Splendor at 2am turned into a rules bloodbath at my place in Austin

I keep hearing everyone say Splendor is the perfect gateway game, but my group of 5 tried it last Friday and the chip hoarding got so bad we had to pause for a 10 minute argument about whether reserving a card counts as a turn action. My buddy Dan stormed off to grab a beer and we just stared at the board for a bit. We finally agreed to house rule that you can only hold 7 chips max, which fixed it, but now I'm wondering if the game is actually better with 3 people instead of 5. Has anyone else had a group meltdown over the chip limit, or is my crew just extra salty?

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hannah_west392mo ago

...and honestly, that 10 minute argument is the best part of the game lol. Like, if you're not grilling Dan about whether he can bank a ruby AND reserve a card, are you even playing? The chip limit is there to force you to be sneaky, and your house rule is basically admitting you don't want to deal with the real strategy. 3 players is way too slow and boring, you need 4 or 5 just so the board gets nasty and people start eyeing your blue gems like a hawk. Your crew isn't salty, they're just learning that Splendor is secretly a negotiation game dressed up as a matching game.

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