Let's Talk Small World

(I'm blitzing the forums this morning)

Had a buddy come down last weekend, and we dusted off Small World (for some reason). We ended up having a lot of fun with it and I'm thinking perhaps I've overlooked it these past few years. I'm not sure if it'll become a standard with the family like TtR and Zooloretto, but I can see us having some fun with it.

That said I don't think I want to go too deep into expansions on this but perhaps one or two of the smaller ones.

So, which are the ones to get? I'd also be curious to hear thoughts on the bigger boxes like Underground and Realms (what's that about?).

We've played quite a bit of Small World, and a fair amount of Small World Underground.

SW is a cleaner game than SWU. It's easier to grasp and less busy with extra components and rules. I was kind of underwhelmed with 2P SW though, while I really like 2P SWU. The difference is in the items you can get in SWU. Some of them are pretty powerful, some of them let you traverse the board better, and most of them are worth having. It's like having real goals on the board that force two players to go head-to-head earlier in the game. Probably less balanced, but more chaotic and I like that. SWU is the "trashier" of the two, and it's the one we ended up buying.

Realms is pretty cool. It has a dozen or so scenarios. A third of them are for SW, a third of them are for SWU, and a third of them use both sets. You can also build your own boards to play on. I like it. Sure, there's probably less balance in a randomly assembled Realms board, but I can handle that and it helps change up the game. I haven't yet tried playing the SW scenarios with the SWU set, but [url=http://http://boardgamegeek.com/article/11491210#11491210]I did ask that question[/url]. Realms also comes with Tunnels (rules at DoW website) which connects the SW and SWU boards for a big game. Haven't tried that.

Tales and Legends gives SW a little more of a SWU feel with extra stuff, but I've only played it once so I can't say much about it.

The other small race expansions are primarily for SW, and only really necessary if you feel played out on the base game races. I've heard they're mostly compatible with SWU, but haven't tried.

One special power (Diplomatic) just doesn't work at all in a two-player game. I actually do think it's borderline broken in that setting. But that's the only scaling problem I have.

My set has Cursed!, Grand Dames, and Be Not Afraid. I think those are all essential. They give the perfect amount of variety in powers and races to really shake games up. They are also added with a minimum of complexity, although it would have been nice if they had included more than one copy of the player aids for those expansions.

Tales and Legends I like quite a bit, but it does kind of bog down the game and add a good deal of crazy. The extra races can be added without making the game particularly messy, but Tales & Legends isn't that way.

Underground is good, but I'm not sure it's really necessary for me, since I have a mostly-loaded set of the original that I only get to occasionally.

Haven't played Realms, Leaders, or Necromancer Isle (though I do have that one).

As one of those 'completionist' fellows, I bought the expansions and recently, SWU. I love the ability combos and that keeps me coming back. I also made hex spaces for the varoius terrain, so that I can have a random board every play if desired.

I only own the base game, but I find it to be very enjoyable. For variety adding the races from "Be Not Afraid", "Cursed" and "Grand Dames" is a must. They help keep you from seeing the same old races and combos.

I'm actually a big fan of Tales and Legends, but I don't always play with it. It adds a nice wrinkle to each round of the game and can really cause people stress if they cannot adapt. I save this expansion for when people are very familiar with the game.

Once you add all those small expansions you can probably hold off on SWU or Realms. If you NEED to buy one I would probably go for SWU before Realms. The Realms expansion doesn't really interest me all that much. The changes in Underground look interesting enough that it could provided a different, worthwhile experience.

Realms is a lot like Seafarers of Catan in how it changes the base game. More of the same, and a touch of variety, but only for when you are really bored with the base game.

I played this one back then with several of my friends in Vassal. It was fun. Some meme came out of it. But after a couple of games none of us were suggesting it anymore.

From our games, I feel that the less you "attack" the more prosperous you are. Feels wrong to me. May be our meta is not right, may be the game is supposed to be played that way. Small World is not small enough.