Best Small World Expansions 2023

Hey fellow board gamers! Today I’ll be talking about Small World Expansions.

If you know Small World, you already know that is quite an amazing game, perfectly suited for both beginners and experienced gamers.

One of the major pros of the game is its replayability, which is almost infinite thanks to all the possible combinations between the Races and Special Powers included in the base game.

Of course, after playing the game over and over you’ll probably reach a point where you become a bit bored and this is when the Small World expansions.
Days of Wonder has done an incredible job to bring us some interesting additions to make the game feel always fresh and new every time you play it.

I’ve made a personal list with all the currently available Small World expansions ranked from the best to the worst.
I have also included the 2 alternative versions of the original game, which I think are too good to be left out from this article, even though they aren’t technically expansions.

Let’s begin!

---

This post may contain affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I will get a commission at no extra cost to you. See our Affiliate Disclosure.

---

Best Small World Expansions 2023

1 • Small World of Warcraft: a stand-alone game set in the Azeroth universe.

2 • Small World Underground: an alternative stand-alone version of the game set beneath the surface of our beloved Small World.

3 • Small World Power Pack #1: first expansion that brings together the 2 mini-expansions Be Not Afraid… and A Spider’s Web. It contains new Races and Special Powers.

4 • Small World Power Pack #2: second expansion that includes the 3 mini-expansions Cursed!, Grand Dames and Royal Bonus. It contains new Races and Special Powers.

5 • Small World Sky Islands: expansion that adds a new Map, new Races and Special Powers, in which you’ll have to fight for the control of the Sky.

6 • Small World River World: a really thematic expansion that brings new Game Boards and Pirates to your table.

7 • Small World Realms: tired of playing on the same board? This expansion features modular tiles that allow you to create your own map.

8 • Small World Necromancer Island: the Necromancer has arrived in your world and a swarm of ghosts is ready to annihilate everything they face.

9 • Small World 6 Player Board: expansion that increases the number of players to 6.

10 • Small World Tunnels: small expansion that allows you to play both Small World and Small World Underground together.

11 • Small World Tales and Legends: an expansion that adds Event cards, and so new gameplay mechanics, to the game.

12 • Small World: The Lost Tribes’ Crusade: free expansion that allows you to fight against the always-maltreated Lost Tribes Race.

13 • Small World Leaders of Small World: small expansion featuring 24 Leaders tokens that allows you to gain more money if you capture enemy leaders.

Small World of Warcraft

Small World of Warcraft is a stand-alone board game set in Blizzard’s well-known universe, Azeroth. Similar to the original Small World game, players have to fight against each other to conquer as many regions as possible in order to expand their territories and earn Victory coins.

This version of the game introduces a few different things and I’ll cover the major ones here:

Game Board
The game board on Small World of Warcraft has much more variety than the original Small World game, as it is designed to be floating islands, so you could pick any kind of small/large islands combinations according to the number of players.

Horde vs Alliance
Would have been a truly World of Warcraft themed game without a mention of the eternal fight between these 2 warrior factions? Of course not!
Days of Wonder introduced a new mechanic for which players get a Faction Bonus of 1 Victory Coin for each Race of the opposite faction they defeated on their turn.

Artifacts and Legendary Places
These are placed facedown on the map until they are revealed by the players while the game progresses. When that happens, players can take advantage of their effects and bonuses, such as conquering territories more easily or earning more Victory coins.

There are also some other minor differences but mostly due to the different Races and Special Powers effects.

Inside the Box

• 6 Double-Sided game boards
• 16 World of Warcraft Races with matching banners & tokens
• 20 Special Power badges
• 7 Legendary Places & 5 Artifacts
• 10 Mountains, 15 Murlocs, 9 Wisp Walls, 4 Harmony tokens, 12 Bombs, 1 Champion, 10 Forts, 2 Military Objectives, 5 Beasts & 6 Watch Towers
• 1 Game Turn track & 1 Game Turn Marker
• 110 Victory Coins
• 5 Summary Sheets
• 1 Reinforcement Die
• Rules Booklet
• Team Variant Rules sheet

If you go on the Days of Wonder official website and scroll to the bottom of the page, you could also download a special rulebook that lets you play a mini-expansion for solo play and 2-players; this mini-expansion is called Revenge of the Murlocs and you basically have to slay these annoying little monsters.

