June Game of the Month
Visually Pleasing Tile Strategy Game
This abstract strategy game gets it’s name from the Moorish tiles called azulejos. The historical reference includes a Portuguese King who fell in love with the decorative tiles and had the workers tile the palace in Evora. You will play the role of the tiler trying to make the king happy by placing these colorful tiles on your gameboard. The winner of the game is the player who successfully acquires, places, and scores the highest values for their tile patterns.
→ If your game learning method is by watching a video, Teach the Table has a great 4 minute video on learning the game.
Terminology
Wall - the right side of the board where tiles are placed to score points
Pattern lines - lines on the player’s board where tiles are added
Factories - displays where players can select tiles
First player tile - the tile the first player places in the middle of the factory display circle. The player who takes tiles from the middle first, also has to take the first player tile and place it on the factory floor line area
Floor line - any tiles that do not fit in the row you’re filling on pattern line must be added to your floor line
Playing the game
Each player has their own gameboard - player mat
Place the factories in the center of playing area in a circle
2 players: 5 Factory displays
3 players: 7 Factory displays
4 players: 9 Factory displays
tiles are blindly drawn from bag and placed on factories (4 tiles on each)
The first player is the person who has most recently traveled to Portugal (you can create your own criteria)
Players take turns clockwise taking tiles from the factories and placing them on the pattern lines going left to right on their gameboard
When tiles are taken from a factory or middle, all tiles of that color/pattern have to be taken by the player. Unused tiles are pushed from factory into middle or tiles of same color collected that do not fit on player pattern line, fall on that player’s floor line
When all of the tiles are collected from factories and the middle, players score their pattern lines by pushing a tile from completed pattern lines onto their gameboard wall. You only push over a tile to score for a completed pattern line. Incomplete pattern lines keep their tiles for next round.
Scoring a round
1 point per tile on the wall
additional 1 point for any tiles that touch another tile on the wall. Count any tile edge that touches another tile
subtract points for tiles on floor line
move your score cube to the total scored for the round
Repeat the gameplay until a player completely fills one of the horizontal lines on the wall with scored tiles
When the game ends, observe the scoring for the bonus area of tile patterns (this pleases the king)
Player with the most points wins!
Azul takes a round to really visualize how to maximize scoring based on available tiles, but after the first game clicks, you’ll want another crack at this challenging, but fun game!