Boardgames Party: Azul

Last weekend I played a fun game called Azul, which has won many awards, among which the famed Spiel des Jahres in 2018. The name comes from "azulejos", Portuguese tiles made by the Moors. A portugese king fell in love with them and tasks the players with making the most beautiful decoration in his palace.

There are a number of factories "making" four tiles each. On their turn, players take all the tiles of one color from a factory and put the others in the middle. Using these tiles, they have to prepare to decorate the wall.

Take too many tiles, which don't fit the staging area, you have to put the surplus ones in the penalty area. Don't gather enough tiles of one color to fill one row in the staging area and you are not able to decorate the wall.

The game lasts until someone manages to fill one horizontal row on the wall. You get extra points if you fill out vertical rows or if you manage to place all the tiles of one color.

The game is quite simple to explain and it doesn't last long. On our first play, with reading the instructions and understanding the rules, it took one hour, of which the actual game play was half. Despite it's simplicity, there are several interesting strategies to explore, whether to go for the shorter rows first, or for the longer ones, whether to try to get extra points by doing the bonus stuff or whether to try to finish first. It was a nice brain teaser for a Friday night.

Score: nine

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload - Day 33.