This game has a lot of reviews and reviews. It will be difficult for me to say something new, so I will try to combine all the points that the authors of various reviews emphasize and rethink them. So, what is this "Small World"?

"Small World" (Small World) This is a board strategy designed for two to five players. It was developed by Belgian Philippe Keyaerts and released by Days of Wonder in 2009. Over the years, the game has received many positive ratings and awards. And there is a reason.

Peculiarities

Perhaps the first thing that anyone who picks up a box with "Small World" notes is its design. The colorful box is like a bright candy wrapper and beckons to open it. The artist did his best - fairy folk: elves, dwarves, giants and others look comical and cause a smile. Everything is drawn in great detail, so at first you just want to see everything. It doesn't feel like the game is made for kids. The design perfectly balances on the edge to please both adults and children. The components of the game are also made with soul from very thick cardboard, and the box contains a plastic organizer for game chips and tokens. Now that's taking care of the players!

The game itself is a struggle of many peoples for survival in this really small world. Each participant chooses the people he likes and leads them to prosperity, populating the fields, hills, forests and mountains. For each region inhabited by your people, you receive victory points in the form of coins. More regions - more points. This is where the competitive spirit comes into play.
The fact is that the fewer participants in the game, the less map. Therefore, regardless of the number of players, by the second or third turn, all free territories will be occupied and you will begin to stare at the lands of your neighbors. Moreover, all peoples are different from each other. Humans get extra victory points for settled fields, dwarves get "gold" in mines, and mages thrive around magic crystals. Game balance is based on a combination of a race's special abilities and the number of unit tokens they possess. Peaceful races are few in number, but receive a high increase in points, while warlike races, on the contrary, do not have bonuses to victory points, but are strong enough to deprive them of their weaker neighbors, hehe.

But that's not all. In order for the game not to become boring and boring after the fifth or sixth installment, its author came up with an original mechanic that allows you to play with new people every time. He did it ingeniously and simply - in addition to race cards in the game, there are also cards of special properties. Trait cards likewise have two parameters - another trait and the number of unit tokens added to those the player already has.
Each game, traits and races are shuffled and randomly combined to form a new folk that has a population equal to the sum of the tokens of both cards and has two special talents. This is how funny combinations like diplomatic orcs, waterfowl people and militant elves are born.

The gameplay is very simple. In order to capture any region, you must place 2 tokens of your folk on it. These regions must be contiguous. And if there are fortifications or foreign folk tokens in the region, for each foreign token you must add 1 more of your own. Thus, your attacking units should always be 2 more than the defender. To control the territory and get points for it, 1 squad is needed, all other squads are free for new conquests. That's all the arithmetic.

And where is the cube, where is the long strategic planning, summing up siege engines and storming fortifications? - you ask. There is none of this in the game. But it is not needed here!
The only moment when you pick up a die is when you have a minimum of free tokens left in your hand, and you can no longer capture anything. In this case, the game allows you to roll the dice and, if you're lucky, get from one to three "virtual" units to capture another region. The cube is also used by the berzerk feature, but these are already nuances. The rest of the game is built on the principle of checkers - they captured someone else's cell, they ate someone else's token.
At some point, you may not have free unit tokens in your hands - either all of them will inhabit your territories, or they will be thrown into the box by victims of attacks by neighbors. To do this, the game provides the opportunity to leave the reins of government of this race, making it fading, and choose a new one by continuing the game. In this case, you will continue to receive victory points for both the new and the old race as long as it is alive. For everything about everything, you have a limited number of moves, depending on the number of participants.

Perhaps the most important strategic action in the "Small World" is not so much the miscalculation of the most profitable territories to capture, but the choice of the strongest combination of race and trait in given and specific conditions, as well as timely extinction.

This original mechanic makes the game very dynamic and balanced. After all, the more lands you populate, the less free units you will have both to conquer new territories and to protect old ones. And your great civilization will inevitably repeat the history of ancient Rome, being absorbed by smaller but active peoples.

