News

Fluid fantasy strategy game Small World invading iPad

AI opponent update due soon

Fluid fantasy strategy game Small World invading iPad
|
| Small World

When iPad launched, lots of people said it would be ideal for boardgames. To some extent we've seen that, particularly with EA Mobile's Hasbro licences such as Scrabble and Boogle.

What we haven't seen is a lot of innovation in terms of new games or boardgames that haven't previously been on iPhone or mobile, though.

Hopefully that's going to change, as the release of Small World, the excellent iPad version of the Philippe Keyaerts designed and Days of Wonder published boardgame of the same name.

It's my land

As with all such examples, the rules are fairly in depth - although easy to pick up once you start playing. Basically, it's a turn-based civilisation game where you choose a race and a power and then try to take over the specifically designed small world.

Each of the 14 races has special abilities for example dwarves gaining extra resources when they control mines, while sorcerers can substitute one of their own for each of their opponents tokens.

These combine with 20 special powers such as commando, diplomat, and flying, which provide different attributes that work particularly well if you choose the right race and play the right way.

Will to power

The more territory you control, the more tokens you score at the end of each round. Further complicating matters, at any time you can put your race into decline - rendering it inactive, although still token generating - and start up a fresh combination of race and power.

This means Small World is a very fluid game, with players over-extending and declining one race, and then restarting.

On the iPad, it plays much like the boardgame, although there's only a two player head-to-head mode, rather than the option of two to five players.

Equally, in the first version released there's no AI opponent to play against, although this will be added in the first update. However, this will also see the price rise from $4.99 to $6.99 so you have been warned.

You can find out more about the game via its website.

Small World is out now, priced $4.99, €3.99, or £2.99.

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.