0:13

Hello, and welcome. I'm Jake.

0:15

I'm Rachel.

0:16

And we're so bored. The

0:16

Podcast where each episode, we

0:20

take a close look at a tabletop

0:20

game and discuss our personal

0:24

experiences with game to help

0:24

answer the question. Will this

0:27

cure boredom?

0:28

That's right, we look at

0:28

the mechanics complexity and

0:31

replayability in a game to

0:31

determine if it's the perfect

0:34

alternative to say, oh, no, no,

0:34

finally, going through that five

0:38

gallon water jug of coins that

0:38

you've been collecting for the

0:42

last seven years and rolling the

0:42

coins so that you can use them

0:46

to buy new board games. That's a

0:46

lot of coins. It is a lot of

0:50

coins. And I don't know if

0:50

anybody here actually remembers

0:55

what that's like to roll coins.

0:55

I mean, typically, these days

1:00

everything is pointless anyway,

1:00

right. But the hassle of rolling

1:03

coins into like the little paper

1:03

tubes. Yeah, fun times,

1:07

you can take it to like

1:07

the grocery store the bank and

1:09

dump it in that thing. But then

1:09

they take like 5% off.

1:13

Yeah, if you want to

1:13

keep all the money, then you

1:16

have to roll it yourself because

1:16

the bank will not take it as a

1:18

big pile of coins.

1:21

Before we get started. I've mentioned this a couple of times on the show, I've started

1:23

streaming recently, you could

1:25

check me out on Twitch at

1:25

Naughty Doc 541. That's na ug ht

1:31

YDOC 541. My schedule kind of

1:31

changes week to week, but I do

1:36

keep it up to date. So when this

1:36

episode comes out, I will only

1:40

be streaming the next day and

1:40

then I work the rest of the

1:44

week. So I'll be streaming next

1:44

week, I keep that schedule up to

1:47

date. In case you're not

1:47

familiar with Twitch, you can

1:49

look up my schedule on my Twitch

1:49

page. So you can come find me

1:53

there, I'd really appreciate it.

1:53

Alright,

1:55

so today we are talking

1:55

about splendor. This is the

2:00

second game in our new mini

2:00

series that we've called short

2:04

and sweet. The criteria for a

2:04

game to be in this miniseries is

2:09

that it is playable in under 45

2:09

minutes. Splendor definitely

2:14

fits that with probably an

2:14

average play time of about 30

2:18

minutes. Yeah,

2:19

this is a quick little

2:19

game to play. I really enjoy

2:22

this game. We'll talk about that

2:22

later. The splendor was

2:24

published in 2014 by Space

2:24

Cowboys and Asmodee, which I

2:29

think is a subsidiary of

2:29

Asmodee. From what I understand.

2:33

It was designed by Marc Andre

2:33

and the art designer is Pascal

2:36

quidel. I think that's how that

2:36

said I could be butchering that

2:39

name, I'm sorry.

2:40

So we've talked a little

2:40

bit about Asmodee. In the past,

2:43

as they were kind of above Days

2:43

of Wonder or like the next

2:49

branch up from Days of Wonder

2:49

which they made five tribes. And

2:53

we've talked about in the past,

2:53

however, they don't like

2:56

publishing the five tribes

2:56

expansions anymore. I don't know

3:00

if that's just kind of a general

3:00

like stance on Asmodee. They

3:05

have done some very critical

3:05

analysis on which games are

3:09

beneficial to print and which

3:09

ones aren't. But we're glad that

3:12

splendor has still made it onto

3:12

that list.

3:15

Yes, as of right now, I'm

3:15

still not seeing any of the five

3:18

tribes expansions being

3:18

produced. So I don't know what's

3:22

going on with that we did reach

3:22

out to them when we did our five

3:25

tribes episode. And we have not

3:25

heard anything definitive back

3:29

yet.

3:30

But anyway, splendor is

3:30

a card drafting engine building

3:36

game. Yes. And the theme of the

3:36

game is that you are kind of

3:40

this jeweler or Jewelcrafting

3:40

kind of trader trading all these

3:46

gems,

3:46

I prefer Tom Shane, but

3:46

yes,

3:50

I don't know if that

3:50

joke is gonna extend out to very

3:53

many people. But we'll see

3:55

from Shinko Shane co.com.