Final Thoughts

I played this version of the game quite a few times, but I don’t actually own a copy of it. For now, it’s just on my wish list, but I’m pretty sure I’ll end up buying it in the near future.
If you like the original Small World and you are a fan of the Azeroth Universe, I think buying this game is kind of a no-brainer decision.

Small World + World of Warcraft, what could you possibly wish more? Actually, a Small World set in the Middle Earth would be pretty legendary!

– This is a stand-alone game, not an expansion –

---

---

Small World Underground

Small World Underground is a stand-alone game set beneath the surface of the same Small World universe.
It can be played on its own or combined with other Small World expansions.

Small World Underground differs from the vanilla version of the game in a few aspects, which I’m going to describe here below:

Monster occupied regions
There are some regions that have monster tokens on them and these monsters must be defeated in order to acquire useful bonuses.

Popular Places and Righteous Relics
When you conquer a monster occupied region, you can draw a marker from the stack of Places and Relics and place it on the region just conquered.
These markers give unique powers to whoever controls them, such as the ability to conquer regions for fewer tokens than normal

Similar to Small World of Warcraft, there are also some other minor differences but mostly due to the different Races and Special Powers effects.

Inside the Box

• 2 Double-Sided game boards
• 15 New Fantasy Races with matching banners & tokens
• 21 New Special Power badges
• 9 Popular Places & 6 Righteous Relics
• 9 Black Mountains & 1 Volcano
• 8 Mushroom Armor, 7 Silver Hammer, 4 Vengeance Markers, 1 Bag-o’-Many-Things & 1 Game Turn Marker
• 1 Balrog, 1 Ghost, 1 Great Ancient & 1 Queen
• 106 Victory Coins
• 5 Player & 1 Game Turn Summary Sheets
• 1 Reinforcement Die
• Rules Booklet

Final Thoughts

If you like the original Small World, this is basically its perfect copy with a different game board, theme, Races and Special Powers.
All the new Races are fun to play, but some of them share too many similarities with the original game.

I have appreciated the introduction of Relics&Places but that alone doesn’t really justify why you should get the game if you own already the vanilla edition.

I would personally pick this up with the aim to connect this game and Small World thanks to the Tunnels expansion. That allows you to play on both maps together, which is pretty cool if you ask me.

That being said, if you don’t have a copy of Small World, this is a very good alternative if you like the artwork.

– This is a stand-alone game, not an expansion –

---

---

Small World Power Pack #1

This is the first of the Small World expansions that I’d recommend buying first if you are looking to expand the game.
There was a time when Days of Wonder used to release single mini Small World expansions that included new races and special powers, but since 2017 they have been bundled up in Power Pack editions.

This one includes the two mini-expansions: Be Not Afraid… and A Spider’s Web.

Small World: Be Not Afraid…

Firstly released in 2010, this box contains 5 new Races with unique abilities and 5 new Special Powers.

RACES

• Barbarians: they are many (x9), but they also have one of the worst ability ever… you can’t redeploy them at the end of the turn.
• Homunculi: the longer this race stays in the combo column, the more tokens you can add to your hand when you pick them up.
• Pixies: they start with a lot of minions (x11), but they can only keep one token on each conquered region, making them very fragile.
• Pygmies: each time you lose a token, you roll the reinforcement die and receive as many new tokens as the rolled number; amazing ability!
• Leprechauns: they can place pots of gold worth 1 victory point on your next turn, if the opponents won’t steal them first.

