Today, I’m going to introduce you to another Great Family board game which requires critical thinking. This is one of my favourite games, it can be played by 2-4 people. It's very difficult to find a board game that works well with just two people, but this one works really well.
Splendor is a game in which you take on the role of a rich merchant during the Renaissance. Using your resources to acquire mines, transportation methods and artisans who will allow you to turn raw gems into beautiful jewels.
The game is designed for 2 to 4 players, there’s a slight variation in rules if you play with 2 or 3 players. The box suggests it is suitable for anyone over the age of 10, as the game does require some thinking about strategy. It’s a relatively quick game to play, a typical game lasts 20-30 minutes. The first time you play expect it to last slightly longer
What’s in the box
This is one of the few board games that comes without a board. It comes with 40 tokens which players need to collect in order to purchase development cards, this is the currency in the game. The tokens come in the following colours: 7 sapphire blue, 7 onyx black, 7 ruby red, 7 diamond white, 7 emerald green and 5 gold joker tokens.
There are 90 development cards which can be purchased, these come in 3 levels: 40 cards at Level 1, 30 cards and Level 2 and 20 Cards at Level 3. To purchase a development card, you need to exchange the required tokens as indicated on the bottom left of the development card.
There are also 10 noble tiles from which we select 3-5 cards for each game depending on the number of players.
How to Set Up
Shuffle the development cards of each level individually and then deal out the first four level 1 cards on the table in a row along the bottom, place the remaining level 1 cards faced down in a pile next to these four cards.
Now deal the first 4 level two cards in a row above the level 1 cards and place the remaining cards next to them. Now do the same with level 3 cards.
Now pick 5 noble tiles at random and place them above the top row of cards. Finally take out the tokens and place them in piles of their own colour below all the cards. You are now ready to play and hopefully your setup looks similar to the picture below.
How to play
The idea of the game is to score 15 prestige points after each player has had the same number of turns.
On your turn, you can complete one of four actions:
- Take three tokens of different colours (not gold)
- Take two tokens of the same colour (only allowed if there are at least 4 tokens of that colour available before picking)
- Reserve a development card preventing other players from purchasing that card and take one gold token at the same time.
- Purchase a development card from the table or a reserved card by changing tokens.
Purchasing Development Cards
To earn prestige points, you need to acquire development cards from the middle of the table. The purchase the development card in the diagram below, the player would need to exchange 1 green token, 4 red tokens and 2 black tokens.
Once a player has purchased this card it is worth 2 prestige points as indicated on the top left of the card and for the remainder of the game it will also act as an additional diamond white token as indicated at the top right of the card.
Strategy
As you buy development cards, they will act like additional resources/tokens and will allow you to buy future development cards at a discount and sometimes for free. Noble tiles can be acquired for free at the end of a players turn if they have the required number of resources on their development cards as indicated on the bottom left of each noble card. These noble cards are worth 3 prestige points each.
The game is complete when one player had reached 15 prestige points, complete the round so all players have had the same number of turns. The winner is the player with the most points.
In an average game, players will take 25-30 turns each before a player reaches 15 prestige points, expect to take a little longer on your first time of playing.
Conclusion
Splendor is a game I have played with 2,3 and 4 people. It is my favourite game of choice as a two player game, As a 3 or 4 player game it is still a great game and one of the few games that requires some strategy and critical thinking. It's currently under £20 on Amazon and with the school holidays it is a great way to get the children off their games consoles for a few hours.
There are some expansion packs to this game which I have not had a chance to try but can add some variety to the game, for those Marvel fans out there, there is also a Marvel version of Splendor, still the same game but is themed around Marvel. This can be found for around £29 on Amazon.