Predecessor

It is no coincidence that I cite ancient Rome as an example. The fact is that "Small World" is a product of the creative processing of the board game "Vinci" by the same author. In fact, "Vinci" is the "Small World" in the style of the games of the "Civilization" series, with the Romans, Huns and other peoples of antiquity. In visual terms, from Vinci, Small World inherited only the symbol of the destroyed column, depicted on the tokens of the fading race. Apart from minor changes in the mechanics, the design has become the main difference between the two games.
Instead of a circular score counter around the playing field in the "Small World" there are victory coins, the denomination of which is hidden from the rest of the players, until the last moment not revealing the winner. Instead of colored plastic tokens, there are beautiful folk tokens with nice pictures. And the fantasy theme itself is more popular. Moreover, with its help it is much easier to explain why one people can attack any region on the map, and the other in some mysterious way assimilates other people's tokens, turning them into their own. It's magic!

Add-ons

Many add-ons have been released for the Small World game, some of which were released in a limited edition, but more on that in a separate article.

Results

So, let's sum up, and note the merits of the "Small World". Small World is a very nice colorful game, it has very simple and available rules, which, nevertheless, do not let even experienced players get bored. Each game you get new combinations of playable races, which provides the game with high replay value. Both children and adults can play this game. The game is newbie friendly. But it is entirely built on conflict, so not suitable for lovers calm and measured tables.

The party takes an average of 1 hour.

Something happened that many were waiting for, and some were even afraid of - the game small world now also in Russian. Anticipate the worries of skeptics: it turned out Small world well done and virtually indistinguishable from the original. The translators did an excellent job, adapting all the folks present and their features as accurately as possible, so longtime fans of this game will not be disappointed.

Winner Tric Trac d "or (2009)

The Tric Trac d "Or, d" Argent and de Bronze (Gold, Silver and Bronze) awards are gaming industry awards that have been awarded by the Tric Trac online board game magazine since 2001.

Game of the Year in Belgium (Joker Awards). No comments needed :)

Ludoteca Ideale is an Italian award that aims to identify the top 10 games published in Italian throughout the year. The voting system is two-stage. At the first stage, members of two gambling clubs TreEmme and La Tana dei Goblin vote. At the second stage, a jury of 10 experts determines the best of the best.

Game of the Year Meeples" Choice Award (2009)

Meeples "Choice Award. If you take the literal translation of this award, you get something like "an award established by game freaks, maniacs and gamers." Nevertheless, this is an authoritative award awarded since 1995 based on the opinions of more than a thousand people who know and understanding about games very, very much.

JoTa is an annual Brazilian award (since 2009). Determined by voting on certain Brazilian sites, consisting of two rounds and different categories.

The Japan Boardgame Prize is a Japanese award established in 2002 by U-more to promote the culture of board games in Japan.

This annual Belgian award was established in 2009, and the creators, first of all, set themselves the task of popularizing board games in Belgium. Authors and publishers submit their games to the competition, after which a special jury of the Forum of the Belgian Table Games Federation selects four of them. Then the members of the Federation Forum choose the best game from these four, which is actually awarded the prize.

Guldbrikken is an annual non-profit award established by the independent Danish Pricing Council in 2009 to bring Danish attention to the board game market and introduce them to the hottest innovations in the field. According to the organizers, "table games are not only entertainment and fun, they are also an opportunity to establish the best relationships between generations, when the family sits down together at the table, and nothing distracts them from communicating with each other for several hours."

The impartial jury consists of 6 people, some of them are employees of the children's broadcasting company, some are the editors of the Gameplay magazine and members of the Consim association. Only new board games always participate in the competition, of which 16 pieces are selected, and the jury nominates them in 4 categories: "best children's game", "best family game», « Best game for adults" and "the best puzzle".

Spiel der Spiele or as it is also called "The Austrian Game of the Year" has been awarded by the Austrian Game Academy at the end of August in Vienna since 2001. The purpose of the award is to recommend good games for family and friends. Applicant games must be mass-produced in Austria and must have been published in German in the previous 12 months. Anyone can nominate games, then a jury of five people chooses one game for the main Spiel der Spiele award, and then about twelve (may choose fewer, maybe more) games for "Spiele-Hits" ("Best in class") in six categories: best game to play with friends, best game for kids and also for families, for two players, for a large number players (companies), for experts (advanced boarders). The peculiarity of Spiele Hits is that if there is no worthy candidate in the category, then the award is not awarded. So since 2007, no prize has been awarded in the category "Game for Two". And vice versa, if there are several worthy applicants, then they can receive this award together. So in the nomination "For the family" in 2010 there were as many as 5 laureates (one of them is Dixit).