POWERS

• Barricade: collect 3 bonus coins if your troops occupy 4 regions or less at the end of your turn.
• Catapult: it is used to conquer any region 1 space away from the catapult at 1 less token; the catapult makes a region immune to conquests.
• Corrupt: any time an opponent conquers one of your active region, you collect 1 coin; very powerful power.
• Imperial: collect 1 bonus coin for each region in excess of 3 that your Imperial troops occupy at the end of your turn.
• Mercenary: you can spend victory points to reduce the number of tokens needed to conquer a region.

A Spider’s Web

Released in 2014, this mini-expansion adds 3 new Races and 3 new Special Powers.

RACES

• Ice Witches: collect and place Winter markers to increase regions’ defenses by 1; regions with Winter markers earn 1 less victory point if not controlled by Ice Witches.
• Skags: randomly place 1 Loot marker on each conquered region; these markers will be then revealed by the opponents, when they conquer your regions, or by you when you decline the race; revealing those markers leads to different outcomes.
• Slingmen: they may conquer 1 region away from the region they currently occupy and take immediately 1 victory point for each region conquered in this way;

POWERS

• Copycat: each turn you may place the copycat marker next to any power in the combo column and benefit by that power’s effect.
• Lava: for each conquered mountain region, you can place a Lava marker in any region adjacent to them; all the present tokens are returned to their players and those regions can’t be conquered by any other player until after the beginning of your next turn.
• Soul-Touch: when your race go in decline, it automatically revives your previous In-Decline race.

Final Thoughts

When I think about Small World expansions, my first recommendation is always to get this one.
It includes some new great Races, such as Pygmies or Slingmen, and Powers, such as Corrupt and Imperial, that have interesting mechanics and add more variability to the game.

– A copy of Small World stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

---

Small World Power Pack #2

The second Power Pack of the Small World expansions, bundles together 3 mini-expansions: Cursed!, Grand Dames and Royal Bonus.
The first two are actually developed as part of the Small World Design Contest, and it includes winning drawings from over 700 submissions.
Royal Bonus was initially released only to Kickstarter backers of the digital version of Small World, but now everyone can pick this up.

Cursed!

This mini-expansion adds 2 new Races and 5 new Special Powers.

RACES

• Kobolds: you start with a lot of them (x11) but they can never occupy a region with less than 2 tokens.
• Goblins: they are great for conquering regions with In-Decline races, for which you can use 1 less token than normal.

POWERS

• Cursed: it doesn’t have any abilities, but if you want to skip the Race whom this power is paired with, when selecting a combo, you must pay 3 coins instead of 1.
• Hordes of: you can these 2 “Hordes of” tokens as if they were 2 additional tokens of your chosen Race.
• Ransacking: each time you conquer an opponent’s region, you gain an additional coin directly from that player’s personal stash; amazing ability!
• Were-: each night (even numbered game turn) you can conquer all the regions with 2 less tokens than normal; another great ability!
• Marauding: once you complete your conquests, before rolling the reinforcement die, take your troops, leaving at least one token on each conquered region, and do another cycle of conquests with the rest of them.

Grand Dames of Small World

This mini-expansion adds 3 new Races and 2 new Special Powers.

RACES

• Gypsies: for each region you abandon place 1 victory coin, which will be given to you as a bonus at the end of your turn.
• Priestesses: when they go in decline you can take 1 token from each conquered region and stack them on a single “Ivory Tower” pile, abandoning all your other regions; each token of the Tower will give you 1 coin.
• White Ladies: once in Decline, they become immune to opponents’ conquests, racial and special powers.

POWERS

• Historian: collect 1 bonus victory coin for each In-Decline races at the moment you select this power; you can also collect bonus coins each time another opponent or you go in Decline.
• Peace Loving: collect 3 bonus victory coins for each time you have finished a turn without attacking active Races.

Bonus Royal

This mini-expansion adds 3 new Races and 3 new Special Powers.

