Brettspiel-News.de – Review | Azul

By Sandra Otterbein on November 29, 2022. Take a board game quiz

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With “Azul – The Gardens of the Queen”, the fourth installment in the award-winning Azul series is now being released. This too is set thematically in Portugal, but this time in the gardens of Queen Maria of Aragon. The difficult task is to make the garden as picturesque as possible – with flowers, plants and other decorative elements. The well-known game principle has been expanded with some new and exciting aspects!

Asmodee has provided us with “Azul: The Gardens of the Queen” for review.
This has no effect on our rating!

Garden or maze?

The aim of the game is to build the coolest garden ever. The principle of the game is not much different from other Azul variants, only some new elements have been added. Also in “Azul – the Gardens of the Queen” there are game pieces that you want to put together into a certain logic. In this figure, these shapes are hexagons and can be found in six different colors with different symbols. These tokens represent the central element of the game, as they are used to create gardens and ultimately score points.

An active person has four different action options. She can place stones from a garden expansion into her depot, lay a stone, or lay a garden expansion or passage. If the first action is chosen, you can choose between a color or an icon. Thus, all stones must be taken of the same color but different symbols, or the same symbols but different colors. At the beginning of each building is a four-stone garden. When the first person has taken their stones, the extension of the garden including the remaining stones is set aside and a new extension with four stones added. If the garden accessory is empty, it will be turned over and can now also be added to your storage during the first phase.

However, if a person wants to start gardening, they can also play “laying a stone” as an action. But this action needs to be well thought out. First of all, each stone has a certain value that must be paid upon disposal. For example a tree stands for the value “one”, bird for “two”, butterflies for “three” etc. So if I want to play a butterfly stone I have to pay two extra butterfly stones, or two stones of the same color are always included The stone being played pays off. If the push is tight, then luck may be on your side and there are still Joker stones in stock. These stand for any desired color and symbol.

The stone must always be placed on an empty square that does not have adjacent hexagons, or is adjacent to one or more adjacent hexagons, at least one of which has the same color or symbol as the stone played.

If the person whose turn it is decides not to draw or play a stone, they can still put a garden extension. If the garden accessory is already in storage, it can now be incorporated into the garden as a measure.

You can also pass at any time, but the first person to pass will directly lose a point.

In the second stage, the interim evaluation is carried out. Points are awarded for certain colors or symbols in each round. Depending on how many of these elements are already incorporated into your gardens, you will receive the corresponding points.

In the final phase, the next round is prepared by returning unused stones and lays and placing new stones on the table. The bonus point symbols and colors also change in the round.

After four rounds the game ends and the grand scoring is pending. Color combinations and symbol combinations are valued, and there are bonus points for combinations of six hexagons. The person with the most points, that is, the most beautiful garden, wins.

Tags: 1-4 people, placement game, 45-60 minutes