Splendor is a great and fun game that beginners and veterans alike can play. The game’s mechanics are simple and easy to understand for new players, but the strategies to win also require a lot of thought for seasoned players.
I remember the first time I played Splendor. My girlfriend and I went to a local boardgame-enthusiasts hangout, and someone introduced us to it. As they explained the rules, we immediately understood how to play Splendor. My girlfriend even won against the veterans despite being new to the game!
If you do not know how to play Splendor, I recommend watching a tutorial or buying one yourself. Essentially, the game lets you assume as a wealthy Renaissance merchant who collects gems and jewelry. However, you have competitors who also do the same, so you need to one-up them.
If you have already played Splendor before and you enjoyed it so much that you want something else like it, this article is the perfect guide for you. The games in this list have similar themes, gameplay mechanics, or categories. Drop your merchant robes momentarily and pick something new from this guide.
My Top Picks at a Glance
Splendor is a great game that I have played many times, and there are a lot of alternatives to it. However, I can attest that players who love Splendor will also fall in love with the games I have chosen as my top picks.
My Top Pick for Beginner-Friendly Board Games like Splendor
Jaipur
Because of its simplicity, many new players will pick and love Splendor. In the same vein, new players would not be too intimidated by Jaipur’s rules and mechanics.
Plus, they have similar themes around merchants collecting luxuries. The downside to Jaipur is that only two players can play it at a time. If you have three or four players instead, I recommend Azul.
My Top Pick for Combo-making Board Games like Splendor
7 Wonders
I have been arguing to myself which to pick between 7 Wonders and Wingspan, but in the end, 7 Wonders would be, overall, a great alternative to Splendor if you love making combos.
While Wingspan is fantastic in doing combos, it can be intimidating to new players. 7 Wonders feels more familiar and iconic while still being fantastic in combo-making.
My Top Pick for Resource Management Board Games like Splendor
Century: Spice Road
This game is another great one with a similar theme to Splendor, but it takes resource management to greater heights.
You have to think about where to spend your spices, but you also need to consider if the cards you buy them with will be helpful. It and Splendor have many similarities, like the mechanics of buying cards and replacing them.
My Top Pick for Heavy Strategy Board Games like Splendor
Dominion
Dominion is iconic because of how deep in strategy planning you can go while still being, on the surface, relatively simple; Splendor is also in this same category.
New players can get into Dominion and fall in love with heavy strategy games. Plus, the expansions to it can make the game more complex if you want something more challenging.
Selection Criteria
If you want a game like Splendor, you must understand the parts of the game you like. How are the alternatives to Splendor similar to it? It all boils down to the game’s elements, and I discovered the three main traits that Splendor has:
Engine-Building and Combo-Making
You have the freedom in Splendor to construct your deck the way you want it, and it will determine how powerful you will be. Your deck can create powerful combos wherein you can create a chain reaction of obtaining new cards.
Resource Management
In Splendor, you earn gems and spend them on buying more gems. You need to know how to manage your resources, including when to use them, how to get them, and more. If you are careful in managing your gems, it can lead to your victory.
Strategy
On the surface, many players, especially new ones, would think that Splendor is not a deep and strategic game. However, a lot of planning can happen. You have to consider the market, other players’ cards, and your deck. Many veterans even plan their victory path.
All the games in this list share most, if not all, of these traits and sometimes even improves on their foundation. For example, I think Sushi Go Party enhances Splendor’s combo-making because of its diverse cards.
However, I divided the games to which of Splendor’s traits they excel at. Perhaps some players reading this guide wants a specific element in Splendor’s gameplay, and by knowing which is which, they can pinpoint which of the alternatives to try out next (although I recommend trying them all out).
The Best Beginner-Friendly Board Games like Splendor
Azul
- Release date: 2017
- of players: 2 to 4 players
- Average play duration: 30 to 45 minutes
- Age recommendation: 8 and above
- Difficulty rating: 3/10
If you love Splendor’s pacing, simplicity, and mechanics but want less of the strategic planning and combo-making, Azul is the way to go. While Azul still requires you to think ahead of the tiles you choose and where to place them, it is less complicated than Splendor.
