Smallworld is without a doubt the funniest board game I have played along last 4 weeks. Although I think is the best we are talking about a reworking of another board game (Vinci) designated by the same author Phillippe Keyaerts, how was inspired in the first place by the world famous game Risk. So isn't too innovative but I can tell: this old formula still works. SmallWorld gives us the control of a funny race fighting for expanding our territory whereas defending ourselves against other players (just like big countries in the real world). We easily believe this proposal thanks to simple but deep rules, mechanics and dynamics which mix up in a very intuitive way. We just flow through the game and quickly realize how demanding could be. Its charismatics races and art also help but this whole structure works because its aesthetic is solid support by its mechanics and dynamics and all work together. Like every board game, Competition is the main angle of its aesthetic. So the main dynamic is to reach more victory coins than our opponents after 8 rounds. In order to earn victory coins we have to conquest as more lands as we can (we usually earn a coin per land) but guess what? It is a truly small world. As there isn't enough territory for each player the game force us to invade enemy's lands to get it. Mechanics are always supporting this like the limited 10 turns or the possibility to conquer every piece of land. Fantasy would be another important part of the aesthetic. As we control a specific sort of race our interaction with the different grounds will vary. Divided players among these different races would be the main dynamic related to fantasy. Dwarfs obtain more victory coins from caves than humans or tritons can control quickly any sea for example. Mechanics like special powers cards adders (a bonus capacity that every race could use and it chose by random) or the option of decline a race support fantasy dynamics. In the end, we really had a good time playing this game. The only "but" I can think (at least in the edition we played) is the special power "merchant": duplicate yours victory coins per land is just insanely overpower. So we aware.
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AuthorI want to study Video Games in a theoretical way. Archivos
May 2018
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