Author Topic: Splendor  (Read 1741 times)

Offline RobbyPants

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Splendor
« on: January 08, 2016, 07:18:14 AM »
Has anyone played Splendor? It's been out a while now, and I just played it over the holidays. I liked it enough to buy it.

What I really like about it is how simple it is to play and explain. There's not a lot of complexity to the game, but each turn, you still have meaningful choices to make. Another interesting thing is, with the exception of the "reserve off the top" mechanic (which seems to be rarely used), there's no real hidden information (apart from cards still in the deck). All of the cards available are visible for all to see. While a card reserved from the center will be placed face-down, you still get to see the card before they reserve it. With all of that open information, a lot of the game involves around trying to see if someone else is trying to get a key card before you are.

On a side note, I like the art on the cards and the heft of the chips. It's a really nice quality game on top of being fun to play.

I've noticed that I haven't really been able to figure out what makes an effective strategy vs an ineffective one. I mean, I can identify obviously bad moves, but I have a hard time telling good moves apart from optimal moves. For example: it would seem wise at the beginning to look at the colors of the gems in the nobles in play. Colors that appear in more of them are going to be more valuable than ones that don't. Of course, if everyone else notices the same thing, it can make those gems more scarce. That being said, I'd say half of the games I've played resulted in the person winning not having a single noble. So, that doesn't seem to be nearly as important as I think it is.

If you've played it, what are your thoughts?
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