RACES

• Fauns: during the troops redeployment phase, collect 1 additional Race token for each conquered region in that turn; your opponents will do the same for each region you have taken from them.
• Igors: you collect ALL the race tokens lost during conquests; at the beginning of your turn, you can exhange those with Igor Race tokens, at the rate players’ number = 1 Igor token.
• Shrubmen: all the forest regions occupied by this race become immune to opponents’ conquests, racial and special powers (even when In Decline); great power!

POWERS

• Aquatic: each of your coastal region gives you 1 additional victory coin; each non-coastal region gives you 1 less victory coin than normal.
• Behemoth: they can be obtained each time you conquer a swamp region and they count as Race tokens for both attack and defense.
• Fireball: fireball can be used to attack opponents in order to conquer regions and they count as 2 Race tokens; you can obtain a fireball for each Magic source you occupy.

Final Thoughts

The 2^nd Power Pack is another great addition to the game. It adds some great Races such as Igors, Shrubmen and White Ladies, but most importantly this box adds some amazing Powers to the game; I’m thinking about Ransacking, one of the best Powers of the game, Historian, Were-, Marauding and Fireball, all abilities that introduce fresh new mechanics and strategy to the table.

– A copy of Small World stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

---

Small World Sky Islands

Sky Islands is one of the Small World expansions that not only adds new Races and Powers to the game, but it also gives to the players a new board to play on, which can be placed side by side to the main game’s one.
This new board represents small floating pieces of land that you can travel to by using one of the two Access Points tokens (Magical Beanstalk or Stairway to Heaven) placed on two random regions of the main game’s board. These two Access Point regions are now considered adjacent to the Regions with the matching symbols on the Sky Islands, so if you conquer one of those you can then extend your conquests to the Sky!

Remember that for each island completely occupied by your troops, you get an additional Victory Point. Better be ready to climb!

Inside the Box

• Double-sided board (2 or 3 Islands)
• 7 Fantasy Race banners
• 7 Unique Special Power badges
• 94 Matching Race tokens and 4 Lost Tribe tokens
• 5 Zeppelin/Burning Region tokens
• 5 Trade Pact tokens
• 3 transformed Drakon tokens
• 2 Lightning Bolt tokens
• 2 Cannon tokens
• Access point to the Sky Islands tokens
• 1 “END” token
• Summary Sheet
• Rules booklet

Small World Sky Islands RACES

• Escargots: you earn coins for the regions you occupy at the beginning of your turn instead at the end; better to not pick them at turn 1 then!
• Scarecrows: each time a player conquer a region with the Scarecrows token, that player earns an additional victory coin; stay away from this.
• Khans: they earn an extra coin for each Hill or Farmland region they occupy, however any other region earns 1 less coin than normal.
• Scavengers: when they conquer a In Decline region, the token of the defeated race remains on that region in order to add to its defence; very useful!
• Storm Giants: they have the unique ability to start their first conquest in one of the regions of the Sky Islands; they have also access to two Bolt Lightning which can be used to conquer a mountain region with 1 Race token, regardless of that region’s defence.
• Drakons: up to three of this Race’s tokens can transform themselves into Dragons; you can then use them to conquer regions using 1 Dragon token regardless of that region’s defence. Those regions are also immune to enemy conquests. Quite powerful!
• Wendigos: once per turn, they can choose a forest region anywhere on the board and clear all the tokens present there; by doing so they also gain an extra Race token.

Small World Sky Islands POWERS

• Goldsmith: this let you earn 2 extra victory coins per mine region you occupy; any other region is worth one less coin than normal.
• Zeppelined: they can be used to perform special conquests anywhere on the board (even in Sky Islands) by rolling the reinforcement die and count if the pips are enough to overcome the region’s defence; if you roll an empty side, the zeppelin will crash on the ground, making that region immune to conquests until your next turn.
• Airborne: this let you conquer regions for 2 less Race tokens than normal.
• Haggling: you can distribute up to 5 Trade Pacts tokens to your opponents; if a player with Trade Pacts conquers one of your territories, he must pay you back 1 coin for each Trade Pacts he has; if a player with Trade Pacts doesn’t conquer any of your regions, you must give him a number of coins equal to the number of Trade Pacts he has.
• Gunner: you receive 2 cannons and they can be placed on your regions, allowing you to conquer adjacent regions for 2 less tokens than normal; regions with a cannon inside are immune to conquests, racial or special powers.
• Exploring: at the ends of each of your turns, you receive an extra coin equal to the number of regions you occupy on the main land or in the sky, whichever is less.
• Racketeering: when a new player chooses a new race, you receive a number of extra coins equal to the number of combinations he skipped to reach his choice.

