Azul - Board Game

Azul is a fun game that can easily be learned, but difficult to be great at. It very much depends on which pieces become available in each round and how experienced your opponents are. The game looks beautiful, we love all the colors and patterns! Scoring can be a bit tricky at first - We had to re-read the instructions the first few times we played to understand how to count points correctly. Additionally, the game can feel a bit repetitive after playing a couple times.

It’s a great game! First of all, the colorful tiles are wonderful and they are very nice to touch. Then, the biggest advantage for me was that only two players can play this game and it still can be fun. It’s perfect when you want to spend some relaxed evening with your husband or wife. And also, there are some strategies that you can use to win your game. Try it and you won’t regret it!

Azul

I'm an experienced boardgamer with various tastes. And I tried this on my Game Night.It was very simple to teach. The components and colors are pretty.It was fun to play. Game play is simple and there is something very satisfying in arranging the tiles on your board.Inside the simplicity shell, the game goes deep in strategy and tactics and statistics, almost chess like. Replayability of the game is how the randomized tiles show up and how you have to deal with the "Tiles" that you are dealt.The game has two downsides for me.1) While playing , talk on the table is minimum as you will be focusing on your board and 'sometimes on other people's boards. Each one will be doing their thing on their player board.2) The end of the game is decided by players by ... MoreI'm an experienced boardgamer with various tastes. And I tried this on my Game Night.It was very simple to teach. The components and colors are pretty.It was fun to play. Game play is simple and there is something very satisfying in arranging the tiles on your board.Inside the simplicity shell, the game goes deep in strategy and tactics and statistics, almost chess like. Replayability of the game is how the randomized tiles show up and how you have to deal with the "Tiles" that you are dealt.The game has two downsides for me.1) While playing , talk on the table is minimum as you will be focusing on your board and 'sometimes on other people's boards. Each one will be doing their thing on their player board.2) The end of the game is decided by players by making a single row of tiles out of a possible 5. So, a players can RUSH to finish the early when they take the score lead. This could be considered another strategy, however it is just ending the game short before the game reaches a stage where you can do satisfying combo scoring. This was fixed in the other versions of AZUL where they set the game length to 6 rounds; however, they also added unnecessary complexity to a nice smooth well-rounded game.

Azul

A beautiful game of strategy and planning. I was initially drawn to the game because of how it looks and it's even better in real life - the tiles themselves are satisfyingly solid and fun to hold and play with, as well as being very attractive. It feels like a high quality game.The game itself is reasonably simple to pick up and start playing - my wife and I fumbled through a bit on our first game, but after that we were away starting to make decisions with purpose and developing a bit more of a long term game plan.It works really well with 2 players which we love. Often playing group games with only 2 players feels like a lesser experience than with a full player set, but Azul doesn't lose anything. In fact due to the game length you will probably find yourself ... MoreA beautiful game of strategy and planning. I was initially drawn to the game because of how it looks and it's even better in real life - the tiles themselves are satisfyingly solid and fun to hold and play with, as well as being very attractive. It feels like a high quality game.The game itself is reasonably simple to pick up and start playing - my wife and I fumbled through a bit on our first game, but after that we were away starting to make decisions with purpose and developing a bit more of a long term game plan.It works really well with 2 players which we love. Often playing group games with only 2 players feels like a lesser experience than with a full player set, but Azul doesn't lose anything. In fact due to the game length you will probably find yourself playing a few games in a row (it's quite addictive) and starting to plan around your opponents strategies. There's plenty of depth here to keep you interested.I am excited about introducing it to new people and trying a 4 player game soon - I don't think 4 players will change the general gameplay much but will add a little more unpredictability and will probably lengthen game time a little as more of you will be aiming for the same tiles.It's a great game length for after dinner/lazy afternoon games, and doesn't take long to learn so ideal for introducing to new people too.

