Azul

Designer: Michael Kiesling

Publisher: Plan B Games
2-4 players 30-45 minutes ages 8+
MSRP $40

Written by: Stephen Conway

THE CONCEPT
In the late 15th century, King Manuel of Portugal visited the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. He fell in love with the
beautiful decorated tiles called azulejos (borrowed from the Arabic word az-zulayj meaning polished stone). Manuel
ordered his royal buildings, including his palace at Évora, to be covered with these beautiful tiles. The tile artists who
traveled from Spain followed the Islamic stricture prohibiting any depictions of people or animals in the design. The
result was a vibrant geometric style that is part of the soul of Portugal’s art and culture even today.

In Azul, players are artists decorating the walls of Manuel’s palace at Évora. Each turn you select colored tiles,
hoping to fill rows and build part of a larger pattern to score points.

Azul’s simple elegance and beauty make it accessible to many while its ornate patterns hint at amazing layers of
depth and strategy to explore each time you play.

THE COMPONENTS
Azul’s beauty cannot be overstated. The main components are 100 hefty decorated resin game tiles. The tiles come
in 5 colors. Some are solid colors and others have patterns printed on them.

There is a bag for the tiles. You’ll draw tiles from the bag to fill the factories, circular boards which will be placed in a
circle on the table.
Each player has a personal wall board, representing the section of wall you are creating with tiles in the palace.
There are four main areas on the board. The two largest areas are the pattern rows and the wall. This is where most
of the action in the game will take place.

On the left are the pattern rows. There is a grid of squares in a stairstep pattern. The lowest pattern row has five
squares, then four and so on until the top row with one square. Tiles will initially be placed on your board in this area.

On the right is your wall, a five by five grid of squares. Each square in the row has a different color/pattern matching
the colors and patterns of the tiles. Tiles will slide from the pattern rows to the wall during the game.

Below the pattern row is the floor area. When you have tiles that cannot be played, they will go here.

Above the pattern and wall areas is your scoreboard.

To play, mix up the tiles in the bag and place four tiles on each of the factories (different numbers of factories are
used depending on the number of players). Arrange the factories in a circle so that there is a center area formed
between all the factories. Give each player a wall board and you’re ready to decorate the palace!

THE MECHANICS
There are two main parts to each turn in Azul.

1. Factory Offer (take and place tiles)

2. Wall Tiling (move tiles and score)

Factory Offer
In clockwise order, each player will take tiles from either one factory OR from the center area.

In both cases, you must take all the tiles of a single color.

If you take tiles from a factory, any tiles remaining on the factory move to the center area.
After taking tiles, you must place them on one of the pattern rows of your wall board.

Remember, each pattern row holds a different number of tiles in a stairstep formation. The top row holds one tile,
second row, 2 tiles and so on down to row 5 which holds 5 tiles.

You can only place tiles in a single pattern row, filling in the row from right to left.

If the pattern row already has tiles in it, you may only place tiles of the same color in that row.

If your wall already has a tile of a color built into it, you cannot place tiles of that color in that pattern row.

If you fill up a pattern row completely and still have tiles left over, those tiles go to the floor spaces at the bottom of
the board and will be penalties to your score.

Players keep taking tiles in this manner until all tiles available have been placed.

Wall Tiling
This part of the turn can be done simultaneously among all players.

Starting at the top of your board look for pattern lines that are filled with tiles.

For each full pattern line on your board, you must move the rightmost tile in this row onto the matching color space of
the same row on the wall area of your board.

So If my fourth pattern row is full with red tiles, I take the rightmost red tile and slide it across to the corresponding
the red space of my wall.

The rest of the tiles in any filled rows are discarded.

Tiles in pattern rows that are not filled stay put for next round.

As you place each tile on your wall, it scores.

If the tile is placed by itself with no other tiles adjacent, it scores a single point.

If there are any tiles adjacent, count the number of tiles in the sequence (vertical or horizontal) including the tile you
just placed. Score one point for each tile in the sequence. Put simply, a tile that forms part of a row or column of
connected tiles, scores one point for each tile in the row or column.
Do this with each tile you place in your wall as it is placed starting from top to bottom. Move your score marker
forward on your board.

If you have tiles in the floor spaces, this is where they come back to haunt you. Each space indicates a number of
negative points. Move your score marker back for each floor space filled with a tile. If you have a lot of floor tiles, be
prepared to lose a big chunk of points!

After these two parts are complete, there’s a brief preparation phase for the next turn.

Each factory is refilled with 4 tiles from the bag. From there it’s lather, rinse, and repeat.

The game ends when one player finishes a round with a complete row of five tiles in his or her wall.

At the end of the game, you score for completed rows and columns in your wall. 2 points per row and 7 points per
column.

You also score 10 points for each set of 5 like-colored tiles in your wall. There are 5 colors, so that’s a potential 50
points! The player with the highest score wins.

WHAT SETS THIS GAME APART

The simple but devilishly sneaky tile taking and tile placement rules are a work of genius.

It might seem obvious at first glance that taking tiles from a factory allows you to avoid taking large groups of tiles
and taking from the center could mean taking way more tiles than you want.

And this isn’t wrong. But it’s not the only way to see the game and your array of choices.

Remember as you take from the factories, the remaining tiles end up moving into the center area. And once all
factories are empty, you’ll have no choice but to take a single color from the center. If many players wait until the end
to take tiles from the center, this could mean you are forced to take a giant pile of tiles. Unless you’ve planned for
this, most of those tiles will end up on the floor, giving you negative points!

The fantastic dance you play in Azul is trying to manipulate the tiles so that as the Factory Offer phase winds down,
you are in a position to take tiles you need and not end up taking a group that just won’t fit. This means balancing
what you need and anticipating what others might need as fewer choices remain.
In essence the decision is straightforward: pick a color and take all the tiles of that color. The wonderful discovery
awaiting you in Azul is there are many levels to this choice that will open up each time you play. What seems simple
is very subtle and rewarding once you see how that one choice can impact so many others.

Endgame scoring combined with in-game scoring also impacts every decision you make in Azul. The goal is to try
and set up your pattern rows so when each tile slides over and is built into your wall, you maximize its scoring
potential both at the moment it scores in-game and as it helps you build toward the endgame bonuses. This is easier
said than done but provides a wonderful challenge every game!

FINAL THOUGHTS
The heart of Azul is accepting the fact that in almost every game you can never do everything you want. The
likelihood of a perfectly filled wall is very very small. So the real challenge is to do the best you can knowing you may
have to give up on some areas in order to do well in others.

And that challenge is one that carries over into life, doesn’t it?

A game can mirror life in some small but significant way. A game can be a vehicle or a bridge for interaction - with
others and even with your own brain! A game can show you how to think or how others think in a totally new way.

Games that we most often describe as elegant or timeless are mirrors like this. They are playgrounds for bigger
ideas. Simple on one level but abstract safe spaces to explore on another.

So when I say Azul is also elegant and timeless and most certainly deserving of our Spiel of Approval, this is what I
mean.

Azul is a beautiful modern classic. It can be wonderfully entertaining and engaging to a wide range of players. You
can enjoy Azul as a simple exercise in strategy or as a challenge that becomes richer and more rewarding each time
you play. The one constant is a lovely kind of contemplative fun.

May 2018