Players take turns, and, during your turn, you choose and pick all same-colored tiles from either one of seven factories or the table center. If you do the former, you place all other tiles at the center. Then, you place the tiles on your rows with empty spaces.
When the factories and center are all out of tiles, all players place their tiles on their walls. Then, you score points based on the number of tiles you place. The game ends when a player completes a row of their wall.
Sometimes, picking tiles and placing them in the wrong row can leave you with a penalty. For example, if you place the tiles in a row and there are excess ones that do not have an empty space for them, they count toward your negative score. So, you have to think about where to place your tiles.
Jaipur
- Release date: 2009
- of players: 2 players
- Average play duration: 15 to 30 minutes
- Age recommendation: 8 and above
- Difficulty rating: 3/10
I discussed Jaipur in my “Best Gateway Board Games” article and explained the gameplay. If you want a comprehensive yet compact explanation of the game, you can read it in my other work.
Splendor and Jaipur have similar themes. In both games, you are merchants who aim to gather many luxuries for profit. In Splendor, your business is strictly around shiny minerals, while in Jaipur, your business deals with a variety of goods. You sell jewelry, spices, and cloth.
Both games are also economic games, which means you have to keep in mind the available resources in the market. Players might horde a specific luxury or gem, hindering your strategy.
In Splendor, though, you get points from the cards you buy, while in Jaipur, you get points from selling the cards you bought.
It is an excellent alternative to Splendor because its difficulty is at the same level. If you have played Splendor before, you will quickly learn how to play Jaipur. Plus, the themes and game mechanics are incredibly familiar to Splendor lovers.
Tokaido
- Release date: 2012
- of players: 2 to 5 players
- Average play duration: 45 minutes to 1 hour
- Age recommendation: 8 and above
- Difficulty rating: 2/5
Tokaido is another game that I talked about in my “Best Gateway Board Games” article, so I recommend checking it out to get a good grasp on it. Essentially, Tokaido is a game where all players move along in a single path while stopping at some points to perform something.
Tokaido and Splendor are vastly different in terms of themes. In Tokaido, you are a traveler sightseeing in ancient Japan, while in Splendor, you are a Renaissance-era merchant buying and collecting gems.
However, in both games, you must carefully choose the cards (or actions in Tokaido) you take because they can help you score higher points and win. Players in both games also have to consider the other player’s actions.
If you are eyeing a particular card in Splendor or stop in Tokaido, but another player gets their hands on it before you, you have to adapt quickly.
The Best Combo-making Board Games like Splendor
7 Wonders
- Release date: 2010
- of players: 2 to 7 players
- Average play duration: 30 to 45 minutes
- Age recommendation: 10 and above
- Difficulty rating: 5/10
7 Wonders and Splendor share a key mechanic; in both games, you can use a card on your hand as a resource to take more cards. However, 7 Wonders may be more complex than Splendor because victory points are awarded differently.
In 7 Wonders, you are a city leader aiming to make an impact in history as having the most incredible city. To start, pick a wonder board, either by random or by choice, depending on your unanimous decision. The game goes through three rounds known as ages, and each age consists of six turns.
Shuffle the cards by their age and hand seven out to each player. The number of cards on the deck depends on the number of players. On your turn, you can pick a card from your hand to use. You can construct or sell them. You can also use them to develop your wonder.
Like Splendor, some cards can cost you a resource to construct, which comes from the cards you have already constructed. Other cards give you victory points in many different ways. The player with the most of it wins.
Sushi Go Party!
- Release date: 2016
- of players: 2 to 8 players
- Average play duration: 15 to 30 minutes
- Age recommendation: 8 and above
- Difficulty rating: 1/5
If you want to make combos like in Splendor but with more variability and options, I recommend Sushi Go Party. The cards you choose to play will matter to your score, like in Splendor.
