I'm looking for a board game that isn't too heavy but has good replayability. I've seen a lot of people recommending both of these but I'm not sure which one's better to start with. Which one do you think is worth getting first?
Splendor is much lighter and gets going fast, great for getting into deck-building games. Dominion is more complex and has way more replayability with the expansions, but if you want something that isn't heavy, start with Splendor and save Dominion for later.
Dominion is far and away the champion when it comes to replayability because of the absurd amount of combinations, but Splendor wins if you want something that's ready to play straight out of the box. The tip nobody mentions: buy Splendor now, play it a lot, and when you've gotten tired of it (which takes a while) that's when you test out Dominion - like a natural upgrade. Splendor won't gather dust because both games have mechanics different enough that they can coexist on your shelf, and you'll learn better doing it in sequence than trying to digest both at once.
I'd say the choice really comes down to how you like to play: Splendor is one of those games you learn in two minutes and you're already having fun, while Dominion demands more card reading and time to understand the mechanics. What nobody mentions is that Splendor, despite being simple, gets stale pretty quick on replays if you don't have expansions too - so it's not really "buy it now and you're done," it also ends up asking for more purchases down the line. If your plan is to spend money once and call it quits, Dominion might be the better investment for the amount of variety you get right out of the box, but then you're gonna need patience to teach it and to read through the deck.
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