orcs here.) Historian is fun for later turns when races start to go in decline as this power collects victory coins for declining races. This pack also includes one blank power badge for more home brewed creations. I wish this one included some less "pretty" races like harpies or some such and the gypsies tokens are a little too close to the Amazon tokens in colour and art making them hard to distinguish at times. Still I recommend this expansion for the cool racial powers and three solid races.

Cursed is on of my favourite expansions. This expansion is highlighted by the 5 amazing powers. Cursed, which this expansion is named for is such an interesting power. It gives zero extra units however when it gets passed over a player must pay three victory coins. The sheer volume of coinage eventually becomes irresistible. Marauding is a game changing power that lets you expand twice in one turn. Hordes of is a neat power that adds two extra hordes tokens to your racial tokens. "Were-" changes the power level on even numbered turns. My brother got Were-Pixies once and conquered half the board on turn two. Ransacking forces players to pay you when you conquer their active races. The two races included are Goblins which attack in decline races with one less token (very useful later in the game) and Kobolds who are numerous but need to keep two tokens in any region they occupy. Defensively great but rather mediocre in my opinion. The expansion includes one each of power and race badges for yet more home brewed fun. This is my favourite expansion and I think it gives the most expansion for dollar value among the smaller expansions. I recommend Cursed to all player groups.

Tales and Legends is a game changing expansion. There are no races or powers. This expansion adds a new rule set. Before the game starts chose one of 6 themes (or mix and match) and shuffle those cards. Each turn after the first a new tales card is drawn. This card changes a game for that turn.  These cards vary in effect from "little lore" such as "tremor" which causes each invasion to require one more token, to "tall tales" such as "Ice age" which prevents mountains from being conquered, to the most game changing "lordly legends" such as "handle with care" which causes 2 race tokens to be discarded (elves one) when conquered instead of the usual 1. While I do really like the game changing nature of this expansion it can make the game more confusing for novice players. I suggest only getting this once every player is completely comfortable with the core game. It's fun and definitely increases the challenge factor for Smallworld. I recommend this expansion for veteran players who would like to increase their challenge level.

Smallworld realms is the biggest (and most expensive) expansion to the game. This expansion works with both the regular core Smallworld and the Smallworld Underground game. In fact it includes Tunnel pieces to incorporate the two. This expansion is a scenario set up and map creating dream. It is full of double sided tiles, one side for core Smallworld map art and the other side is Underground art. With these tiles you can decide what the map should look like. There is a book with pre-made scenarios and maps to use or you can create your own. There are 8 miscellaneous tokens such as a rusted throne or a crystal skull which can be assigned some form of significant role in the scenarios. For example: the player who holds the rusted throne receives one victory coin of tribute from each player on their turn. There are victory coin mines which increase a territories value by +1. There are also peaks tiles which are taller than mountains and need +2 units to conquer or chasms which cannot be conquered. This expansion does increase setup time but it also changes the game enough to keep it interesting for your players. I really enjoy this expansion. I recommend Realms to any group who would like some variation to the map or enjoy creating their own scenarios to play through.

To sum up there are quite a few expansions to Smallworld and each has it's merit for players. "Realms" for any group wishing to change up the map and create custom scenarios, "Tales and Legends" for veteran groups looking to increase the challenge level of the game, "Dames" for a handful of interesting new races and powers, "Cursed" for any group looking to add variety to the races and powers in the game, and "Be Not Afraid" for more storage and a host of powers and races to include in your Smallworld.

Check back next week when I review the Edmonton Entertainment and Comic Expo (EECE) or join me as tickets are still available here

Smallworld board game review

I really like a good competitive board game with a novel mechanic that can be simple to play. Smallworld is one of those games. Thankfully this game has nothing to do with the Disney ride.
When I say that Smallworld is competitive I really mean it. When you play through the first turn the board seems to be deceptively empty. Once everyone starts to march their chosen civilizations onto the board it quickly becomes apparent why this is called Smallworld. Suddenly there isn't room to expand, if you want to claim your golden victory points you are going to need to start taking what your neighbours have.

To start every player selects a from a line-up of randomly drawn fantasy race/power combinations. Don't worry about picking a bad combination as each race and power can be used strategically to gain points. There can be some hilarious combinations such as diplomatic orcs or heroic ratmen.

