In Splendor, you are trying to attract the attention of the nobles by having the most production of a certain type of jewel. Right out of the box, the game is amazingly detailed; the tokens are like poker chips and very durable and the card designs are super. It is a great starter game for new players and very easy to learn.
Here are the basics of the game:
Here is the layout, there are three decks that come with the game; I would class them as green is cheapest to purchase, gold is a tad more expensive and blue is very expensive but worth it and then there are the nobles on the top row and the 'chips' on the bottom or to the side.
You draw out four cards from each stack and place on the table along with a number of nobles that equal the number of players at the top.
On your turn you can do 1 of three things: you can either take three different chips of different colours or take two of the same colour, as long there are at least 4 left in the pile (be careful, if you have more than 10 chips at the end of your turn, you will have to give up half your pot); you can purchase a card or you can reserve a card (which means that if you see a card you think you can purchase soon or you think someone else will need that card, then take it in your hand (maximum of three) and take a 'wild' chip as well.
I am going to go trough all the rules of this game, so I will just get to the review. Like I said, visually this game is awesome, as for replay value well it does have some replay value as the nobles are always different each game and the cards that come out of each stack are also random each time. I also said this was easy, well, I believe, the instructions are like 3 or 4 pages in total. This is a fun game and I did play it a lot with my gamer friends. It is a good game for tournament play as well and could have an expansion added to it down the road but the game as it is, is just fine.
If you have a chance to play this game, then do so, you will not be disappointed.
4 dice out of 5