I talked about the game mechanics of Sushi Go Party in another article, so I suggest reading about it in my “Best Gateway Board Games Guide.”
All cards in Sushi Go Party will either score you points or modify your played cards. The game has five types of cards, and there are plenty of options for each. It is like a buffet, where you get to pick which of the menu you want to try out.
Jumping from Splendor to Sushi Go Party is smooth and easy. I would advise you to choose the easy sets first so that you can grasp the concept of the game.
Gizmos
- Release date: 2018
- of players: 2 to 4 players
- Average play duration: 45 minutes to 1 hour
- Age recommendation: 10 and above
- Difficulty rating: 4/10
If you love engine-building games and Splendor is not enough to scratch that itch for you, I recommend you play Gizmos. It is a great starting game before you transition to the more complex games like New Frontier, and it has the same difficulty level as Splendor.
Your goal is to get the most victory points by the end of the game, and the game ends when a player has either their fourth active level-three gizmo card or 16 active gizmo cards.
During your turn, you can do one of four actions: file, pick, build, or research. The file action lets you get a card from any of the face-up rows and put it in your archive. You can only store one at a time.
The pick action lets you take an energy marble from the row, while the build action enables you to place a card from your archive or the face-up ones in your active area. You need to pay energy marbles if you choose the latter. Finally, the research action lets you take a facedown card from any level.
Arboretum
- Release date: 2015
- of players: 2 to 4 players
- Average play duration: 30 to 45 minutes
- Age recommendation: 10 and above
- Difficulty rating: 4/10
Splendor and Arboretum are games that have the same difficulty level and require strategic planning to make powerful combos. In Splendor, you make combos by picking the cards that will help you get more of what you want. In Arboretum, you make combos by correctly picking and arranging your cards.
Arboretum’s cards are composed of ten distinct, colored cards with a pile of ten each. To start, remove two colors in a three-player game or four in a two-player game. Shuffle the deck and deal seven cards to each player.
On your turn, you draw two, place one in your garden, and discard one. You can draw from the draw pile or other players’ discard pile. Arrange your cards vertically or horizontally next to an existing card.
After depleting the deck, it is time to score. Scoring is about the cards in your hand and the trees in your garden. It is the part where your planning gets rewarded, so I suggest you look into the game, especially if you are a nature lover.
Wingspan
- Release date: 2019
- of players: 1 to 5 players
- Average play duration: 45 minutes to one and a half hours
- Age recommendation: 10 and above
- Difficulty rating: 6/10
Wingspan is the latest popular game that introduces combo-making similar to Splendor and Gizmos. In it, the cards you played in previous turns will heavily impact your turn. However, instead of being a merchant collecting gems, you are a bird enthusiast making a home for birds.
For a more detailed explanation of how Wingspan works, I suggest reading my “Wingspan Board Game Guide.”
Players take turns, and during your turn, you can do one of four actions: play a bird card, collect food, lay eggs, and draw bird cards. The last three actions are designated to a habitat, and when you have played brown cards in that habitat, they activate when you do their corresponding action.
Other bird cards activate their powers at the end of the round or immediately when you play them. They also have habitats, food costs, nests, wing length, and egg limits.
The game spans four rounds, with each round having one less turnover time. Scoring occurs when the game ends, and there are multiple factors for scoring, such as eggs, played bird cards, achieved end-of-round goals, achieved bonus cards, cached food tokens, and tucked cards.
The Best Resource Management Board Games like Splendor
Settlers of Catan
- Release date: 1995
- of players: 3 to 4 players
- Average play duration: 1 to 2 hours
- Age recommendation: 8 and above
- Difficulty rating: 5/10
Catan gets a lot of love from me because it is iconic and has familiar themes. If you have been playing Splendor with your friends and want an alternative that is not too complicated and can accommodate up to four players, I suggest Catan.