3:58

Mm hmm. So the point of

3:58

the game is to get 15 prestige

4:02

points, you do that by gathering

4:02

these cards that contain victory

4:08

points or prestige points, and

4:08

also attracting nobles that

4:12

grant a certain number of

4:12

prestige points. So to

4:15

set up the game, there are

4:15

three decks of cards, you have

4:18

green, which is level one,

4:18

yellow, which is level two, and

4:23

blue, which is level three. And

4:23

you take four of those cards

4:26

from each of those decks and

4:26

turn them face up next to the

4:29

deck. So you have these rows. So

4:29

you have a green row, a yellow

4:33

and a blue row, the cards are

4:33

worth prestige points as denoted

4:36

by a white number in the upper

4:36

left corner, they are worth one

4:40

gem of a particular color to

4:40

permanently add to your

4:43

collection. So this is where the

4:43

engine building comes in. You

4:47

need to pay specific costs to

4:47

get them but once you have them,

4:52

they go towards any future costs

4:52

of that genotype.

4:56

Yep, you're also going

4:56

to randomly select a certain

4:59

number of Noble's depending on

4:59

how many players you have. It's

5:02

basically the number of players

5:02

plus one that will be kind of

5:05

sitting up above where the cards

5:05

are laid out. And they have two

5:11

or three specific gym colors

5:11

that they're interested in.

5:15

Those will be denoted along the

5:15

left side with a number and the

5:20

color. So that says, you know,

5:20

this noble is interested in

5:24

seeing a collection that

5:24

contains three greens, three

5:28

blues, and three whites, for

5:28

example. So the first person to

5:32

have a collection that matches

5:32

all of those requirements on a

5:36

single noble tile will actually

5:36

have attracted that noble and

5:40

gain the prestige points that

5:40

come along with that. And then

5:44

lastly, you're going to set out

5:44

the gem tokens. So these feel

5:50

like poker chips, and they just

5:50

have different color gems on

5:54

them. And these represent a more

5:54

liquid currency that gets spent

5:59

on cards. And so I say liquid,

5:59

because these are the ones that

6:03

are constantly traded, and you

6:03

gain them and you spend them

6:07

versus the cards that you gain

6:07

that Jake just talked about,

6:11

which are permanently added to

6:11

your collection, and offer a

6:14

permanent discount towards

6:14

costs.

6:17

Yes. So they do look like

6:17

poker chips, they are colored

6:21

based on the gem that they

6:21

represent. So like you have the

6:24

blue sapphire chips, you've got

6:24

the green emerald chips, you've

6:27

got the red ruby chips, and then

6:27

there's also one represents

6:31

gold, which is a wild chip, it's

6:31

not a specific gem itself, but

6:38

they feel very heavy, they feel

6:38

very nice.

6:41

Yes, that's one of my

6:41

favorite things about this game

6:44

is that like, it really makes a

6:44

very nice kind of clacking

6:48

sound, when you put the chips

6:48

down, actually, let's see if I

6:52

can capture this on microphone,

6:52

I have the box right here. So

6:59

but they're a little heavier

6:59

duty than you would initially

7:01

expect. And it really, to me

7:01

makes me feel like you're

7:06

actually holding something of

7:06

value, and you're trading

7:09

something of value, it gives a

7:09

little bit more of a, I don't

7:14

know a weight behind what you're

7:14

doing. And it makes it feel more

7:18

important, in my opinion,

7:20

it definitely adds to the

7:20

feel of the game. So during your

7:24

turn, you complete one action,

7:24

there are very limited actions

7:28

you can take, you can take three

7:28

gem chips of all different

7:31

colors, you can only hold a

7:31

maximum of 10 in your pool, you

7:34

can take two gem chips of the

7:34

same color, you can only do this

7:38

if there are four or more chips

7:38

of the same color remaining. So

7:41

in a two player game, you can

7:41

actually only do this if the

7:43

other person doesn't have any of

7:43

them, you can reserve a card and

7:46

take a gold, which is that wild

7:46

token. So you take a card that

7:50

you can't pay for immediately.

7:50

And you can have a wild chip to

7:55

use later. And you keep it into

7:55

your hand and can be purchased,

7:58

it doesn't count for prestige

7:58

points or your engine until it's

8:02

actually purchased. The last

8:02

action is purchase a card from

8:05

the face up available or your

8:05

previously reserved ones. You do

8:09

this by spending chips and using

8:09

existing purchased cards to

8:13

cover the costs.

