4-Game Game Night

Last "Friday night" game night we set out to play Small World by Days of Wonder. Bob of Might of Arms had been curious about it so we put it on the agenda. We had a short crew that night, consisting of myself, Andy, Bob, and fellow gamer regular Ken.

I've spoken on Small World before ("almost" an actual review!) and this one is a keeper. It's a fun game that is light-hearted in scope and offers a lot of replay value. The main draw of the game is the combination of fantasy race/power choices that pop up. You populate a diverse map with your army, take over as much territory as you can while your race is still powerful enough to hold on to said territory, then let them decline (fall off the map) as you conquer new territories with a new race/power combo. The combos are going to be different every game. For a boardgame this one has excellent value packed under the hood and if you shop around (ahem, Amazon) you're not paying an arm or a leg for it. Is it a game you're playing week in, week out? Maybe not every week, but it's certainly worthy of a spot in your gaming stable.

One way to perhaps overcome this however lies in this deck of cards called "Tales and Legends" which is a new expansion that's just come out. I picked it up just today, err, as of this writing anyway. It looks to be a lot of fun, as it adds random events to each game turn from the small to the cataclysmic. I flipped through it in the parking lot, and at first glance it looks pretty good with great art and nice, large text. After our first game or two with it I'll let y'all know how it went.


Shadows Over Camelot is another Days of Wonder game, and about halfway through this game I was thinking to myself we should play it more, for sure. Its scope, unlike Small World, is more serious and grounded in the fantasy side of the King Arthur genre. Players work together cooperatively to bounce from quest to quest keeping threats to Camelot at bay. There is a catch, which makes this game so great, and that's the traitor factor. One of the knights may (or may not be) a traitor to the round table. As the traitor works through the quests with his fellow knights, they shift the balance in subtle ways towards the forces of shadow. If a loyal knight can ferret them out, they can accuse them and win honor for Camelot. If you accuse the wrong person however, darkness creeps in further. Each game will more than likely have a traitor, but not always, it's completely random. This one is much more involved than Small World, but its mechanics have you in the action in no time. Andy and I hadn't played Shadows Over Camleot in a couple of years at least, and both Bob and Ken were brand new to it, but still we rolled along at a good clip without missing a beat. Production value on this, as I'm finding is the case with most Days of Wonder games, is very high and again you can also find it on the cheap.


Sherlock is a great game, end of story. Go buy it, it's maybe ten bucks I think? It's a memory game and works for all ages and all levels of sobriety. I have played this game with middle school kids, elementary school kids, adults, and a mixture of the above and had a blast every time. It does seem a bit "kiddy" at first, but even the most stalwart gamer will be laughing and enjoying themselves within the first couple of turns. As for the mixed sobriety factor, this game is perfect to break out after the kids have all gone to bed as well, just make sure everyone is on an even playing field or someone will have an incredibly unfair advantage!


Such trigger discipline!

Ca$h 'n Gun$ is one of those "party games" that equally deserves a place in the boardgaming stable. It's a wacky concept, but executed well. You're playing bank robbers, post-heist, trying to split up the loot in your hideout. Often, as negotiations are bound to become tense, the "gats" come out. It is a game of bluffing, standing your ground, acquiring fat stacks o' cash, and fake foam pistols! There are lots of variant scenarios and rules built into the main set, but we've never messed with since the basic game is so much fun. Expansions for the game include a "Yakuza" set with foam throwing stars, tanto knives, and a sawn-off shotgun and the like. A pair of machine pistols recently popped up too in another expansion. As you may have guessed, this is not a cerebral game in the slightest, but it is fun, and that's exactly what it delivers.

A Couple o' Keepers...

Last week we grabbed a couple of games of both Carcassonne and Small World. Being the night before Thanksgiving (happy turkey day, by the way) we had a few friends in from out of town. They don't have the gaming groups they used to in their new locales, so many were eager for some hanging (and geeking) out around the game table.

A couple of folks were familiar with Carcassonne, it making appearances in the most unlikely of households, but even for those who had never heard of it, it's very easy to pick up. I've been so used to playing with my daughter (and not scoring farmlands), I got my arse handed to me in the final score tally, arrrgh! Although we had intended to play Galaxy Trucker (great game), everyone was interested in trying out Small World instead.

