How To Play The Great Split

The Great Split is an art collection game, but really, it is a game with tracks that you are going up on to optimize your score and have the most points at the end of the game. That’s the generic version of a lot of games. But The Great Split does it in a couple of interesting ways.

The main mechanism of The Great Split is “I split, you choose.” If you aren’t familiar, I create two groups of something, in this case, cards in my hand. You get to see those two groups and then pick the one that you want. I get what is left.

What you pick determines what tracks you go up on. You can go up on books, which have certain scoring thresholds when you score books. You go up on art where you score based off of how much art you own compared to the market. Or finally you push up the track on gems, either green or blue but ideally both, and you score twice your lowest gem total.

To go along with that, there are also tracks for contracts and coins. Contracts are end game scoring that triggers based off of how many contracts you’ve gotten in a particular area times how much those contracts are worth. So if I have 5 green gem contracts and I got my green gem contracts to be worth 3 points, I get 15 points. And with coins, they have contracts as well, but you can “spend” money to move up on other tracks as well.

The game plays over a number of rounds. And like I said at the beginning, the player with the most points wins.

The Details

So, as I’ve started doing, let’s look at what the box says.

For players it says 2-7 and the Board Game Geek community says best at 4-6. I think it would be fine at 4-7 players. And I know from playing it at 3, it’s still fun. But there is a difference. With more players more cards get into the rotation so you see more options. That is a big benefit with more. I don’t know that I really want to play it with two players.

It also says it plays in 45 minutes, and that is close. I think it is a bit longer than that. But the core mechanics are of the game are simultaneous. I only have played when I taught new players. I think with players who know the game, it might hit that time range. The game is only 7 rounds, plus three spots to score.

And finally, they say it is for 8+. Now as always a caveat with this. It is more about safety, but, The Great Split is language independent and has it’s one core mechanic. An adult might need to help with scoring, but I can see a younger kid playing it, say eight. They might not get all of the rules and nuisance of the game, which is to be expected.

What Doesn’t Work?

This is a very thinky game. And as a player you make a decision at times that might not be perfect for you. And because The Great Split is so thinky, someone who tends towards analysis paralysis and taking long turns will slow the game down. It is noticeable when it is there turn. But in a game with simultaneous play, it is going to be more noticeable. So be aware of that with The Great Split.

What Works?

The main mechanism in the game is amazing. I love I split you choose. And this game is that distilled. Yes, there are the tracks and they do create combos. But the main part of the game is I split my cards and you pick from those two splits. And that decision space is so good and so simple in this game. But when you split the cards, you worry that you either made the split too good to get back what you want. Or you didn’t make it good enough.

I also think that the tracks work well. They are not complex and basically you teach the game quickly. There is some to go over, but once you teach the player board, you teach the rest of the game in round one. So it is not a complex game but one that is fun to teach and play that way. Plus the combos in the game are simple in a good way. I hit this point on the coins, I advance two in another area.

The scoring is also well done. The Great Split is scored three times. Though what you score the first two times can vary. You score each of books, art, and gems. But when you set up the game you don’t know if you score books and gems at the first scoring and then art at the second or maybe gems at the first and book and art at the second. It gives you shifting goals. And then you score everything at the end.

Who Is It For?

This is a tough part that I almost skipped. Mainly because the core decisions can be tricky in the game. It might feel like too much to a casual game. I think this is a good filler for heavier gamers but also a fun game who play games. But for them, it is going to be the game of the night versus a filler game. But it is an accessible game with no reading on cards and different symbols to help with color blindness. That is really nice.

Final Thoughts – The Great Split

I love this game. I think that it is clever in in what it does in the best way possible. When I said that I like a game that does one thing and makes it thinky, I’m not lying. The Great Split makes every choice matter. What I pass to you is important and how I pass them to you. But that is seven times I make that choice in the game. And seven times I pick from the cards someone passes me. It is smart in how it does that and then making the tracks simple, but still meaningful. If they were a hard puzzle as well, it’d be less fun.

My one concern hasn’t been played out yet. I worry about how well it will hold up long term. Not components wise they are great. But will The Great Split feel consistent through every play and eventually start to feel like there isn’t enough change? I don’t know. I suspect it might, eventually, but that is a long ways out. Why, because the core mechanism is so strong with I split you choose that it makes for an interesting decision every time.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: B-

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Simple vs Complex

Simple vs Complex can actually be broken down into a couple of different ways. One is going to be for learning a game, the other is going to be the actual playing of the game. Mainly, because I think that some games can be a bit of both. Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift, which I wrote about yesterday, I think that game play can be simple. But learning the game is a challenge.

Learning

A game is complex to learn when the rule book is difficult to get through. This can be for a number of a reasons. It might be that a game is challenging to get through because of a lot of different reasons. It might just be a big rule book, or a lot of specific side situations. Or just a poorly done rule book that is hard to reference when you need to.

