A few weeks ago I started playing Smallworld with my friends. Small world is an interesting boardgame by Philippe Keyaerts, built as a rebranded version of Vinci, a strategy game set in ancient Europe.

Small World is like a fantasy version of games like Risiko Risk. You basically have to conquer as much territories as you can fighting the other races in a struggle for domination. What is really nice in the game is that you have a limited number of units, and, before or after, your possessions will be simply too much to be defended.

That is time to give up: you can put your race in decline and start over with a new one. You still get points for territory occupied by your now dying race while starting to lead a new race for expansion.

Each race comes up paired with a special ability, randomly chosen and you can pick your favorite with a peculiar cost system. The bottom line is: races are different on each match, changing the environment from one game to another.

This is a great game. The sense of schadenfreude when a player is forced to let decline her race is tempered by the new boost for conquer he gets on the next turn. Timing is as important and strategy: delay a decline by one turn and you can find yourself on the path of a total defeat.

So clever, so nice.

Tagged as: boardgames, schadenfreude, strategy