This is another one of those great intro type boardgames. Carcassonne had a couple of people on familiar ground, sure, but Small World was new to everyone at the table, many had never even heard of it. I should also mention that one of our buddies there was a non-gamer to boot (gasp!). The game's an impressive sight when it's all set up, and again, the simple mechanics and fun-to-play environment makes it ideal for casual gaming with plenty of replay value, plus, it has plenty of colorful hands-on pieces with entertaining art.


So for the casual and hardcore gamer alike, these are two keepers that should be 'must-haves' in everyone's inventory and game closets. For a mere $20 bucks you can pick up Carcassonne, and this gem of a tile-layer has infinite replay value and can be played by both stalwart game veterans as well as your rookie aunts and uncles alike. Small World is a bit more pricey at about $50 bucks, but you get all the production value and quality of a $100 Fantasy Flight game, with half the learning curve, and half the pricetag!

A Look at Small World: Part Two

Last week we got in a couple of games of Small World...

Small World certainly doesn't disappoint, and although I don't normally buy games without playing them first, I wasn't let down by this one at all. For all the extra bits, pieces, counters, and punch outs, the game ran quite simply.

A Look at Small World: Part One

Philippe Keyaerts' Small World

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was aiming to get some boardgames for family game night. My boxes arrived in the mail and I opened them up with enthusiasm. The two card games I picked up were packaged nice, but they're card games in the end, I'll whip something up about them at a later date. For now I'll focus on Small World.

I've heard great things about Days of Wonder's Ticket to Ride, and have played DoW's Shadows Over Camelot before, and was impressed by it, but this is the first DoW game I've bought. Upon opening the box, I knew I was going to have to 'review' it. I haven't even played it yet, but based on the production quality alone, I'll give it the one-two treatment. This post will be about the pieces and parts of the game, and after we get a few games under our belts I'll post another review about the mechanics and gameplay of it.


You get a nice, large rulebook. It's full color, double sided, and printed on durable semi-gloss paper. As you can see it's got great diagrams and walks you through what pops up in-game. Also, the entirety of the rules are just a tad over six pages, but given large print and tons of diagrams, they're a surprisingly quick read. I've given it a once-through the one time, but I feel I've got a pretty good handle on things already.


The number of counters, chits, cards, and the like are immeasurable, you get well over a hundred, maybe a hundred fifty pieces at least. As I was pulling the unpunched sheets out of the box, they just kept coming and coming. The cardstock/board is thick, very thick, and the pieces popped off their "sprues" in the blink of an eye with nary a hangup occurring whatsoever. In my mind I was already rolling my eyes though, 'cause I knew I was going to have come up with some type of organization system for all of it,which probably means a separate toolbox, but more on that in just a little bit.

Right up top on the right was another nice touch. Large, double sided and full color summary sheets are also provided. The game is for 2-5 players, but they actually include six of these quick reference sheets. The extra one as it states in the rulebook is kind of "just because", it's just there to use as a group reference sheet.


The maps are the crux of the game, they represent the "small world" itself. There's actually two maps included in the box. There is a smaller rectangular map (small being a relative term) that is double sided, one side is for two players, the other for three. The second, larger map is also double sided, one side for four players, the other side for five. The picture above is on my kitchen table, so that gives you an idea of the size of them. As you can tell from the pics, the boards are colorful and illustrated very well.


Once I pulled out the last piece I had a little present waiting on me, a built-in storage tray, holy crap! This was quite the deal maker for me. I had no idea it came with this, and my above worry about what to do with all the pieces suddenly vanished. I loaded it up after I punched out all the pieces, and as you can see, it fits like a glove.


Small World has fourteen playable races, and each individual race requires its own race tokens on the board. This separate tray comes out of the box, has its own clear lid so the pieces won't spill out, and holds the races' tokens all in one go. It's kind of a neat aside, but even the edges of each race are a different color to tell them apart.

So there you have it, the components of Small World really deliver in spades. It's got quality pieces inside and out and there's not a single shoddy element to this game whatsoever. Everything feels as if it is going to last for a very long time. Fancy components are just half the battle though, really maybe less than that, perhaps a third of the battle. The real test is how the game plays and how fun it is overall. Like I said, hopefully I'll get a gameplay review written up and posted on here sooner than later.