Exceptional consensus · 5 organizations

Azul

Michael Kiesling · Next Move Games · 2017

Draft colorful resin tiles from shared factory displays and arrange them into scoring patterns on your mosaic board. Taking tiles you need while denying opponents creates delicious tension. Simple enough to learn in five minutes, but the spatial puzzle rewards years of play.

Players

2–4

Time

45 min

Ages

Difficulty

Light

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Why you'll like it

Stunning tactile resin components
Rules take five minutes, strategy lasts a lifetime
Works beautifully at all player counts
Drafting creates natural interaction without aggression
Perfect gateway to modern board gaming

How it plays

Azul is a tile-drafting game about decorating a palace wall. In the middle of the table are several small circles called factories, each holding four colorful tiles. On your turn you take all the tiles of one color from a single factory, and the leftovers slide into the center.

You place the tiles you take into rows on your own board. When a row is full, one tile moves to your wall at the end of the round and scores points based on the tiles next to it. Any tiles you can't fit go on your floor line and cost you points.

That's the whole game, and it's easy to teach in five minutes. The depth comes from watching what others need and leaving them tiles they don't want. The game ends when someone completes a horizontal row on their wall, and there are end-game bonuses for full rows, columns and colors.