Splendor: The Sun Never Sets expansion

• Designer: Marc Andre
• Publisher: Space Cowboys
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 45 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link:  https://amzn.to/4ktOHxj
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Splendor is a game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you’re wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige.

In this expansion, you get two modules to flavor your Splendor game.

Place your strongholds and mark your territory!

Discover the wonders of the Orient and enjoy new powers.

This expansion box provides you with two different expansion modules for Splendor: The Orient and The Strongholds.  They can be used individually or combined with any other expansion modules.  If you’re unfamiliar with the base game – take a moment and read my 2014 review… 

https://opinionatedgamers.com/2014/05/06/dale-yu-review-of-splendor/

The Orient

This expansion has an expansion deck, split into three levels.  Each of the three levels are shuffled and placed off to the side of the main set up – two expansion cards are placed into the display, matching the levels of the regular board.  Thus, at all times in the game, there will be 6 cards in each row of the display, 4 from the regular cards and 2 from this expansion.  Whenever a card is purchased or reserved, it is replaced with a card of the same type.

There are some new actions found on these Orient expansion cards: one gives you two gold tokens if discarded, another card copies the color and bonus action of any other card in your area.  Some cards grant double gem bonuses, making it much easier for you to afford cards. Finally, there is a new type of card that does not cost gems to purchase but instead forces you to discard cards from your area as their cost.

The rest of the game plays the same way, you simply have more cards to choose from on your turn.

The Strongholds

Each player is given three Stronghold pieces of the same color to start the game.  As you play Splendor, you will place one of your Strongholds each time you buy a card (from the board or from your hand).  You can place your Stronghold on any empty card or any card already containing one of your pieces.  Alternatively, instead of placing a Stronghold, you can choose a card that has exactly one opponent Stronghold and remove that opponent’s Stronghold from it.

If a card has a Stronghold on it, it can only be purchased or reserved by the owner of said strongholds.  

If a card has all 3 of a player’s Strongholds on it, that player can purchase that card as a bonus action after taking their standard turn action.  The reserved card must still be paid for in the usual manner.

My thoughts on the game

Well, Splendor has been around for awhile – my review of the original game was way back in 2014! Despite that, Splendor is a game that still hits the table a few times each year.  It’s such a pleasingly elegant (and portable) game, this is often makes it into my travel game kits or thrown into a bag when we’re going to a friend’s house for a get together.   Splendor has definitely become one of my “gateway” games as it is simple enough to teach anyone, but I remain interested in playing and teaching it eleven years later…

The expansion modules here both add a different element to the game.  Most of the Orient cards give you actions/abilities that speed up the game.  The cards definitely give you a lot more flexibility to achieve your goals.  The Strongholds have a mostly opposite effect – they tend to slow the game down by restricting which cards players can access.  I have seen people use them all on one card, trying to get essentially a bonus turn to purchase a desired card.  Alternatively, players can spread them out to try to reserve multiple cards for their use (though of course an opponent can remove a single Stronghold with their own action).

When you combine the two, they work great together, and the speeding up / slowing down effects of each balance out nicely.  The game doesn’t feel overly restricted from the Strongholds as you have two more cards available at each level via the Orient Cards.  

These expansion modules certainly elevate the complexity level of the game and make the game a bit less elegant – but they each add a nice twist to the base game and help keep things fresh.  As you can combine these two modules in whole or piecemeal with previous expansion modules, there are definitely a lot of permutations here – and you can find the setup that works best for you!

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!  
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4ktOHxj