Splendor Board Game (Base Game) | Family Board Game | Board Game for Adults and Family | Strategy Game | Ages 10+ | 2 to 4 players | Average Playtime 30 minutes | Made by Space Cowboys

I’m addicted to this game! I like that it’s quick and easy to set up and easy to learn. But strategic thinking is required. Game play is about 30 mins with 2 players. Don’t know yet how it translates into a larger player game.

Very quick to learn and quick to play, but takes some serious observation of what you can do and what your opponents have done to develop a (flexible) winning strategy. Good for both beginners and experienced gamers, and shouldnt take more than 30-40 minutes to play. I recommend getting sleeves for the cards (2.5x3.5 poker sized) because they will get used a lot. Im not a big fan of the chips, but most people seem to like them and they are certainly much better than the cardboard chits you would have expected to get with most boardgames. The artwork is nice, but the theme feels pasted on. They could have made this with no artwork at all and it would have played exactly the same (and been just as much fun). The mechanics are relatively simple: you have a tableau of cards laid out, 4 each from 3 different decks. The cards from the I deck are the cheapest to buy and the least valuable, worth 0 or 1 point for victory; the cards from the II deck cost more and are worth 1-3 points; and the cards from the III deck are the most expensive to buy and the most valuable, worth 3-5 points each. Cards you purchase are played face up in front of you and give you a permanent discount thereafter, so purchasing a white diamond card (for example) gives you a permanent discount of 1 white for all future purchases. The price of a card is in the lower left, and cards are purchased with any combination of the right color cards and gem tokens. Thus, if a card costs 5 green to purchase, you could purchase it with 5 green tokens, the discount from 5 previously purchased green cards, 3 tokens and the discount from 2 previously purchased cards, etc. A gold joker token is wild and can be used in place of any color in the price on a one-to-one basis, so in the above example you could buy the card with 2 green gem tokens, discount from 2 previously purchased green cards, and a gold joker token. Purchased cards are replaced immediately from the appropriate deck, and gem tokens used to purchase a card are returned immediately to the supply/bank. If you purchase cards of the appropriate colors, either 4 each of 2 specific colors or 3 each of 3 specific colors, you get a visit from a noble. This simply means you collect the appropriate noble tile. Nobles are worth 3 points each. On each turn, you take one of three actions: purchase a card that is face up or that you have previously reserved; reserve a card to your hand so that only you may purchase it on a later turn; or collect gem tokens. You may only reserve a card up to a total of 3 in hand, and the only way to clear a reserved card out of your hand is to purchase it on a later turn. If there are any gold jokers available, you get one when you reserve a card; this is the only way to get a gold joker token. To collect gem tokens, you may take 2 of a same color if at least 2 of that color would be left in the supply after you take yours (at least 4 present before you take your 2), or you can take 1 each of 3 different colors. If you have more than 10 tokens (gems and jokers) at the end of your turn, you must immediately discard down to 10 total. (There are a few edge cases to read up on, but thats the basic gameplay.) The game is played until at least 1 player reaches 15 points. When that happens, the current round is finished out so that everyone has had an equal number of turns, then the player with the most points wins. In a tie, whomever purchased the fewest cards wins the tiebreaker. The strategy lies in planning out how to get the cards and/or tokens you need for future purchases, identifying the cards your opponent is hoping to purchase, and controlling the very limited supply of tokens and visible cards by buying/collecting/reserving what your opponent wants or needs. You cannot directly attack an opponent; once a card is purchased, she has it permanently; once she collects gem tokens, she has them until she chooses to spend them. It is all a matter of forward thinking, preparing for your future card purchases and impeding or obstructing your opponents intended future card purchases. The deck III cards have a uniform distribution of costs and values among the 5 card colors; the deck II and I cards do not. Its simple to understand, quick to set up, quick to play, fun to look at, fun to handle the tokens (chips), and most importantly, fun to play. The only random element is shuffling the 3 decks and the nobles before set up; its basically all decisions after that. Bottom line: does it play well? Yes it does. Can you teach and play quickly? Yes you can. Will it still be as fun on the 50th play? Yes it will (is). Does it give good value for your entertainment dollar? Yes it does. Some people have called it a filler game, which is a special term among gamers meaning you can set up and play fairly quickly, without major strategy time/planning required, and still have fun. I also like to describe it as a gateway game, which means it can draw people who who usually dont think of themselves as gamers into the scene. It hits that sweet spot of affordable, quick, fun, non-cutthroat, with meaningful decisions, for many people. Edit: I personally dont like the tokens. They are better than the cardboard you would usually expect in a boardgame, but I find its a little more fun for us to use pirate coins

One of our favorite games. Very easy to learn and has an always evolving and changing strategy. Highly recommend to those who love a good bit of fun

We borrowed this game from a sibling to try it out and have since bought our own copy as well as bought it as a gift for a couple people. Its fairly easy to learn, very re-playable, and can be played as a two person game. The set up is super fast. Its about the size of a lunchbox, so not super small, but not terribly big either. I highly recommend this for any board gamers.