8:14

And that's basically the

8:14

game I mean, it moves very

8:17

quickly, with each person only

8:17

being able to take one of these

8:20

actions per turn. So typically,

8:20

the game starts out with each

8:25

player either grabbing three

8:25

different colored gems or two of

8:29

the same color gem, if that's

8:29

possible. And then from there,

8:32

you can go on continuing to

8:32

either grab gems or pay for some

8:35

of the cards. And you know, like

8:35

how Jake was describing earlier

8:40

how there's three different

8:40

levels of cards, they get

8:42

progressively more expensive,

8:42

the higher level you go up. So

8:46

it's pretty unrealistic to get a

8:46

level three card right out the

8:49

gate that typically costs more

8:49

gems than you're capable of

8:53

holding in terms of chips,

8:53

because you've got that maximum

8:56

of 10. And so really, it's

8:56

designed so that you can only

9:00

afford those once you've started

9:00

to build up your engine and get

9:03

those discounts from having

9:03

other cards that grant you

9:07

certain gems true, you could

9:07

start out buying level one or

9:12

maybe level two cards. And those

9:12

will start to grant you some of

9:16

those discounts and make it

9:16

easier to purchase more and more

9:20

expensive cards. And thus more

9:20

and more point value cards as

9:25

you go

9:26

are going to want to play this game now.

9:29

So our experience is

9:29

playing this game. I mean, I

9:33

think this is one of Jake's favorite games.

9:34

It is and not just because

9:34

I win a lot. I like it for a lot

9:38

of reasons. One, the chips

9:38

themselves, like I mentioned are

9:41

awesome. They look nice, they

9:41

feel nice. They are good

9:45

quality, like they just are.

9:45

Secondly, I really like this

9:48

game because it can be played

9:48

quickly or you can sit and take

9:52

your time and really, really

9:52

plan and think and strategize. I

9:55

typically like to play kind of

9:55

fast because I'm already

9:58

thinking like three or four

9:58

moves. ahead of what I'm doing.

10:01

But I think there's a lot of

10:01

viable strategy to this game as

10:04

well. It's very quick to learn,

10:04

very easy to learn and pick up.

10:08

But there is strategy involved.

10:08

And I really like that.

10:12

Yeah. And I mean, even

10:12

if you do sit there and take

10:14

your time and think about it, I

10:14

still think it's playable in

10:17

under 45 minutes, if you play

10:17

with the innate rules of getting

10:21

to 15 prestige points, because I

10:21

mean, that may sound like a

10:25

decent amount, but it adds up

10:25

pretty quickly once you start

10:28

building up that engine.

10:29

Yeah. And that's what my

10:29

strategy is for this game is I

10:32

typically buy a bunch of stuff

10:32

in the first and second row,

10:37

mostly first row, until I have

10:37

just so many resources

10:41

available, where I could just

10:41

buy cards for free, that are now

10:44

worth points. So I'm not even

10:44

using my turns anymore to get

10:49

the chips themselves, the chips

10:49

are all useless at that point,

10:53

because I'm just picking up

10:53

cards and paying for them for

10:55

free. That's how I like to build

10:55

my engine.

10:58

Yeah, but it's really

10:58

interesting, because I feel like

11:01

I started out playing this game

11:01

with a similar strategy. But I

11:05

would always lose for the

11:05

longest time, I was not able to

11:08

beat Jake at this game. And I

11:08

actually posted a picture of my

11:12

hand once on social media, and I

11:12

got a bunch of feedback that I'm

11:16

spending too much time on the

11:16

zero point level one cards, yes,

11:21

those grant you a gym to count

11:21

towards your engine, but they're

11:25

not getting you points fast

11:25

enough. And it's causing you to

11:30

fall behind. And so I actually

11:30

changed up my strategy a little

11:33

bit, I really tried to focus on

11:33

the level two cards in the

11:36

middle. And those are always

11:36

worth at least one point,

11:40

sometimes more, they're a little

11:40

bit more expensive. But I try to

11:44

focus on getting those instead

11:44

of just the zero point level one

11:49

cards. And that has allowed me

11:49

to be Jake occasionally,

11:52

although he still wins very

11:52

frequently. Yes, I think also

11:57

part of my problem is that I

11:57

tend to get caught up focusing

12:00

on the nobles like, I see that

12:00

they have these different

12:03

combinations of cards that they

12:03

want you to have. And I focus on

12:08

getting whatever they are asking

12:08

for, rather than focusing on

12:12

what's going to give me the most

12:12

points, or what can I buy for

12:15

free or whatever is most

12:15

beneficial to me. I'm like, oh,

12:19

no, but they're worth like four

12:19

points each. So I should really

12:23

try and get one of those. But I

12:23

think I waste some turns getting

12:27

cards that are not necessarily

12:27

the most helpful to me, when I

12:31

tried to focus on that.

