Splendor Duel takes a familiar mechanism and changes it for just 2 players.

It’s the same, but different.

Confront your rival guild in a race for victory.

Splendor Duel Game Overview

Quick Rules Summary

There is a board laid out with the gem tokens you will collect and spend though out the game.

On a turn you take up 3 adjacent Gems from the board in a row. If you take 3 tokens of the same colour or 2 Pearls, your opponent takes 1 Privilege token.

Or you can take 1 Gold token and reserve 1 of the face up Jewel cards on the table.

Instead of taking any tokens, you can purchase 1 Jewel card by paying the cost in tokens, which are put in the bag.

If the card has an ability you resolve it. These let you take another turn, take an extra Gem from the board, or your opponent and take a Privilege.

Some Jewel cards have Crowns, when you gain your 3rd and 6th Crown you take 1 of the available Royal cards and resolve its ability.

As an optional action,, you can replenish the gems on the board from the bag, your opponent gains a Privilege.

A Privilege can be spent to take a gem from the board.

How do you win?

If a player fulfils a victory condition the game ends at the end of that turn:

Have 20 or more Prestige points on Jewel cards, or 10 on cards of the same colour or have 10 or more Crowns.

Main Mechanisms

Open drafting is the main mechanism, collecting the Gem tokens. Then there is the set collection to get the cards and hit those end game goals first.

USP

It’s a reimplementation of a pre-existing game so there is nothing unique here.

Theme

I never understood this theme, are you buying their favour or just making yourself look good enough to get the attention of the establishment? No idea.

Setup

You need to shuffle and layout the cards, then put tokens on the board. There’s a lot of bits for a quick 2-player game.

Components & Artwork

The gems are nice, not as big or weighty as in the original game but still feel nice.

While I’m not a fan of the artwork at all, the graphic design is very clear which helps the game run smoothly.

Ease of Teaching

It’s a very simple game with very few actions and 100% open information. If you know the original game there is only a few points to learn and you’re good to go.

Similar Games

Splendor obviously!

Splendor Duel Review

Positives

Fun and quick gameplay.

It encourages further interaction at just 2 players…

Negatives

… but Splendor was already good enough with just 2.

Summary

I know this wasn’t made for me, no 2-player only game is but it is fun to play.

Jesta ThaRogue