Tips & Strategies (29)

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Tips & Strategies (29)

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10
Watchtower
Movie Lover
Book Lover
I play blue
19 of 19 gamers found this helpful
“Look for Bargain Cards... ”

The cards on the first row vary greatly in their “chip cost”. I try and look for “bargain” cards (cards obtained with the fewest number of chips). For example, one card in the first row may cost three chips (say two red and one white). That card has the same value as another card that may cost four or five chips. Buying a card that requires three chips is a 25% savings over one that requires four, and a 40% savings over one that needs five chips. Saved chips can be used in conjunction with purchased cards for bigger purchases as the game progresses. First row cards that cost four chips of the same color are worth one point, which is worth considering in a game that only requires 15 points to win.

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9
18 of 18 gamers found this helpful
“Blind buying”

To avoid the frustrating scenario of buying a card only to see the replacement card be one that one of your opponent needs, when you have 7-9 gem tokens blind reserve a card. This gives you a “wild” token and may you give you a card you need.

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9
Gamer - Level 9
Lookout
Explorer - Level 6
Guardian Angel
30 of 31 gamers found this helpful
“offsetting the 1st/2nd player advantage.”

We have noticed that the people who go 1st or second usually win. This is not the only game that has a problem like this. Our solution we are trying is to give the 3rd and 4th player their choice of 1 chip each just before the game starts. This gives them the chance at a resource card by the 2nd round also.

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10
Watchtower
Movie Lover
Book Lover
I play blue
17 of 17 gamers found this helpful
“Balance and Diversification”

I seldom start a game of Splendor with any confidence or direction. I look at the bottom row and see that I can’t afford any of the cards, but I don’t worry. Next I collect chips (three different colors) on three consecutive turns, and my card choices become more clear. After buying a few cards, I look at the higher value cards. I focus on which color or colors will net the greatest number of points in turns that follow.
There are only five colors, and oftentimes the high value cards require five or six points of a single color. I find that focusing on the colors required for a few high value cards is a good strategy. But I usually need to collect a few cards before choosing a focus color. So begin with a couple of cards and tokens, then focus on two or three of the five colors needed to get the valuable cards.

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6
USA
Military Service
17 of 17 gamers found this helpful
“NOT an overlooked rule.”

There is a “Over looked Rules tip” in this section that says there is only one 1 noble per player (3 for 3 players). That is not true.

From the rule book:
“Shuffle the noble tiles and reveal as many of them as there are players
plus one (example: 5 tiles for a 4 player game).”

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9
17 of 17 gamers found this helpful
“higher levels of gems”

Early on purchase a level 2 gem card as soon as you can. This will give you a little extra points towards the end of the game and may make the difference between winning and coming in second. There is also less chance of revealing a replacement card that an opponent needs and can instantly purchase.

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9
Gamer - Level 9
Lookout
Explorer - Level 6
Guardian Angel
42 of 44 gamers found this helpful
“Pay attention”

Take a moment to look at what other players have purchased. Then look at what they can get, both nobles and higher value cards. Reserve a card that a player needs to win. Even if you don’t need the card you force the opponent’s plans to change.

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7
USA
I play blue
14 of 14 gamers found this helpful
“Several paths to victory”

I have played this game many times. Last night I saw a new path to victory.

One player only took level 1 cards with no victory points focusing on getting the gem cards to get the noble cards. They only took point cards when they had the gems cards that matched the requirements. Then when all the nobles were gone they went after the level 2 and 3 cards for victory. They won 2 games in a row with this strategy. Trey took 3 of 4 novels in one age and all 4 in the second day.

The other strategies I have seen is reserve the cards you want using the gold strategy to reserve them. Building an engine of gems to just grab everything in site.Finally just react to what cards come up which I call dumb luck.

The order the cards come affects all the above stratifies and often any strategy is blocked by luck of the draw. Have a plan but be flexible and react to the cards.

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6
Cooperative Game Explorer
Rated 100 Games
31 of 33 gamers found this helpful
“Points early and often”

After last night’s defeat, I certainly learned something about Splendor. One of the keys to winning is to not let yourself become so engrossed with building the perfect engine that you forget about gaining points. I had a really awesome engine going, but my wife was grabbing point resource cards more often than I was. Even at my final turn, an 8 point turn, I still came up short.

So, strategy – get as many point resources as you can as often as you can. This is how you win.

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7
Comic Book Fan
Book Lover
Pet Lover
46 of 51 gamers found this helpful
“Change of focus”

Most players tend to focus on the Noble Tiles, and stockpiling level one cards early. However the most challenging players I have seen focus on Level two cards and stockpiling gems early for control of currency and early points. Then depending on the draw try to score level 3 or noble tiles. I have seen this consistently crush in speed games.