12:32

Yeah, I focused, like I

12:32

said, on the level ones,

12:35

especially if they are worth a

12:35

point, especially if they're

12:39

worth a point. So sometimes the

12:39

level ones are worth one point,

12:43

not very often. And a lot of

12:43

times you have to spend three or

12:46

four of the same gem to get it.

12:46

So I do spend a lot of time

12:50

accumulating these no point

12:50

cards in the first row. But

12:54

that's so then I can spend

12:54

nothing to get points in the

12:58

second row.

12:58

Mm hmm. So yeah, I don't

12:58

know, I think there's a lot of

13:01

like different ways of going

13:01

about it. And that's one of the

13:04

things that I think makes it

13:04

such an attractive game is that

13:07

it actually does have strategy,

13:07

while being this fairly simple,

13:11

quick game that you can play. I

13:11

agree. So one of the other

13:15

things that I wanted to talk

13:15

about, which also gets brought

13:17

up fairly frequently on social

13:17

media is the size of the box,

13:21

the box is basically only the

13:21

size that it is so that it can

13:25

fit the rulebook that's inside,

13:25

there's no reason for it to be

13:28

that big otherwise. So you can

13:28

take out all of the components

13:34

and put it in a box that's like

13:34

one quarter of the size that it

13:38

currently is. So a lot of people

13:38

talk about how that ends up

13:43

being wasted space on your

13:43

shelf, or like, you know, if you

13:46

put it into like a Ziploc bag or

13:46

something, you know, that makes

13:49

it much more portable to take on

13:49

a camping trip or something like

13:53

that. And so there's kind of

13:53

just this desire in the

13:57

community, I think for it to

13:57

have been put into a smaller box

14:01

to begin with, which I don't

14:01

know if we'll ever see something

14:03

like that. I think the rulebook

14:03

could be shrunk down and made

14:07

into a few more pages. Because

14:07

it literally right now there's

14:11

no actual pages inside. Like

14:11

it's just a pamphlet that opens,

14:15

it's got, you know, the one side

14:15

and then the other side, and

14:17

then there's like half a page

14:17

maybe on the back. So if you cut

14:21

that rulebook down into half or

14:21

a quarter, you could make the

14:25

box much smaller, and then it

14:25

would be very friendly and

14:28

portable to carry with you on

14:28

trips where you're traveling

14:32

somewhere on an airplane or on a

14:32

camping trip, a long car ride,

14:36

whatever, that would make it

14:36

much more friendly. Although I

14:40

think nothing is really stopping

14:40

people from just putting the

14:43

components in a different

14:43

container and doing that.

14:46

I have not really seen

14:46

anything about the box size.

14:48

That being said, I'm not on

14:48

social media nearly as much as

14:52

Rachel for this podcast because

14:52

I just am not, but I can

14:57

understand that I can definitely

14:57

see that. There's so much wasted

15:01

space in that box. So the

15:01

expansions for this game, I

15:06

could only find one expansion

15:06

pack, but it has four expansions

15:11

in it. From what I understand

15:11

you cannot play them all

15:14

together, you have to add things

15:14

individually. So the expansion

15:19

itself, the box is called cities

15:19

of splendor. The first expansion

15:23

or addition is city tiles, the

15:23

cities, this will replace the

15:27

noble tiles, earning one of them

15:27

is actually now part of the wind

15:31

condition when you play this

15:31

mode, so you have to earn a city

15:34

to win. And in order to get a

15:34

city, you have to have X number

15:37

of victory points and X number

15:37

of specific gems. The second one

15:42

is trading posts, trading posts

15:42

give you special bonuses that

15:47

activate when you take specific

15:47

action, and they have their own

15:50

bonuses for each. So they have

15:50

quite a range of different

15:54

bonuses. Some of them are you'll

15:54

get more prestige points if you

15:58

take the first Noble tile, or

15:58

you get an extra token when you

16:02

take the two gem tokens at the

16:02

same color action, so you can

16:06

end up getting three. So those

16:06

are some of the bonuses that the

16:09

trading posts offer you, the

16:09

Orient adds three new decks of

16:13

cards, one for each level of

16:13

gems, and then two from each

16:16

deck are placed next to their

16:16

corresponding level. They also

16:20

have special effects, the

16:20

description wasn't clear on how

16:23

you they are purchased, or how

16:23

you get those, I would assume it

16:26

would be by using the chips that

16:26

you're getting or the gems that

16:29

you're getting.

