Small World
Wow, fun game. Played last night in between games of Scripts & Scribes and Tribune. Fun and easy to learn, I think it'll make a great entry game, but lotsa strategy for the rest of us. It's a fantasy-style civilization game, where you push one civ as fas as it can go, put it in decline and start another one. There are different boards for 2, 3, 4 and 5 player games. Races you can play are randomly assigned abilities, which makes things interesting, as there can be some awesome combos (dragon hunter trolls) and some weak ones, too (fortifying dwarves), but it keeps the game fresh. Some combos look like they'd be strong at the start rather than the endgame, too.
A few things I noticed:
Mountains are nice to have when you decline your race, as they tend to not be targeted at the end of the game (people are trying to max out their point potential).
I mentioned that fortifying dwarves are a weak combo, but dwarves are the suck, period. I can't think of any ability that would really make them worth while. Edit: Flying. Flying dwarves I might pick if there were 3 or 4 VPs to go with it. But then flying is a really good ability, too.
Bivouacing ratmen are crazy. Bivouacing skeletons would be nuts, I'm thinking. Bivouacing Trolls would be nigh invulnerable. I guess what I'm saying is bivouacing is a good ability.
Of course, being a Days of Wonder game, we shall see expansions. And this game is nothing if not expandable.
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