Final Thoughts

This was the very first big expansion box, before the introduction of the Power Packs. With 7 new races and 7 new special powers, this expansion is still one of the best Small World expansions you could currently buy, so I absolutely recommend it.

Some of the new Races are amazing: Scavengers, Storm Giants and Drakons will carry you through the toughest battles, without unbalancing the game; new Special Powers are also pretty cool, giving you more strategic possibilities, and they can also be used in the base game alone (apart from Exploring).

Worth mentioning that with this expansion the number of players can be increased to 6.

Thematically, I like the idea of imaging another kingdom above the clouds and the races fighting to conquer it!
Those Access Points regions will quickly become the most desired ones, and you will be asked to make an important choice: will you stay on the Ground or will you fight your way out to explore the Sky?

– A copy of Small World stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

---

Small World River World

Pirates have descended the river to attack your harbours; as if you needed any more threats beyond the other Races you’re currently fighting for the conquest of the world.

But they are here, so you must fight them too!

This expansion adds two new double-sided game boards showing a river surrounded by lands.
The gameplay is the same as the basic Small World, with the exception that every turn you’ll have to face a different event, such as pirates, storm, freezing and calm, and you have to fight your way out of those events while fighting the other players.

There are also some new regions and symbols on the map, which I’ll describe here below.

Inside the Box

• 4 Maps of River World (two double-sided boards)
• 11 Event Markes
• 1 Caravel
• 12 Pirate Ships

Small World River World BOARD

• Rivers: each river region costs 1 Race token to be conquered, however they have to be emptied during the redeployment phase; you can’t occupy any river regions unless you have a special power that says so (e.g. Seafaring).
• Harbours: each region with a harbour symbol on it scores extra coins, with the additional effect that the more harbours you have and the more coins you get.
• Shipyard: the player that occupies the Shipyard region is entitled to place the Shipyard token on any river regions and start future conquests from directly from there.
• The Temple of the Seer: whoever is occupying the Temple of the Seer region can have a peek to the next event marker and disclose it to the other players if he wants to (without showing the marker); perfect if you like bluffing.

Small World River World EVENTS

Shuffle the Event markers and place them all face down forming a line; then reveal the first one and apply its effect. On each turn, you will reveal the next Event of the line until the game ends.
These markers will also help you remember the number of turns played, as there isn’t any Game Turn tracker on the board like there was on the original Small World.

• Storm: to conquer a river region the cost is now 3 tokens instead of 1.
• Quiet waters: all is quiet and nothing happens.
• Harsh Winter: river regions are now frozen and they become normal regions, each earning 1 victory coin; however, unless you reveal another Harsh Winter event, your troops must leave those reigons.
• Pirates: place a pirate ship in every empty river region; all the regions that are adjacent to at least one pirate ship score 1 less victory coin. Pirate ships count as 1 Race token and they can be be defeated following the normal rules for conquests. Pirate ships will stay on the board until defeated.

Final Thoughts

This is one of the Small World expansions that add a completely different and unique theme to the game.
When you play on this map, it feels like being teleported in the middle of the Caribbean Sea when Pirates were a big thing.

The new mechanics work well together and they add a layer of randomness that force players to change their strategy to adapt to the events. That’s cool!

Although I appreciate all of these add-ons, I don’t really think that this is an essential expansion to buy.
You don’t get any new Races or Special Powers, which I personally consider very important when buying any of the Small World expansions, and the Events are just not diversified enough.
For an expansion that is all about the game board, I would have expected a little bit more variety honestly.

