When comparing Dominion vs Splendor, the Slant community recommends Splendor for most people. In the question“What are the best board games for beginners?” Splendor is ranked 4th while Dominion is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Splendor is:
The basics of the game are very straightforward and easy. You can start playing in a matter of minutes, which is great for absolutely everyone – young and old, experienced and new. The game begins from the youngest player and continues clockwise. In their turn the players can perform one of three actions: take three different gems, take two gems of the same color, reserve a development card and take a gold gem, or purchase a development card. All development cards give permanent gem bonuses for later buys and some cards give prestige, which is required to win. Prestige is also gained from nobles, which can be attracted if specific conditions are met. The game enters the last round when a player reaches 15 points. The game is won by the player with the most points after this round.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Focus is more on having fun, and less on scoring
The victory point cards are part of your deck itself, so you won't really know exactly how many points you or your opponents have until the game ends and all the points are tallied up. This lets you focus on the game and have a great experience playing your cards, rather than doing math equations and constantly comparing your points to everyone around you. It allows the fun and thrill of the deck building aspect to take front and center.
Pro Games are fairly quick
A standard game can be played in about 30 minutes, even with 4 players.
Pro Starts very simple and grows in complexity over time
At the start of the game, each player is given 10 identical cards to begin their deck. Within these starter cards are some properties which are worth victory points (the player with the most of these at the end of the game wins) and some currency cards (used to buy new cards).
Your options will be pretty limited at first, however, as the game progresses you'll be spending your currency cards every turn to buy new cards and add to your deck. These new cards can include more property cards, action cards that let you earn additional currency, curses to slow down your opponents, and more.
As your deck slowly starts to become more expansive, the trick is juggling your limited currency and trying to buy cards that have synergy with the ones in your hand. Deciding whether to buy properties worth victory points or action cards that give you the opportunity to earn more currency leaves a ton of room open for strategy and deck management.
Pro Easy to learn
The basics of the game are very straightforward and easy. You can start playing in a matter of minutes, which is great for absolutely everyone – young and old, experienced and new.
The game begins from the youngest player and continues clockwise. In their turn the players can perform one of three actions: take three different gems, take two gems of the same color, reserve a development card and take a gold gem, or purchase a development card. All development cards give permanent gem bonuses for later buys and some cards give prestige, which is required to win. Prestige is also gained from nobles, which can be attracted if specific conditions are met.
The game enters the last round when a player reaches 15 points. The game is won by the player with the most points after this round.
Pro Fine-looking artwork
Splendor’s artwork is follows a Renaissance theme and is quite detailed and beautiful. The cards of the game feature depictions of ships, gem mines, and shops from the era. The coins are colorful and have stickers on them representing the type. There are also portraits of historical figures on the noble cards, for example, Henry VIII, Isabel of Castile, and Elisabeth of Austria.
Pro Good for beginners
The game’s rules are easy to grasp, but Splendor also features quite a bit of depth and strategy, which makes this a great gateway option for people just getting into board games, even children.
Pro Can be played aggressively or peacefully
The game is suited for both playstyles mostly due to the card reserving mechanic. This is great because you can adjust to the company you are playing with, whether they want to be fully competitive and try to deny each other’s plays or laid back and just watch the empires grow without interfering.
You can reserve a card to use it later or, even better, so your opponents can’t use it. You also get a “wild” gold piece, which can substitute any color required in buildings. You can have a maximum of three cards reserved at once.
Pro Scales well
The game plays very well in the designated 2-4 player range. It has some nuances that depend on the number of players, for example, the amount of coins and nobles in play.
It’s possible to go past the 4-player maximum by getting another copy for more coins. Another solution would be to add something like poker chips or other types of coins to the game.
Pro Satisfying to see progression
It’s enjoyable to watch your trading empire grow. The game starts slowly with you gathering gems to create some basic buildings and futureproofing yourself, by the end of the game there’s quite a lot of cards on the playing surface. You can also get points for attracting nobles to your side by getting a specific combination of gem cards, which gives you a building direction and a goal to work towards.
Cons
Con Expansion overload for newcomers
Since the game's release, it has put out over 12 expansion packs. This might be intimidating to some players who feel like they are getting into the game too late, or overwhelming for collectors who feel like they need to buy every single expansion.
Con Takes a while to setup
In the base game alone and not including any expansions you might be playing with, there are 500 cards that need to be organized into specific piles and arranged by card type. This includes currency cards, estates, provinces, curses, and more.
Con Player interaction is very limited
While you are in direct competition with your opponents to gather the most properties (victory points), you'll most likely be more concerned with managing your own deck rather than what your opponents are doing. There are a few attack cards that allow you to force opponents to discard or unable to draw new cards, but other than those rare exceptions, there is very little actual interaction.
Con Very poor component quality in newer editions
The game used to be widely complimented on the great overall quality of the coins and other pieces, but the materials changed in 2014. All the printings since then have reduced quality – chips are very lightweight and sometimes the color seems off, and all the components have a cheap feel to them.
Con Luck of the draw
The building cards that are drawn from the decks are random, which means that the game can often boil down to top-decking a building that’s either very valuable or completely worthless to you or an opponent. The nobles are random as well, but they won’t impact the game as critically – they are there just to direct you to a goal.