Versus a simple rule book, that is going to be one where it lays out out clearly and the game is not that challenging to pick-up. Even with a more complex game, a simple rule book is going to give you the information you need and not much more.

Playing

For playing, simplicity and complexity can be in two different areas. Firstly, if a game is simple, turns are going to be simple. I do one thing on my turn, and it’s done. So I know what I want to do right away, I do that action, and I know how that action is going to go. Something like Century: Golem Edition (or Spice Road) is an example of this. On my turn, I get a card, I pick up my played cards, I get a golem, or I play a card. I do one of those things and all are straightforward.

A more complex board game is going to create more questions in what you are doing. When you select an action, it branches into many more things that you can do. Kind of like a bunch of combos happening. Sonora, for example, is complex for a roll and write because everything combos into everything else.

Another way board games add complexity is through housekeeping. This is the idea that you don’t just need to know what you do on your turn, you need to know what the game does. One that’s a bit more simple for this is Pandemic. Unless there is an epidemic, you flip a card and put out a cube. But there are games, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth, for example, where there is a lot that you need to do.

Shallow vs Deep

But now let’s talk about shallow versus deep for a game. Because, I think at times, people get the two concepts confused a little bit with how I talk about them. A shallow board game is going to be one where the decisions I make are pretty straightforward. I don’t need to think about the complexity of a game when considering if a game is shallow. A game with depth is going to give you a lot of meaningful decisions. It is the space where you need to consider and weigh your actions carefully.

For example, the actions while playing Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift might be simple as you execute them, but the decision space for what action you take at what moment that offers real depth for the game. Compare that to Sword & Sorcery, where the execution of the action is not that complex, but the turn is a bit more complex as a whole, but what you should do on your turn is not that deep.

What Combinations Can Board Games Be?

So, I think that there are three combinations of this that I like. And the rule book is it’s own thing, so that won’t factor in too much. I think too complex rulebook especially if it’s not laid out well, is a barrier to entry that is just a bit too steep. And so a lot of gamers won’t get to see if the game itself is complex or simple, or shallow or deep.

The first combination is shallow and simple.

I like this one for my party games, filler games (generally) and dexterity games. I don’t want the game to feel like it’s too much. Pulling out the game should mean that I can teach it and play it fast. Something like Wits & Wagers is a game that is shallow and simple. Same with something like Ice Cool.

The next one is deep and complex.

This is going to be your bigger games, something like Gloomhaven stands out this way. There is a lot in Gloomhaven to keep track of, and the decision space of what cards you choose to play is really intriguing. So, the decisions really matter and you need to keep track of a lot of rules, statuses, things like that, in your head.

Finally we have deep and simple.

I love games in this area. Ones that give you good decisions to make while not bogging you down in a ton of rules. Res Arcana is a game that does this. I can build out an engine with eight cards, and my goal is just get it running faster and better than yours. Or Hanamikoji is also great. You only do four actions in the game. But when you do each one, and which cards you use, it’s so tough.

I don’t like shallow and complex.

Needless to say, there is one that I don’t like, that is when a game is shallow and complex. In that case, it seems like they are just adding in rules to make the game seem more challenging, but when you get down to it the base of the game is very simple in what you are doing. If you have a thirty page rule book to cover all the one off scenarios but I only ever use 10% of the basic rules in my game and it’s always obvious what to do, I’m am not going to be interested in the game.

I think that a game that kind of falls into that trap is Sword & Sorcery. Now, there are interesting decisions to make, early on, when you play Sword & Sorcery. However, the more you play, the more you just drop into a routine of what you are doing. Move, fight, is your best ability on cooldown, use the next best one, repeat. The decision space shrinks as you go because there are obvious choices in what to do.

Final Thoughts on Different Types of Board Games

I think that players are going to have those different sweet spots. Some people are really going to want to play those heavy and crunchy games that take a lot of complexity to remember everything and give you a lot of decision space. And I even like some of those games.

But when a game can really pull off the simple but deep combination it is a gem to play. Stuff like Res Arcana, Hanamikoji, or Century: Golem Edition stand out as amazing games this way. They offer really fun decisions and interesting decisions without bogging you down in a ton of different edge cases or steps to your turn that you need to keep track of.

For me, complex and shallow is just going to be a killer, though. If I need to put a lot of effort into playing your game, I expect a full and rewarding game play. And if that doesn’t exist, well, that’s an issue. At that point in time, it makes learning the game and playing the game feel like a chore, or work. It’s a bit like a task at work where you need to copy information from 30 e-mails into fields in a spreadsheet. You need to make sure everything ends up in the right spot, but you don’t need to think about it too hard.

Which is your favorite intersection for a board game with Shallow and Deep, as well as Simple and Complex?

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