– A copy of Small World stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

---

Small World Realms

Together with River World, this is one of the Small Expansions that focuses solely on the game board. And this time with a major twist.

In fact, Small World Realms includes 48 geomorphic Terrain Tiles that allow you to create your very own board!
They are also double-sided so you can create a classic Small World map, an Underground map or you could even combine them to create a hybrid Realm. There are literally endless variations.

And fret not, if you aren’t in the mood to create your board from scratch Days of Wonders has got you covered: you can just create one of the 12 custom scenarios featured in the rules booklet. Depending on the level of the players you can also choose between different scenario’s complexity.

Inside the Box

• 48 Geomorphic Two-sided Terrain Tiles: 26 Geomorphic Hex-shaped Terrain tiles featuring 3 Regions each,12 Mountain tiles, 6 Chasms, 4 Peaks
• 12 Tunnels Markers
• 10 Victory Coin Mines
• 8 Miscellaneous Tokens (Rusted Throne, etc.)
• 6 River Border Markers
• 1 Game Turn Track
• 1 Rules booklet with 12 Scenarios

Final Thoughts

As I previously said, I consider the presence of new races and powers very important when I’m buying any new Small World expansions.
If I decide to buy an expansion just for the different game board, that has to be a really good one, and for me, Small World Realms check the box. You have endless possibilities to create your board, and while doing it, you can feel rewarded from seeing your realm born from nothing.

The new scenarios created by the designers are truly great, not only because of the shape and aesthetic of the maps but also because each one of them has its own set of special rules, that adds another layer of strategy and depth to the game.
For example, there’s a board called “The Rusted Throne” in which you have to place a throne token in one of the regions in the middle of the map; whoever conquers that region, receives a tribute of 1 Victory Coin for each player’s piles of race tokens that occupy one of the regions sharing a border with the Rusted Throne.

There are some minor flaws though.

Setting up the board, while being fun, requires quite a chunk of time; maintaining the regions proportions as written in the rulebook is a challenge and the font chosen to mark the tiles is just a nightmare to read.
Also, I personally don’t like the fact that the tiles don’t lock together and each time you interact with the board you can feel it slightly moving under your fingers.

Overall it’s a good expansion, but I don’t think it is perfectly suited for casual players and in fact, I’d recommend you buy this one only if you are a true fan of the game.
For casual gamers, there are better Small World expansions to buy first.

Worth mentioning that this expansion also includes Small World Tunnels; you can read about it a little down the article.

– A copy of Small World and/or Small World Underground stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

---

Small World Necromancer Island

A Necromancer set his magic tower in the middle of Small World’s lake region and he’s trying to take over all the lands with a swarm of ghosts.

What’s more exciting than this? That Necromancer is one of you!

Yes, in this expansion one of the players takes on the role of a Necromancer who’s trying to conquer the island by capturing the souls of the troops lost in battles.

The new gameplay mechanics are simple.
The Necromancer has a total of 13 ghosts placed in the Well of Souls next to the game board.
His goal is to bring them all in play by the end of the last turn; he can do that by spending coins to acquire ghosts or converting lost players’ race tokens at the ratio of 4 Race tokens = 1 Ghost.

And on top of that, he also has 6 Special Powers randomly chosen at the beginning of the game that will help him conquer the regions of Small World.

Inside the Box

• 1 Necromancer Island game piece
• 1 Well of Souls game piece
• 14 Ghost tokens
• 1 Rulebook

Final Thoughts

Among all the mini Small World expansions released so far, this one is probably the most thematic, and the one that changes the feel of the game the most.

It’s interesting the idea of fighting against the other Races while doing your best to not let the Necromancer win the game. Definitely something not easy to achieve and if you’re up for new challenges, this expansion might be perfect for you!

– A copy of Small World stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

---

Small World 6 player Board

As the name says, this expansion allows 6 players to join the table and play together.

The way you play Small World on this map is a little bit different from the standard game:
players are divided into 3 teams of 2 members each and at the end of the game one of the teams will triumph.

