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Have you ever tried playing Small World with visible VP ?

It sometimes frustrates me to discover in the end that some player had much more or less VP that we expected. Memorizing the VP count for every player is feasible but requires so much concentration.

Consequences I envisaged :

  • game might take longer because of added strategic thinking
  • new players may get earlier the feeling of which strategy is successful and also who they should attack
  • less talk during turns "you should attack him, not me since he made 14 points last turn"

What are your experiences or feelings with this variant ?

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  • Have you tried this house rule?
    – Pat Ludwig ♦
    Commented Jun 13, 2011 at 16:59
  • Not yet ... my player group does not meet that often unfortunately
    – Michel Daviot
    Commented Jun 13, 2011 at 19:05

1 Answer 1

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In Vinci, the original game that Small World is based on, VPs are open. In that game it can lead to end game kingmaker effects where a player can't possibly win, but can decide who does win based on who they attack. With hidden VPs, the kingmaker effect is still there but its less obvious, as players who aren't precisely tracking every VP won't know when a particular attack will make a difference of who wins.

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  • That's a good reason ... do you see others ?
    – Michel Daviot
    Commented Jun 13, 2011 at 19:04
  • Specifically, this is the reason why the designer added the hidden VP rule to Small World. The aim was to prevent the end-game kingmaking which is prevalent in Vinci.
    – Tynam
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 20:32

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