16:30

So okay, adds three new

16:30

decks of cards, one for each

16:34

level of gems, does that mean

16:34

it's just new cards to add to

16:37

each level?

16:38

No, you actually add three

16:38

new decks out one for each

16:42

level, and two cards from each

16:42

deck come out. So two for level

16:47

one, two for level two, two for

16:47

level three, those all have

16:50

special effects. So you have

16:50

your level one gems, and then

16:54

you have your level one oriented

16:54

cards, you have your level two

16:57

gems and your level two oriented

16:57

cards, level three gems and

17:01

level three oriented cards.

17:03

Okay, so you would have

17:03

like your normal, like four

17:06

cards for level one gems and

17:06

then to level one orient cards.

17:10

Correct. So you have six

17:10

cards in each row now instead of

17:13

four.

17:14

Right? Okay, so but what

17:14

did they do? Like there are

17:17

additional things that you can

17:17

purchase to do what?

17:21

Yes, the new cards have

17:21

special powers like double bonus

17:24

cards, or Joker cards when you

17:24

take the color of one of the

17:27

developments you already own.

17:27

Okay, so

17:29

for example, if I

17:29

already have a blue card, this

17:32

could be another like addition

17:32

to blue cards that doubles the

17:35

amount of blue cards that I have.

17:37

I don't know if it

17:37

doubles, or if it just adds one.

17:40

Okay, and then the strongholds

17:40

This is even more confusing from

17:44

the description adds three

17:44

towers for each player. So when

17:47

you acquire a new card, you must

17:47

put a stronghold or face up card

17:51

on the table, you are now the

17:51

only player able to purchase or

17:55

reserve it, you may also move

17:55

one of your strongholds from one

17:58

card to another to remove

17:58

another player stronghold. So it

18:01

doesn't seem like you're the

18:01

only player able to purchase it

18:04

at that point. When your three

18:04

strongholds are on the same

18:07

card. You can buy it after your

18:07

regular action, allowing you to

18:11

make two acquisitions in the

18:11

same turn or buying that card

18:14

after taking your tokens.

18:15

Okay, so I mean, that

18:15

sounds like you're adding it to

18:19

like the market, right? You're

18:19

adding it to cars on the market.

18:23

And it makes it harder for other

18:23

people to purchase. It looks

18:27

like if someone else was

18:27

stronghold on it, or, you know,

18:31

other people could have to kind

18:31

of come in and fight for power

18:35

over that card dominance over

18:35

that card in order to be able to

18:38

purchase it. Yeah, I'm

18:39

not sure. Like I said,

18:39

this is kind of confusing the

18:43

way that it's written. Hmm.

18:44

Okay. I mean, that seems

18:44

like an interesting concept.

18:47

That would definitely add some

18:47

new technique, some new strategy

18:51

to the game. But how much does

18:51

it cost to get the cities of

18:54

splendor expansion thing for one

18:54

expansion?

18:58

$25 It's marked down on

18:58

Amazon to 25. It's, it's

19:02

normally 40.

19:03

Okay, I mean, that seems

19:03

like a really good deal to get

19:06

like for new game modes, or, you

19:06

know, different variations of

19:10

the game, especially if it comes

19:10

with like physical assets, like

19:14

these towers, or, you know, new

19:14

cards, when $5 Seems like a

19:17

pretty good deal, even if it is

19:17

normally 40. That doesn't seem

19:20

bad.

19:21

No, that's not bad. Okay,

19:21

interesting. There is also a

19:25

redesigned edition of this game.

19:25

It's a Marvel edition that has

19:29

been released. Basically, the

19:29

mechanics, the core mechanics of

19:32

the game are the same. There is

19:32

a different end game trigger

19:36

that I was not able to find

19:36

online. And instead of

19:39

purchasing the minds of the gems

19:39

themselves, you're recruiting

19:42

Marvel characters, those are the

19:42

cards that you are getting, and

19:46

they're worth victory points at

19:46

the end, basically, that's

19:49

pretty cool.

19:50

So it's not the infinity

19:50

stones that you're playing with.

19:53

I mean, yes, they are the

19:53

Infinity Stones themselves. They

19:57

are but you're using them to

19:57

recruit carriers vectors? Oh, I

20:01

don't know if it represents

20:01

victory points or what what one

20:04

of them is the shield symbol.