Members of the same team can share a strategy to overcome the opponents, but each of the players has its own Race/Power combo and an individual stash of Victory coins, which has to remain hidden for the entire game.

At the end of the 8th round, all the players reveal their own score and each team will be given a score that matches the lowest of the two player’s scores.
The team with the highest score is the winner!

Inside the Box

• A 2-sided, 6-player board map featuring Small World on one side, Small World Underground on the other side
• New rules, places and a relic, all specially designed for team play
• Additional tokens and markers for 6 players (1 Mountain, 2 Black Mountains, 1 Vengeance marker, 3 Lost Tribes)
• Additional Victory coins for 6 players

Final Thoughts

Nice expansion. It’s always good to have the possibility to add a +1 player to the game.

The new “playing in teams” mechanic is interesting, even though I would have preferred a different way to determine the score of a team.

– A copy of Small World and/or Small World Underground stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

Small World Tunnels

Have you ever wondered how cool would have been if Days of Wonder released an expansion to allow both Small World and Small World Underground to be played together?

Good news, they did it!

This mini-expansion adds 12 tunnel markers, 6 pointing downwards and 6 upwards.
Those tunnels allow the two game boards to be connected, so players can fight their battles on both boards at the same time.

Inside the Box

• 12 Tunnel markers

Final Thoughts

Small World Tunnels is a very small addition to the game, but it adds another level of replayability and strategy. Good addition.
This expansion is not available on its own and it’s included in Small World Realms.

– A copy of Small World and Small World Underground stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

Small World Tales and Legends

Tales and Legends is the only one, among all the Small World expansions, that adds a completely different flavour to the game and it changes the core concept a fair bit.

This expansion introduces 54 event cards, divided into multiple categories, that will change the plot of each turn.
The categories are 6 in total, split between different levels of impact, so you can choose how much those Events will randomly affect your game.

The Events mechanic is really simple, at the beginning of each turn you draw an Event card and apply its effect. The next event is also shown, so players can see what they’ll be up against next turn.

Inside the Box

• 54 Event cards
• 1 Current Event & 1 Upcoming Event card
• 1 Game Rules & 1 Variants card
• 2 Blank cards to write your own Tales

Final Thoughts

Overall it’s an OK addition; if you want to spice things up a bit and let the randomness kick in to screw up your strategy, then go for it.

I personally don’t like randomness too much and I think there are better Small World expansions out there that are worth your money and time.

– A copy of Small World stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

Small World: The Lost Tribes’ Crusade

It’s always a joy when Days of Wonders adds a piece to their infinite list of Small World expansions, and if they do for free it’s even better!

This freebie one adds a new mode for solo play or 2 player games, similar to the other mini-expansion Revenge of the Murlocs. This time you’re against… The Lost Tribe!

Finally, after beating them so many times, they can’t take it anymore and they are now seeking revenge against you. Will you crush them again or perish under the primitive strength of their troops?

You can download the expansion here.

– A copy of Small World or Small World Underground stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

Small World Leaders of Small World

In this expansion Days of Wonders gives us a bunch of 24 Leaders tokens (increased to 48 in the second edition), representing the Leaders of our factions.

The leader acts as an additional Race token, with a couple of twists:

• Being a leader also means that he’s always in the first line, so he can’t be placed in regions that are immune to conquests.
• Leaders can be captured and if the ransom isn’t paid (1 Victory coin to be paid to whoever has captured your Leader), the Leader will count as 2 Victory points for the player that captured him.

Inside the Box

• 48 Leaders tokens

Final Thoughts

Among all the Small World expansions I’ve listed so far, I don’t think this one is worth a single coin.

– A copy of Small World stand-alone game is required to play this expansion –

---

I hope you got some value out of this list and, hopefully, you can better choose the next expansion to buy.

If you want to add anything else useful to whoever is going to read this article, feel free to drop a comment in the section below!

Thanks for reading, catch you in the next one!