NEXT MOVE Azul - The Queen's Garden

Product Information

Because you remove panels throughout the game as you complete them, the finished game is not nearly as aesthetically pleasing to behold. You don’t end the game seeing what you’ve built because you’ll have removed a fair portion of it. This leaves your board looking like it’s a smile missing some teeth.

Players who like the ability to plan their moves based on assessing the tiles available at the start of the round may not enjoy the drafting found in Queen’s Garden. Tiles are revealed progressively as other tiles are taken. This leads to more chance in the game and an inability to plan your moves based on the knowledge of all the tiles available for that round. If you are looking for a crunchy abstract game with a large lean toward the puzzle category, Azul: Queen’s Garden could be a good fit for you. While going through the material in the box you may have found a clear piece of adhesive: as per the printed instruction, you should add it to the base of the tile tower to make it a bit sturdier. It is not a drama if you missed or discarded it as it does not prevent the game to be played. Assembly The Rotary Wheel

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Now, here’s where Azul: Queen’s Garden takes a hard left away from Azul as we know it… Rather than placing hexagons directly into your garden, you have to pay for them. The cost for any hexagon (including any garden expansion, based on the printed space) is the same as the value of pips on the hexagon – to be paid in either identical-value or colour hexes, or jokers. As with drafting no hexagon that is identical to the one being played can be used, and players can’t mix the colour/pattern currency. So for example, to play a six value blue hexagon, you’ll need to play either five other blue hexagons or five other six-value hexagons. Oddly, the cost includes the chip you wish to place (which is then placed in the garden) whilst any other chips are discarded into the tower to be re-used later. Every one of the symbols shown on the tiles is worth a different point value that players could earn at the end of the game, but they also represent how much it costs to play that tile into a garden. Should a player ever want to place a tile in their garden they need to spend an amount of tiles - of either the same colour or symbol - equal to the point value of the one they want to place. For instance, a player could pay for a turquoise butterfly tile with two other turquoise or butterfly tiles. However, just as players cannot draft identical tiles, they also cannot pay using identical tiles. Having to consider how you’re going to pay for tiles, as well as which tiles you want to put into your garden, serves as an even greater test of your ability to think ahead and significantly rewards players who make clever decisions. The player boards feature an area for players to store their tiles before placing them in their gardens. Player and evaluation wooden markers could be stored in the small slot with “AZUL” printed onto it and all other tokens including the first player marker have a nice space behind the fountain boards. Tiles And Tile Tower Using an innovative drafting mechanism, the signature of the Azul series, players must carefully select colourful tiles to decorate their garden. Only the most incredible garden designers will flourish and win the Queen's blessing. The jokers will need to be placed in any of the 12 spaces on the storage board. Player markers are placed on the square “15” on the scoring board and the single hexagonal marker (evaluation marker) is positioned on his icon on the left of the scoring board. First Player Actions

Summer Pavilion is also, in our opinion, the most beautiful of the three games. Why you may not like Azul: Summer Pavilion: Identical tiles could not be placed next to each other. If a player fully surrounds a garden feature (pavilion, bench, statue, or fountain) by placing a tile, the player immediately receives as many jokers as depicted on the bottom left side of the player board. If the player could not store all the jokers, those in excess are lost. Players Actions Is that part of the game? Sure. But it can also feel quite mean and we suggest not playing that way if you want to keep things friendly. Paying the cost of a tile (or a garden expansion) – The price of a tile or expansion is linked to the pattern on it as summarized nicely on the player board.The chains of rigidity of previous entries have been thrown away for a more free, more personalized approach to your tile placement. I really like this a lot; it broadens the space for you to create what you want and allows you to change your layout and design on the fly. Costly, Costly Tiles The original Azul has to be one of the most popular board games of the last five years – having sold over a million copies. Despite this success, the first pair of Azul sequels ( Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra and Azul: Summer Pavillion) haven’t been quite as successful. Undeterred, publisher Plan B Games has still chosen to forge on with a fourth Azul game, this time entitled Azul: Queen’s Garden. Where the original Azul was blessed with a straightforward flow and simple, rewarding decisions that pleased new players, Azul: Queen’s Garden is a much heavier experience – but is it still fun to play? I do appreciate that it may sound like I am very down on Azul: Queen’s Garden and I guess personally, I am. I am unlikely to play this game again because it is just so heavy and often frustrating, without ever feeling as rewarding as other heavy games I enjoy. That said, I tend to like very abstract puzzle games (like this) to be light because I enjoy immersing myself in theme when I play heavy games. So, if you’re a player who enjoys a fairly heavy,, deeply thoughtful puzzle, and especially if you like two-player games, Azul: Queen’s Garden might have a space in your collection. Sadly, it’s not for me. *** 3/5 Queen’s Garden is the heaviest challenge of the four Azul games. There are strict rules for both drafting and placement. Players who enjoy the chance to create big scoring combinations will enjoy how Queen’s Garden has both round scoring where specific tiles score at the conclusion of each round and end of game scoring where all tiles score again based on their groupings of color and symbol. This creates for the largest puzzle feel among the Azul series. Throughout each round you’ll think and rethink where you can maximize each tile’s scoring potential to the fullest.