GOTW – Splendor

Splendor

Players: 2 – 4

Playtime: 15–35 Min

Ages: 10 +

Splendor is card drafting game designed by Marc André which was released in 2014. This game number 16 in the family category of Board Game Geek. It’s a perfect game for families and friends alike and will work for any board game night.

Splendor is a very popular and well loved game due to its quick play time and huge amount of potential strategy. This game has been highly praised for its simple yet highly strategic gameplay, and also has a huge amount of replay ability. The quality of the components in the game, along with its beautiful and elegant poker chips that are heavy and well weighted adds a level of quality to the game. This game sits into a niche collection of games that need to be in everybody’s collection and is great to introduce new board game players.

Splendor will exceed all expectations as an introductory game as it has a level of strategy that also keeps it competitive and highly replayable.

Splendor is a game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you’re wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige.

On your turn, you may (1) collect chips (gems), or (2) buy and build a card, or (3) reserve one card. If you collect chips, you take either three different kinds of chips or two chips of the same kind. If you buy a card, you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. To reserve a card—in order to make sure you get it, or, why not, your opponents don’t get it—you place it in front of you face down for later building; this costs you a round, but you also get gold in the form of a joker chip, which you can use as any gem.

All of the cards you buy increase your wealth as they give you a permanent gem bonus for later buys; some of the cards also give you prestige points. In order to win the game, you must reach 15 prestige points before your opponents do.

Splendor is a simple game as first with an easy to understand rulebook and set of rules. The joy of this game comes from being able to build a strategy that allows you to stop drafting chips sooner rather than latter in order to try and generate the most number of points. The concept of reserving cards where you use a joker chip to take a card out of play can create some interesting moments, especially when players start to attempt to predict their opponents moves. Splendor is best played with 4  players, this is an absolute must in any collection and it plays extremely well with 4 players.

Do yourself a favour and grab a copy of this fantastic game now.

Rating: 8/10

Pros:

• Good quality Chips. That look fantastic
• Easy to pick up and catch on to, but changes each time due to the random aspect of the cards
• Super quick setup and easy to teach

Cons:

• Card sleeves should be purchased due to the excessive manhandling of all the cards these components may wear out quickly (from experience) . We Recommend using Clear Sleeves

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