Selling My Games Collection - ALL GONE

I've watched a Video from The Dice Tower (Tom Vasal) and found that I am the most interested in Splendor and Ticket-To-Ride. I've played Ticket-To-Ride before and I've been reading the 2 Page Rulebook for Splendor... Looks like an AMAZING game to teach to my Family.

We'll see what they have to say. Even Tom agrees that Splendor is a Quick and Easy game to both LEARN and TEACH too!

I mean 2 pages (not even), you can't go wrong IMHO!

They're into this boring tile game called Chromino which is mostly based on LUCK of the tiles you draw. Not much strategy involved either. Perhaps NO STRATEGY TBH! My Family claim they aren't Gamers ... But they play cards once per month into the wee hours with friends, my aunt plays word games (on her iPad) and Candy Crush Saga too... They just don't want to play something TOO DIFFICULT!

I honestly Splendor will be the BEST gateway game to help grow their interest in modern day games. Anyhow... We'll have to see one day. MAYBE?!

Just my thoughts.

I have found 7 wonders difficult to teach to various groups. (Astute reader may have already deduced that the common element is the teacher.) I have been told that playing sushi go beforehand can be helpful. (To get new players accustomed to draft and pass)

I am going to second the sentiment that Agricola really not a good game for beginners. (There is a family setup, that I have not played)

If you READ the rules to "Splendor" VERY CAREFULLY... You'll LEARN that the "Choose Gold" Strategy is INVALID. Or more precisely NOT PERMISSIBLE. If you carefully READ the section entitled "Reserve a development card" here is what it says:

So you are NOT allowed to choose GOLD as one of the Gem Tokens... Gold cannot be acquired that way. This is VERY IMPORTANT because otherwise the game would be WAY TOO EASY!!! I got your strategy ... And I wanted to be sure. Because I felt like it would BREAK the game (much too easy and favoring 1st Players in the game). At most you can have 3 Gold Tokens (jokers) and therefore your HAND of RESERVED TILES is maxed out.

I'm not sure you understood this correctly or not.

READING rules can be "Tricky". And this is ONE VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL!!! It literally makes or "breaks" the game. So if your "Gold Strategy" was to always pick a Gold Token with 2 other Gems... That is NOT a VALID way of playing the game.

Only by RESERVING cards can you earn ONE (1) Gold (joker) Token...

Like I said... I got the impression you did NOT read this in the RULES. I felt it a bit strange ... Because I would have taught something wrong to my players and it really FELT like this "strategy" would mess up the entire game.

Indeed it DOES and is not a VALID way of playing as per the RULEBOOK.

Cheers @let-off studios... We're going to play Splendor this Saturday!!!

Note #1: Futhermore ... Reserving a card to earn ONE (1) Gold Token (joker) is a bit of a questionable move. Choosing 3 different gems is more for the count than choosing 2 of the same. And more removed to that is earning 1 Gold Token (for choosing a card).

From what I can understand... Using Gold is favorable during the 2nd and/or 3rd phases of the game... It can help in earning those high scoring cards in the event that you may earn a wild token (joker).

Not sure ... The Trade-off is IF you want to target a specific resource ... and your opponents are hogging that specific one... Using one or two Gold can meditate a "stalemat-ish" scenario which doesn't allow you to progress further ... Given that some resources are being hogged on a specific turn.

Note #2: Looking over the rules and thinking about the cards, it is clear that the game can be a "beast" to "master". And some strategy is left upon the game itself (while playing your strategy will evolve).

Clearly this is a REAL NEAT game. I like that I can't over ANALYZE it ... To see how to "best play". It's hard to say... Because we haven't played it YET!

Other than TradeWorlds where you play as either the Derelict Scenario AI... Or the actual Adversity AI (which was design by Joseph Pilkus III aka @The Professor) conceived by my Developer on that project.

One thing at a time. Maybe if they LIKE "Splendor" ... They'll agree to Ticket-To-Ride the next time which is also a very Euro Style game. Like John said (@Fri) ... "Splendor" may be too Euro-ish for my beginner's group.

But I feel from reading the rules and the fact that they LIKE "Tile" Games with Color Combinations ... "Splendor" would be the PERFECT FIT! There is a COLOR matching component which is a bit more interesting that pulling tiles out of a bag...

It's about time my Family gets to experience a good game and then we'll see where that leads. They actually like the Chromino game which is pull a domino from a bag and place on into play. There is ZERO strategy... It's more or less the LUCK of the draw... If you get the right domino at the right time, you can win. Eventually that happens ... But there is NO THINKING whatsoever.

Sure looking for a spot to place a domino is "thinking" but there's no REAL STRATEGY. It's all pretty much LUCK-BASED.

I'll try Agricola in a couple Months. We'll see... I've got SO MUCH TO DO! That reminds me I should make a NEW JPG image for my website (long story). Anyhow... I will get to it... Give me some time to play around with the other games first and when I get to it... I'll give it a TRY!

