As usually occurs at conventions, many of the video games I performed at Gen Con 2022 can be launched within the close to future, thereby giving me an opportunity to preview them forward of time.

The two video games I loved most (that I can discuss at the moment) are Splendor Duel and Sea Salt & Paper. The former sport is from Bruno Cathala, Marc André, and Space Cowboys, and the latter from Cathala, Théo Rivière, and Bombyx. Given that I’m additionally enthusiastic about Sobek: 2 Players, a Cathala and Sébastien Pauchon design that Pandasaurus Games had on the present, this occasion was just about a “Cathala Con” for me. For this submit, I’ll focus solely on the previous sport.

Croc from Space Cowboys informed me that Cathala had reached out to Splendor designer Marc André with an concept for a two-player-only model of the sport — which could appear odd provided that Splendor already performs advantageous with two gamers — however André, maybe contemplating the success of 7 Wonders Duel, stated certain, let’s collaborate. Space Cowboys did not even know in regards to the mission till the designers have been principally performed, however I’m certain the writer did not object to being delivered a by-product title to the best-selling sport in its catalog.

As with most spinoffs, Splendor Duel maintains as a lot constancy to Splendor as attainable: Take one motion of a number of on a flip; have at most ten tokens in your reserve on the finish of your flip; gather playing cards from three energy ranges; reserve a card by taking a gold. The three foremost variations, nevertheless, are what drive the whole lot in gameplay and what make this design compelling.

Set up and able to play

First, you gather tokens by drafting them from a grid, taking as much as three adjoining, non-gold tokens in a row, column, or diagonal, then including them to your reserve. The grid incorporates 25 tokens at first of play: 4 of every of the 5 colours, three gold, and two pearls. Roughly half of the playing cards within the sport require you at hand in a pearl, so you will compete for them always. (Gold might be spent as a pearl or as any shade.)

As gamers spend tokens to amass playing cards, you place these tokens on the refill bag. When somebody would not like the alternatives on the board — which might occur rapidly since each empty areas and gold break up adjacency — you possibly can resolve to refill the board earlier than selecting tokens on your flip. When you do that, the opponent will get a privilege token, represented by a plastic scroll. You then shuffle all of the tokens within the bag, take them in a stack in your hand, then refill the board by beginning on the middle and following the road outward, dropping one token in every empty area. After a refill, you usually have a tightly stuffed area with a number of outlying tokens, however with far fewer tokens than 25 because you each have some in your reserve.

At the beginning of your flip, you possibly can spend a privilege token to seize any non-gold token from the board, then you definately take your flip like regular. If your opponent collects two pearls or three tokens of the identical shade in a single flip, you obtain a privilege token to compensate for the random token placement that fell their approach.

The board after a refill

Second, some playing cards have one-time particular powers that you just acquire when taking part in them, so that you worth playing cards in additional complicated methods than Splendor playing cards that function solely a shade and (presumably) factors. These powers are:

• Gain a privilege token.
• Take one other flip.
• Take a token matching the colour of this card from the board.
• Take a non-gold token from the opponent.

I used this final energy a number of instances towards Candice in our sport, and it is a fantastic two-fer energy serving as each assault and resource-building towards your subsequent card. If somebody is clearly working towards a selected card — and you may’t reserve it away attributable to an absence of gold on the board (as you should take a gold to be able to reserve) — then swiping a token might be devastating. They would possibly have to refill the board to get that final token once more, which provides you a privilege token and knocks them out of rhythm.

Third, as an alternative of mirroring Splendor‘s 15-point threshold for bringing in regards to the finish of the sport, Splendor Duel offers you three victory situations — 10 factors in a single shade, 20 factors complete, or 10 crowns — and as quickly as you meet one in every of them, you win.

As with the addition of one-time results, this variation complicates the way you worth playing cards. In all probability, you will worth the whole lot considerably whereas retaining your choices open and in search of alternatives, particularly since crowns function a victory situation on their very own, however they will additionally make it easier to towards victory elsewhere. When you purchase your third crown, you are taking one of many nobles on show, and with six crowns you are taking a second noble. The sport contains solely 4 nobles, and they’re price 3 factors or 2 factors and a particular energy. These factors aren’t coloured, so they assist solely towards the 20-point threshold, however the powers (stealing a token, taking a privilege, or taking one other flip) are versatile.

My holdings, which embody 20 factors of victory

In my sport with Candice, I raced to 6 crowns comparatively rapidly — as in Splendor, the preliminary focus is all on token assortment till you’ve got sufficient playing cards to speed up additional card acquisition — then Candice reserved a two-crown card, and I used to be considerably adrift given the shortage of crowns within the card pool. At some level I reserved a colorless 6-point card that prices eight white, then managed to get one other white card, that allowed me to get a black card that prices 4W3G, which bought me a joker card I made white, and the 4 factors from these three playing cards, together with the 6 from the nearer, introduced me to precisely 20 factors, a complete that had appeared fairly distant just some turns earlier.

As meant, Splendor Duel mirrors the sensation of the unique sport, such because the gradual early sport wherein you might be discovering your footing and determining which of the high-level playing cards to focus on, or the need to order a card an opponent is eyeing solely to see one thing even higher be revealed. The spatial puzzle of the token assortment is a welcome addition, and it combines effectively with the colour hunger you would possibly attempt to follow on an opponent, with you holding off on spending tokens till after they refill the board to make it tougher to get what they want.

The pearls add one other wrinkle to gameplay. If your opponent lacks a pearl or gold, then which playing cards are at present inaccessible to them, which helps you higher decide which playing cards they are concentrating on must you need to purchase or reserve them first.

Given the energy of each this sport and 7 Wonders Duel, I’m certain that different designers could be keen to listen to from Monsieur Cathala about any concepts he might need for duellifying their creations…