A few years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to SMALLWORLD. I've been in love with this game ever since. I describe it to first-timers as a mix of RISK and Settlers of Catan with a D&D aesthetic, except without the worst parts of each.Everyone remembers Risk from their high school days, because high school was the last period in anyone's life when they actually had time to finish a game of Risk. Smallworld uses a similar mechanic of press-your-luck conquest of adjacent regions on a world map, but unlike the classic world domination game, Smallworld has a finite number of rounds. A game begun at midday no longer goes on into the wee hours of morning. Victory: Smallworld.
It's hard to find any faults with Settlers of Catan, and I may be seen as blasphemous by the gaming community for even trying, but everyone who's played this grandpappy of all Eurogames knows the pain of staking your claims on territories that are supposed to produce ample resources, only to have a spate of unfavorable dice rolls eliminate you from contention. The only mechanic in Smallworld that relies on a die roll is the "reinforcement die," which you roll only as a last-ditch effort and nets you, at most, a point or two. Victory: Smallworld.
The game revolves around a number of fantasy races, each with their own unique power that affects how they conquer territories or how they score victory points -- such as Tritons, which conquer water-adjacent lands more easily, and Dwarves, which score bonus points for inhabiting territories with mines. Each race comes with an additional ability that is randomly assigned at the start of the game, which further modifies how the race functions.
You get a certain number of race tokens, determined by the race's card and the special ability card. Conquering a territory costs 2 race tokens, plus one race token for each other token in the territory -- such as mountains, fortresses, bivouacs, lost tribes and (of course) other players' race tokens. You score a point for each territory you occupy at the end of your turn, plus bonus points as determined by your race and special ability. The game lasts between 8 and 12 rounds, depending on the number of players, and points are kept secret until the end.
Despite how much I love this game, I have yet to actually win. I made the mistake of teaching it to my 3- and 5-year-olds, and though they cannot even read most of the game's rules or text, they have consistently earned a few more victory points than me by the time the game ends. Whether that's ingenious game design or poor game play (on my part), it's impossible to say.
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