Cheers... I definitely hope these will HELP them TRY some NEW GAMES (to them).

I mean it's Easter... Why not celebrate with trying something new!

I'm really not so much into the "Optimal Move" aspect as you point out... Which makes it difficult to predict how the game is going to go. Obviously what I seem to understand from an analytical perspective is that the game very much DEPENDS on what is drawn as card into the three (3) rows of cards (1, 2 and 3).

I may well think that the EASIEST card to buy is the G,R,B,W (cost of 4) ... But if we only DRAW 3xW or 3xG (cost of 3 each) ... Well then that strategy kind of goes out-the-window. So it's really about what is drawn in-that-moment. And kind of doing the best you can do with the cards made available (like you suggest that there is an optimal move mechanic going on).

It's okay... I don't play to win. I play to enjoy the game and admire the design and the "neat" things that the designer has cleverly thought up...

Thank you for the well-wishes ... I'll let everyone know over the weekend how the play session goes and what my Family thinks of the game. They're pretty smart folks, love playing cards and this is such an elegant of a design with a simplicity in terms of rules.

Love that the rules fit on one sheet ... That kind of simplicity is hard to achieve for sure!

My cousin was amazing at the game! We played two (2) games and she ALMOST WON twice. The second match, I managed to get a Noble Visit at 14 points to get 17 points and beat her score of 15 points. I was a bit lucky my second game. I went around early "reserving" cards and getting some no scoring cards early...

But I must admit, my first game I scored next to no points... But we played the game incorrectly: we allowed buying of cards and collecting resources on the SAME turn. That was incorrect and we rectified the rule to be as per the rules: either buy a card or collect chips. But NOT both on the same turn.

I honestly don't know what I was doing BETTER in the second game... I had 6 Blue Gems which won me a couple cards... But what put me over the top was visiting of two (2) out of five Nobles. That was six (6) points that put me over the top.

I guess I was a bit lucky in the second game, but my Aunt was a bit distracted in the second game (collecting points on her iPad for her word game) and she scored less than in the first game.

But overall everyone enjoyed the game. Not really sure about the "Strategy" as I don't think in EITHER game I managed to BUY a "Level 3" card (Blue Stack). But two (2) Noble visits on two (2) different turn got me a good amount of points in Game #2. Game #1 I think I only scored like 7 points... Hehehe!

I think a big factor was LUCK (surprisingly) ... Since I only bought cards that appeared and had no real strategy except trying to BUY as many cards as possible. I landed up with 6 Blue cards which got me two (2) "Level 2" cards (Brown Stack) and gave me the good go-ahead. But my cousin, she was leading in both games... She very smart and lucky too...

I think I got a bit lucky in Game #2 because my Aunt was distracted a bit... However, we'll see in the future (Maybe Mother's Day) ... If we TRY again or not. We'll see what my cousin thinks (If she wants to play again). She's a real competitive "beast" and led both games... I was a bit lucky to beat her in the 2nd Game ... Just worked out that way.

Thanks Stephen (@let-off studios) for the games. This one was definitely cool and everyone was impressed with the quality of the chips and the color-coordinate matching and chips.

Next time we'll be more seasoned ... And we'll see if they want to TRY again or not. No pressure. If they want great, if not... I was actually a bit "surprised" after the 1st game... I asked: "Do you guys want to watch tv... Or try again." Everyone said "Try again!" So I think it was a great first game... Again we'll see if they want to play again or not.

Again many thanks! I'm sure that's what you want with any of your games... Going to people who will PLAY them! Definitely more going on than Chromino. My Aunt said: "It's not like Chromino... In Chromino you pick a tile and then find a place to put it..." "Splendor you actually need to do some planning and see what cards can come into play... Plus you can be lacking on COLORS if Black is abundant an you have no Black..." So definitely more thought in Splendor.

Cheers all and Happy Easter (for those who celebrate the holiday!)

Note #1: Also in Game #2 ... I reserved like 3 cards and maybe got some of the cards that I needed. But I can honestly say, I'm not 100% confident WHEN you should reserve... If you think you can get a card out in one or two turns... And not choose any too HIGH requirement cards (only "Level 1" cards) seemed to pan out a bit better.

Also Game #2 with the RIGHT rules ... Made chips more accessible. With BUYING and collect chips on the SAME turn... We started running out of chips much more quicker. But we corrected the blunder in Game #2. And made for MORE chips available than in the first round.

The other thing to note... Is that it made "Hogging Chips" less important ... And made for more availability of chips in Game #2. Because in Game #1 ... We were often running out of chips ... with 1 or 2 chips left and buying/taking chips all on the same turn, made for less chips available to choose from.

Note #2: It also seemed like "Black" during Game #2 was very prevalent and my cousin managed to get more "Black" Scoring cards which gave her the edge too. That's a bit LUCK (I think)... But my Aunt felt like in Game #2 ... A LOT of cards required BLACK! Maybe the Deck is better balanced. But for our second game, it definitely advantaged my cousin (since she had no noble visits and I got two)...