Since it was first published in 2009, the hyper-competitive family strategy game Small World has become a perennial tabletop favorite. Ironically, given its name, its success has caused its fantasy realm to grow over the years, with a steady stream of expansions introducing new factions to command and new regions to explore. Now, though, the game has shifted to an entirely new setting with Small World of Warcraft, a standalone game set in WoW’s orc-infested land of Azeroth.
For the uninitiated, the original Small World has players control rival factions, all competing to seize territory and expand their empires. While it’s a premise shared by countless “dudes-on-a-map” strategy games, Small World‘s unpredictable take on the concept comes with a handful of twists that help it stand out from the crowd.
The biggest twist is that, unlike many games which put players in command of a single civilization over centuries, Small World makes things far less permanent. Its empires rise and fall just like in the real world. At the beginning of the game, you’ll choose a race to command from a selection including elves, orcs, towering giants, and savage rat-men. Each comes with its own special ability, giving you advantages when it comes to movement, scoring, attacking, or defending regions. With each passing round, you’ll spread your troops further across the game’s map but inevitably will overextend your borders, sending your civilization into decline and forcing you to choose a new one to start the process from scratch.
Your chosen race is only one half of the equation, though. Whenever you choose a faction, you’ll also gain an associated special power token taken from a random stack. This means you will select from different combinations of powers on every play-through, which makes Small World a game of shifting situations and mutable tactics.
