aka pastor guy: #19: Small World (Mark's 100

Small World

Mark's Ranking

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Why It's On The List

While I know I'm going to inspire some carping & complaining, I believe that the designer & Days of Wonder took a decent but flawed game (Vinci) and turned it into a whimsical, more enjoyable and better game - Small World. This is fantasy combat in a pretty abstract form... but still packed full of fun.

Tips & Tricks:

This is one of those games where owning some expansions adds to the enjoyment - the extra races & powers keep the replayability high.
Order in which to buy expansions (in my ever-so-humble opinion): #1: Be Not Afraid, #2: Grand Dames of Small World, #3: Tales & Wonders, #4: Cursed.
Though I enjoy the Necromancer Island expansion, it's not worth the $$ people are selling it for.
If you're going to buy Small World: Realms (an expansion that lets you build your own maps & scenarios), you'll probably want the stand-alone Small World: Underground (which I don't like as much as I do the base game)... and you won't need to bother with tracking down a copy of the Tunnels expansion, as it is included in Realms.
Don't bother with the Leaders expansion - we certainly don't use it.
You have to be a certain kind of person to revel in the chaos of the Tales & Wonders expansion - but if you are, it's very, very good. (I am.)

Extras

Days of Wonder just recently released a new edition of the iPad version of the game... I don't own it but I'm told it's well done.
Here's what I wrote about Be Not Afraid & Necromancer Island for this blog.
And here's what I wrote about Vinci for The One Hundred.

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If you feel a need to catch up on my admittedly-aging Top 100 as of February 2012 list, you can check out:

aka pastor guy