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Welcome to the first Small World Power Pack, combining two of the previous expansions for the game into one box. As the base game is required to play, this review will mostly be looking at the new contents in the box, as well as how it interacts with the original game, and most of the details including a review of the original game came be found by looking at the Small World details.
In The Box
Small World Power Pack: Be Not Afraid & A Spider's Web contains, surprise surprise, the Be Not Afraid expansion and the A Spider's Web expansion for Small World, these contained 3 and 5 new races and powers respectively, so there is also a single double sided reference sheet, summarising all 8 races and all 8 powers as one, although with some little reference symbols to know which set they came from originally. The final thing inside is a storage organiser for holding all of the tokens, very useful as the base box starts to run out of room once you begin adding in the many expansions that exist for the game, and otherwise you either end up with a box of baggies or just everything loose shaking around everywhere, a nightmare for setup!
Races
Frist up let's check out the eight included races, where they came from, what they do and some of the better combos they can form.
Barbarians:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Race Information - They come with more tokens. but cannot redeploy at the turn end. So with 9 race tokens that's one more than the Ratmen, but does the lack of redeploying hurt them? Well, not so much, especially if they can use a Power to really push that one token further and make the extra count. They are unable to move around to defend certain regions more heavily if they want to retain them for scoring bonuses, or defend the borders, so you just need to strategically plan the order to take regions to make sure you don't have any tokens left over at the end.
[Fun fact - We always played the game wrong, that only the active player would redeploy at the end of each turn. Actually any player with tokens can redeploy at the end, so while this doesn't change my opinion on the barbarians, it does mean there are a few base game races I might consider slightly higher going forward.]
Good Combos - Powers to benefit a large number of regions of to help defend areas where you may be left weaker at turn end.
Bivouacking, Corrupt, Imperial, Pillaging
Homunculi:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Race Information - This race does not have any in game special ability, but what they do is collect an extra race token any time they are passed over at active race selection. This gives the guys a bit of a push your luck element, as they have the potential to obtain one of the highest amount of race tokens, but every time you pass over them there is a chance your opponents could take them next round instead. If the race comes out early they can be great, but showing up late in the game means they are mostly useless at gaining tokens as they will not have the time.
Good Combos - Any powers that seem weak unless under the right circumstances so the combo is passed over enough times until it works just right for you.
Copycat, Soul-Touch, Spirit, Wealthy [Also Cursed would be very good, but that's a different expansion altogether)
Ice Witches:
Original Expansion - A Spider's Web
Race Information - Think of these ladies as a race of Else, they can change regions to Winter, this gives an increase to defence in the region, but also means any non Ice Witch race will score one less coin for it. This is one of the very few effects that can negatively affect another player's region without conquering it. This could be useful for any highly defensive regions opponents control to force them out when they can't score points, or to buff up any regions you own for protection, especially if you can have any benefits from them. Plus it can put off a player from attacking your Winter regions as they won't receive any regular coin reward for owning it.
Good Combos - Powers that allow you to turtle defensively in areas where you can score extra points.
Barricade, Forest, Hill, Swamp
Leprechauns:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Race Information - Top o' the morning to ya! These little fellows come with over a dozen Pots of Gold they can leave in regions they control. If they still control the gold on the next turn they gain a coin for themselves, but any opponent's who take the region will take the gold too for themselves. It's optional how many regions to leave a Pot in each turn, so you can plan to keep them in your strongest positions and keep them out of greedy hands, this gives a potential extra coin per region, but varies each turn how many you can feel safe to place down.
Good Combos - Any powers where you can have multiple regions immune to conquest or heavily defended to guarantee Pot collection.
Bivouacking, Fortified, Heroic, Lava,
Pixies:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Race Information - The Pixies have even more race tokens than the recently introduced Barbarians, however at the redeploy step they can only leave one token in each region they control, so by using the numbers the Pixies should be able to spread out fast and would be a good early turn race, they can be an ideal mid turn race too if you can time it to play right as your opponents are weakened, playing low token races or taking declining turns.
Good Combos - The Pixies expand fast but burn out quick, without much staying power you want to either benefit from the large token pool or any powers that fade in usefulness fast.
