Spend the door, spend the door, spen door, splendor... is this how they named the game just like Hodor in game of thrones? I do not know but this is what I like to think. Splendor is a card/chip based game where players are competing to reach 15 Victory points (VP) to win the game, you achieve this by colleting gems and spending the gems on cards that help you get more cards and VP. Let us get the boring section out of the way;
Players: 2 - 4 Age: 10+
Time: 30 minutes
What is in the box?
In this game you will receive;
7 Emerald chips
7 Sapphire chips
7 Ruby chips
7 Diamond chips
7 Onyx chips
5 Gold chips
40 Level 1 cards
30 Level 2 cards
20 Level 3 cards 10 Nobile tiles That is everything (of course there is also a rulebook!) and that is all you need to play this game!
Setting up the game
You can look at the picture above or set it up with this guide orrrrr you can read the rulebook and follow that. Make sure that the development cards (these are the Level 1 to 3 cards) and separated and then shuffle each one. Once they have all had a good shuffle start with the level 1 cards and flip over the top 4 face up in a row. Place the deck to the left of them. Repeat this with the Level 2 and 3 cards so you have a grid shape with 4 cards from each level showing face up. Now shuffle the noble tiles and place the number of players + 1 tile face up above the cards. This means to do the following;
2 players = 3 noble tiles
3 players = 4 noble tiles
4 players = 5 noble tiles Now take the 5 gold tokens and put them at the side of the cards, this is not a rule in the book but we put them there to stop people taking these by accident on their turn. Now you need to put the other 5 gems in a row in a easy to reach location for all the players. We usually place this under the cards, now depending on the number of players depends how many of each gem you will use;
2 players = 4 of each gem
3 players = 5 of each gem
4 players = 7 of each gem
There we go, we have set up the game area and we are now ready to play the game!
How to win and end the game
When the first player reaches 15 prestige points (I call them VP) the game ends and the player with the most VP wins, this should be the player who just hit 15. Unless some idiot did not count theirs...... This as happened to me.
How to play the game?
The game is very straight forward to play and there are not that many rules to the game. On your turn you can take 1 of 3 actions and that is it! Now what are these actions? I am glad you asked because I will now tell you.
1 = Take chips
On your turn you can use an action to take chips, you will need these chips to buy the cards on the table (you can only purchase face up cards unless reserving (we will cover that later)). There are two methods to taking chips;
a) You take 3 different coloured chips, I.E Ruby (Red), Sapphire (Blue) and Diamond (White).
b) You take 2 of the same chip, however there must be 4 chips in that pile to take 2 of the same colour, if there is 3,2 or 1 left in a pile you can not take the 2 chips!
You can never have more than 10 chips in your play area! Keep that in mind when trying to buy higher level cards.
2 = Reserve a card
In this action you take a face up card and 1 gold chip (if there are any left) and place it above your developed cards. This is how you get gold chips which are like a joker chip and can be used as any colour instead.
When you reserve a card (you can only ever have 3 reserved) you are saying at some point you are going to buy this card. It is a method to collect cards you need and stop other people buying them.
Now if you are feeling lucky, well do you? You can take the top card from the deck of any level and reserve that, however if you do this method and the card is terrible then you are stuck with it. You do not show this card to the other players and it must stay face down until you buy the card.
You can not discard reserved cards, the only way to remove them is to buy them! Use this action wisely.
3 = Buy a card You need to buy these cards to make it easier to purchase more cards and of course gain VP. If you look on the left hand side of the card it lists the cost of gems for this card, you will need;
2 Diamonds 1 Sapphire 1 Emerald
1 Onyx
You would need all these chips in your area and then you spend them (put them back on there global piles) and take the card and place it face up in your play area.
You can only buy 1 card on your turn this can be from the face up cards in the main area or 1 of your reserved cards. Once you buy a card and have cards of the same time you need to keep them grouped by gem and make sure that if the card does have any VP it is also visible to other players.
The cards will show a gem in the top right hand corner and this will act as discount when buying other cards. Later on in the game you will have enough discount from cards to start taking cards without spending gem chips!
The noble tiles will visit you at the end of your turn (only 1 of them though) if you have the required gems that they must have a thing for. On the left hand side of the noble card it shows you what they fancy and if you have that many gems they will come say hello, stare at your gems and also give you a bonus 3 VP at the end of your turn, this means that if you have 12 VP and one of them comes to be a pervert with your gems you will hit 15 VP and end the game. If you look at the photo above we have;
Pervert Ann who requires you to have 3 emeralds, 3 sapphire and 3 diamonds Pervert Mark who likes 4 sapphire and 4 diamonds
Pervert Tracy who really loves 4 onyx and 4 diamonds If you did have 3 emeralds, 4 sapphire and 4 diamonds you would think they would all come over and give you 9 VP but sadly that is not the case only 1 will come and say hello. If you look at the photo above you can see that some of the cards just like the noble tiles have a number on the top left hand side, this is the amount of VP this card is worth to you. The higher the level of card the more it costs the more it costs the more it is worth. That is all there is to playing the game, it is not hard to learn, it is not hard to play but it is fun.
Final thoughts?
Splendor is a game that is easy to pick up but hard to put down, the playtime is short but you have a lot of fun playing the game. It is great for getting people into the hobby because it is really easy to teach and learn. Now for some reason I never really win this game, I have this in ability to get the right cards or gems and before I know it someone wins and I am still struggling in the mines looking for a gem..... Saying that it is a game that I really enjoy playing because of how quick you can set it all back up and have a go again! The rules are very straight forward, the mechanics all work, there is nothing that I can fault the game on. It is just a very basic game that you can pick up and play after 1 game and that appeals to me. There is nothing worse then getting a new game and it taking forever to learn and teach the other players. That is the burden we all face with this hobby! The art work fits the game and some of the illustrations look amazing, I love how the chips feel! I love the poker style gem chips. This game however seems to take damage on the noble tiles and cards pretty easily so I would recommend you get some card sleeves for this game, I mean my game must have been played about 13 times and it already looks like it went through a war! There is also a stratergy element to this game because you need to know what chips you are going for, what is the route you will take to get the most VP but at the same time you can just do what you like and hope for the best. If you want a game that is really easy to play and teach or just a game that is fun to play then I would highly recommend this game.
7/10
