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.