Review Cardboard Mutilation: Small World Series

[Trash]

Tags: Cardboard Mutilation; Days of Wonder; Philippe Keyaerts; Small World; Small World Underground

Here's the first in a new series of articles concerning that lovely geeky hobby called boardgaming. Here our very own boardgamegeek Ulminati will shed some light on that dark world of grown men huddling over dices and counters while whispering about arcane rules. We'll kick this off with a look at the Small World series of games by Philippe Keyaerts.

Small World is, as the name implies, a world which is much to small for all the fantasy creatures that want to live in it. In true Darwinian fashion, they solve this problem by brutally murdering each other and taking over territories held by people who comitted the unforgivable sin of being born with a different skin color, amount of legs, scales or what have you. At the end of each of your turns, you score points depending on how much territory you've managed to sink your fingers/claws/fangs/tentacles into and after a set number of turns, whoever has scored the most points is declared the winner.

A case of easy to learn, difficult to master? Read the full article: Cardboard Mutilation: Small World Series

 

[Ulminati]

We've already established I cannot into spelling and grammar.

The article was written in fragments while I was doing other stuff. So that's my admittedly bad excuse for repeating points and using the same phrases over and over. I'll make sure to proofread better in the future.

 

[Trash]

Well, if there's still a lot of that around it's mostly my fault as editor.

 

[Marsal]

Such unprofessional behavior in my prestigious magazine. You both disgust me.

 

[felipepepe]

Nice, Small World is one of my favorite boardgames. Your review even made me want to go after SW Underground, so yeah, you should tottaly get some free stuff for that.

 

[Ulminati]

Underground games are definitely more interesting. But if you already have Smallworld, it can be difficult to justify buying what is essentially the same game at full price again.

Realms still looks all kinds of awesome. It even comes with a scenario to play with both regular and underground on a dual board with tunnels between surface and cave. Hnnnng... Must resist lure of cardboard!

 

[catfood]

Ah, yes I remember playing this one a couple of times. Good game, very easy to learn and play and set up. This is how board games should be.

Ulminati, do you plan on writing more reviews? Have you played Chaos in the Old World? Will you review it? That one is a bit more difficult but it has a very cool atmosphere.

 

[Ulminati]

Ulminati, do you plan on writing more reviews?

Yes. there's another one already done and I'm planning on writing more.

Have you played Chaos in the Old World?

No, but it's on my game shelf. I'm pulling it out next game night.

Will you review it?

Possibly. Eventually.

 

[Seboss]

We need more of these articles. What about discussing meatier games? Chaos in the Old World sounds like a great suggestion.

 

[Ulminati]

Chaos in the old world doesn't strike me as a terribly meaty game to be honest. Just one with a lot of fluff attached in classic ameritrash style. I'm personally more a fan of eurostyle games with simple, solid mechanics since they tend to play a lot better. Unlike with computer game, streamlining is often a very desirable trait in a board game since bloated rules often means you spend way too much time waiting for other players to take their turns. If I ever do a review of Android - despite there being a good game hidden somewhere in there - it exemplified everything that's wrong with bloated ameritrash board game design.

And before anyone goes all :kwanzania: at that post, ameritrash is actually a term with a specific, well-defined meaning in this context -> http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Ameritrash

 

[Seboss]

I don't think Chaos in the Old World can be qualified as Ameritrash. It might the most Euro-stylish game ever published by FFG, if you exclude the Reiner Knizia game reissues. I would be careful of the extreme streamlining and abstraction of the Euro/German games. Most of these games I played in the last two years bored me to tears, and I can't say the latest batch from Essen is any better.
I'm no longer a fan of classic Ameritrash games (won't be playing Descent 1st edition of Twilight Imperium anytime soon), but I won't subscribe to your opinion that Euros are objectively better than more thematic/fluffy/random games. I'm happy that the two schools are progressively merging thanks to games such as Lords of Waterdeep, Vladaa Chvatil games, Eclipse, etc.

Oh and Android was terrible, period. It felt like Kevin Wilson just tried to stuff all the game mechanics he ever touched in a single game. Notice that FFG didn't publish anything from him since then, with the exception of the silly Elder Sign game he co-designed with Richard Launius. I was more than a little surprise that FFG invested so much in that franchise (novels, new edition of Netrunner).

 

[Ulminati]

I don't think Chaos in the Old World can be qualified as Ameritrash. It might the most Euro-stylish game ever published by FFG

Don't get me wrong. I love Twilight imperium, Tide of Iron, Horus Heresy and Arkham Horror as much as the next guy. But FFG is about as ameritrashy as modern game publishers get.

I would be careful of the extreme streamlining and abstraction of the Euro/German games. Most of these games I played in the last two years bored me to tears, and I can't say the latest batch from Essen is any better.

It's a matter of taste. Personally I prefer games where turns pass quickly, since many of the poeple I play with have yet to master the idea of planning out your moves while other players take their turns. This has led more than one game to drag on for ages. Bear in mind I get annoyed when people average more than 2 minutes to take their turn in Blood Bowl.

Eclipse

Oh and Android was terrible, period. It felt like Kevin Wilson just tried to stuff all the game mechanics he ever touched in a single game. Notice that FFG didn't publish anything from him since then, with the exception of the silly Elder Sign game he co-designed with Richard Launius.

Android also encompasses all of the themes and mechanics common in ameritrash titles. (Luck, fluff, special rules for everything, lots of thematic bits) Cranked up to 11 admittedly, but it makes a good illustrative example of the pitfalls. Elder Sign was actually surprisingly decent as a quick-fix game when we craved something with the flavour of Arkham Horror but don't feel like spending an entire evening on it.

There are a couple of Ameritrash titles I'm thinking of reviewing. Dune (which recently had a FFG remake called Rex) is one of the all-time classics that nails the setting and rules perfectly. Titan (the board game, not the card game) is the godfather of rolling a billion plastic cubes across the table. Kremlin is cold war satire at its finest (fuck the popamole Nuclear war) and no series about paper&cardboard gaming would be complete without a peek at at least one steve jackson game. I'm thinking Illuminati.

[edit]

Let's not kid ourselves. What people really want to see more of is this:

Spoiler

 

[Gragt]

Nice! I'm always interested in more articles about boardgames.

 

[Seboss]

Let's not kid ourselves. What people really want to see more of is this:

* pic of Ameritrash classic recently republished by FFG *

In the same vein, Risk Legacy is worthy of a review I suppose. Rex is definitely worth a look. Dune was excellent back in the days, and FFG seem to have successfully tweaked it to suit 2012 requirements (less downtime and play time overall).
Titan is interesting. It's the closest thing to 'Heroes of Might and Magic: the boardgame" I can think of. It really is tediously long and random though. Luckily, I've been eliminated after less than an hour in my last game. The other guys didn't look like they enjoyed the next four hours that much.

 

[Ulminati]

There's a Dune review done and in the pipeline. I haven't actually played Rex so I cannot say if the changes FFG made were for the better.