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6
26 of 29 gamers found this helpful
“Not So Noble”

After many 2-player plays we have noticed a few factors that caused us to try a variant:
1) The number of 2nd and 3rd row cards taken is very low. The predominant strategy is to go for the Nobles.
2) If the nobles are all looking for a common gem/color, one player can pretty much control that gem and run the table of nobles. This is not uncommon for two players.
3) Reserving a card is too costly for 2 players. (There is no gold in the game).
4) These are much less likely with more players.
Try this simple variant for 2 players.
Set out only 2 nobles instead of 3.
In a few plays this seems to mitigate the runaway leader and makes the game a little different with players going for the 2nd and 3rd row more.
There is nothing wrong with the game the way it is, but this changes it up a bit for those of us who have played it a lot.

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8
Intermediate Reviewer
I'm a Gamin' Fiend!
Guardian Angel
Master Grader
14 of 15 gamers found this helpful
“Absolutely diversify, but going heavy on one gem type is great too”

All the tips about strategy for this game are right – there’s no right way to win, but in most of the high value cards, one type of gem is required to be quite high. If you’re the highest in one of the gems that so happens to align with a high point card, it puts you in a great spot to get it, and who knows, the gem you’ve got all the value in may come in handy again…

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9
13 of 14 gamers found this helpful
“Promos”

If you don’t know about it there is a set of four promo nobles for the game. The company gives these out at conventions and through tournaments.

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6
Book Lover
Sentinels of the Multiverse fan
Intermediate Reviewer
14 of 16 gamers found this helpful
“Look to the Nobles”

Before you begin selecting your initial chips, take a look at the card colors required for your nobles–especially if there are some mutual needs for two or more (this one needs three green, and that one needs four green? Ooo–all three need at least three white ones!). Start gunning to acquire cards in those common colors.

Work smarter, not harder.

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4
I play orange
13 of 16 gamers found this helpful
“Hidden Nobels!!”

Lately we have been starting play with the Nobles face down so no one know what cards they need to have to collect them. Now for your turn you or anyone can turn over one card to see what it is. This is a great catch up mechanic, because the people who think they are getting close to maybe getting a Noble use a turn to see a Noble and find out if they are close or not. Everyone seems to enjoy this tactic. We then had our first game go to 15 with out anyone getting a Noble, which was funny because people would turn a Noble over only to find out they are not even close to it. So every once in a while we make it so you must have at least one Noble to win. Just a few simple House Rules we use but none are really need to get this game out on the table.

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9
13 of 16 gamers found this helpful
“Challenge yourself”

If you feel you have mastered the game set some challenges to the game for yourself. Mine is how few cards I can purchase and win the game. My current best is winning(15 points) with only 6 cards. My Husband’s personal challenge was making a 7 point play(4+noble) to win with 20 pts.

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6
23 of 31 gamers found this helpful
“Easy Speedy”

The recipe colors on the cards are in the same order: white, blue, green, red, black. Set out the draw gem stacks and keep your personal stacks in the same order. This makes it easy to see if you have what you need and to find the gems you want. This makes play go a little faster.
Unfortunately, the recipes for the nobles are in a different order. Maybe that’s an oversight that will get changed in a future edition.

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9
Gamer - Level 9
Lookout
Explorer - Level 6
Guardian Angel
13 of 17 gamers found this helpful
“brettspiel adventskalender 2015”

The advent caleder for this year has 24 different promos one for each day from 21 different companies. 1 is a new Noble for Splendor. The Calender is available to buy through Funagain Games and through Board Game Geek.

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7
Comic Book Fan
Book Lover
Pet Lover
28 of 39 gamers found this helpful
“Often overlooked rules”

Don’t forget:
3 card hand limit, for reserved cards

10 gem token limit at end of turn, must discard

You can only take 2 of the same kind if there are at least 4 of that color in supply. 3 or less in supply can only be acquired in a “take 3 different gems action.

There are only 1 noble available per player. So a 3 player game has 3 nobles.

You can reserve a card even if there are no Gold Tokens available.

You can “try your luck” and reserve a card stright from the top of a deck to your hand.

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5
Tasty Minstrel Games Fan
Eminent Domain Fan
16 of 23 gamers found this helpful
“Diversify your assets”

Templa’s tip is spot on–don’t forget about points. Grab them early and often. However, don’t immediately go for cards that give you lots of points. Try to get one of every or at least most of the colors and build up an inventory so that you can grab the big point cards with little effort. Even 1-2 cheap gems can make the difference between losing and winning with grabbing card worth big points.

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