How to Play Small World: Conquest, Decline & Race Powers
Small World is an area-control game where each active civilization combines a fantasy Race with a random Special Power. Players conquer regions for coins, then eventually put that civilization into decline and return with a new combination.
Scope: original Small World base game, excluding Underground and expansions.
Choose a Race + Special Power combination
Select one of the visible combinations. Taking a combination farther down the row costs victory coins placed on each skipped option; choosing a combination later also collects coins accumulated on it.
Enter the map and conquer regions
Start from a legal map edge/entry region unless your Race or Power changes the rule. A basic conquest costs 2 Race tokens plus 1 additional token for each Mountain, Lost Tribe or opposing Race token already in that region.
Use the Reinforcement die for one final conquest
If you are short of tokens for one last conquest, you may attempt it with the Reinforcement die under the standard conditions. The die result temporarily supplements the tokens committed to that final attack.
Redeploy and score
After conquering, redistribute active Race tokens among regions you control, respecting the minimum occupation rules. Then score 1 coin per occupied region plus any Race/Power bonuses.
Decline when the active race becomes inefficient
Instead of conquering, use your turn to put the active Race into decline. Normally leave one declined token in each occupied region and remove the rest, then on your next turn choose a new active Race/Power combination.
You can usually have one active and one declined race
When a new race later goes into decline, the previous declined civilization is generally removed as required by the base rules, unless a Race/Power says otherwise.
Play a fixed number of turns
The turn track is determined by player count/map side. After the final turn, reveal coin totals; most victory coins wins.
Publisher reference: Days of Wonder Small World rules.