20:04

It's a great chip with the

20:07

shield symbol. So I'm not sure,

20:09

huh? Okay. But the

20:09

actual cards themselves are

20:13

Marvel characters. Yes. And

20:13

they're awesome. Okay. All

20:17

right, that sounds interesting.

20:17

As for BoardGameGeek, ratings,

20:20

the base game is at a 7.4 with

20:20

65,000 Reviews, I feel like it

20:27

deserves a little bit of a

20:27

higher rating, I think. And the

20:30

reason that it probably isn't

20:30

higher is just because it's one

20:34

of those fast games that has, it

20:34

has some strategy, but it is

20:39

limited. And that's fair. And we

20:39

mentioned what the cost of the

20:42

expansion pack was, you know,

20:42

$25, currently on Amazon, the

20:47

regular base game is $35 on

20:47

Amazon, which is a really good

20:51

deal. And that's its normal

20:51

price. And we've actually, we

20:54

were able to get this game for

20:54

free through Amazon occasionally

20:58

has these sales that it's like,

20:58

buy two get one free or

21:03

something like that. And so we

21:03

were able to get like, I think

21:07

we picked up to $50 games and

21:07

then splendor being the cheaper

21:11

version, we managed to get that

21:11

for free. It's usually in like

21:16

the various sales that Amazon

21:16

puts on occasionally for

21:20

whatever Prime Day, whatever day

21:20

they're celebrating at the

21:25

moment.

21:25

Yeah, whatever excuse to

21:25

make a sale, which is fine. You

21:29

know, it's a business.

21:30

Yeah. So you can usually

21:30

pick up splendor for a good

21:33

price.

21:33

The Marvel edition is

21:33

rated at 7.7. On board game

21:38

geeks, I think that that's

21:38

probably just a little inflated,

21:41

because everybody loves Marvel

21:41

right now. It is normally $50.

21:45

As of right now, it's marked

21:45

down to 40, which is pretty

21:47

good.

21:48

So I'm curious about

21:48

that. What are the different

21:51

components inside the Marvel one

21:51

that make it more expensive than

21:55

the base game?

21:56

I don't think it's components. I think it's copyrights that they have to pay

21:58

for.

22:00

I guess that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

22:02

I think that's what it is, honestly.

22:04

Is it literally the same

22:04

game otherwise? Right? Yeah, it

22:07

sounds like a different wind

22:07

condition at the end, but should

22:10

contain the same components?

22:10

Pretty much. Yeah. Okay. All

22:14

right. And then that cities of

22:14

splendor expansion pack is also

22:20

rated at a 7.4 with 3600

22:20

Reviews. So that's sitting right

22:25

at the same spot as the base

22:25

game, that tells me that there's

22:29

a solid following for this game,

22:29

and that the quality has

22:32

remained approximately the same

22:32

from the base game to the

22:36

expansions.

22:37

Next, we want to talk about our personal rating system, we have three ratings

22:39

that we like to read games on

22:42

first is easy versus difficult.

22:42

This is how easy is it for

22:46

someone to understand the rules

22:46

and mechanics? How easy is it

22:50

for somebody just pick up the

22:50

game and play? How, how easy is

22:53

it for you to take your turn,

22:54

I'm going to say that

22:54

this is an extremely easy game.

22:57

You know, I mentioned it

22:57

already. The rulebook is two

23:01

pages, or two and a half pages,

23:01

maybe there's not a whole lot to

23:04

it, there's not a lot to

23:04

remember, maybe the only thing

23:09

that they could do is provide

23:09

you with a little cheat sheet on

23:12

what actions you can take per

23:12

turn. But there's so like

23:16

limited options in terms of what

23:16

you can do. I don't know if

23:20

that's even really necessary.

23:20

It's not like it's hard to

23:22

remember what you can do every

23:22

turn. I mean, I'm gonna give

23:26

this like a two I think on easy

23:26

versus difficult.

23:29

Yeah, I was gonna say

23:29

there are literally only four

23:32

options for actions on your

23:32

turn. And you can only do one of

23:35

them. Yeah, that's it. There's

23:35

nothing else you could do. So

23:39

I'm gonna agree. I think it's a

23:39

two. Yeah. Easy, easy.

23:43

Yeah, I agree. Which is

23:43

what attributes to it being a

23:47

short and sweet game, I think,

23:47

easy to pick up, easy to learn,

23:52

and easy to just kind of get

23:52

into at any point in time in

23:55

between, I don't know you're

23:55

painting a room, and then you

23:58

decide to sit down and play a

23:58

game of splendor while the paint

24:01

is drying before you go back for

24:01

a second coat.

