you can't seem to ruin Splendor for the other players no matter how much you suck at it.
Somehow I found one.
Well, it was more of an attitude problem and not the game.
I was teaching my nephew, my niece, and her boyfriend. I went first, boyfriend was second, niece was third. On the penultimate round, I pointed out how close I was to 15 and that people should look carefully for a way to get points. I pointed out to my niecewho was far into second placethat one option is to take gems this round in order to buy a 5-point card next round. That would put her at 15, which is good if I cannot get above 15. After weighing her options, she decided to take the gems to plan for the 5-point card.
Then on my turn, I was able to get a card to put me at 16 points. This meant that my niece would not be able to win, but she could come in a very respectable second. All she has to do is buy that 5-point card. So in swoops her boyfriend on the final round, and he goes and reserves the 5-point card that she needed to get 15. It didn't even cost her second place; he just thought it'd be funny to do rather than let her feel good about that accomplishment.
I did tell her that in my mind she scored that 15 because I refuse to accept a screw-you move that is no benefit to the person enacting it. He still came in last. She still came in second. Now she was just pissed off.
I imagine no one here plays with people like those, but I did manage to find that one guy who did manage to ruin Splendor for his girlfriend. Much rolling of eyes.
Anyway, Splendor is absolutely a game. It's a very tactical game. It's very luck-driven, which is why strategy doesn't work so well. I've done okay with planning around two nobles with the most in common, but it's so easy to get burned by the luck of the draw. And yeah, I'm eager to see the expansion.