Designer: Marc André
Artist: Abbas Amirabadi, Mahmoud Arasteh Nasab, Pascal Quidault
Publisher: Space Cowboys
BoardHoarders Weight Complexity 2/6
Still a hidden gem?
Every now and then a game shows up that does something so effortlessly that you just can’t fail to be impressed. Splendor is of that elite group. Modern game design doesn’t have to intimidate. This simply set collector is proof of that. Sometimes all you need are some nice cards and minimal rules overhead …..That and some lovely, clackety chips..
Multi Award winning Splendor has quickly become something of a modern classic.
As merchants of the Renaissance players will quickly develop an eye for the very best gems stones gathered from the four corners of the globe. Collections can quickly gain notoriety. News of famed collections can spread. Prestige is sure to follow and with new found fortunes a player may just draw the attentions of some prominent nobles. Victory is assured only to the one true master jeweller.
Splendor's appeal is largely down to its rules set. 5 minutes would be an 'in-depth' overview.
Gameplay
In Splendor on a players turn they will complete one of 3 possible actions. Collect gems, reserve a card or buy a card.
1. Collect gems. The initial gems a player can gather are printed on the afore-mentioned chips. A player can as an action, choose to collect any 3 different gems or 2 matching gems from the 5 gem stacks. As you gleefully shuffle your new chips you may ponder over a tempting card in front of you. Well put your chips down for a minute, (seriously put them down) and try the 2nd option..
Reserving the right card can really give your hopes of gathering ‘prestige’ a real boost..
2. Reserve a card. Splendor has an arrangement of cards tiered in 3 levels. How they differ becomes apparent from a brief look at their anatomy. Each card has a cost in the lower left. They may also have 2 additional features on them that help you determine their worth.
In the top right all cards will provide you with a permanent gem to add to your collection. Checking the top left corner of a card tells you if that card comes with some prestige. It is this ‘prestige’ that players are all racing to achieve the most of. So reserving cards is how a player secures a gem card of interest. As a bonus and perhaps an extra motivating factor in reserving a card, you will also get some gold for your trouble. Or to be more accurate, a ‘wild’ chip. Now with your gem chips and maybe even a gold bar or two you can finally go for a 3rd option.
3. Buying a card. Simply give back to the stacks the gems needed to secure the gem card. Immediately add this card and therefore its gem to your personal tableau.
Developing a varied tableau of gems keeps your fellow dealers from seeing that card you are hopeful of securing next turn.
So you’ve got this already haven’t you?
Buying cards is the key to victory and building a large tableau of gems gives you a real advantage as new cards are drawn. Hopefully card purchases become easier as you gather more and more gem cards. Finally, with enough gem cards in your tableau you can draw a noble tile scoring big prestige points.
The first player to achieve 15 prestige (victory) points will..win..Splendor.
Tip: Move up the tiers as efficiently as you can. Prestige is rare amongst lowly gem collectors.
Little Gems..
There’s no getting away from it, those weighted chips are a big draw in Splendor. Yes they could have been individual plastic gem bits or even just as easily been represented by an alternative deck of cards, but the decision to go with chips really makes this game pop.
The action of reserving potentially up to 3 cards is also great. It can actually give players perhaps lost in main card array something to aim for. It’s a small feature that’s easy overlooked but highlights some clever design. Reserving cards of course can equally be used as a tactical move to prevent rival jewellers claiming easy cards.
Theme doesn’t really matter to gameplay and it is just vague enough to make sure anyone can approach Splendor.
Conclusion
Splendor truly is a classic. An absolute shelf-stable game. Cards are clean and simple to understand meaning it plays well across the age groups. It plays in less than 30mins and gets a big recommendation from us here at BoardHoarders.
]]>Designer: Wilfried & Marie Fort
Artist: Oksana Dmitrienko & Anastasia Voropina
Publisher: Cryptozoic Entertainment
BoardHoarders Weight Complexity: 2/6
Wallet is a quick playing group card game that scales up to 7 players making it an excellent filler style party game for larger playgroups.
Claim your identity quickly from the 'Wallet' or you could find yourself implemented in aiding the Big Boss escape.
Players have been invited to the hottest party in town. Everything seemed fine till rumours of a police raid caused the mysterious host to flee the scene in his swanky private helicopter. Suddenly everyone's character is under scrutiny. Why exactly are you at this party anyway?
