TBT - Splendor, You Spend Money to Make Money.

Jake
Aug 10, 2017
2 min read

Every other Thursday we here at the G.T.A. Board Game Collective like to revisit older games that we really love. Some of these we have played for years, and some we just found and were surprised we never played before. As always, if you want us to review a game that you enjoy, please leave a comment below.

Number of Players: 2-4

Play Time: 30 Min.

Age: 10+

Complexity Rating (Lower = Easier): 2/5

Website: www.spacecowboys.fr/splendor

Type: Card Game

Publish Year: 2014

Designer: Marc André

Artist: Pascal Quidault

Publisher: Space Cowboys, Asmodee

Description

Splendor can be explained in five minutes and can play in half an hour, works with two players just as well as with three or four.

In Splendor, you lead a merchant guild. Using tokens representing gemstones, you will acquire developments which produce new gems (bonuses). These bonuses reduce the cost of your purchases and attract noble patrons.

Each turn is quick: one, and only one, action! The first player to reach fifteen prestige points by accumulating nobles and development triggers the end of the game.

The Review

Currently as of now I have about 6 games under my belt, and that was in one day. This is not because we had nothing else to play but because this game is so intense that we kept wanting to play it over again. It's smart use of Chips for the currency and low learning curve made it quick to get into, but the fact that no two games are generally the same gives it a high replay-ability.

The fact that it only really took me 2-3 games to figure out a pretty decent strategy that tends to work a good chunk of the time does give it a little bit of a negative for me, but it is not a deal breaker because everyone figures that out pretty quickly as well. I do enjoy the fact that this game has Chips for it's currency instead of cards and that they are of higher quality then what most games put out. This shows that Marc and Pascal really put some thought into the design of the game.

With the first few rounds of the game picking up chips and buying low level cards, it does tend to quickly speed up, and if you are not paying attention someone can grab the 15 point win without you even hitting 5, so you will have to keep a count on everyone's points and where they are going, but that does mean that you can snatch a win right from under someone's nose by matching the right card types with what is needed to grab a Noble card at the top, you can easily pick up 6 points by doing that but could also gain 9! (Almost 2/3 of a win) but that is pretty rare and hard to do.

Over all, this game is a fast paced fun game with lots of replay value.

PS. There are 4 expansions coming out soon! "Cities of Splendor" Check it out HERE for more information.