Game Play
A friend asks you to sit down and play a new game called Splendor. After the game is setup they begin to explain it to you “The winner is the first to 15 points”. “Fifteen points? Sounds easy.” you think to yourself. Before you know it the game starts and you are collecting chips while gradually purchasing cards. Then you realize your friend has 5 points already and you only have 1!
Quickly you evaluate your choices of cards and chips available. A couple 2 point cards, a 1 point card, three 4 point cards, and the rest are no points. All of the point cards still require you to collect a chip or two of a certain color to get, while a couple of the 0 point cards would require nothing since the cards you purchased enable you to pay the cost without chips. Looking at your opponent’s hand you realize you are closer to some of the nobles than he is. Perhaps you could quickly gain the lead with acquiring the nobles and finish with a point card or two. However, the only problem is the gems you need you can’t afford at the moment. On top of that you can’t reserve one of the cards you need because you already have 3 cards in your hand. So do you buy a free card or take 3 chips and potentially delay your opponent a turn with your chip choice. Who knew dealing in gems was so intense.
The Basics
Learning to become a jeweler is easy because you just need to collect gems to buy cards which attract nobles and earn points. The first to 15 or more points wins the game. On their turn jewelers can perform 1 of 3 actions, collect chips, buy a card, or reserve a card.
Collecting gems is how you are able to buy cards. There are 5 stacks of gems to choose from. You can take gems by picking up 3 different colors or grab 2 gems of the same color only if there are 4 or more of that color. Each jeweler can only hold 10 gems at a time. If someone draws beyond 10 they must discard chips until they have 10. When you buy cards you make future purchases cheaper by 1 chip. Each card has a purchasing cost of a certain number and combination of jewels. For example a diamond may cost 2 rubies and 1 emerald. Jewelers can only purchase one card a turn. Initially players will use chips to buy cards, but as the game progresses and players acquire cards their purchase costs are reduced. If players have a chip and a card of the same color, they can decide whether or not to use the chip to purchase a card if they have excess of the required cost. An example is a ruby that costs 2 sapphires and 1 diamond, the player has 1 diamond chip and 1 diamond card. That player can choose to pay with the card instead of the chip.
Players are able to reserve cards to purchase at a later time and can choose between a face up or face down card. When a card is reserved the player picks it up and adds it to their hand then draws a gold chip. There is a hand limit of 3 cards, once the limit is reached no more cards can be reserved. Players cannot discard reserved cards. The only way to remove cards from your hand is to purchase the card.
Attracting nobles is based on the combination of cards a player has. As soon as a player gets the necessary combination to attract a noble, the player places the noble in front of them. Each noble has a point value and gets you closer to the 15 points to win.
Review
If you like competitive games with simple rules and many choices then you will enjoy Splendor. Due to it’s quick play, deep game play, and replay value Splendor will be a game that comes off the shelf often.
The pace of Splendor is quick if players are focused. A typical game doesn’t last more than 30 to 45 minutes even with 4 players. Choices are simple enough that it doesn’t take long to process what you want to do which greatly reduces the time between turns. However players need to be ready to change strategies because necessary chips may not be available or cards are purchased by other players.
Even though players only have 3 actions to choose from there are many choices that one has to make. Chips are limited according to the number of players and each player can only hold 10. The cards available to purchase are random as well. So it is quite possible to limit what others have access to by either keeping a certain color of chip or reserving cards when able. With it being a competitive game players will often times have to change their strategy mid game.
Splendor has great replay value because of the simple rules, quick setup, plays well with all recommended players, and most of all it is a game that you can experiment with strategy and still win.
Intimidation Factor
Splendor’s intimidation factor is very low because when set up it doesn’t look complicated since there are only 3 components and player actions are simple. New players pick up the game quickly within a round or two and after a full game players will have an idea of what they can try differently next time. Often times that next time is an immediate second game because Splendor plays quick.
Components
Splendor comes with 90 cards, 40 poker chips, and 10 noble tiles. The 90 cards are divided up into 3 different decks, level 1 is cheap gems, level 2 is moderate gems, level 3 is expensive gems. Cards are large with detailed artwork and made with cardstock that is a grade better than your standard playing card. The poker chips are divided into 6 different colors and are very nice heavy ceramic chip. Each chip has a high quality glossy print on both sides of the gems they represent. The noble tiles are made with a thick pressed cardboard like a standard game piece. Each tile is about 2 inches square and feature nice artwork like the cards. Best of all the artist did an excellent job at making the cards and noble tiles easy to read and understand at a glance.
Mechanics
In Splendor there are only two mechanics to the game, card drafting and set collection. Card drafting is slightly different than other games instead of just drawing a card from the deck you have to purchase cards. This is the main mechanic in the game because you have to acquire chips in order to buy cards in order to earn points.
The set collection mechanic is focused around acquiring the nobles with the cards you purchase. Each noble requires a certain set of cards. It isn’t absolutely necessary to acquire a set of cards in order to win the game, which is why I consider it a secondary mechanic drafting.