Splendor: Easy to learn, complex enough to satisfy
Out of my closest group of friends, I’m the biggest gamer. People enjoy coming over to my place (even though it’s the smallest location among our homes) to play games and learn new ones. I like having a variety of games for different group sizes and levels of gaming. There are some friends who like meaty eurogames while others prefer party-type games.
For introducing games to non-gamers, you have to understand your audience. Diving immediately into a heavy eurogame will leave new gamers frustrated and confused, which is no fun for everybody.
One such game that new gamers can jump into is Splendor. It’s easy to learn and fast-paced, but has enough strategy to satisfy even medium-heavy gamers. And a game is about 30 minutes.
In Splendor, you are a rich merchant trying to purchase gems in order to buy higher-value cards and win prestige with the nobles.
The components are well-made — cards and sturdy poker chips — and there is no board. The game plays 2 to 4 players. First player to score 15 victory points triggers one last round, and then the person with the highest victory points wins.
Game setup goes like this — separate and shuffle the development cards and place each stack in increasing order from the bottom. Reveal four cards from each deck, totalling 12 face-up cards. Now randomly place five nobles above all the cards. These are the nobles in play for this game.
Stack the gems according to color: red, green, blue, white, black and gold. All of the gems work the same way, except gold, which acts like a wild card. On your turn, you can do one of three things:
- Collect gems
- Purchase a card
- Reserve a card
If you collect gems, you can either grab 3 gems of different colors (except gold) or grab 2 of the same if there are at least 4 gems in its stack (except the gold stack).
To purchase a card, turn in the gems you have in your hand to buy the card. You can use a gold gem as a wild card if you don’t have a particular color.
To reserve a card, grab a gold gem and pick a card from the center to put into your reserve. You can only reserve up to 3 cards. Also, you can only have a total of 10 gems in your hand. You can discard gems down to 10 at the end of your turn.
Now let’s look at the cards. The cards tell you what gems are needed to purchase a card. Those symbols are in circles along the left-hand side of the card.
Some cards also have a point value marked on the top left. This number counts toward your victory points.
Upon purchasing a card, you immediately receive victory points and the gem bonus on the card. That gem now counts toward your total in order to buy higher-value cards, meaning you’ll need to pick up less gems for future purchases. You can also choose to buy the card in your reserves instead. When a card is purchased from the middle, replace with a card from the deck.
Another way to gain points is to win the prestige of nobles. Each noble requires a certain number and type of cards. Once a player satisfies those conditions, then the noble is immediately given to him or her. They’re kind of like near-end-of-game bonuses.
And lastly, the first player to 15 victory points triggers the last round, and the person with the most points wins.
Fun tidbit: Splendor was nominated in 2014 for the Spiel de Jahres (German Game of the Year). Have you guys played Splendor? And if so, what are your thoughts on the game?