Components
- 2 Double-Sided Game Boards
- 14 Fantasy Races with matching banner & tokens
- 20 Special Power badges
- 10 Troll Lairs, 9 Mountains, 2 Holes, 6 Fortresses, 5 Encampments, Game Turn Marker
- 2 Heroes & 1 Dragon
- 109 Victory Coins
- 6 Player Summary Sheets
- 1 Reinforcement Die
- 1 Rules Booklet
Setup
Pick the map that matches the number of players and place it on the table.
Place the Game Turn marker on the first spot of the map's Game Turn track.
The track is used to monitor the game's progress. The game ends at the end of the turn in which the Game Turn marker reaches the last position on the track.Put the storage tray with all races next to the board map within easy reach of all players.
Shuffle all the race banners and draw 5 (at random) and put them face up in a single column.
Place the remaining banners face up, in a single stack, at the bottom of the column.Do the same with the Special Power badges and placing one to the left of each Race banner.
Stack the rest of the badges in a pile to the left of the Race banners stack.Place a Lost Tribe token on each region of the map featuring a Lost Tribe symbol.
These civilizations have already fallen into decline but still populate some territories of the map.Put a Mountain token on each region of the map with a mountain.
Give each player five victory coins (of 1). Place all remaining coins, including all "3"s, "5"s and "10"s next to the board. These coins will serve as your currency during the game, and help determine the winner at the end.
Object of the Game
Space is getting tight in Small World and there are too many races living off the land.
Picking a fantasy Race and Special Power combination, you must use their unique racial traits and skills to conquer adjacent territories to gather victory coins for each Region you occupy at the end of your turn.
Eventually, your race will become increasingly over-extended and you will need to abandon your civilization and look for another. It's really important to know when to push your race into decline and ride a new one to supremacy.
Game Play
Pick a player to start the game. This player moves the Game Turn marker forward one spot on the Game Turn Track and do his turn.
The game then proceeds clockwise and once all players have had a turn, a new turn begins. When the Game Turn marker reaches the last spot, one final turn is played and the game ends.
The player with the most Victory coins wins the game.
I. First Turn
During the 1st Turn of the game, each player:
-
Picking A Race And Special Power Combo
The player selects one race and special power combo, from among the six that are visible on the table.
The cost of each combo is determined by its position in the column. The first combo (top of the column) is free. Each next combos (from top to bottom) costs one additional coin and the player pays these cost by dropping one coin on all above combos.
If the combo contains some Victory coins (dropped by previous players), the player takes these coins but still pay the price for that combo.
Now, the player picks a number of matching race tokens equal to the sum of the values indicated on the race banner and its associated Special Power badge.
Even if a Special Power lets you take additional Race tokens from the storage tray, you are still limited by the total number of tokens physically available.
Finally, the player replenishes the column of combos available to others. This is being achieved by sliding existing combos up one position and revealing a new combo from the top of the stack.
-
Conquering Regions
The player's race tokens are used to conquer regions or territories of the map.
First Conquest
A player's race deploying on the map for the first time must enter it by conquering one of its border adjacent regions.
Conquering a Region
To conquer a region, a player must have available to deploy:
- Two Race tokens.
- 1 additional Race token for each Encampment, Fortress, Mountain, or Troll's Lair marker.
- 1 additional Race token for each token already present in the region.
Seas and Lakes cannot usually be conquered.
The player must deploy the race tokens he used to conquer this region inside its borders on the map.
These tokens must remain in this region until the player reorganizes his troops at the end of this turn.
Enemy Losses & Withdrawals
If race tokens of another player occupied the region prior to its conquest, that player must immediately take all of these race tokens back and:
- permanently discard one Race token back into the storage tray.
- keep the other race tokens in hand and redeploy them in any other region(s) still occupied by his race.
The region(s) in which the remaining Race tokens, redeploy do not have to be adjacent or contiguous to the region(s) they fled from.
If all of a player's regions were attacked this turn, leaving him no race tokens on the board, he may redeploy these as if he was doing a First Conquest on his next turn.
When a region defended by a single token is captured, the defending token is discarded (usually when the defender is a Lost Tribe or belongs to a race in decline.
