Fulfilling these requirements is made even harder by the presence of pearls. Pearls, the queen of gems, are a rare find in ‘Splendor Duel’. Whilst there are only two pearl tokens in the entire box, pearls are needed to fulfil the requirements of many of the item cards! To make matters worse, none of the item cards depicting gems can be used in lieu of a pearl token. Roseville, MN – July 25, 2022. Space Cowboys is happy to announce the upcoming release of Splendor Duel, designed by Marc André and Bruno Cathala, in November 2022. Marc André’s Splendor was the first board game that SPACE Cowboys released in 2014 and has since won numerous awards like Best Family Game and nominations like the Spiel des Jahres. Splendor Duel is a two-player-only standalone game based on Splendor that retains some of the main gameplay mechanisms of that design, while being a bit more complex, dynamic, interactive, rich, tense, and mean. This game is simply a must for all ‘Splendor’ fans. ‘Splendor Duel’ maintains the high standard of artwork and pieces seen in the original, and many of the popular mechanisms seen in ‘Splendor’ have been caried through well. However, ‘Splendor Duel’ brings additional layers to gameplay: limited chip availability, pearls, wild cards, and crowns, to name but a few. These features make ‘Splendor Duel’ one of the best 2-player games available!

You CAN refill the game board (if there are tokens in the bag) – if you do though, your opponent gets a privilege token. And if there are none left, they can take on of yours! As the name suggests, ‘privilege scrolls’ award their owner a privilege: the ability to take any single chip from the grid before performing a normal player turn. A player gets a privilege scroll if their opponent refills the gem grid, takes both pearls in one turn, or snaps up three of the same gems in one turn. Whilst giving your opponent a privilege scroll acts as a deterrent to certain actions, the scrolls’ powers aren’t as game-changing as one might expect and, if anything, can be a little underwhelming at times. So How Do You Win privilege scrolls go next to the board, 4 Royals go face up under the board, and then choose first player in the way you do. Whoever goes 2nd gets a privilege scroll to start the game. There’s also a victory tile that reminds you of the 3 ways in which you can claim victory, so best keep that in eyeline. Splendor Duel is a two-player only standalone game based on Splendor that retains some of the main gameplay mechanisms of that design, while being a bit more complex, dynamic, interactive, rich, tense, and mean. With 2 players: 3 tokens of each gem color except gold are removed (there should be only 4 of each remaining).

Players may not have more than three reserved cards in hand, and the only way to get rid of a card is to buy it. Croc from Space Cowboys told me that Cathala had reached out to Splendor designer Marc André with an idea for a two-player-only version of the game — which might seem odd given that Splendor already plays fine with two players — but André, perhaps considering the success of 7 Wonders Duel, said sure, let's collaborate. Space Cowboys didn't even know about the project until the designers were mostly done, but I'm sure the publisher didn't object to being delivered a spinoff title to the best-selling game in its catalog. If you take 3 tokens of the same colour or 2 pearl tokens, also gain 1 privilege scroll (from the reserve or your opponent if there is none left in reserve!) Reserving a card is also the only way to get a gold token (joker). If there is no gold left, you can still reserve a card, but you won’t get any gold.

A player can never have more than 10 tokens at the end of their turn (including jokers). If this happens, they must return tokens until they only have 10 left. A player can return all or some of those they’ve just drawn NB: you may need to do this if you need to take gem tokens/want to reserve a card and get a gold as your mandatory action – see below Jewel = you get to take any one gem token from the board matching the colour of the card (or steal one from your opponent if they have all gone!)

Gamer Network Limited, Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom, registered under company number 03882481. It's always an excellent service with brilliant products at a very competitive price - will use again! Splendor Duel contains part of the main features of the original Splendors gameplay mechanisms, just made slightly more difficult, slightly more interactive, slightly more tense and a whole lot more mean! There are quite a few differences between Splendor and Splendor Duel, but that's where you come in and find that out all for yourselves!