The superior Splendor for 2

Splendor Duel is an amazing small box game. Splendor might be a no-brainer for many, but I didn’t really enjoy the original version - Its sole focus is engine building and thus can get monotonous for me. Which is why I was surprised how well the 2p Duel version turned out, and how much we liked it when we tried it at a convention. So it just had to join our collection! 😊

The essence of the game remains the same: You use gems to acquire different jewel cards, which give you ongoing discounts for future purchases so you can get even better cards. However there are some cool additions that make the game more varied and fun. 😉 The biggest one is the central board with a grid of gems chips. ☝️ Instead of just taking gems from the supply you have to take them from here, up to 3 gem chips in a continuous row. Empty spaces and gold chips will break up these possible rows, so the board state is always interesting. To me this spatial puzzle for the chip collection really elevates the game.

📜 Privilege tokens are new too, which balance things out in a subtle way. These allow you to get a single gem chip for free. Your opponent gets a Privilege if you take both pearl chips (which is a new resource type), take 3 gems of a kind from the board, or choose to refill the gem board. This way refilling becomes this mexican stand-off, where both players wait for the other to do it. 😄

Other smaller tweaks are bonus icons on cards: 🧐 Some allow you to take another turn, take a chip from the board, steal one from the opponent or get a Privilege. There are also crown 👑 icons, which are used to attract nobles to you - these again don’t just give you points but also a one-time bonus. All these icons do a great job to break up that monotony I felt in the original Splendor, as cards aren’t all the same. 👍

Finally there are 3 win conditions now: 🏆 Getting a sum of 20 points, 10 points from the same color, or 10 crown icons, so you can potentially pivot your goal if it suits your needs better. This is again a small change, but it feels substantial.
In summary all of these changes make this 2p game exceptional! 🥰