Small World

To set up, select the double-sided game board that corresponds to your player count and place it in the center of the play area. Position the round marker on the first space of the round track. Place the included tray, containing all game tokens, beside the board. Shuffle the race banners into a face-up pile and deal the top five into a column. Do the same with the special power badges, pairing them with the revealed race banners. Place Lost Tribe tokens on regions marked with their symbol and mountain tokens on regions showing mountains. Each player receives five one-value victory coins, placed face down in front of them.

The objective of Small World is to accumulate the most victory points by the end of the game. Players achieve this by choosing various fantasy races, each with unique special powers, and using them to conquer and control regions on the game board. As your civilization expands and potentially weakens or becomes overextended, you'll strategically put your current race into decline and select a new one to continue your conquests, aiming to maximize your points over several rounds.

A game turn begins with the active player. In the first round, or when you need a new race, you must pick a race and special power combo from the available column. The top combo is free, but you must place one of your one-value victory coins on each skipped combo to take one further down. Collect the corresponding race tokens. Then, you conquer regions by deploying your race tokens. To conquer an empty border region, you need two tokens. For regions with Lost Tribe tokens, mountains, or other tokens (like encampments or fortresses), you need one additional token per existing token. You can continue conquering adjacent regions, but each new region must be adjacent to one you already control. If you run out of tokens for a final conquest, you can attempt a last conquest by rolling a die, adding its value to your remaining tokens; if the total meets the requirement, you succeed. Any single enemy or Lost Tribe tokens in a conquered region are returned to the tray. After conquering, you may redeploy your active race tokens among your controlled regions, leaving at least one token in each. Alternatively, you can choose to put your active race into decline.

After performing all conquests and redeploying tokens, you score victory points. You collect one victory point from the supply for each region you control with your active race. Additionally, some race and special power combinations grant bonus victory points based on specific region types or conditions. For example, Swamp Dwarves gain an extra point for each swamp region they control, and Dwarves in decline still earn points for mining regions. Any points collected are kept face down, but you can make change from the supply if needed. If you have a race in decline, its tokens on the board also score one point per region they occupy, but they do not benefit from their special power badge (which is discarded) or their race banner's active abilities, unless the banner explicitly states otherwise for its declined side.

The game is played over a fixed number of rounds, which is determined by the player count and indicated on the round track. Once the round marker reaches the final space on the round track, each player takes one final turn. After all players have completed their last turn, the game ends. Each player then reveals and totals all their collected victory point tokens. The player with the highest total score wins the game. In the event of a tie, the tied player who controls the most race tokens on the board (including both active and declined tokens) wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.