Commando, Corrupt, Imperial, Merchant
Pygmies:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Race Information - A bit of a gamble race, any time they lose a token you can roll the reinforcement dice and receive as many tokens back as the number available, so 50% of the time they're as good as Elves, and sometimes better, but there's also a 50/50 that you lose the token without any reward. With the right dice rolling you can give this race some staying power, but if you're unlucky like me you roll all blanks in the first turn of defending and after that just give up on them in one go.
Good Combos - The Pygmies need some luck, but if it comes in they are able to regain losses and build up the race past the initial count, so can make a useful advantage of any low token power combos.
Alchemist, Copycat, Fortified, Merchant
Skags:
Original Expansion - A Spider's Web
Race Information - Borderlands. I've never played it so I don't see any of the references that might be here. But these are sneaky guys who like to ambush, and they have loot markers, good or bad, so possibly they're a tabletop version of Loot Boxes? They're placed secretly into your regions before you can find out what's inside, your opponents have to attack to discover though. If an opponent conquers a region with a loot value they get to take it, if the token shows a Skag attack however, the conquest is cancelled, they lose a token and cannot attempt to conquer the region again this turn. These guys are the most complicated of the new races and many questions pop up regarding interactions between them and their loot tokens.
Good Combos - Skags offer a unique opportunity for bluffing and mind games, as you get to know the secret contents of the Loot tokens you can protect the most valuable to make sure your opponents can't take them from you, or you can bluff protect a skag attack just to waste your opponent's resources. As the loot is randomly placed, look for powers that can help you to hold areas to ensure you still have the loot boxes when you plan to decline.
Diplomat, Heroic, Seafaring, Stout
Slingmen:
Original Expansion - A Spider's Web
Race Information - Similar to the Catapult power introduces, this race can attempt to conquer regions one region away, even over lakes, but not seas. The advantage for this is they can gain a bonus coin, and it allows them to go over heavily defended opponent exterior regions, or even leapfrog their own allied declined races. However, the restriction is you cannot occupy a region already adjacent to the attempted conquest. This makes it easy to move onto a spread around the board, but in later turns you may find it harder to take full advantage of the bonus coin every conquest. A slight weakness can be how spread out your tokens are left at the turn end, although once the sling-shotting is finished with you can always conquer the regions between normally.
Good Combos - The very simple combo is with a catapult to double up on ranged conquests, otherwise any other power to helps with conquest so you can gain the maximum amount of bonus coins.
Berserk, Catapult, Mercenary, Pillaging
Powers
Now we're going to do the same for the eight included powers, where they came from, what they do and some of the better combos they can form.
Barricade:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Power Information - If a race occupies 4 or less regions at the end of the turn they obtain 3 bonus coins. This does mean that if you are at 4 regions then there isn't any sense in trying to take over any more unless you can reach up to 8, although some races can potentially earn better coins through other methods, then save the 4 or less regions for later turns near decline time.
Good Combos - Any races with a low number of base tokens or who can benefit from holding a low number of certain regions. Amazons can also combo with this power as they lose 4 tokens at the redeploy step, meaning they have a chance to lose gained regions where possible if they haven't reached 8 regions.
Amazons, Dwarves, Ice Witches, Wizards
Catapult:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Power Information - Similar to the Slingshot race from before the Catapult allows conquests into regions one space away. You choose a region to place the catapult token in which makes it immune, then any conquests attempted to one region away require one less token than normal, there are no restrictions about already control any regions next to the conquest attempt, just that the region is one space away and not adjacent to the Catapult region, and conquests can be attempted over lakes but not seas.
Good Combos - The obvious pair is with Slingmen for the combination bonus, otherwise any race who has additional conquest bonuses.
Barbarian, Orcs, Slingmen, Tritons
Copycat:
Original Expansion - A Spider's Web
Power Information - This power allows your race to copy one of the powers available on the available combo lists. This means it varies in usefulness depending on availability, it could be very powerful with the right combinations available, such as commando and merchant available. But with only 3 tokens you may find that you are a couple of tokens short of making full use of the power.