Note: A player may choose to conquer a region occupied by his own In Decline token. Mountains are immovable and remain in place to provide defense for their new conqueror.
Following Conquests
The active player can repeat this process to conquer as many new regions as he wishes during his turn (when enough race tokens left).
Each of the newly conquered regions must be adjacent to a region already occupied by his active Race tokens (unless permitted by a Race/Special Power combo).
Final Conquest Attempt/Reinforcement Die Roll
During the final conquest attempt of his turn, a player may find himself with not enough Race tokens left to conquer another Region outright.
Provided he still has at least one unused Race token, the player may attempt one final conquest for his turn by selecting a region that he would normally be 3 or less Race tokens short to conquer.
This Region does not have to be the weakest one available, it could still be conquered with a lucky die roll.
If the sum of the die rolled, combined with the race token(s) left in his possession, is high enough to conquer the Region, the player deploys his remaining race token(s) there.
Else he deploys his remaining token(s) in one of the regions he already occupied prior.
Troop Redeployment
Once a player's conquests for the turn have ended, he may freely redeploy the race tokens he has on the board, moving them from one region to any other one occupied by his race.
It is not needed that these regions are adjacent.
-
Scoring Victory Coins
As the turn is complete, the player receives 1 coin from the victory stash for each region his Race tokens occupy on the map.
The player may also collect additional Victory coins as a result of his Race and/or Special Power benefit.
The regions that In Decline tokens occupy also each contribute one Victory coin to the player, but the race banner and Special Power benefits no longer contribute any bonus coins, unless explicitly stated otherwise in race or Special Power benefits.
Players keep their Victory coins hidden. The final scores are not revealed until the end of the game.
II. Following Turns
In following turns, the first player moves the Game Turn marker up one spot on the track and the game continues clockwise.
During his turn, each player must now either:
-
Expanding through new Conquests
Ready Your Troops
Leaving in place one race token in each region they occupy, the player can take all his other active race tokens from the map back in hand and use them to conquer new regions.
Conquer
All rules relative to the conquest of a new region must be respected, with the exception of the rule relative to the First Conquest, which only applies to new races entering on the map.
Abandoning a Region
Only those Race tokens that were taken back in hand may be used to conquer new regions.
If a player wishes to free up some more race tokens, he may opt to entirely empty up some or all regions, leaving no tokens there.
These now abandoned regions will no longer be considered his and don't supply any Victory coins anymore.
If a player abandons all the Regions, his next conquest must follow the same rules as its First Conquest.
-
Entering in Decline
Once a player thinks that his active race is over-extended and can't continue expanding successfully, he may choose to put it In Decline by selecting a new Race and Special Power combo from those available on the table at the start of his next turn.
The player flips his current race banner upside down, so that the grayed-out In Decline side becomes visible to all and discards the Special Power badge that was associated with it as that Special Power badge is no longer in effect, unless dictated otherwise (e.g. Spirit Special Power).
He also flips a single race token onto its In Decline side in each region those tokens occupied and removes all other tokens of this race from the map.
Each player can only have a single race In Decline on the map at any given time.
If the player still has tokens from an earlier In Decline race left on the map, those are all immediately removed from the map.
The Race banner of the now vanished race is placed at the bottom of the stack of race banners, or in the lowest empty slot in the banner column.
The player can make no conquests during the turn his race goes into decline and his turn ends immediately after scoring!
He gains 1 Victory coin for each region his newly In Decline tokens occupy, but unless stated otherwise, he scores no Victory coins from his now In Decline race banner power or discarded Special Power benefits.
On his next turn, the player will select a new race and Special Power combo. He then follows the same rules used during the first turn of the game.The only difference is that the player will now likely collect Victory coins from his new race as well as from left-over tokens of his now In Decline race.
In the unlikely event there are not enough Special Power badges left in the Special Powers stack to keep putting new race and Special Power combos on the table, shuffle previously discarded Special Power badges into a new stack.
End of the Game
Once the Game Turn marker has reached its final spot on the Game Turn track and all players have had a chance to play a final turn, the Victory coins are revealed.
The player with the highest score wins. In the case of a tie, the player with the most race tokens (Active + In Decline) still on the board is the winner.
Continue Reading