Aesthetically pleasing, simple to learn and surprisingly competitive, Azul is great for couples, families and other groups up to four players.
Here’s a board game we keep coming back to: Azul. Its premise sounds, truthfully, a little bit dull. “Azul brings you, a tile laying artist, to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.” We can’t say we’ve ever particularly wanted to be a tile laying artist, but here we are.
Despite how it sounds, Azul is a beautiful game that players of all ages will enjoy, starting at around eight years old. We’ve played it with a mixture of different group types, and it’s great as a two player game too. Several of the groups we’ve played with have gone on to purchase the game themselves which says a lot about how quickly you can fall in love with it. It’s a manageable 30-45 minutes per game.
Unlike many board games, this one is very quick to pick up. One quick read through the rules and a single round is enough to get your brain in gear and strategies in place. The aim is to score the most points by the end of the game by filling your wall with the corresponding tiles. Each round you’ll have several chances to pick tiles from the factory, aiming to fill the lines on the left of your board ready to move onto your wall at the end of the round. There are opportunities for sabotage if you’re feeling particularly competitive (aren’t we always?) and you might find you lose points if you’re forced to take more tiles than you need.
You’ll score points every round for various tile placements, and the game ends when someone completes a horizontal line of tiles.
Once you’ve mastered the game, you can also flip the board over and try the variant gameplay, which lets you choose your own pattern for the wall rather than having to place tiles matching the pre-filled board. This does take a bit more brain power and isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s great to have the option to shake up the required strategy from time to time.
Azul gets a firm thumbs up from us here at The Nookish, so if you’re looking for a new board game to try this could be a winner. It’s available from Amazon for around £35.
