Welcome to Blow on my Dice, the article where we discuss board games and maybe, occasionally, the effect of a dice roll on the state of the world (or even the universe as we know it). Today, however, we’re playing Small World, a game with only a single die to blow on.
Our players today are former EngSoc president Tim, Joe (a guy who doesn’t like feet), and Derek (that’s me!). Small World is a game for 2 to 5 players (odd number, right?), with a different board for every number of players. The base game comes with two double-sided boards. Each number of players plays on a specially-sized board to make the small world sufficiently small for any given number of players. Ingenious.
Small World plays like a combination of Risk and Settlers of Catan with the exception that you won’t be hearing “GOT WOOD, NEED SHEEP” every turn. Instead, your resources are your units, much like your battalions in Risk. You use the units (or tokens) to conquer territories. Every time you conquer a territory, you get a victory point. Like in Catan, victory points lead to you winning the game. A big difference between Small World and Risk is the lack of “luck” required to win a new territory; if you have enough units, you win, no questions asked.
One of the fun aspects of this game is the whimsical nature of the “playable races” that appear. Races range from “Berserking Orks” to “Flying Sorcerers” to “Commando Amazons.” These races are randomly created by combining a modifier card and a race card of which there are copious numbers of each. The game begins with the determination of who has the pointiest ears…not even joking on that one; definitely written in the rule book. Each player begins their first turn by choosing a race which they use until it stops being useful. At this point, they put the race into decline and choose a new one. The act of placing a race “into decline” is one of the most important aspects of this board game as a strategic decline move could provide an exceptionally strong race combination or an especially lucrative turn in the future.
The end goal of all these crazy shenanigans is to collect the victory coins which requires utilizing each race’s special powers and conquering your (apparent) friends. As with any board game, once you win you get instant bragging rights. It’s really quite fun.
All in all, this game is well worth a play or five. We did have a bit of an issue when Tim got excited and spilled his red wine all over the carpet and couch though. Remember kids: blotting works better than scrubbing, and white wine removes red wine! (This I didn’t know – I was utterly confused when Joe started dabbing at the red wine with a white wine soaked paper towel…the more you know, I guess). Small World rolls a 4 and a 6. 10 out of 12. Definitely check it out.
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