Azul

Azul - a simple tile drafting game that sees you complete a set pattern in every game unless you flip the board to the neutral side giving you free choice and you attmept to score the most points. That about sums up the game, but the execution of the premise is what makes Azul special. Azul starts off simply enough, select the tiles you need to complete your pattern, taking it in turns to take tiles from the centre, focussing on building your own tile and maximizing your score. Simple, and no doubt like us you'll spend your first few games playing in this straightforward way. Pretty soon though you and your opponents will have learned the best ways to maximise your score and develop your pattern. This is when the real fun starts!The game stops being a peaceful, ... MoreAzul - a simple tile drafting game that sees you complete a set pattern in every game unless you flip the board to the neutral side giving you free choice and you attmept to score the most points. That about sums up the game, but the execution of the premise is what makes Azul special. Azul starts off simply enough, select the tiles you need to complete your pattern, taking it in turns to take tiles from the centre, focussing on building your own tile and maximizing your score. Simple, and no doubt like us you'll spend your first few games playing in this straightforward way. Pretty soon though you and your opponents will have learned the best ways to maximise your score and develop your pattern. This is when the real fun starts!The game stops being a peaceful, quiet, slow paced pleasant game and becomes deadly serious and competitive as you start to find ways to maximise your own score whilst disrupting other player's strategy which not only costs them points they don't score but can cause them to lose points. This is the core of the game. The competitiveness of the competing Artists - it's led to many an argument. The tactical element of the game is ramped up as the deviousness of other players becomes a major factor in your tactics - do you complete that row that will get you a few points, or leave all those tiles in the middle for a player to collect forcing them to lose 10 points?Game play is simple and caused little confusion even on our first playthrough. Everyone understood the mechanics and in the early rounds scoring (done at the end of every round) was simple and understandable. In later rounds as some tiles score multiple times and multiple points the scoring sat a little uncomfortable but after a few games feels natural. I'd advise scoring as a group until you are sure everyone understands to score a single tile once but if in rows and coloumns score the hrizontal and then vertical or vice versa. It's an odd rule to describe but makes sense.The components in Azul are gorgeous and this helps the game. The tiles you use are beautiful, well rounded weighty things that feel good to hold and make a satisfying sound when shaken in the gorgeous linen bag. The theme, whilst not essential to the game, enhances its appeal. The artwork is stunning, really bringing the artistry of the tiles to life. The game boards themselves are thick and sturdy, well laid out and functional. From a component point of view, the game boards are the only area I can criticise. It would be good if the game boards had grooves on them so that your score tracker, tiles etc sat slightly in the board, preventing them from sliding around. But it's a minor quibble.Azul is excellent since it arrived I think we've played it nearly nightly, definitely whenever a game has come out, and I imagine it will continue to be that way for a while. It's a simple game with simple mechanics, that draws you and allows for variety in each game - largely due to your opponents. The game scales well from 2 -4 players, although I find the 4 player games tend to be less hotly competitive, as you can't watch your opponents as closely. I think it's an essential for any collection.

Bought on the advice of a friend ... passing on that good advice to you ...

Azul is a multi-round strategy game with short term (each round) pattern-making goals and long term (counted at game end) pattern-making goals. It's complex enough to challenge a die-hard analytical strategist, yet simple enough that my nine year old could not only play, but requested to play again the next day. Azul has the flexibility of being a 2-4 player game with similar strategy and game play with 2, 3, or 4 players. A 5-6 player expansion would be a nice option for larger groups or families. The game pieces (especially the tiles) seem to be reasonably durable. One caution ... it's rather easy (and frustrating) to bump your score counter out of place and lose track of your score in the middle of a game.

Easy to learn, hard to master

Beware playing this game with quilters. They'll kick your rear end!Azul is a fun, quick little game that can be learned in about 10 minutes and played in about 30. The premise is simple enough: make tile patterns by fitting the same type of tile on your board, which score you points. The strategy comes in from the fact that all players are choosing from the same selection of tiles. This means the game can be either light-hearted and soothing or cut-throat and ruthless depending on who's playing. The order in which you make the patterns also matters because they all build on each other. Two players can end the game with identical boards but have two very different scores. These combine to make a game that has excellent replayability.This is a good-looking game. ... MoreBeware playing this game with quilters. They'll kick your rear end!Azul is a fun, quick little game that can be learned in about 10 minutes and played in about 30. The premise is simple enough: make tile patterns by fitting the same type of tile on your board, which score you points. The strategy comes in from the fact that all players are choosing from the same selection of tiles. This means the game can be either light-hearted and soothing or cut-throat and ruthless depending on who's playing. The order in which you make the patterns also matters because they all build on each other. Two players can end the game with identical boards but have two very different scores. These combine to make a game that has excellent replayability.This is a good-looking game. The tile patterns and colors are vibrant and they seem very durable. I've played this several dozen times and the pieces still look brand new. I will note that if you have difficulties telling the difference between solid red and solid blue, you'll need to make a mark on one set of the tiles. The rest have distinct patterns on them.I'd recommend this game to both new and experienced board game players. The basics are easy to grasp, while the layers of strategy can make for a fun mind puzzle. It works great with 2, 3, or 4 players. Setup is a breeze, and all the pieces except the boards fit in a quart-sized bag (a decorative bag is included in the game!).If you're having a hard time understanding the directions, Youtube has several videos explaining them.

Interesting concept and aesthetic

I bought this for my family's new game: a Christmas tradition. It's pretty easy to learn, with straightforward instructions. And then you can discover how to play more strategically to gain points. It's fairly quick to complete so no-one gets bored. The boards and game pieces are good quality and very pleasing.Overall, we like it a lot and look forward to developing our Azul skills.

Quick to learn and fun to play

I was on the fence about getting this game but finally caved during a sale, and now I want every single game in this line. It took a little bit to learn all of the rules about scoring, but once we figured it out it's become one of my favorites very quickly. The random nature of the tile selection means that every game is different and that it's easy to play with any number of people. I definitely recommend it.

family favorite game

I purchased Azul for my son. It’s one of his favorite games all time. We played the game with my daughter and son-in-law. I ended up buying the game for my son-in-law and myself. This game gets alot of playtime!I learned that there are different versions of this game. The Next Move version appears to be the best. Games pieces are best quality. This site carries this version. Therefore I highly recommend buying this game from this site. It’s the best version and I received it very quickly.One thing I did to enhance each of the games is to add plastic overlays/grids to each of the game boards so the tiles would stay in place on the game board when playing the game. I purchased these from highest rated sellers on Etsy.