Games Magazine is the most authoritative board game magazine (published since 1977). Since 1980, it has been annually publishing the TOP 100 board games under the name Games 100. Since 1991, the first game on the list has won the Games Magazine Game of the Year award (in other words, it becomes the Game of the Year).

Dice Tower Awards is a non-professional award held under the slogan "Real Men Play Board Games". Awarded annually since 2007 by the popular board game audio and video podcast with longtime host Tom Wesel. The winners of The Dice Tower Gaming Awards are determined by a panel of board game reviewers from around the world.

The best game, as voted by the world's most authoritative board game site, BoardGameGeek.com. Awarded in several categories annually at BGG.Con in Dallas, Texas since 2006.

The annual Australian Games Association Game of the Year award has been awarded since 1998, oddly enough, in Australia. In addition to Game of the Year, the AGA annually awards the Puzzle of the Year award.

The annual award Game of the Year in Poland (Gra Roku) was established in 2004. Initially, the award referred to the year during which all nominated games were published in Poland. That is, for example, the award for 2005 was awarded in the spring of 2006 and attributed to games published in 2005. In 2007, the Award Committee decided to change this order of awarding, and since then the award has carried the current year in the title for games published in Poland a year earlier. This is the reason why there is no "Game of the Year 2006".

Golden Ace is an award at the Cannes International Games Festival founded in 1988. In the early years of its existence, only video games were awarded.
In 2005, the founders of the festival and the founders of the Game of the Year (the French Association of Promotion and Evaluation of Board Games) decided to join forces to create a unified brand of quality control in France, now called As d "Or - Jeu de l" Année (Golden Ace - Game of the Year).
That is it Game of the Year in France.

A little more about the game

Isn't it nice to feel that mighty sorcerers and giants are just chips in your hands? Never will this statement be as literal as in board game Small World! In addition to the races already listed above, you can subjugate an army of orcs or goblins, a flock of rats or living skeletons - well, isn't it lovely? The race of people, it seems, got into this game by mistake - it looks so boring against the backdrop of the magical splendor of 14 extraordinary nationalities inhabiting Small world. This is not to mention add-ons! But the game got its name for a reason - the world is really small, and in order to survive in it, the races are in constant struggle. Internecine wars break out one after another, not letting you get bored for a minute.

The game has simple mechanics, but there are a huge number of options for players to use it. On our turn, we can either fight our current civilization or send it into decline. And already on the next lap, choose a new one and immediately begin its expansion! On each turn, we receive money from the territories that we control + bonuses from our race or its specialization. The richest wins!

The main strategy of the game is to send the race into decline at the peak of its development in time, choose the right races with bonuses and make sure that the combination of all this brings the maximum income. Look into detailed description below and find out exactly how to achieve this.

More and more new peoples populate your lands, and everyone has to crowd. But the ancestors bequeathed these lands to you for a reason - they hoped that you would be able to build a strong empire that would conquer the whole world ...

"Small World" or otherwise "Small World" is one of the most famous board games that appeared in 2009 and still does not lose its popularity. The game belongs to strategy games, at the same time combining serious mechanics with a mischievous approach to the setting and the genre as a whole. You just need to look at the character design to fully feel the atmosphere of the game.

Between the players will be a fierce expansive war for the land. Very small and limited lands... It's not for nothing that the game is called "Small World", all the peoples will definitely not fit here. Speaking of folks - there are a lot of them in the game and each has its own peculiarity. Amazons are extremely aggressive, there are just too many ratmen, dwarves are effective in captured mines, and so on.

You have to choose a fairy people and their ability, and then try to conquer the surrounding lands and get as many coins as possible. Over time, your people will spread more and more around the world (just like the people that you just smashed to smithereens), and you will have to leave them to their fate in order to stand at the head of a new one.

Skillfully managing the peoples, various additional abilities, causing the peoples to fall in time and adjusting your strategy to the situation on the world map, you will definitely make your way to victory!

"Small World" - your favorite game is now in Russian!

Game process

The game starts by choosing the right card for the number of players. After that, various objects are required to be placed on the map, for example, mountains, which are more difficult to capture, and forgotten tribe tokens, which are a neutral force that deters players at the very beginning of the game from capturing the map too quickly.

