Small World Underground

Small World Underground is played on a double-sided board featuring faces tailored for two through five players. To set up, place the correct board side down, distribute 5 victory coins to each player, and lay out five random race banners paired with special powers from their respective decks. Black mountain tiles replace the original mountain spaces, and special region tiles with question marks are covered by hidden relic or legendary place tokens, which are then guarded by two monster tokens. Victory coins are arranged in stacks nearby along with reinforcement dice.

The main goal is to accumulate the highest total of victory coins by expanding your subterranean empire across different regions, conquering opponent territory, leveraging unique race and power combinations, and controlling special relics or legendary sites.

Players take turns choosing to either actively expand their territory by conquering adjacent regions using their race tokens—accounting for defense costs modified by mountains, monsters, and rivers—or put their active race into decline to pick a fresh combination from the display. Conquering monster-guarded spaces reveals hidden relics or places, granting special powers or points upon successful capture.

At the conclusion of your turn, collect one victory coin for every region currently occupied by your active race tokens, plus any bonuses provided by your special power or controlled relic and legendary place tiles. Your declined race tokens also continue to generate points if they still hold regions.

The game triggers its final round after a set number of turns determined by the player count (ranging from 8 rounds for 2 players down to 5 rounds for 5 players). After the final scoring phase, the player with the most victory coins is crowned the winner.