The fourth Azul instalment, Queen’s Garden is probably the furthest departure from the series. Sure, you still have deliciously chunky tiles that you draft onto your player board to make patterns and score points, but that’s where the similarities end. Summer Pavilion is also, in our opinion, the most beautiful of the three games. Why you may not like Azul: Summer Pavilion:

With a lot to think about, the game of Azul: Queen’s Garden is unlikely to be a chatty affair everyone will be concentrating on their own garden board. However, the difficulty hits just the right spot where you feel the challenge but also want to figure it out. So, although Azul: Queen’s Garden has lost some component elegance of its predecessor, it is a more than a worthy follow-up. Drafting also comes with its own challenges. Players can draft tiles for free to their storage area, however, to place them in the garden, they will need to pay the price of the tile: pay the value displayed on that tile by discarding other tiles of the same colour or type from their storage. That means that even though you may draft four or five tiles in the same round, only a fraction of them, if any, will end up in your garden. In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/or http://www.youronlinechoices.com. It is far easier to tell what is in each players’ best interest based on where their glaziers are on their board – there’s less fear in losing out on tiles you may need when you know that no one else can get them lest they lose points. Because of this, there is far less opportunities for players to be mean. However, it can still happen and can be quite punishing when it does. In the paper tile tower, you will find 5 identical series of tiles divided into numbered bags. All coloured tiles could be stored in the tile tower itself once you have opened the bag while the grey ones (the wild tiles called “jokers” in-game) have 4 dedicated slots in the tray.Starting from the first player, each player could only perform one of four actions choosing among: acquire tiles and garden expansions, place a tile, place a garden expansion, and pass. 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. How you place them, when you place them and what tiles you draft is paramount skills required to win. Each version of Azul has different scoring systems and other systems thinly laid over this simple template and Queens Garden is by far the ‘gamiest’ of them all.

One thing to note here is that if a garden expansion tile is ever empty, then it is immediately flipped – which will reveal one “filled” hexagon among the empty spaces on it. Garden expansions can then be taken in the same way as hexagon tiles – by the player declaring that they will take the matching colour or pattern (at which point they will take all tiles of that colour or pattern including garden expansions.) Now, you might ask, what do I do with these tiles and expansions once I draft them? Do I place them in my garden? Actually no – you place them on your storage board (which as mentioned earlier can hold a total of 12 hexagon tiles including any jokers, and two garden expansions.) 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 ActionsBecause 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. I originally bought this for someone who loves Azul games but little did I know this would be, not only the most unique title in the series but by far my favourite. It offers more choice, has more malleability and is a little bit more thinky than the other games in the series. The modular boards make the game fiddly in a way the other two are not as you will flip and remove window panels throughout the game. This often results in bumping and disrupting your placed tiles if you aren’t careful. 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.

At the end of the fourth round, players score as usual and then a final scoring takes place. During the final scoring, each group of at least 3 patterns or colours scores 3 points. The same tile could be scored multiple times if part of multiple groups. When placing tiles or expansions, each of the six symbols has a cost, from one to six tiles and you must discard as many tiles or expansions, including the one you place to pay for the placement. Each of these tiles must be either the same symbol or colour but not a mix of the two.It is important to remind that the price of a tile should be always reduced by one as the one you are placing counts to cover the placing price. Understanding the cost is quite important as, for example, you do not need to pay any additional tiles to place those with a tree pattern as their cost is one. At the end of the game is a very different affair. You step through all six colours and all six symbols and score groups that are more than three tiles in a continuous area. This is where Queens Garden starts to make sense, it costs you quite a varied amount to place tiles but this is the amount of points you get for the tiles at the end of the game. They can be used as a wild when paying for any placement you see fit. You can get more of these tiles by surrounding certain features in your garden, similar in Summer Pavillion and again, they must be placed in your storage. Damn you storage! Points Make Prizes Azul: Queen’s Garden is the most recent standalone game in the Azul range that arrived on retailers’ shelves in April 2022. This time, King Manuel I has commissioned the best garden designers of Portugal to realize the most extraordinary garden for his wife, Queen Maria of Aragon.

Player action, Pass – Passing is final and once passed the players could not do any further actions. The first players that pass will receive the first player tile and once all players have passed, the round is over. In Queens Garden, instead of the rounds being very regimental like in the original title or Summer Pavillion, the other two Azul’s I have played, you have a tad more freedom in what you are doing. On your turn, you can either draft tiles and Garden expansions or place tiles or Garden Expansions. 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.So before you can even start to think about getting pieces onto your garden, you have to plan ahead and ensure you can actually place the tiles you need. But wait: before you can even do that you have to ensure there’s room for them in your storage! Choosing which pieces to draft on your turn can thus become a snake pit where you might want a particular item from those on offer, but end up passing because you don’t want other matching colours or symbols clogging up your store.