Starting nations are randomly placed next to the map and various abilities are already added to them. As you understand, there can be a huge number of variations here, from Swamp Wizards to Flying Giants, some give flexibility in strategy, some additional power, and others additional gold. In addition, each nation has its own population, that is, a different number of tokens that you can manage. Players will have to choose one of the combinations, with which they will begin their military exploits. You have to use various abilities as efficiently and profitably as possible in order to get more coins.

The game itself looks quite simple:

1. Selecting a nation or bringing it to decline - at the very beginning of the game, you choose your starting nation with an ability. The highest combination is free, each subsequent one costs one coin more, while the payment is as follows: you leave one coin for each nation above yours. Subsequently, the player who has chosen the people on which there are coins takes them to himself.

As the game progresses, you can bring your people into decline. This is beneficial when it is no longer possible to continue an effective seizure, and you want to save the occupied lands. All people tokens on the map are turned gray side up, and there can be only one token on the region, that is, it will not work to build a defense. The ability token is discarded and your turn ends immediately with scoring - the regions still generate income. At the beginning of your next turn, you will be able to choose a new people with the ability and immediately send them to capture.

2. The capture of regions - the new people can be captured only from the border zones. To capture, you must move two of your people tokens to the border or adjacent region, plus one additional one for each token of foreign people (as well as for the token of mountains, fortresses, etc.). The defending player will suffer losses, losing one token from the region, but at the end of your turn will be able to redeploy the remaining troops.

When you make your last capture on your turn, you may use a reinforcement die. Lady Luck can give you 1 to 3 "virtual" tokens, allowing you to capture the region with even one token. Whether you're lucky or not, this capture will be your last on this turn.

After making the last capture, you can redistribute all troops, fortifying those regions that you consider the most valuable or that your opponent is most likely to attack.

3. Gain Coins - At the end of your turn, you gain one coin for each region you control, even those regions that have declined nations.

Who has won?

The game lasts a certain number of rounds, which depends on the map and, accordingly, on the number of players. When all players in the last round have made their moves, the final scoring takes place. The winner is the player who, in the course of the game, was able to score the largest number coins.

Game features

• the game offers many different nations with interesting features and an even greater number of ability tokens, which together gives a huge variety of interesting combinations;
• the presence of several cards for a different number of people. Each of your parties will be absolutely unique!
• you build your own strategy for victory and decide what exactly to focus on, what abilities you need, whether you want to go into the "economy" or into hard expansion, etc.;
• extremely interesting and peculiar gameplay, the game is really unique. Simple Rules combined with tactical depth;
• the game will definitely be remembered for its design, interesting setting and cute characters!
• dynamic, intense and short games;
• the random factor is present in the game in the form successful combinations peoples and a reinforcement die, but your personal decisions and choice of strategy outweigh them.

Board game

Small World (Small World, Russian edition)

8+Minimum age 2–5Number of players 40–80 min. Game time

Price: 2 990 rubles. 2 960 rubles 2 930 r.

150 bonus points.

The Little World is a magical place where a variety of creatures live - Gnomes and Trolls, Sorcerers and Wizards, Ghouls and ordinary people. But, as it turned out, the Small World is too small for all these creatures, and now they have to fight for their place under the sun. This is a localized version of the famous game.

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Game Description

Video review of the board game Little World from Igroveda!

Buy the board game Little World

Reviews and comments (200 )

Feedback | Alexander, Balashikha | 12.06.2018

Abilities: "camping" (camp), "heroic", "dragon" - can ability cards be on the field without "people" tokens, or is the presence of at least 1 people token mandatory?

Answer from the store Igroved: Alexander, good afternoon. Yes, in all three cases they can.

Feedback | Marina | 01/28/2018

Please tell me how to play ghouls when they are in decline. There are 3 regions left with 3 ghouls in each region. 1. Is it possible to take ghouls in hand? 2. How to conquer territories - only by attacking rivals or can you move ghouls to bordering territories (take 2 ghouls from the territory and capture the neighboring one)?

Answer from the store Igroved: Hello Marina. 1. When bringing the Ghouls into decline, all tokens remain on the field. 2. In the future, the seizure of territories by Ghouls in decline is carried out according to the usual rules, as if they were an active people. However, all new captures must be made by the ghouls at the start of your turn, before your active people begin to capture.

Feedback | Artyom | 01/19/2018

Good day! A race with the "flying" property can start an invasion from any region? Or does the first region have to be borderline?

Answer from the store Igroved: Artyom, good afternoon! Yes, she can start an invasion from any region (except sea and lake).