Combat is resolved quite easily. To claim any territory you need 2 units plus one unit for everything on that space. So if there is a mountain you need three units. If there is a mountain and an enemy unit then four units are needed to conquer it. No dice needed, just a simple numbers game. Although a die does come into effect if you have leftover units you cannot use to claim a region. Say you only have one unit, you can use the gamble die to see if you can claim more. Choose a region and if the number on the die is equal to or greater than the difference needed you claim the region. If not the unit is just replaced on one of your territories.

Eventually your chosen race has spread as far as you think it can or it is beaten down so hard that you need to chose a new race. You then chose to have your race go into decline. Flip over your race tokens and card. You spend one turn declining the race and on the next turn chose a new one and expand again. You can collect money for both your active and in decline races. Once races begin to decline and new ones become active is when it really becomes a Smallworld. This is the reason you really don't need to worry about a bad combination. If for whatever reason you have issues with your chosen group you can decline it and start over.

The situation on the board is always changing as each players expansion is running into other players, each time a race declines leaves other players guessing at the next race to become active and build strategies on what to do.

The game comes with two double sided boards. Each has a number in the top corner stating how many players that board is designed for. Ensuring there is a balance of regions for the number of players. I like this because the game flow and mechanic doesn't change if there is a different number of players.

The victor is decided after the allotted number of turns has been completed. Whoever has the most victory points wins.

The drawback to this game is that it is very competitive. Play tends to get very aggressive so some players will not enjoy this, however if you are like me the competition will be part of the fun.

To sum up Smallworld is a highly competitive and fun game that is always changing. The game will keep you interested whether it is your turn or not. I would recommend this game to groups with players who relish competition and enjoy strategy.

Check back next week when I review the Smallworld Expansions.

GameALot '13 -a board game event- review.

This past weekend was GameALot. The hosts describe it best on their site: “Gamealot is 3 days of board games, card games, role playing games, miniatures, and anything else that you want to run. You, the gamers, get to decide what games you want to host and possibly teach people.”

GameALot was located at the new location for Mission Fun and Games out in St. Albert. The registration fee was a donation to the food bank of at least $20 per person for the weekend. The wife used her store discount to get a very large volume of baby formula for about $55 for our entry.

We arrived late on Friday due to both of us having some not so fun days at work. Because of our crankiness and being newbs to the GameALot experience I don’t think we made the best players the first night. However after getting some food, rolling some dice and slapping down some cards we both started feeling better and got into a much better mood. It really helped that there were so many people there willing to give new people the chance to play. I have to say most of the game organizers were patient with us and really got us to open up a little. I played Legendary: A Marvel deck building game, followed by the Pathfinder deck building game and finally some Ticket to ride. My wife separated from me for a bit and played Pandemic.

Saturday was a completely different day. My wife and I slept in a little and went for breakfast. We brought along some of our own games as there were still open tables where we could host some pickup games. We arrived late so the first games had already started. We decided to break out Poo! and hosted that for a bit until my Smallworld tournament qualifier game. At this point my wife wandered off for some Munchkin and we spent most of the day apart. She played several new games or hosted the ones we brought. I tried out Age of Empires: The Age of discovery which I enjoyed then we had some dinner. My wife’s qualifier for the Smallworld tourney led into the final match. I was hoping for her to qualify but she was beat out. In the final game I started out strong so I basically painted a target on my back. I was thoroughly trounced. That’s okay it merely stoked the fires of my fury for the win next time! While I didn’t get the trophy (seriously there was a trophy) I did get a door prize: Munchkin: Cthulhu.

Sunday started off with some Munchkin. My wife won a door prize of Munchkin Deluxe, while we were playing the exact same game. It was meant to be. After that I went for the big game of the weekend: Twilight Imperium. I wish I had spent some time with the rule book as it was my first attempt at the game. I basically tooled around and just tried to figure it out. I lost of course but had a great time playing. At one point my single fighter ended up defending Mecatol Rex against an invading fleet. Complete Luke Skywalker moment when I played the “Direct hit” action card against a Dreadnaught. At about 5 hours of game time it killed the rest of the day, so my wife spent her day playing new games or hosting them.

