Azul (game)

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Azul
Game data
author Michael Kiesling
graphic Philippe Guérin , Chris Quilliams
publishing company Plan B Games / Next Move
Publishing year 2017
Art Placement game
Teammates 2-4
Duration 30-45 minutes
Age from 8 years

Awards

Azul is a placement game by the German game designer Michael Kiesling , in which the aim is to decorate the walls of the Portuguese royal palace in Evora with splendid tiles based on the example of the Alhambra in southern Spain. Despite this thematic cladding, Azul is described as an "abstract" game by the jury that named it Game of the Year 2018. Moreover occupied Azul first place in the German game prize 2018th

Azul was published in German and English by Canadian publisher Plan B Games in October 2017 . The game was implemented by Sophie Gravel as well as Viktor Kobilke and Philippe Schmit, who work for the Eggertspiele publishing house , which is part of Plan B. In March 2018, Plan B published a second edition under the brand name Next Move . Azul is distributed in German-speaking countries through Pegasus Spiele . In addition to the basic game, Plan B released a set of ten Joker tiles.

Theme and equipment

At Azul is a placement game in which the game ends try to reach as many points by combining colored tiles stones on their player board. The theme for the game was chosen from the order of the Portuguese King Manuel I to clad the walls of the royal palace in Evora with colorful ceramic tiles ( azulejos ) based on the model of the Moorish Alhambra in southern Spain .

In addition to the instructions, the game material consists of:

  • 20 synthetic resin tiles each in five colors,
  • four player trays,
  • nine round manufacturing plates,
  • four point markers,
  • a starting player marker and
  • a cloth bag.

Style of play

To prepare for the game, each player receives their own player board and a point marker that is placed on the start of the point track. Depending on the number of players, up to nine manufacture tiles are placed in a circle in the middle of the table. The 100 tiles are put into the cloth bag, after which a player draws four tile stones for each manufacture tile and places them on top of it.

Alternatives per game round
  • Prepare manufactory tiles
  • Pattern phase:
    clearing away the manufacture tiles in rounds
  • Flow phase
  • prepare a new round

The game takes place over several rounds, each round consisting of the construction of the display, a sample phase and a tile phase.

In the sample phase, the tiles are cleared from the manufacture tiles, in the tiling phase they are placed in the designated areas of the player tray. The players take turns playing clockwise, starting with a starting player who receives the starting player marker. The active player selects one manufacture tile, takes all tiles of one color from it and pushes the remaining tiles into the middle of the table between the manufacture tiles. Starting with the second player, a player may take all tiles of one color from the middle; the first to do this receives the starting player marker for the next round and places it on the floor row of his / her depository (−1 point). The player immediately places the selected stones, starting from the right, in a pattern row on his shelf. There is only space for one tile in the first row and five tiles in the fifth. Only tiles of one color may be placed in each row per round, excess tiles must be placed in the floor row and give minus points in the scoring there. The aim of the players in the pattern phase is to completely cover as many pattern rows as possible in order to get tiles on the wall in the tiling phase and thus earn points.

The tiling phase begins when all the tiles have been picked up from the center of the table and put down. In this phase, all players simultaneously or one after the other, starting from their pattern rows at the top, place the tile on the right from their complete pattern rows on the corresponding field of the corresponding horizontal row on the wall and score them according to the scoring rules:

  • a single tile without adjacent tiles scores one point
  • If a tile is placed in such a way that it has horizontally and / or vertically neighbors, it receives one point for each tile in the uninterrupted horizontal row and one point for each tile in the uninterrupted vertical row.
  • For each tile and the starting player marker in the floor row, points are deducted according to the marking of the fields.

All remaining tiles of the complete rows and the floor row are removed, tiles in the incomplete pattern rows remain. All cleared tiles are put in the play lid and later back in the cloth bag. Then the manufacturing tiles are prepared for the new round. Since there is only space for one tile of one color in each row of tiles on the wall, tiles must never be placed in the pattern row in the following rounds in whose row of tiles there is already a tile of the corresponding color.