In Catan, you construct settlements and cities to gather the land’s resources. You can use these resources to develop more infrastructure. Similarly, in Splendor, you take cards that you can use to take more cards on later turns.
In Catan and Splendor, you have to manage your resources well and know where and when to spend them. For example, you have to think about which card to buy in Splendor if it can benefit your strategy. Likewise, you have to work out how to use your resources if you have a victory plan in mind.
You can read more about how to play Catan in our article, “Catan Board Game Guide.” There are plenty of expansions, too, that you can apply to make the games more fun and variable.
Carcassonne
- Release date: 2000
- of players: 2 to 5 players
- Average play duration: 30 to 45 minutes
- Age recommendation: 8 and above
- Difficulty rating: 2/5
If you have played Carcassonne before, you might be wondering how and why it is on this list. You might be thinking that Carcassonne and Splendor are two different games with different game mechanics. In truth, they have a lot more in common than you think.
In Carcassonne, you place tiles to complete the map. You also place your people, known as meeples, in areas that can score you points. For example, a meeple in a city would score you based on how big the city is.
In Splendor and Carcassonne, you need to think about where to use your resources; in Splendor’s case, it is your gems, while in Carcassonne’s, it is your meeples.
You can also make combos in Carcassonne. If you place your Meeple somewhere that you can expand on, it will score you a lot more points. Also, in both games, you can hinder another player’s progress, which adds to the fun!
Century: Spice Road
- Release date: 2017
- of players: 2 to 5 players
- Average play duration: 30 to 45 minutes
- Age recommendation: 8 and above
- Difficulty rating: 4/10
Century: Spice Road is another game where you assume the role of a merchant or trader and collect resources to win. While your expertise in Splendor is in gems, yours in Century: Spice Road is the spice (you should have probably seen it coming).
In it, there are two types of cards in play: the trader (purple-backed) and scoring (orange-backed) cards. Set up the game by arranging the rows of these cards and the bowls of spices.
During a player’s turn, they can play a trader card from their hand, get a new one, take all the played cards, or get a scoring card. The trader cards have different actions to them when you play them. Some can give you spices, upgrade them, or exchange them for new ones.
The game ends when a player gets their fifth or sixth scoring card (depending on the number of players). Also, account for the coins and remaining spices for your overall score. You have to think critically about which cards can further your victory.
Biblios
- Release date: 2007
- of players: 2 to 4 players
- Average play duration: 30 to 45 minutes
- Age recommendation: 10 and above
- Difficulty rating: 4/10
In both Biblios and Splendor, a player wins based on their cards’ worth. Some cards are worth more than others, and you have to consider the other player’s cards. With rational thinking, you can deduce the strategies of your opponents by the cards they buy.
Biblios lets you assume the role of a monastery leader, and you plan on owning the grandest library among the others. The game is split into two phases and taken in turns. The active player takes cards from the draw pile, and the number of cards depends on the number of players.
The active player allocates a card for themselves, the auction, and the public space. Other players take turns getting the cards in the public space. When all the cards are depleted, the auction phase commences, and you take turns auctioning the cards from the auction pile.
The dice on the scriptorium determine the value of each card. There are cards in the game that changes the dice, effectively changing the value. To win, you must have the highest scores among the five categories.
The Best Heavy Strategy Board Games like Splendor
Dominion
- Release date: 2008
- of players: 2 to 4 players
- Average play duration: 30 to 45 minutes
- Age recommendation: 10 and above
- Difficulty rating: 5/10
In Splendor, you can buy cards that will be useful later on to buy more of them. It is a great and simple game that allows you to build and optimize your deck for victory. You have to be careful in choosing the cards to buy because they can either hinder or boost your progress.
Dominion is all about deck building, like in Splendor. Each player starts with ten cards consisting of three estates and seven coins. A player’s turn consists of three phases: the action, buy, and clean-up phases.
