Not pictured: Rosa
Azul is a 2017 Abstract Strategy Game designed by Michael Kiesling. Themed to Portuguese tiling, players take turns pulling tiles from a central pool to fill out their mosaics. Bonus points are awarded for having tiles connect horizontally or vertically, as well as completing a set, but beware — excess tiles accrue a progressively steep penalty. This game is built for 2-4 players.
The game has spawned a series of tile-placement games, most of which share the original's Drafting Mechanic and have you create other patterns. Additionally, two games have received Expansion Packs that add new player boards.
The Azul series consists of the following games:
- Azul (2017)
- Azul: Crystal Mosaic (2022): An Expansion Pack that provides new boards with new challenges. Also includes overlays to keep the tiles neatly organized.
- Azul: Master Chocolatier (2022): A limited edition that gives the game a chocolate theme, and introduces factory tiles with special effects modify play.
- Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra (2018): It has the same Drafting Mechanic as the original, and has you match vertical patterns on two sided stained-glass window panes on the player boards. There's also a movement pawn that restricts which pane you could fill on any given turn, making the game more complex.
- Azul: Summer Pavilion (2019): Also has the same Drafting Mechanic, but introduces a wild colour that changes from round to round, and has players collecting diamond-shaped tiles to create star patterns.
- Azul Summer Pavilion: Glazed Pavilion (2021): An Expansion Pack that provides new boards with new challenges. Also includes overlays to keep the tiles neatly organized.
- Azul: Queen's Garden (2022): This one heavily modifies the Drafting Mechanic, and features much more complicated pattern matching thanks to the hexagonal tiles with combinations of colours and symbols which could be separately matched for points.
- 5211: Azul: A stand-alone release that gives the abstract game 5211 an Azul re-theming.
The Azul games provide examples of:
- Breaking Old Trends: Queen's Garden heavily modifies the previous games' Drafting Mechanic, and introduces much more complicated pattern matching thanks to its hexagonal tiles with combinations of colours and symbols.
- Digital Tabletop Game Adaptation: Azul and the Master Chocolatier variant are available on Board Game Arena.
- Drafting Mechanic: The game uses a complex drafting mechanic where you can choose to take all the tiles of one colour from a factory display, which drops the rest of the tiles on the floor. You can also take tiles from the floor, but you get a penalty if you're the first in the round to do so.
- Excuse Plot: The theme of you being a tile laying artist mostly serves as an excuse for the gameplay and the decoration of the playing pieces.
- Extrinsic Go-First Rule: In the original game, the player who has most recently been to Portugal goes first.
- First-Player Advantage Mitigation: The player who takes the first player tile starts the round, but the tile gives them -1 point, in addition to filling one space of broken tiles, meaning they are more likely to lose additional points if not careful.
- Foreign Language Title: Azul, the Portuguese word for "blue". It's a reference to the Portuguese tiles called azulejos, which the game is inspired by.
- Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Master Chocolatier is a limited edition of the original Azul.
- Official Game Variant: There's a basic variant where the game dictates where tiles of each colour goes on the playing board, and an advanced variant where you can place them anywhere.
- One-Word Title: Azul, which means "blue" in Portuguese. It's a reference to the Portuguese tiles called azulejos, which the game is inspired by.
- Set Bonus: During the game, you get bonus points for having set of tiles that connect horizontally or vertically. At the end of the game, you are rewarded for each complete horizontal line, each complete vertical line, and for each colour you have a full set of 5 tiles in.
YMMV (move these)
- First Installment Wins: While generally considered good by those who did play them, none of Azul's sequels came close to the popularity of the original.
- Tough Act to Follow: The Azul series has overshadowed later efforts by designer Michael Kiesling.
- Maths:I'm surprised at how quickly this started looking like a publishable article. Should we publish it soon?
- Nona: I'd say it's good to go. Nice job buffing it out before I even got up!
- Maths: Thanks! Will publish it then.