The game ends after the tile phase in which a player has completed at least one horizontal row of the wall so that it consists of five connected tiles. Then it comes to the final scoring:

  • For every complete horizontal row of five tiles, players get 2 points,
  • for every complete vertical row of five tiles, players get 7 points, and
  • for each color in which the player has all five tiles on his wall, he scores 10 points.

The winner of the game is the player with the most points after the final scoring. In the event of a tie, the player with more complete horizontal rows on his wall wins.

Game variant

The player boards are printed on both sides for two variants of the game. Both sides are played according to the above rules, but in the variant with the gray wall, the positions for the colors on the wall are not specified. The players must place the tiles in such a way that each color appears only once in each of the five vertical and horizontal rows.

Development and reception

Michael Kiesling at Spiel'17, where Azul was presented for the first time

expenditure

The game Azul was developed by the German game author Michael Kiesling and was published for the International Game Days 2017 in Essen as a German and English version by the Canadian publisher Plan B Games . In German-speaking countries, the game is distributed by Pegasus Spiele . In addition to the basic game, Plan B released a set of 10 Joker tiles. In March 2018, Plan B published a second edition of the newly founded game developer studio Next Move .

In 2018, Azul: The Stained Glass Windows by Sintra was released, an independent game derived from Azul , in which the players have to assemble stained glass windows from pieces of glass.

In the following year (2019), Azul: The Summer Pavilion , another independent game, was released in which diamond-shaped tiles are used.

reception

In July 2018, Azul was named Game of the Year , for which it was nominated together with the games Luxor and The Mind . The jury wrote in its reasoning that the game combines supposed opposites. “The almost sober functionality of the game board is a successful contrast to the wonderful aesthetics of the resulting mosaic. The feel of the tiles reinforces the valuable impression. ”In addition, the author succeeded in giving a simple selection mechanism so much depth that it triggers an almost endless stimulus to replay. In September it was announced that Azul would be awarded the 2018 German Game Prize on the eve of the Spiel'18 International Game Days. As early as June 2018, the game was named a “Games Hit for Families” as part of the Austrian game award “ Spiel der Spiele” and nominated as Count Ludo . In addition, Azul was included in the list of winners of the Mensa Select 2018 and received the irregular Beeple Award from the blogger network of the same name in spring 2018. In spring 2019, it was also awarded the MinD Games Prize 2019.

"The appeal does not diminish even after a number of games, regardless of whether there are few or frequent players at the table," it says in the spielbox . "The rules of Azul are pleasantly lean, the mechanisms are fresh, the moves interesting, and the finale is getting more and more exciting," says Udo Bartsch . "As a family game without restrictions, Azul convinces with its great replay appeal, the special look, the nice feel and the good mix of tactics and luck," says Tom Felber. "The process of this game works excellently, it is an exciting tactical affair", praises Harald Schrapers , while Tim Koch writes: "The catchy and yet challenging course of the game simply inspires."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Game instructions Azul
  2. ↑ Bet that tiling can be an exciting game concept? In: Game of the Year. July 23, 2018, accessed August 14, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b versions of Azul in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on December 1, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b Azul at Pegasus Games; accessed on December 1, 2017.
  5. ↑ a b Azul - Joker Tiles at Next Move Games; accessed on December 1, 2017.
  6. ↑ Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on October 27, 2018.
  7. ↑ Azul: Summer Pavilion in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on January 5, 2020.
  8. ↑ Bet that tiling can be an exciting game concept? In: Game of the Year. July 23, 2018, accessed August 14, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Edwin Ruschitzka: Polished stones . In: spielbox 7/2017, pages 10–11
  10. ↑ Udo Bartsch: Azul. In: Reviews for Millions. November 14, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Tom Felber: Bet that tiling can be a gripping game concept? In: watson. April 1, 2018, accessed June 23, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Harald Schrapers: Azul. In: games we play. 2018, accessed June 23, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Tim Koch: Azul. In: Spielfreu (n) de. November 22, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2018 .