As this was hosted in a board game store everything being played was available for purchase. You could even buy a game and host it then and there. My wife picked up Red Dragon Inn which she played on Sunday. She also picked up some expansions for the various editions of munchkin we already own or won copies of.

One of the organizers asked my wife to help host next year. I think she might have fun doing that but I also think she would like to just show up and play. She spent the car ride home debating ideas she had for improvement, so I think she’s excited to try but hesitant as she’s never helped organize a large event before. In the mean time I think we are definitely going to start going out on Sundays for open board game days at Mission Fun and Games. The variety of players available definitely made board games more interesting.

To sum up GameALot was a fun weekend of meeting board gamers of all ages and trying out new games. The cost was reasonable and went to a worthy cause. The myriad of games played meant that I was able to play whatever style of game I was in the mood for. I could share my favorite games with new people and was introduced to new games I’ve always wanted to try or never even heard of before. All I had to do was walk up to a table and ask if there was room for one more. There was no pressure to play anything I didn’t want to play and if I felt like it I could just hang around and watch people play. I would highly recommend coming out for the next GameALot to anyone who is up for some table top fun.

Check back next week when I review Smallworld.

Rifts RPG review

Previously I reviewed another Palladium books product, Heroes Unlimited. Anyone who has been introduced to this company will eventually come across their flagship line Rifts.

Palladium is working to create a Megaversal line of products. Meaning any product line is compatible with any other one. You can have a superhero in a fantasy setting or a knight in shining armour in a post apocalyptic setting. Rifts is that post apocalyptic setting. The story for Rifts is that sometime in our Earths future there will be a cataclysmic war. With the deaths of so many it unleashed the “Coming of the Rifts.” Mystic lines of power were fed by the energy released and these erupted in power causing gateways (or Rifts) to other dimensions to open. These Rifts pulled in monsters, people and technology to Earth. Civilization was destroyed and humanity had to fight its way back to civilization and survival.

Flash forward a couple hundred years and you have the setting of Rifts. Kingdoms were formed, vast expanses of the Earth are uncontrolled madness, and Rifts continue to open depositing all manner of beings on Earth. I like the concept of Rifts. The game is so very open allowing magic, psychics, and future tech all to coexist in one game. Game Masters and players can go anywhere and do anything in such a way that you can campaign forever. This is really a fantastic setting.

However there are a few things I find… difficult with Rifts. First and foremost is the M.D.C. /S.D.C. split. These are separate ratings for damage capacity. Anything from our time or earlier would be ranked in Structural Damage Capacity (S.D.C.) so a gun or a knife would do this damage. Anything future tech or ultra-powered magic would be Mega Damage (or M.D.C.) In theory this plays out like a spear can’t damage a tank while a tank can damage the spear thrower. The conversion is one Mega Damage point does 100 S.D.C. point of damage. So in practice every player loads up on M.D.C. weapons and armour and scoffs anything S.D.C. For me it actually limits the game and leads to power-gaming.

Another issue is that the game can become unbalanced. Some of the books open up the players to having Demigods or Cosmoknights. Putting these types of characters next to a thief or a pilot throws off the challenge level for either side.

The last issue I have is the writing could be better. There is a focus in palladium of creating more races and categories of players our there. While this can be fun to have more variety I would like to see more writing devoted to creating adventures and campaign ideas. Most groups I’ve encountered have between 4 and 10 people, these groups will never go through all the races and classes as it stands. The writing also covers the constant retreads of the same ideas. Each core book has the same information on weapons and equipment. A single player book could cover this easily freeing up space in core books for story and game play ideas.

One thing that Rifts does have going for it is the price point. Any good game group can work around their issues with the system and come out with a fun time. This game is great for anyone wanting an affordable RPG experience that really does exceed the price point. Like any RPG there is a steep learning curve but once you understand the system you can really have a fun time. Of course if you want to lessen the learning curve I would suggest attempting another Palladium setting that does not use the M.D.C. system then upgrading to Rifts later.

So sum up Rifts is an affordable RPG, while it does have some clunky game mechanics it is still a solid game experience. This is a good game for teens and young adults to pick up tp really experience the clatter of dice and a night of nerdity. Lets all stick it to Emporer Prosek!

Check back next week when I review my weekend at Gamealot.