The Small World inhabitants are preparing for their next conquest of each other: a regular occurrence in the Small World. Until… a huge shadow glided over the mountain regions to the North. The wizards hadn’t accidentally made the sheep fly again, had they? No, this time it was something much more sinister: The Sky Islands.
A new, unchartered realm floats gracefully over the mountains and across the meadow, but behind this graceful mask lies a war waging world. Some say it is more dangerous than the Small World! So, who will be the first to brave this new world: to try to lay claim on its divided lands, conquer its savage inhabitants. Will you be the first to climb the giant beanstalk, or run up the stairway to heaven, and bring your marauding race to the Sky Islands?
Small World: Sky Islands is a Days of Wonder expansion to their hit board game Small World conjured up in the minds of Philippe Keyaerts, and T. Alex Davis, which brings in seven new races, and special powers as well as a whole new board. In Small World: Sky Islands, gameplay remains unchanged from the base game, but the tactics needed to succeed are elevated with the need to control the entrances to the sky islands in order to invade the lands, or even the decision not to invade the Sky Islands, and just conquer the board from the base game.
Game Play
During set up you will choose two locations on the main board as paths up to the Sky Islands: the stairway to heaven and the giant beanstalk. These two mystical entrances lead the way to a new land in the sky, but to reach these new lands you must get control then keep control of the entrances up, making them key spaces to control within the game, so can you find a way to completely block access to the sky islands cementing your control over the land? Or will you end up in a brawl in the sky? Or come to a diplomatic agreement with a rival?
As the sky islands increase the number of regions available for conquest, the base board that you use is reduced one in number. ie. If you are playing with four people with the Sky Islands you would use the board for three people to compensate for the extra regions available. This also has the hidden benefit of allowing for an extra player as you can use the five-player board, and the Sky Islands for a total of six players.
The Sky Islands themselves also have specific rules that apply to them to them. Firstly, as already mentioned, you must control either the giant beanstalk or the stairway to heaven to enter into the Sky Islands. Then when in the Sky Islands you can only cross between islands on a cloud bridge joining them together (It is to be noted that the lake region has the same effects as the base game). Finally, if you have complete control over an island, then you gain an extra victory coin at the end of your turn.
New Races
I’m sure that you will be fairly familiar with Berserk Ghouls, for example, but what about Zeppelined Storm Giants or Racketeering Wendigos (the strongest combination from the expansion in my opinion). These are just some of the possible combinations available with the new races, and special powers. Here is a brief summary of all the new races, and special powers.
Escargots: 12 race tokens, you collect victory coins for your escargots at the start of your turn, not the end. (doesn’t apply to special powers).
Scarecrows: 12 race tokens, whenever an opponent conquers a region occupied by scarecrows they gain an extra victory coin.
Khans: 5 race tokens, you earn an extra victory coin per Hill or Farmland region but lose a coin for each other type of region.
Scavengers: 6 race tokens, whenever you conquer an In Decline race, its tokens stay in place, and the owner still earns one victory coin per region.
Storm Giants: 6 race tokens, their first conquest can be in the Sky Islands, and by using a Lightning Bolt a Mountain region can be conquered for one token.
Drakons: 6 race tokens, up to three Drakon tokens can be transformed into dragons per turn which work in the same way as the dragon master power from the base game.
Wendigos: 6 race tokens, Wendigos can choose one Forest region per turn, and clear it of tokens, gaining a Wendigo token in the process from the box.
Goldsmith: +4 race tokens, you gain two extra coins per Mine region occupied by this race, but one less for every other type of region.
Zepplined: +5 race tokens, you can complete up to five special conquests per turn, using a Zepplin token. Roll the die, and pips rolled are extra race tokens. If no pips are rolled the attack has failed, and the Zepplin crashes removing all race tokens from that location and preventing further attacks on that location for one turn.
Airborne: +3 race tokens, on the first turn with this race, every conquest requires two fewer tokens are required.
Haggling: +5 race tokens, you can choose to give up to 5 pact tokens to different players during your turn. If they attack you, they must pay you one coin per pact token they have, if they don’t, you must pay them.
Gunner: +3 race tokens, at the end of your first turn you chose two locations to put your canon tokens. On future turns you can choose to turn these over, and every adjacent conquest is worth two fewer race tokens. Canon regions are immune to conquest.
Exploring: +5 race tokens, at the end of your turn you receive extra victory coins equal to the fewest total regions you occupy on either the base board or the Sky Islands.
Racketeering: +5 race tokens, for each new race chosen by another player whilst your racketeering race is active you gain the number of victory coins from the bank as the player paid to take their race. When you go into decline, your next race is free.
Components
Days of wonder have kept up their good track record for component quality again. You get a high-quality board of which the artwork matches to that of the base game (always a bonus), and a plastic holder for the race chips you get in all Small World games, which is brilliant for any Gamer like myself who hates game boxes to be messy: something my Dad takes pleasure in ruining. (There was one time he managed to put a green cube in a red cube bag, and I didn’t notice until we went to set up the game again, I’m still livid about it now). So, basically, I love these trays and wish more companies would invest in component quality as much as Days of Wonder do.
Final thoughts
Overall, I really like this Small World expansion, because not only does it provide you with more races to learn how to use, but also a couple of new mechanics involved within the game leading to more tactics within the game. It also feels like an expansion that adds to the experience of the base game, instead of jarring with, or overly changing it. So I would say that this is a very well executed expansion that I could easily recommend to anyone who wants to take their Small World experience further.
So, do you dare to venture into the Sky Islands and conquer a new land?
