Splendor: Cities of Splendor (Exp.) (SVE)

All throughout Europe, the merchant and trading guilds are bustling with excitement. News travels quickly—tales of far off places promising wealth beyond compare fill the air. The cities of the Orient have opened their doors to their neighbors, and the guilds are loading up their caravans and readying their ships for departure. What opportunities and riches lie in wait for them? Cities of Splendor, the long-awaited expansion to the award-winning Splendor, is available now at your local US retailer!

Cities of Splendor, like the gems you aim to collect, is more than meets the eye. Within this box are four different expansions for the base game of Splendor, providing four times the fun. Each of the different modules provides a new element to your games of Splendor, adding higher level of intensity and fun to the puzzles you know and love.

Sway the Cities

The first of these modules is the Cities expansions, altering the game’s victory condition and upping the competition level among players. In this expansion, the Noble tiles are replaced with the new city tiles. Entire cities are much more difficult to sway to your cause than the Nobles—but with greater difficulty comes greater reward! Each of the city tiles used in the game lists the requirements on it, but just like with nobles, every opponent will be racing to claim them. Choose the city you wish to gain the favor of quickly and execute your strategy faster than your opponents, or risk losing the city. Whenever a player meets the requirements for a city tile, they may take it, allowing the other players to finish the round. If only one player took a city tile at the end of this round, they are the winner. If multiple cities were taken, the player who has the highest number of prestige points wins.

New Lands, New Treasure

The second expansion in Cities of Splendor is The Orient. This expansion adds new Orient development cards that follow the same rules as the base game’s cards. However, the riches of this unknown world include new treasure symbols, unlike anything you’ve seen before. The most common of these, the gem bag, allows you to permantly add one color of gem to your resources once acquired. Other new development cards may allow you to reserve a noble for the rest of the game, or give you two bonuses of the same type. A more powerful category of the new development cards allows you to take a lower tiered development card at no cost. The Orient expansion adds even more options to your games of Splendor, unlocking strategies never before seen!

Unlock Further Powers

In the Trading Posts expansion, players are granted powers that come with gaining access to foreign trade routes in the new world. This adds the new Route to the Orient board to the game. At the end of your turn, should you meet the requirement of any of the trading posts, you can place your coat of arms on that tile, which grants you the corresponding power for the rest of the game. The beauty of the Trading Posts expansion is the personalization of the order in which you choose to obtain powers. Will you first enhance your prestige intake, your gem collecting abilities, or increase the value of your gold? Trading Posts brings a new, elegant level of customization to your games of Splendor, making every player decision even more impactful.

Protect Your Riches

Lastly, the Strongholds expansion slightly lengthens the game, adding more player interaction. Each player takes three strongholds of the same color. Whenever you purchase a development card, you have the ability to place a stronghold on another available development card, protecting your pursuits from others. Additionally, instead of placing your own stronghold, you have the option to get rid of another player’s stronghold from a development card you are after. It may seem like a good idea to spread your strongholds out, making claims over multiple cards, but there is a use for consolidating all three on one card. If all three of your strongholds are on one card, after your normal action, as a bonus action, you may purchase the card they are safeguarding as well. This allows you to effectively take two turns at once, hastening your path to victory! This expansion brings combo actions to the base game of Splendor, all while making you keep a close eye on what each of your opponents is doing every turn.

The Orient Awaits

The four expansions within Cities of Splendor amount to countless replayability of your favorite classic game. The Orient is filled with mysterious powers, dominant ways to guard your riches, never before seen treasures, the favor of the Cities within, and above all else, the lure of opulent opportunity to display dominance over your rival guilds. Which expansion will call to you first? You can find Cities of Splendor and all the riches that come with it at your local retailer today!