Splendor Kids

• Designer: Marc André, Catherine André
• Publisher: Space Cowboys
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 6+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4q9AO9S 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Play travelers that deliver food across the kingdom. Splendor is a game of chip-collecting. On your turn, you may (1) collect chips (food), or (2) move forward on the paths. If you collect chips, you take either three different kinds of chips, two chips of the same kind or one joker chip, which you can use as any food.

If you move forward, you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. Some places on the board let you take food that you can use and reactivate, some places let you play again.  Be the first to reach the Palace of Splendor and earn the Queen’s Medal!

So, I’ve always thought that Splendor is a dead easy game to teach; really one that I could teach to even the youngest of gamers.  While at Spiel 2025, I was introduced to a new Kids version of the game.   Though my group is only comprised of full grown adults; we still took the game for a spin.

Much of the game is the same – well, at least as far as the chip collecting goes.  You still have the same 3 options: one each of three colors, a pair of a single color, or a single wild.  Where the game differs is that you now play on a board, and the game is a race from one end to the other.  As you traverse the paths, you can see on the flag what chips you will need to pass through.  Unlike the original game, these combinations never change, so you don’t have to worry about hitting a moving target here.  

The castles/fortifications grant you a chit which can be used as a resource in later turns.  Villages give you the opportunity to take another turn immediately. Be the first to get to the end of the board to win!

Is this really an easier version of the game?  I guess so – but only just barely.  I suppose the youthful art makes it more accessible as well as the fixed combinations on the board.  But in the end, it really just felt like a mildly different version of Splendor; one I’m happy to play again, but also not one that is different enough from the original to make me want to keep it in place of the original  (Also, it doesn’t work with any of the expansions)….

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

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

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4q9AO9S

Splendor: Silk Road Expansion

• Designer:  Marc Andre
• Publisher: Space Cowboys
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/48zwuL7
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Two modules to flavor your Splendor game, from “cities of splendor”, with minor adjustments.

Dominate Trade within the Cities and discover new victory conditions for each game. The Cities replace the noble tiles with 3 different city tiles (randomly taken from a pool of 14). The city tiles are objectives (in prestige points and/or development cards) and you need to fulfill one of them in order to win.  Note that this changes the victory condition of the game – no longer is the game a race to 15 points, but rather, simply the first person to gain a city tile. For better or worse, I feel like this version of the game makes players play a little more defensively – as the game is no longer a simple race for points, players can try to keep a particular color card away from a player who needs that to win (or deny that player the chips necessary to gain the card).  However, with three different options available in each game, even if you block one path, the player can simply pivot and gain things towards one of the other endgame conditions.

Create Trading Posts and leverage their unique powers to maximize your prestige. The Trading Posts are special bonuses you earn by acquiring an array of development cards: more prestige points from the 1st noble tile you receive, an extra token when you choose the “Take 2 gem tokens of the same color” action, and so on.  There are five different trading posts in the game, and once you meet the requirements for one, you keep the benefits for the rest of the game.  To me, all of the special actions are useful at the right time, and players have to weigh their options as they try to figure out which trading posts are worth the effort to acquire and which simply take too long to get compared to the benefit the player will receive.

I like both of these modules as they both change the game without adding too much overhead or complexity to Splendor.  One of the things I love most about Splendor is how elegant it is – the rules are simple and the play is quick.  These two modules both offer significant changes to strategy without turning the game into a slog.

If you’re looking for a change of pace to Splendor – these two modules are definitely worth your while.  As an added plus, all of the expansion material (this as well as Sun Never Sets) can fit into your regular Splendor box.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

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

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/48zwuL7