Probably badly explained. The opponent walks and with all his moves knocks out my units from all regions. I return one token to the box as dead, the rest to my hand. The game is in the 4th, I go 3. Now, when the opponent retreated (as the first player), according to the rules, I have to distribute the remaining tokens among my territories, but they are not there, I was knocked out everywhere. 1. How to be? Is it possible to place the remaining tokens on the free territory from the edge of the Map? Or not? 2. Or, on your turn, without capturing territories, go into decline? Otherwise, it turns out a vicious circle, as soon as I capture the territory, on the next move they knock me out everywhere, I lose tokens, and it comes to the moment when there is only one token, and it is no longer possible to capture the territory, only with a die. The chance is small. Can you clarify this point in the game?

Answer from the store Igroved: 1. At the end of your opponent's turn, you may distribute the tokens left in your hand to any regions still occupied by your people (if any). If all of your regions have been attacked and you still have people tokens in your hand (and none left on the board), you may distribute them on your next turn as if you were making your first capture.
2. Yes, on your next turn you can bring the race into decline (without taking territories).


Feedback | Volodis, Taganrog | 11/29/2017

Good afternoon, there was a dispute about what to do with the remaining race tokens, if they were all knocked out of the field. The opponent attacked and knocked out from all territories. There are tokens on hand. How to be? Can you go down on your turn?

Answer from the store Igroved: Good afternoon. On your turn, you can start conquering new regions with the remaining tokens or bring the race into decline.

Feedback | Alexey Vasiliev, St. Petersburg | 12.09.2017

Good day!
I really liked the game, the replay value is on top, but I would like the rules to be painted in more detail!
1. Ability "fortified". For example, there is a situation: at the beginning of the turn I have two occupied locations on the field with rebuilt fortresses and during the course of the turn I build another fortress, how many coins for the ability will I get 1 or 3?
2. People "sorcerers": if during the turn I have a situation that I border on several opponents (active people), then the property can be applied once to each during one turn?
3. How does the "fierce" ability work? Hello Andrei. Included with the board game "Small World!" includes 9 mountain tokens, which are laid out on the mountainous areas of the field. The use of "double" mountain tokens on field sections is not described in any way in the rules, so we cannot comment on this moment. Is not it so?

Answer from the store Igroved: Hello Ilya. The rules describe this point ambiguously. We think the players should agree on how to interpret the Dragonlord ability.

Board game

Number of players
2 -5

Party time
From 40 minutes

Game difficulty
Medium

The board game "Small World" is a strategic board game that will be interesting for players of all ages. This is an amazing fantasy world with all its extraordinary inhabitants: elves, ghouls, sorcerers, giants and orcs.

The purpose of the board game "Small World" (Small World)

In this small world, you need to choose a race and conquer the world. The world is small, there are many races, so you will have to understand your people well and choose the right path to achieve victory. When the marker reaches the last space, all players take their last turn and count their coins.

Board game "Small World" (Small World): game rules

First round

1. Choose a combination of banner and ability. The player will have to choose one of six races and abilities.

2. Captures regions. People tokens are needed to conquer new regions on the game board. The regions you capture will bring you coins.

1. First capture. To invade the playing field, you will need to capture the border region. The border region is the regions that border the edge of the playing field or are located on the seashore.

2. Capturing a region. In order to capture a region, you will need 2 banner tokens and +1 additional token for each camp, mountain, fortress, cave troll or forgotten tribe in the region being conquered.

3. Military defeats. If the captured region was occupied by your opponent, then he takes all his tokens from this region, and then: return one of them back to the container; wait for the end of turn a and determine the tokens in hand for any captured regions.

4. Subsequent captures of regions. Each subsequent captured region must border on the region that you have already conquered.

5. Attempted the last capture. If you are missing 3 or fewer people tokens and there is at least one unused token left, you can roll a reinforcement die. Before the roll, you must decide on the region to capture. If enough has fallen, then capture the region.

6. Redistribution of troops. You can redistribute your tokens between any of your regions. After the redistribution, at least one token must remain in each of your regions.

3. Get coins. The last turn ends with the collection of coins for each captured region on the playing field.

Subsequent rounds in the board game "Small World"

At the beginning of each round, the player moves the marker to the next space on the playing field and makes a move. Each player has the right to:

continue to take over the region

move your people into decline to choose another.

After that, the player receives coins.

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