Small world of Warcraft

  • Aged 10 and more
  • Players: 2-5
  • Play Time: 40-80 mins

Smallworld is probably one of the most popular ‘post-gateway’ games that I’ve come across, with several expansions being released over the years.

The style of gameplay wasn’t really something I particularly enjoyed (I was in the minority in our group 🙂 but when I heard there was a World of Warcraft edition coming out, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy and try it out.

With a well established and nostalgic theme, Warcraft has definitely breathed new life into a well loved classic.

 

The premise and much of the mechanics are the same –

1. After setting up the map based on the number of players, you’ll conquer vacant or occupied territories on the map with your chosen race (and score victory points for each territory at the end of the round).

2. Keep expanding your kingdom until you decide to put your race into decline.

3. Choose a new race to continue taking over territories while still scoring for the previous race tokens that haven’t been eliminated from the game yet.

4. Use your race’s special ability, along with your custom power to score bonus points at the end of each round.

5. Play the set number of rounds determined by the number of players and tally up each player’s points at the end of the last round. The player with the most points wins the game 🙂

The combination of the different races with the range of random special powers that get added on is what makes the game really fun. Some powers are a perfect fit in terms of theme, while others might be more beneficial but somewhat of a strange thematic fit.

For someone who hasn’t played before, it might look
like an intimidating game, but there’s another reason it’s so popular – it’s really not that difficult to learn.

As a classic Warcraft player back in the 1990s (long before World of Warcraft) I instantly chose the knights as my first race, and their special power was the garrison, which allowed me to build sentry towers that made it more difficult for other players to attack me.

Have you played Smallworld or the latest Wow version? What did you think?

(demo copy kindly supplied by @solarpopgoplay) #PlayAtHome

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