World of Warcraft Gets a Small World Board Game Crossover

World of Warcraft is getting its very own Small World board game crossover. Days of Wonder has announced Small World of Warcraft, a new tabletop game that brings the races and cultures of Azeroth to Small World. Players can choose between various World of Warcraft races like the Orcs, Pandarin, and Worgen to battle for supremacy over several islands. The core mechanics of Small World remain the same, with players needing to pick the right combinations of races and special powers to eventually emerge as the sole ruler of Azaroth. Small World of Warcraft was designed by Philippe Keyaerts, the original designer of Small World.

Small World of Warcraft brings back the Legendary places and artifacts mechanics first seen in Small World Underground and also introduces a mechanic that allow players to quickly move between distant places. Small World of Warcraft will also feature new artwork of the Warcraft characters and races, with optional rules allowing for team-play in addition to the standard free-for-all rules.

Small World was originally released in 2009 and has been a perennial best-seller and fan-favorite. Players score points by using their race tokens to capture different territories and pushing other races off of the board. Over time, players lose tokens as enemies capture territories and their own territory over-expands, forcing a player to declare that their race is in decline. Once a race is in decline, players can't use that race to grow territories anymore, but they can bring in a new race to continue expansion while still scoring points with their old one.

World of Warcraft has already had two board game adaptations, but this is the first time we've seen a Warcraft version of an existing game. If Small World of Warcraft is successful, it would not be surprising to see Day of Wonder's parent company Asmodee adapt even more of its games for World of Warcraft, given that the game seems to mesh well with any board game with a fantasy theme.

Small World of Warcraft will be released later this summer for $59.99.