My friends simply can not get enough of this game. I was first introduced to it in Australia & after months of being away decided to purchase it on Amazon. The price definitely seems to fluctuate on it, so keep an eye out. Essentially youre a gem lord building an empire of mining facilities. You pay gems to purchase these mining facilities. Each mining facility then counts as a one-discount of that type of gem each time you purchase something in the future. As you build up your infastructure (or engine), you can purchase more expensive cards & points. First to 15 points wins! Each turn you can do one of three things: 1) take gems from the bank. Three different types (1 ruby, 1 emerald, 1 sapphire for example) or 2 of the same (2 sapphires or 2 rubies) Note: there must be 2 gems remaining in the pile if you do the 2 of a kind option. Ex. there are 4 sapphires in the bank so you could take 2 sapphires. Ex2. there are 3 emeralds in the bank, you cannot take 2 emeralds because this would leave less than 2 remaining in the bank. 2) purchase a card (mining facility) by paying the cost at the bottom of the card 3) reserve a face-up card on the board. You take it and can purchase it on a later turn instead of taking your regular turn. You also take a gold gem which is used as a wildcard gem in lieu of any gem requirement. Watch your opponents & predict what theyll do! Ease of learning: takes me 5-10min to explain the game Gameplay: quick. People take turns rather quickly Skill: both novices and experts can play. The game is highly dependent on what the other players do in the game. The 2-player version involves the most skill as its mono-e-mono Build quality: high. Smooth, nicely weighted gem tokens & colorful, easy-to-understand cards

Best family board games ever and my son loves to and his friends as well. So we bought most of his friend for a birthday gift! Best birthday gift for anyone! Highly recommend!

Splendor is a fairly quick game to learn, as you really only need to understand the options you have for taking chips and buying cards before you can get right into it. The strategy is pretty clear for anyone who has played an engine building game before, but anyone who isnt as experienced with board games will pick it up after one playthrough. The game itself has a good amount of strategy for how simple it is, as the order of cards and the different nobles changes each time. Over the course of the game youll need to adapt to what your opponents are doing and which cards are coming up, changing your strategy based on the available options. There is also a mechanic that allows you to reserve one of the cards on the table, which is a great boost to the competitive element - though it sucks when someone takes the card youve been building to off the table! Splendor is a fun, fast-paced game that is pretty quick to pick up despite having a decent amount of strategy. It might not carry a board game night on its own, but it stays in the rotation for me as a short warm-up game or a cool-down after a bigger one.

Great game! Definitely plays well as both a filler and as a purposeful choice. Great for 2 players, but strategy changes quite a bit with 3 or 4 players and leads to a challenging game. The quality of the game pieces are excellent, solid and colorfully marked. No need to worry about breaking one or wearing them out. Also, quite a pleasing game for younger intelligent children as well, relies heavily on counting and is a great way to get your kids away from their screens (phones, tablets, TVs, computers, etc.). Competition is indirect, however I usually am thinking or sometimes say it out loud, hey, I was going to get that one, referring to a certain card. Cant recommend this game enough! The randomness of the cards creates an entirely new game every time yet their is quite a bit of choice in choosing your destiny for how you want to win... if you are lucky enough. Do you want to be cheap and build a hand of jewels, or do you want to try and save your jewels and buy into expensive cards........... you wont know until you play!!! Cheers!

One of our favorite games. This is quick and easy to play with some strategy involved. Essentially this is a resource engine building game. You get cards which will enable you to get better cards which enable you to get the high point scoring cards. The theme is non-existent. You could remove the gem artwork and replace it with anything, even wooden cubes, and it would still be the same game. You could almost call this an abstract card game. That flaw aside, it is still fun to play. The illustrations on the cards are pretty to look at, and the resource chips are beautiful and a real joy to handle. I wish I could write more but it is a fairly simple and straightforward game to play. ...and fun. Enjoy!

This game is a home run! The adults and kids both love it.