Review: SPLENDOR DUEL is one of my new favorite two-player board games

Last year Space Cowboys and Asmodee came out Splendor Duel. This is a 2-player spin-off (for lack of a better word) to the popular board game Splendor. Splendor Duel was designed by Marc Andre And Bruno Catala with art of David Toselli. The Asmodee team was kind enough to send me a copy of the game to review, but the thoughts below are my own. You can purchase your copy from your local game store with an MSRP of $29.99.

I really enjoy it Splendor. It’s a fun game, requires quite a bit of strategy, doesn’t take too much time, and is simple to learn and teach. Splendor Duel does a great job of taking everything I love about the original game and making slight changes to better suit two players. It is possible that Splendor Duel could be better than Splendor. Let’s talk about some of these changes.

The biggest change is the way gems are collected. In the Splendor, you only have each color in its pile and can take three different colors or two of a single color. You can also get a Gold (which acts as a wild card) by reserving one of the table cards and adding it to your hand. In the Splendor Duel, gems are laid out on a board and when you take gems, you can take up to three as long as they are adjacent to each other. You are still limited to taking a Gold only if you reserve a card and if you take three of the same color (or both Pearls which is a new gem for Splendor Duel) your opponent gains a Privilege (more on that in a bit). This adds another layer of strategy and thinking behind your gem selection on your turn.

Another gameplay change was the addition of Privilege. There are three Privilege tokens and they allow you to take a single gem for free during your turn. The privilege is limited though because if you want to use it, it has to be the first thing you do on your turn and it can’t be used to get a Gold. It is however quite powerful as it allows you to get up to 4 gems in one turn, or if you are just one gem away from buying the jewel card you are looking for, it is a way to speed things up a bit and can definitely help you get the the initiative.

A third change is that many of the cards have an ability. The skill ranges from giving you gems from the board to getting another turn to steal gems from your opponent and more. These abilities definitely help you prioritize and strategize the various jewel cards in front of you. It’s nice to hear that there’s more of a purpose to the cards you’re buying than just points. The game feels a bit more active, which I like.

There are a few other areas where Splendor Duel it’s different, but those are the main three. I really like the changes made to this game and Splendor Duel It has quickly become one of my favorite two-player board games out there. If you’re looking for a new game to play one-on-one, I can’t recommend it Splendor Duel enough. I highly recommend it!