Game Play Review - Splendor: Marvel

Splendor: Marvel is a game published by SPACE Cowboys. The premise of the game is for players to recruit a team of super heroes and villains to gain infinity points. Each recruit has the potential to help you recruit even more powerful characters. The end of game is triggered when any player has enough infinity points, power and characters to meet the Inifinity Gauntlet requirements. The player with the most infinity points is declared the winner.

This post is broken into the following 3 sections, feel free to jump directly to one:

1. General summary - consisting of information about overall enjoyment, theme, replayability, and upgrades
2. Complexity - consisting of information about the rulebook, setup, player turns, and overall learning curve
3. Player turns - consisting of game type, game flow, rule you are likely to miss, and favorite aspect

Number of players we had: 3
Our play time (not including setup): 50 minutes

Overall enjoyment

Overall we enjoyed playing this game for several reasons. This game is a fun and easy game to learn, can be taught to new players quickly and has an easy set up and break down. Splendor: Marvel is very similar to the original Splendor with a few differences such as the theme and game end trigger.

This is a fun game to start the night with or end the night when someone wants to squeeze in "just one more game!". The rules are simple and the game play is quick, making it perfect for new game groups, players and even families.

Theme

If you are a Marvel fan, you will definitely enjoy this version of Splendor. If you have never played Splendor, but are a Marvel fan, then this is the better version of Splendor for you. The game includes 90 Marvel character cards with the character image and name identified on each card.

All of the cards, location and Avengers Assemble tiles, end of game Gauntlet tile and tokens match the theme well. The cards are very colorful and the infinity stone tokens are high quality. These tokens are similar in weight and shape to nicer poker chips.

Splendor: Marvel, like the original game, does not include a game or player board. The cards are broken into different levels which creates the player area.

Replayability

There are a few things that increase the replayability of this game, including that it is easy to setup and learn so it is great for times when you don't have three hours to commit to games but really want to play one. Additionally, the Level 2 and Level 3 cards are much more challenging to recruit, which makes it hard to get through these stacks in a single game.

Upgrades

As far as I know there are no upgrades for this game. However, the game box insert is perfect!

Rule book

The rule book is only four pages but it is well organized. There are examples and images of the pieces and game play which help explain the rules. The font is smaller than what is in most rule books, though I suspect this was just to be able to fit the rules within the 2 page foldable rule book. Even so, it is not difficult to read and I appreciate that they did not waste a bunch of paper just to make the font slightly larger.

Setup

Game setup takes about five minutes once you know how to play. The three levels of character cards are separated and placed into stacks before dealing out four from each level. Location tiles, which are based on the number of players, are randomly placed above the character cards with the Avengers Assemble and Gauntlet tile. Lastly, infinity stone tokens based on the number of players are placed where all players can reach them while the time and S.H.I.E.L.D. tokens are placed near the gauntlet tile. Now you are ready to play.

Turns

Turns are simple and go very quickly which means there is no lag time during the game. On their turn, players can take one of the following actions:

1. Take 3 tokens - must be different colors (does not apply to gray or green tokens).
2. Take 2 tokens of the same color - there must be at least 4 tokens of the color available before taking the tokens.
3. Reserve a character card and receive one S.H.I.E.L.D. token (which acts as a wild when recruiting a character).
4. Recruit any available character card in the play area or a previously reserved card. This requires turning in the required tokens after any subtracted bonuses from already recruited character cards.

Overall learning curve

The overall learning curve for Splendor: Marvel is very low. With only four actions to choose from, the game is easy to learn and turns go quickly. Players recruit character cards by spending tokens and bonuses from existing recruits. The right combination of cards can earn location tiles while cards with Avengers tags can earn the Avengers Assemble tile, both of which are worth Infinity Points at the end of game.

Play type

Splendor: Marvel is a strategic card drafting and set collection game. Players collect Infinity Stone tokens to recruit character cards that have bonuses which make it easier to recruit better character cards. Many character cards also have Infinity Points, which is part of what is required to meet the Gauntlet Tile that triggers the end of the game.

To earn Infinity Points, players collect infinity stone tokens that they can use to recruit character cards which become part of their team. As their team builds, they are able to take advantage of more bonuses, which are included on character cards. Bonuses reduce the cost of the tokens required to recruit stronger, more valuable character cards.

With enough of the right color character cards recruited, players can acquire location tiles. With three Avenger tags, a player can take the Avengers Assemble tile. But beware, this tile can be taken by another player if they recruit cards and have more Avenger tags than you do.

Game flow

While the game is very quick to set up and easy to learn, there are several different times when players need to be strategic to win. This might mean reserving a character you don't really want or need, but want to prevent another player from having. Other times it is recruiting a card that allows you to meet a location tile worth Infinity Points at the end of the game. There will definitely be times when another player will recruit or reserve a character card you wanted which means you have to make a new plan. Still, the game plays smoothly, player turns go quick and the game is over before you know it.

Splendor: Marvel is simple to learn and play but there are several things that players can work towards at all times that make it engaging. Towards the end when players realize some players are close to meeting the Gauntlet Tile requirement, play gets more intense as players try to catch up before it is too late!

Rule you are likely to forget/miss

There is one rule that we usually remembered, but can be easy to forget earlier in the game which is to be sure you subtract the bonuses supplied by previously recruited character cards when recruiting new character cards.

The rule we forgot after our first game, because we took for granted we would remember the rules since there are not very many, was that all players are only allowed to have 10 tokens at the end of each turn. If they have more than 10, they must return enough tokens to bring their total back to 10. I'm pretty sure none of us ever had more than 10, but we definitely need to remember the rule!

Favorite aspect

Our favorite aspect about this game is that there are a few ways to be strategic - like using your turn to reserve a character card so nobody else can recruit them, or risking a character card by collecting tokens faster than others in hopes of recruiting without wasting a turn reserving a character. We also like that while the game starts slowly, once things get going it goes very quickly and before you know it someone has met the end of game requirements.

In summary, Splendor: Marvel is a cool twist on the original Splendor game, with lots of very colorful Marvel character cards. This game is quick to set up, easy to learn, and yet the game does require some strategy to win. Anyone looking for a starter game, a game with enough strategy to keep your interest but not so much that you lose newer players, a game that can be set up and learned in about 15 minutes, a game that plays in less than an hour, or one that has a Marvel theme will enjoy this game.