Azul – Basic Game – Board Game

Azul takes its theme from Portugese history, when the then King was amazed by the Moorish decorative tiles used in an Alhambra in southern Spain. He immediately set workers to using the stunning tiles to decorate the walls of his palace in Evora. The players of Azul take on the roles of a tiler, seeking to create the best work of art to impress the King. Like many a game, especially abstracts, the theme starts and stops here. Certainly the theme does come through in the use of tiles and what you are trying to do, but you don’t really give this little backstory and real thought during the play. In truth Azul is a pattern building and tile placement game, with some interesting tile acquisition rules. Azul was possibly the biggest sleeper hit to come out of Essen 2017. I remember seeing some of the buzz in the Con forums during the event and by November it was popping up everywhere. It took me until January to acquire a copy and I’m glad I did. The designer Michael Kiesling, is of course part of the famous Kramer & Kiesling duo that were responsible for the classics, Torres, Tikal, Java and Mexica, with the first two winning the Spiel des Jahres (SdJ) in 1999 and 2000. I may be in the minority but Wolfgang Kramer has always come across as the more famous of the duo, perhaps because Kramer has had other hits outside of the partnership. In doing some research for this review I was surprised to see how many designs the pair have created together and continue to create even in 2017 and those slated for a 2018 release. They are still going very strong some 20 years later. But Azul is a moment for Kiesling to stand alone. So are all the positive vibes surrounding Azul warranted? What is it that is so appealing to so many? Grab a tile and give me 10 minutes of your time…we are about to find out. Contents: 100 tiles made of synthetic resin 4 player trays 9 manufactory tiles 4 point markers 1 starting player marker 1 cloth bag 1 game manual