24:03

We did that. And I lost.

24:06

Our next rating system

24:06

is simple versus complex. That's

24:11

confusing when compared to easy

24:11

versus difficult. This is more

24:15

talking about the strategy that

24:15

is involved. So think about

24:19

chess, chess is an easy game in

24:19

terms of the number of rules

24:23

that there are, you know,

24:23

there's only so many moves and

24:26

so many pieces that each person

24:26

can make, right? But there is an

24:30

immense amount of strategy that

24:30

you can bring to that game for

24:33

this game. It's not very

24:33

complex. I think there

24:36

definitely is different

24:36

strategies that you can go with,

24:40

but not a ton. I'm gonna call it

24:40

a three, I think on this scale.

24:45

I disagree. I'm gonna give

24:45

it a five. Okay. I mean, as

24:49

we've seen, there are definitely

24:49

different strategies that are

24:51

viable for this game. You know,

24:51

people were telling you online

24:55

that you had to ignore some of

24:55

the first row cards and while

24:58

you started doing that, It's

24:58

kind of eliminated my win

25:01

streak. I'm still winning a lot

25:01

of the time, and I haven't

25:05

changed my strategy at all. Mm

25:05

hmm. So I know, I don't know.

25:08

Yeah, I think there's more

25:08

strategy to it.

25:10

Yeah, I'm not saying

25:10

that there's not any, I just I'm

25:13

not seeing like major

25:13

competitions where people are,

25:18

you know, having Splinter

25:18

tournaments. And so for that

25:21

reason, Jake is now googling if

25:21

splendor tournaments exist.

25:27

That's the reason that I'm

25:27

saying that it's a little bit

25:29

lower, because we've got

25:29

tournaments for like kuttan for

25:33

villainous chess, obviously,

25:33

because of the multitude of

25:38

strategies that you can bring to

25:38

these games. I think splendor

25:41

has a couple but in essence, the

25:41

limited mechanics makes it so

25:47

that their limited

25:48

strength is because

25:48

splendor tournaments here. Yeah,

25:51

we got one that starts in

25:51

February. On board game Marina

25:56

details can be found here. I

25:56

mean, it looks like there are

25:59

some splendor tournaments,

25:59

honestly. Okay. Looks like is

26:03

one in Colorado Springs. Okay.

26:03

So I mean, people are having

26:07

splendor tournaments.

26:09

Okay. All right, fine. I

26:09

stand corrected, I will amend my

26:13

rating to a four.

26:14

Okay. You can read it

26:14

whatever you want. I'm just I'm

26:17

just here to report fact. The

26:17

wrote versus random is our final

26:23

rating system that we like to

26:23

use, what mechanics change in

26:26

each gameplay to make a unique

26:26

experience. And honestly, in

26:30

this one, there's not anything

26:30

other than the decks are

26:34

shuffled. Literally. That's it.

26:34

So this is a pretty rote game,

26:38

in my opinion. Also, the nobles

26:38

are shuffled. Okay, yeah, the

26:42

nobles are shuffled. Okay, that

26:42

just that just changed. What

26:46

kind of cards I'm gonna get. That's pretty much

26:48

it. Yeah. No, I

26:48

completely agree. The whether or

26:51

not you win this game is

26:51

completely up to you. You're not

26:54

going to be able to blame, like

26:54

the shuffling of the cards or

26:57

the nobles for not being able to

26:57

win or pull

27:00

through. No, if you didn't

27:00

win. You did it bad.

27:03

Yeah. And so I'm going

27:03

to call this a two on the wrote

27:07

versus random.

27:08

Yeah. Best to Yeah,

27:11

it could qualify for a

27:11

one. I'm trying to think of what

27:14

a one would be something that

27:14

literally has nothing shuffled.

27:18

I don't know what game that

27:18

would be. Yeah. T Gotse. Is dice

27:21

rolling. That's very random.

27:21

That's true. But that's not

27:25

shuffled. Okay. Randomization

27:25

elements are dice rolling

27:30

randomized cards chances to

27:30

trigger different scenarios. Oh,

27:34

no. No, also has shuffled cards.

27:37

But that's it. That's all it is.

27:39

So yeah, I don't know

27:39

what a one would be. I'm giving

27:41

this a two, but very rote game.

27:41

And it's not that that makes it

27:46

non replayable. Right. I think

27:46

there's a lot of replayability

27:50

to this game in it all comes

27:50

from that strategy and kind of

27:55

basing off of those shuffled

27:55

items, and how you're going to

27:58

go about executing your strategy

27:58

this time versus last time.

