Review
Azul: Queen's Garden
Azul: Queen's Garden is a hex-tile drafting game that landed far better than I expected. It moves briskly, gives you proper decisions, and makes scoring feel worth chasing again and again.
- Published
- 2021
- Designer
- Michael Kiesling
- Publisher
- Next Move Games, Belleville (Бельвіль), Broadway Toys LTD
- Players
- 2–4
- Playing time
- 60 min
I am not usually an abstract-game person, which is why Azul: Queen's Garden sat unopened for far too long. Then it hit the table, and that was that: eight plays with different groups later, I still want to put it out again.
At its heart, it is hex-tile drafting built on the Azul idea, but you do not need any experience with the original game to get going. You choose tiles, work out where they belong, and try to leave the other players with choices they would rather not have. Easy to describe. Much harder to do well.
Easy to describe. Much harder to do well.
CaptainObvious
Placement combines planning with push-your-luck pressure, while the game keeps moving and the scoring feels properly satisfying. Pro tip: do not discard an extra tile every time you place one, as we did; that turns the game into accidental extreme hard mode, and it is not actually what the rules ask for.
Azul: Queen's Garden gives you plenty to think about without holding the table hostage. For me, it is a quietly excellent abstract that makes the obvious feel newly clever: take good tiles, place them well, and score lots of points.
For me, it is a quietly excellent abstract that makes the obvious feel newly clever: take good tiles, place them well, and score lots of points.
CaptainObvious
Source: BoardGameGeek
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