Introducing Small Talossa: The Board game by Witt

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

A.S. is doing a GREAT job with Talossan Risk, and I am having a ton of fun!

Once the game is over, I want us to start Small Talossa, a clone of SmallWorld.

SmallWord is the Risk Killer. It is a game which like Risk, is about wargaming and area control.

Why is it a Risk Killer?

1. The goal isn't to eliminate other players, but rather, to win as many points as possible, which you get EACH TURN
2. In fact, you can't eliminate another player
3. Combat isn't dice based. The only dice is there for your last attack of a turn
4. The number of turns is FIXED in ADVANCE, so that you try to make points as fast as possible
5. The game is assymetric because each player has different abilities.
6. The map is TOO SMALL for all of the players, hence the name, Small World. In fact, the game comes with 4 maps, for 2,3 4 or 5 players!

Here is summary of the rules:

• There are over 15 races, each with a number of units, and special power. The more powerful the power, the less number of units.
• There are over 20 adjectives (what the game calls Special powers), each with a number of units from 3 to 6, and a special power. The more powerful the power, the less number of units.
• At the start of the game, 5 race and adjective powers are lined up in a queue, with the remaining pile (face-up) forming the 6th combo.
• Each player starts with 5 gold
• The first player picks a race-adjective combo. If it's the top one, he just takes it. If it's the second one, he places one of his gold token on the first one, and takes the 2nd. If it's the 6th, he places a gold token on each of the 5 first races and takes the 6th.
• It's now his turn. He adds up the number of units from his Race (for example, for Ratman it's 8) and the number of units from the adjective (for example, for forests it's 4). That would give him 12 units!
• He can then conquer. He starts from any board border, or coast line, and attacks like in Risk. On an empty area, he needs to place 2 units. If there is a mountain, it's an additional unit. If there are units, it's 1 additional units per enemy units. Conquest is AUTOMATIC, BUT only 1 enemy token dies per area. The rest return to the reserve of the enemy.
• If you don't have enough tokens for a final conquest,you can roll the dice once. Half of the sides are empty, the other half has 1, 2 or 3 units on it. That's your reinforcements. If it's enough, it's enough. Great! You win. Otherwise, your last tokens are available to help defend your other areas.
• You can rearrange your tokens as you wish, even emptying areas if you want.
• Before your turn is over, you get 1 gold per area you control. In our example, your adjective is "Forest", so you get another gold for each forest area.
• The next player then player his first turn.
• When it's back to your turn, you have a choice to make. Either you continue attacking, taking tokens from anywhere on the map (but only attacking next to an area you control), or, you go in decline: your units flip over to the black and white side ( the in decline side), BUT, you only can keep 1 unit per land.. The rest are dead. You also flip your race and your adjective card over, usually, that deactivates their power, but you still score them!
• The next turn, you pick a new race/adjective combo. Note, you can only have 1 in decline race at a time.
• After 8 to 10 turns, we tally the gold from each player, and the one with the most wins!

I propose we try that a Talossan variant.

We would replace races (list here: smallworld.wikia.com/wiki/Small_World_Races)  with Factions, which would include actual political parties from the history of Talossa, with powers inspired from the actual SmallWorld powers, and with adjectives from our History.

For example:

RUMP - 8 power: you have more units than other races (usually, it's a max of 6), it's the Ratmen of SmallWorld
TLP - 5 : you may go into decline at the end of a regular turn of conquest, after scoring (that's the Stout adjective)

Etc...

We could invent new powers (http://smallworld.wikia.com/wiki/Small_World_Special_Powers), etc...

The advantage on Risk is the speed it would play, 10 turns could be one in 2 weeks, with 1 turn per day!

What do you think?

[Ián B. Anglatzarâ]

Well, I wouldn't call Small World a Risk killer, but it's a good game. Yes, I'm in.

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

I am starting to work on a SmallWorld map for Talossa.

Here is my blank version so far:

www.talossa.ca/smalltalossa/talossa_smallworld_blank.png

In Smallworld, there aren't that many areas, so I will cut the map into large areas, hence the lack of ferries. Cézembre will always either be a single area, or 2. At the most, 3 of them.

Here is the number of areas I will asign:

2 players: 20 tiles, 4 of each of the 5 land types (Mountains, Hills, Farmlands, Forests, Swamps)
3 players: 27 tiles, 7 mountains, 5 of each of the other types
4 players: 36 tiles, 8 mountains, 7 of each of the other types
5 players: 45 tiles, 9 of each of the types
6 players: 62 tiles, 12 mountains, 10 of each of the other types
7 players: 81 tiles, 17 Mountains, 16 of each of the other types [not recommended]

I will start with the 4 players map, then make the 5 players map.

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

I have tried to divide in 20, 27 and 36 zones.

Here are my first attempts:

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

Note that the pink is off map areas... it's not water, it's just outside of the map.

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

This is 45:

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

And this is 62: