Azul
More fun than tiling your bathroom!
Designer: Michael Kiesling | Artist: Chris Quilliams
It was only a matter of time before someone took term ‘tile-laying’ literally and designed a game about – you guessed it – laying down tiles. Azul embraces this prosaic premise and takes it to a wonderfully colourful place, delivering ambitious gameplay on its way.
‘Azul’ – Spanish and Portuguese for ‘blue’ – comes from the word ‘azulejos’, decorative tiles used by Portuguese monarch Manuel I. This sets up the game, giving players some background information to justify tiling walls – beyond this, though, the theme is entirely window dressing. This is fairly insignificant as, at its heart, Azul is a quick abstract game with beautifully-made tiles.