CITIES OF SPLENDOR (Splendor expansion)

Cities of Splendor, from Space Cowboys, adds four expansion modules to the 2014 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year winner and Spiel des Jahres nominee.

Splendor is a majestic family game by Marc André involving card drafting and tableau building and Cities of Splendor gives you even more variety in the way you can play. The four expansions must be played singly and offer very different variants on a successful theme while not bogging the game down with any unnecessary complexity.

The “Cities” expansion changes the game’s victory condition and does away with the base game’s noble tiles. Instead you will reveal three of the seven double-sided city tiles and race to be the first to achieve the printed victory condition on one of the tiles, which will include a score and a number of specific coloured cards you must have in your tableau. With “Strongholds”, each player will take three of the plastic strongholds in a specific colour and during the game when you purchase a card you will place (or move) one of your strongholds on a card that doesn’t already contain an opponent’s stronghold or remove an opponent’s stronghold. Strongholds effectively reserve cards for you and give you an extra purchase action if you manage to have all three of your strongholds on a single card. “Trading Posts” adds a new board that displays special abilities for the players to gain if they have achieved certain objectives. When you unlock an objective you place one of your coloured coat of arms markers to show you have achieved it. Watch out because these bonuses are powerful! “The Orient” expands the number of available cards, adding another deck to the side of the main deck with three levels of Orient cards that give weird and wonderful benefits such as double bonuses, the ability to reserve a noble and other cards that interact with the cards already collected in your tableau. Each of the expansion modules give a very different feel to the way Splendor is played and will keep the game fresh for years to come.

Game Information

• Players 2-4
• Playing time 30 minutes
• Ages 10+