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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Azul 17 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 8 months ago.
Play Overview
Play involves taking turns to draw tiles from the central tile Factory cards. You either take all matching tiles from one of the Factories and place the others in the centre or take all matching tiles from the centre. These tiles are used to slowly fill up the mosaic on your card.
The strategy you are working on is to fill up a row on your game card with the same tiles. This then grants you one of those tiles to place on your pattern and score points. At the same time, you want to avoid surplus tiles as these score negative points.
As the play progresses in rounds you slowly fill up your mosaic and score points. You get more points by placing tiles that are adjacent to other tiles so that more complex and connected mosaics later in the game can score highly. The game ends when any player completes a horizontal row of their mosaic. At that point, you get bonus points for complete vertical and horizontal rows as well as filling up all of a particular colour in your mosaic.
The result is a highly tactical game where it's all about grabbing the shared tiles at the opportune moment. Seeing your mosaic slowly fill up with beautiful tiles is satisfying, but you also need to think tactically about how to score the most points. Maybe you'll take the tiles you need, or maybe you'll take the tiles an opponent needs. All the while you need to spot the opportunity when the cost to you (from excess tile penalty) is lowest and the cost to your opponent is highest (they need those tiles).
Benefits
This game is good if you want to:
Play Style
You can play this game in the following styles:
Duration
The first time you play it can help if you do the following:
- Go through different examples of each way of scoring points.
- Go through the different ways you lose points in a round.
- Highlight the advantage of going first and how you go first next round.
- Start with the Standard side of the game card where you can play tiles on the mosaic wherever you like, then graduate to the Expert side of the card after a number of games.
Play Time: This game will take between half an hour and 45 minutes to complete.
Age Ratings
Skill Level
8+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. Younger players need to have good planning and pattern-matching skills. They also need to be able to think ahead and not mind if another player takes the tiles they were hoping to get.
Content Rating
We rate this suitable for 3+ years-olds.
Costs
You can purchase the Azul: Crystal Mosaic version that offers a double-sided player board, with new challenges and strategic opportunities. This version also provides a plastic overlay for 4 boards to keep tiles from being accidentally bumped out of place.
Game Details
Release Date: 01/01/2017
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Players: 2-4
Genres: Sequencing, Strategy (Brain Game and Collecting)
Accessibility: 26 features

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