Board Game - Small World (Настольная игра - Маленький мир)

Small World, or "Маленький мир" in Russian, is one of the most famous board games, released in 2009 and still very popular. The game belongs to strategic games, combining serious mechanics with a playful approach to the setting and genre... in general. Just looking at the character design is enough to fully immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the game.

Players will engage in a fierce expansionist war for lands. Very small and limited lands… It is no coincidence the game is called "Маленький мир", all peoples cannot fit here. By the way, speaking of peoples – there are many in the game, each with its own unique feature. The Amazons are extremely aggressive, the rat people are just very numerous, dwarves are efficient in captured mines, and so on.
You will have to choose a fantastic people and its ability, and then try to conquer the surrounding lands and earn as many coins as possible. Over time, your people will spread more widely throughout the world (just like that people you just crushed to pieces), and you will have to abandon it to stand at the head of a new one.
By skillfully managing peoples, various additional abilities, timely leading peoples into decline, and adjusting your strategy to the situation on the map, you will certainly pave your way to victory!
How to play?
The game begins with choosing an appropriate map based on the number of players. After that, various objects must be placed on the map, for example, mountains that are harder to conquer, and tokens of forgotten tribes, which serve as a neutral force preventing players from capturing the map too quickly at the very start of the game.
Next to the map, starting peoples are randomly placed, and various abilities are added to them. As you can understand, there can be an enormous number of variations, from Swamp Wizards to Flying Giants, some provide flexibility in strategy, some additional power, and others additional gold. In addition, each people has its own quantity, i.e., different numbers of tokens you can manage. Players will have to choose one of the combinations, which they will use for their military exploits. You need to use various abilities as efficiently and profitably as possible to earn more coins.
 
1. Choosing a people or leading it into decline – at the very beginning of the game, you choose your starting people with an ability. The top combination is free, each subsequent one costs one coin more, and the payment is made as follows: you leave one coin on each people above yours. Subsequently, the player who chose the people with coins takes them for themselves.
As the game progresses, you can lead your people into decline. This is beneficial when continuing effective conquest is no longer possible, and you want to preserve the occupied lands. All tokens of the people on the map are turned gray side up, and there can only be one token in the region, so you cannot build defense. The ability token is discarded, and your turn ends immediately with score counting – regions still bring income. At the beginning of your next turn, you can choose a new people with an ability and immediately send it to conquer.
2. Capturing regions – with a new people, you can capture only from border zones. To capture, you need to move two of your people’s tokens onto the bordering or adjacent region plus one additional token for each enemy people’s token (as well as for token from mountains, fortresses, etc.). The defending player will suffer losses, losing one token from the region, but at the end of your turn, they can redeploy the remaining troops.

When you make your last capture in your turn, you can use the reinforcement die. Lady Luck may grant you from 1 to 3 "virtual" tokens, allowing you to capture the region even with one token. Whether you get lucky or not, this capture will be the last in this turn.
After making the final capture, you can redistribute all troops, strengthening those regions that you consider most valuable, or which your opponent is most likely to attack.
3. Earning coins – at the end of your turn, you earn one coin for each region you control, including those regions where peoples are in decline.
Who won?
The game lasts a certain number of rounds, depending on the map and, accordingly, the number of players. When all players in the last round have completed their turns, a final score count occurs. The player who managed to accumulate the highest number of coins during the game wins.
 
The game offers a variety of different peoples with interesting characteristics and even more ability tokens, which in combination gives a huge diversity of interesting combinations.
Several maps are available for different numbers of players. Each of your games will be absolutely unique!
You build your own strategy for victory and decide what to focus on, which abilities you need more, whether you want to lean towards "economy" or hard expansion, etc.
A highly interesting and peculiar gameplay, the game is truly unique. Simple rules combined with tactical depth.
The game will certainly be remembered for its design, interesting setting, and charming characters!
Dynamic, rich, and short games.
The element of luck is present in the game in the form of favorable combinations of peoples and the reinforcement die, but your personal decisions and choice of strategy outweigh them.
Components:
- 2 double-sided game boards
- 6 large double-sided reminders
- 15 flag tokens
- 21 ability tokens
- 168 people tokens
- 18 tokens of forgotten tribes
- 10 troll cave tokens
- 6 fortress tokens
- 9 mountain tokens
- 5 camp tokens
- 2 burrow tokens
- 2 hero tokens
- Dragon token
- 109 coins
- Reinforcement die
- Round marker
- Organizer for game components
- Game rules
Game duration: from 40 to 80 minutes
Number of players: from 2 to 5