January Game of the Month
Celebrating a year of gaming with a spotlight on the captivating strategy game, Splendor!
It has now been 12 months of games!! We are finishing up this newsletter as a “monthly” installment with one of my favorite games both at a table and online on Board Game Arena!
Splendor is a chip-collecting strategy game. You are playing as a merchant of the Renaissance trying to collect gems in order to purchase cards that will put more gems in your purse and achieve the ultimate goal of a designated point collection to win the game 👑🪙
I generally get caught up in what other player’s are collecting and completely lose track of my own “plan”. Pretty much always reason for my defeat (ask Ashleh). If you can stay focused and adapt to the ever changing offering of cards, you can master Splendor.
Game Setup:
Lay out the development cards in their respective sets based on the white dots on back side of card (1-3) in a vertical column. They bottom row of is comprised of the 1 dot cards and then upward with 4 of each turned face up.
Place the “nobles” for the round at the top. The number of nobles used can vary depending on how many players there are in the game.
Sort the gem coins by color and place in stack reachable by all players. The gold/yellow coins are wild and can represent any gem when used. Check to see how many gems there should be based on number of players.
Game Play:
Determine the first player to go and then play proceeds clockwise.
On your turn you can:
take 3 gems (each a different color)
take 2 gems of the same color (as long as half the stack count is still available after you take gems)
“reserve” a card to be purchased later and take 1 wild coin
or purchase a development card
You may never have more than 10 gem coins at a time.
You can only have 3 development cards “reserved”.
If on your turn taking gems puts you over the allowed count, you have to put some gems back from your purse.
Once you purchase a development card, the gem displayed on the card is now a “permanent” gem in your purse. It can be used toward purchases and does not count in your 10 gem limit.
The nobles can only be gained by collecting development cards with the gems displayed on the noble tile. You cannot use gem coins to buy them.
Everyone gets the same number of turns so if a player gets to the winning point total minimum and others have not had their turn for that round, they get one more turn to try to collect points before the game ends.
The player with the most prestige points at the end of the game wins! (the points are on the development cards and nobles)
Splendor is a great game as it is always a different offering of cards and challenges player’s to focus on a goal to achieve victory. It’s easy to put all your efforts into one aspect of the game and spend a lot of turns collecting small when there are others making big moves to gain development cards. I can’t say for certain what is the best strategy, but I love the challenge this game presents. I’d never decline playing.🤓 Thanks Cherie!!
