Azul in Review

At game start, several depots are placed in...

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This is my favorite kind of game review. Skip the parts inventory and the rules lesson, and get straight to the essence of the game. Give a good idea of what the game is about, and what is good or bad about it. Based on this review, I know that Azul isn't my kind of game, but I know of at least a couple of friends who would likely enjoy it.

Good well written review and welcome to the For..

What game do you wish you were playing when you have been playing Azul? Or do you sometimes wish you were playing Azul despite the hollowness it leaves inside?

My man Drew is always on point with his stuff- straightforward, no BS. I can always count on him for solid material. He’s kind of our main man when it comes to the heavier Euro stuff but he can flex into other areas equally well.

He was one of the first writers Charlie and I brought on back when Review Corner started.

A similar feel to Ingenious?

I’ve been playing Azul quite a bit and I really enjoy it. Drew really nailed it with this review. It’s not the kind of game where a month later you’ll say to your friends, “Remember that one game of Azul where....,” but you’ll be engaged with it while it’s on the table. It does have a surprising amount of interaction, and just the kind found in games like Race For the Galaxy, where not paying attention to what someone else it doing might result in a lower score. No, Azul is a game where you can genuinely ruin someone’s plans it you can put together what they’re doing. Something about it feels like a competitive video game puzzle game.

Abstracts aren’t at all my thing, but this one does enough that I like that I’m happy to own it.

If I had to choose Azul or Patchwork in the “tile laying space” I’d choose Patchwork 10/10 times.

SuperflyTNT wrote: If I had to choose Azul or Patchwork in the “tile laying space” I’d choose Patchwork 10/10 times.

Holy God, no. I can't stand Patchwork, it felt like a total crapshoot nine games out of ten and I found it really dull to boot. Azul is far better. Got my own review of it in the pipe for sometime in the near future.

MattDP wrote:

SuperflyTNT wrote: If I had to choose Azul or Patchwork in the “tile laying space” I’d choose Patchwork 10/10 times.

Holy God, no. I can't stand Patchwork, it felt like a total crapshoot nine games out of ten and I found it really dull to boot. Azul is far better. Got my own review of it in the pipe for sometime in the near future.

To be fair, I didn’t posit that YOU would do the same as me

I love Patchwork. It’s certainly not a crapshoot. It’s one of those games that rewards the ability to analyze and predict the position marker and your tile layouts. I’ve played it maybe 15 times now and it’s definitely deeper than one would surmise at first glance.

Just my 2c

[writes down two more names on his 'cube (tile) pusher' list ...]

Southernman wrote: [writes down two more names on his 'cube (tile) pusher' list ...]

I’ve long held the title of “Closet Euro Fan” with the F:AT Thursday crew (suppose we’ll have to change our name), which used to annoy me, but not so much after I realized I do kind of like Euros.

Azul is okay, but if the tiles weren't lovely, it wouldn't be getting half the hype. It's in there with Century, Splendor, and all these roll-and-write games that suddenly everyone feels like they need a ton of. They're the board game version of waiting-room games on your phone. If we're rain dancing until someone else arrives, I'll happily play Azul, and if there were an app for it I'd probably get it and every now and then play against an AI or whatever, but playing these games is only a slightly different experience than not playing them.

Josh Look wrote:

Southernman wrote: [writes down two more names on his 'cube (tile) pusher' list ...]

I’ve long held the title of “Closet Euro Fan” with the F:AT Thursday crew (suppose we’ll have to change our name), which used to annoy me, but not so much after I realized I do kind of like Euros.

I don't mind pre-2000 & early 2000s German games and used to play quite a few back then (Settlers, Tikal, Big City, Elfenland, El Grande, Die Händler, Wallenstein, Mississippi Queen) but, to me, Euro type games seemed to have evolved from them around that time and became more about putting in as many elegant mechanics as possible and less game ... definitely a genuine genre but not my flavour.

It's a real shame that they missed the opportunity for the Ghostbusters tie-in... it should have been named:

"A ZUUL: The Strategic Game of GateKeepers and KeyMasters"