Cult of the Old - Small World

May 1 2024 • 58 mins

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape.

Themes in games have become a hot topic over the last few years. As the hobby expands, people have begun to ask if we can tackle difficult subject matter in the guise of a boardgame. Designers like Cole Wherle try to answer these questions with their titles Pax Pamir and John Company.

Some themes have existed since the dawn of the hobby and the rise and fall of civilisations is one such example. From the original Tresham Civilisation game, many titles have addressed the civ building aspect of this theme. However only one game focuses on the constant wax and wane of history in a very playable time scale. The tense ebb and flow of history condensed down into a tight compact box. It’s a Small World, after all.

Small World was designed by Phillippe Keyaerts, with art from Miguel Coimbra and Cyrille Daujean. It was published by Days of Wonder.

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast. We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.