Good Combos - Now this is an odd one as the ideal combo requires other powers, not races. But the best races will be those who are versatile to benefit from the most different power combos, or just have fairly neutral race abilities.
Elves, Homunculi, Orcs, Skeletons
Corrupt:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Power Information - Collect a bonus coin from any opponents each time they conquer one of your regions. This is one of the best defensive powers created, not only does your opponent lose a coin if they conquer your region, so they don't gain anything that turn, you gain a coin too, giving a net gain of 2 most of the time. There is also the rare situation that an opponent will be too poor to pay you a coin and so cannot conquer your regions, very defensive in turn 1 especially, although not many people are likely to try and conquer you turn 1, except for Orcs or skeletons I guess.
Good Combos - Races with a large amount of tokens who can spread out across the map, opponents will try to avoid conquests that lose a coin allowing you to gain a large amount of regions, then you'll still get many coins when they try to take them all from you.
Barbarians, Pixies, Ratmen, Sorcerers
Imperial:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Power Information - The opposite side of the Barricade power, Imperial gives a bonus coin for every region you control after your 3rd. So effectively every region you control from 4 and up earns 2 coins rather than 1.
Good Combos - Races who can take a large number of regions easily.
Elves, Giants, Sorcerers, Tritons
Lava:
Original Expansion - A Spider's Web
Power Information - At the end of the turn every mountain region you control can place lava in an adjacent region, which empties out the region of tokens and treats it as if it were conquered, and the region cannot be entered before your next turn. Useful to kick people out from a highly defended region, or to place some defence around your mountain race. There is also no mention of excluding lakes in the description, meaning that this is one of the only things that can be used against seafaring races.
Good Combos - Any race who can get a benefit from mountains or from forming defensive positions.
Giants, Leprechauns, Orcs, Skags
Mercenary:
Original Expansion - Be Not Afraid
Power Information - By spending a coin you can lower the token cost by 2 when attempting to conquer a region. Whilst this means there is no net gain on the turn, don't think Mercenary doesn't have it's uses, they can be used to take regions that are heavily defended which opponents are turtling in for scoring points. And can mitigate trying to conquer if you have a lack of tokens available. The better part of the power is that for you final conquest you can choose to use the power after the dice has been rolled, meaning it can almost guarantee your last conquest and gives you a chance to gamble slightly more.
Good Combos - Any races who can gain a bonus for conquering regions can offset the coin cost directly and make full use of Mercenaries every turn if they needed to,
Dwarves, Orcs, Skeletons, Slingmen
Soul-Touch:
Original Expansion - A Spider's Web
Power Information - This power means when your race goes into decline you can revive your previous race and have a run with them again. This needed some more FAQ work to check on timings and such, so you need to decline on your turn, then next turn you get to use the previously declined race with their original power as if it were a new combo. This is another power where the actual best choices are based off of other combos, and to make the best use of it requires some careful planning, as it will be a minimum of 2 turns from picking the combo before you can use your old race. The other downside will be that it offers no benefit for the race it pairs with, just the 4 tokens, so the previous race power combo had better be worth it.
Good Combos - Any races who will be a quick flash in the pan would be ideal, the main reason for the Soul-Touch power is to grab your old race so don't plan to use these for more than one or two turns at most.
Ghouls, Leprechauns, Skags, Trolls
Overall
The Small World Power Pack: Be Not Afraid & A Spider's Web expansion is a great addition to the base Small World game, while only adding a handful of races and powers it adds so many possible combos and combinations, offering more variety in the games and replayability trying to get each and every combo to try out. Some of the new parts are unique powers and abilities unlike all those previously included, but does mean that some of these are slightly more complicated than just the base game, and did bring up some questions as to how exactly they worked or interacted with other combos, a bit of searching some FAQs does help to solve that a little bit, but there's still some slight room for interpretation.
The nicest part about the box is bringing the 2 expansions together in one place, as they had previous gone out of print individually, meaning it was easier to find these without having to pay over the odds to get them. Not just that, but bringing another storage solution for the tokens is great for ease of use and sorting, and speeds up the game play and pack down at the end. Meaning it makes more time for fitting in more games!