Thankfully your host dropped his wallet in all the chaos and it seems he may have just provided you with a ticket outta there..
In Wallet assuming the right ID may just let you ‘cash in’ and make the most of this odd party situation ………. and you’ve been to some weird parties.
In case it isn’t already clear, know the whole package fits in said ‘Wallet’ making it extremely portable.
Summary
A game of Wallet will last 3 rounds. Total. Card play will be immediately familiar to most players with the majority of plays involving exchanging cards in turn order using a combination of 4 pre-set actions. After each round players will each have a chance to prove their identity
Draw a card, Play a card, Buy a card or finally Flip a card. Nice and easy…What can go wrong?
Gameplay
Your goal is to collect a hand of cards that all work together providing you with a bona fide identity and hopefully scoring you a cash reward on the side.
As you might expect, the Wallet itself forms a sort of draw deck with players rummaging through its contents on each turn. This works great with the theme of the game as players desperately dive into the wallet in an attempt to make a run for freedom. Meanwhile tension is ever mounting as more and more timer cards are flipped..
3 of Wallets main actions involve the games main feature – drawing or placing cards in the quirky Wallet
Along with the standard actions, round to round each player will have some variable player powers that can give you some real advantages in either drawing new cards or flipping the rules in your favour for that round.
Round length is tracked with 6 thematic hourglass cards. As they are flipped they show more of the game's cool art style. Some hard-nosed detectives rushing to the rooftop to put the screws on...
The timer cards provide the real tension in the game. You know one is guaranteed to flip once all players have played an action. But you can sometimes see a player willingly flip a timer card as an action. All of a sudden you may have to just make a fist of it with your current hand as the round quickly draws to an end. This can often lead to much laughter as the rush strategy backfires on a player that has underestimated the opposition. After all, no one wants to come under the suspicion of the Chief of Police and all innocents will have a chance of winning those precious victory coins. Speaking of victory conditions, these are all clearly explained in the easy to understand rulebook.
After the 3rd and final round of play all victory coins are revealed, counted and the winner is declared and offered their freedom!
Conclusion
Fans of lighter Filler, Party or Social games will find a lot to enjoy in Wallet. The physical wallet gives the game a unique feel and it’s great that the whole thing packs up into it for taking 'Wallet' just about anywhere..
Wallet truly adds something different to any games collection. Buy Wallet
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Designer: Alain Rivollet
Artist: Vincent Joubert
Publisher: Bankiiiz Editions
BoardHoarders Weight Complexity 2/6
Banquet Royal is an excellent, fast paced family game which gets a recommendation from us here at BoardHoarders.
Players take on the role of cooks serving a royal court with delicious dishes. How these dishes complement each other depends on your own unique perspective..
Players are cooks rushing bountiful platters of food to a grand banquet table. Your goal in serving this royal court of comical characters, is to curry the most favour by the end of the game. You will do so by matching menu cards to the arrangement of foods as they appear on the grand banquet table.
Each of your menu card shows a combination of 3 food platters. The first step in a players turn is always to deliver a new item to the table. You will then have a chance of matching 3 platter combinations to one of your unique menus. In doing so you ensure that card will score you points at the end of the game. If you have a good memory, as an option on your turn you can guess and reveal one of several hidden platters placed round the table. This action can bag you some tasty end game points.
There is some strategy involved in drawing and completing your menu cards. They come in 3 grades of difficulty. It's a nice touch as it allows for some pattern variation and can act as a balancing mechanism when playing with inexperienced players.
The main mechanism in the game is undoubtedly pattern recognition but there is a 3 card hand limit rule and even a hint of worker placement. Each player will have 2 cook hats (Toques) that can be used to sub for any missing food item. Really it's a wild card…well...hat. So it is great way of finishing a tricky menu card, however you will then leave that ‘wild’ food item on the banquet table for others to use in later turns.
When the table is finally full of foodie treats all player will add up their menu points. Most point wins!
Experienced players can add up to 4 small variants to spice things up such as the ‘Gourmet Variant.’ At the end of the game this rule adds or even removes victory points for those holding menu majorities.
With only a 25 minute playtime Banquet Royal manages to introduce some subtle gaming mechanics in a way that can sometimes seem hard to explain in more established family games such as Takenoko or even a Ticket to Ride. As a result, we at BoardHoarders firmly believe it is an excellent ‘gateway game
In conclusion, it really is one of those games that anyone can play and should serve up fun for both old and new gamers alike.
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