During the action phase, you can discard an action card and perform the card’s description. To summarize, the action cards let you improve your deck or hinder another player’s deck.
During the buy phase, you can use your coins to buy the available kingdom cards. There are ten of them in the game, with a pile of ten cards each. Many of them are action cards.
Finally, during the clean-up phase, you discard the cards in your hand and use the others from your deck. When your deck is empty, you reshuffle the discarded cards.
Imperial Settlers
- Release date: 2014
- of players: 1 to 4 players
- Average play duration: 45 minutes to one and a half hours
- Age recommendation: 10 and above
- Difficulty rating: 6/10
If you like gathering development cards to become more powerful in Splendor, then Imperial Settlers might be the game for you. In it, you control one of four factions: the Romans, Egyptians, Barbarians, and Japanese. They have discovered unexplored land with tons of resources.
To start, take your respective faction board and cards and shuffle the latter. A game of Imperial Settlers consists of five rounds, and each round consists of four phases. The first phase is the lookout phase, where you will acquire new cards that you can use later on to improve your faction’s infrastructure.
Next is the production phase, and in it, players collect goods and resources based on their faction board and its established buildings.
Then, the action phase commences, where players get to make any of the five actions during their turn. The actions boil down to collecting resources, improving your setup, and hindering another player’s progress.
After everyone has passed on their turn, the clean-up phase commences and another round starts. The person with the most victory points wins! Like Splendor, you consider the cards you have since they can empower your progress to win.
Mystic Vale
- Release date: 2016
- of players: 2 to 4 players
- Average play duration: 45 minutes to one hour
- Age recommendation: 12 and above
- Difficulty rating: 5/10
Like Splendor, Mystic Vale requires you to plan ahead of time and take the cards that will both score you victory points and help you take more cards. If you have seen Adventure Time, Mystical Vale looks like Card Wars to an outsider.
In Mystic Vale, you play as a druidic clan fighting against a curse that withers and kills life. The cards in the game represent the forces of you and the curse. To start, set up the common and vale cards, player decks, and VP tokens.
Each player has 20 cards to start. You play the game in turns, and a turn consists of four phases: the planting, harvest, discard, and prep phases.
In the planting phase, you can place your on-deck card on the field. However, if you have at least four face-up cards that have the decay symbol, you immediately proceed to the discard phase.
The harvest phase has a lot of actions, including harvesting abilities, scoring VP tokens, and buying cards. You replenish the cards in the commons during the discard phase (like in Splendor) and start your field anew during the prep phase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: What kind of game is Splendor?
Answer: Splendor is an economic strategy game that relies on resource management and deck building. Many players consider Splendor to be a fantastic gateway game because of its simple rules.
In Splendor, the player with the most points by the end of the game wins, and the cards you have determines your points.
Question: Which game is exactly like Splendor?
Answer: I think Century: Spice Road fits the description because the game has similar elements and mechanics. In both games, there are colored resources that you can earn and use to buy more cards. The cards you can buy are spread out in a row, and taking one will replace it with another from the deck.
Question: Which game is better than Splendor?
Answer: From this list, Wingspan is arguably better than Splendor. There are more elements to Wingspan that you have to consider compared to Splendor, making it a more strategic game. It also does combo-making miles better than Splendor. However, this statement is my personal opinion.
Conclusion
Looking back, many of the games I frequently play share a resemblance to Splendor. Why? Because Splendor is a game with strong foundations to board games. Most board games rely on strategy, quick thinking, and resource management to make the game fun and exciting.
These alternatives to Splendor are great at what they do. They are equally fun, engaging, and different from each other in a way. For example, Sushi Go Party would be a great game for a large group, which is something you can’t do with Splendor.
If you feel intimidated by the many alternatives and are having a hard time picking which to try first, I recommend 7 Wonders, Wingspan, and Sushi Go Party. If you have played these three games before, then try Biblios, Arboretum, and Jaipur. They are all great starting points.
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