28:02

Yeah, I agree. So we have

28:02

now reached the time to ask the

28:06

question, Rachel, would you

28:06

rather play this game over going

28:10

through your five gallon water

28:10

jug of coins that you've been

28:13

collecting for seven years, so

28:13

you can roll them and use them

28:17

to buy new board games?

28:18

So I like the idea of

28:18

having this sudden extra cash to

28:22

buy board games with but the act

28:22

of going through and organizing

28:26

the coins and rolling them? No,

28:26

I would definitely rather play

28:29

splendor that feels like you're

28:29

accomplishing more. It's just a

28:33

better overall like feeling of

28:33

how I'm using my time almost you

28:39

think we have in our water jug?

28:39

Well, considering it's not full?

28:42

I don't know. Maybe $10? I think

28:42

it's more okay. Well, I guess

28:47

you can go through and count it

28:47

since you're so into that. No,

28:50

I'm good. All right. Well, there

28:50

you have it. That is splendor.

28:55

Thank you so much for listening,

28:55

everybody. As usual. You can hit

28:59

us up on Facebook, Twitter and

28:59

Instagram at so bored podcast.

29:04

That's S O Bo AR D podcast. We

29:04

love hearing from you. We'd love

29:09

hearing any like house rules or

29:09

experiences that you have

29:12

playing this game. You'll also

29:12

be able to find pictures and

29:16

short stories on those social

29:16

media outlets about what we've

29:20

been playing recently and

29:20

interact with us everything

29:24

tabletop gaming.

29:25

You can also email us at

29:25

We are so [email protected] That's

29:28

W E ar e s Oh Bo ar [email protected].

29:28

And make sure you subscribe so

29:35

you can receive notifications

29:35

when our new episodes are

29:37

available. Also leave us a

29:37

rating that helps us out a lot.

29:40

It also helps other people who

29:40

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29:43

games, find our podcast, which

29:43

you can also now rate us on

29:46

Spotify. So that would help us

29:46

as well. Yep.

29:49

We also want to give a

29:49

shout out to the people who knew

29:52

that we were going to be

29:52

reviewing splendor based on the

29:55

picture that we posted last

29:55

week. So congrats to Kirk

30:00

Humphrey's Chris play. I hope I

30:00

pronounced that correctly. Dylan

30:05

Kirk, Matthias Lankford, Sharon

30:05

Baro, princesses accoya and Ser

30:12

thickos Awesome job, guys.

30:14

We also want to thank

30:14

Mitchell Mims, the designer of

30:16

art, he's accepting commissions.

30:16

So check them out at m IMSCO Sa

30:22

ra on Instagram, or at his

30:22

website, Mitchell men's that's m

30:26

IC, h e l m i m s.ca, rr d.co.

30:26

Once again, I'm streaming on a

30:34

semi regular basis, you could

30:34

check out my Twitch page at

30:37

Naughty Doc 541 at NAU GH, t y,

30:37

d. O C 541. And check my

30:44

streaming schedule on that page

30:44

to see what I'll be on.

30:47

What kind of things are you streaming?

30:48

Oh, well, right now, I'm

30:48

actually I'm torn. I kind of

30:52

want to do this game called

30:52

unpacking where you're literally

30:55

just unpacking your room. It

30:55

seems really just kind of Zen

30:59

and relaxed. And you're finding

30:59

out about the character that

31:01

you're playing is by unpacking

31:01

their stuff. But last time I was

31:06

streaming, I was playing

31:06

inscription. And I'm also

31:09

probably going to do that too.

31:09

So I'll be streaming one of

31:11

those.

31:12

Oh, I've actually issued

31:12

you a challenge in regards to

31:15

inscription have an eye.

31:16

Yeah, you have talent

31:16

accepted. I was

31:19

really interested in

31:19

this game. And so I went and I

31:21

looked up kinda all the secrets

31:21

of it, because it's more than

31:26

just a video game. There's lots

31:26

of puzzles and like secrets, and

31:29

it's more of an ARG than

31:29

anything. And I told Jake um, I

31:33

don't think you have what it

31:33

takes to solve this. And he says

31:38

Challenge accepted. He's gonna

31:38

figure it out.

31:40

Yeah, I am. I'm gonna do

31:40

it. I'm gonna try. Well,

31:44

anyway, thank you guys

31:44

again for listening and we will

31:47

see you next time. Bye bye.