I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a big original Azul fan, it’s one of my go to abstract games and is a game I’ve now played over 100 times (closing in on the 200th play!), and I’ve tried other Azul variants which have always had me just wishing I was playing the original. Queens Garden, I’m looking at you! Azul Summer Pavilion ultimately has changed my view and is another Azul game that I now need in my collection. Will I need Azul and Azul Summer Pavilion long term? Only time will tell!
Azul Summer Pavilion takes place over 6 rounds, rather than the Azul approach of until someone finishes a row. This mixup means that you’ve a defined number of turns and allows one of the games’ core mechanisms of a wild colour to flourish! See each round one of the games 6 different tiles will act as a wild allowing you to use them to potentially complete spaces that needed say 6 blue tiles, but you’ve only 4 blue but 2 wild tiles (let’s say orange) would allow you to place there. It’s a nice addition and feels like an evolution of the Joker tiles in the original Azul, without the penalties the Joker tiles imposed in the original e.g. you couldn’t score them for bonuses. Here, you use wild tiles as an addition to other tiles, giving you more flexibility.
Azul Summer Pavilion largely works the same way, in that at the start of the round you’ll take turns to take all the tiles of a single colour from a factory, sliding the rest into the middle, you can’t however take wild colour tiles from the factory (unless they are the only tiles on the factory, in which case you take a single tile). Although I shouldn’t assume everyone knows how to play Azul!! Or you can take from the central depot and, in addition, take one wild tile. The first person to take from the central depot will take the first player marker and move their score marker back equal to the number of tiles they took from the central depot. Once all the tiles are taken, players move into the placement phase.
In Azul Summer Pavilion, this is done in turn order placing groups of tiles one at a time going around and around the table in player order. Tiles are placed in groups, e.g., you could place a single blue tile on the 1 blue space or the 1 wild space. Or 3 orange could be placed this turn as 1 orange and later 2 orange.
As you place tiles, you’ll a) score points for placement, but b) if you surround a pillar, statue, or window, you’ll draw additional tiles from the scoreboard. Scoring works that you score a point for the tile you placed and one additional point for each tile that is next to or connected to it. You’ll continue to take turns to place groups of tiles until everyone has passed, at which point you’ll set up the board for the next round. And you can store upto 4 tiles for the next round, meaning if you’ve a single tile or two, you aren’t throwing them away for negative points you can retain them for placement in a later round.
Setting up for the new round involves refilling the factories, advancing the round marker, and returning the first player token to the centre of the table. After 6 rounds, that’s it game done!
Azul Summer Pavilion has a number of tile placement areas in the shape of stars, grouped by colour apart from a central star that’s wild. At the end of the game, you’ll score points for every completed star and additional points if you filled all the 1 spaces, 2 spaces, and so on. So there’s the potential of some big game points if you manage to complete stars and also place consistently across the stars.
I wasn’t sure on Azul Summer Pavilion at first, I was a little bit pessimistic and thought oh it’ll be a slight twist on the original, so I’ll just go back to playing the original. But Azul Summer Pavilion is fundamentally what feels like an evolution of the original into this slightly more crunchy decision space with the potential to combo through placement into more turns. The addition of a wile tile that changes fixes a limitation the original had of you simply might not want certain tiles. Plus there’s the ability to split and keep tiles between rounds, which again means that Azul Summer Pavilion feels less mean, although you can definitely still leave your opponents left with rubbish tiles, there are more options for them to mitigate against that. However, Azul Summer Pavilion feels slower in it’s pacing, especially when it comes to the placement phase and depending who’s sat on your table an AP prone player is likely to make that last even longer. Azul didn’t have that problem as you knew where you were placing, Azul Summer Pavilion gives you more scope for placement that can at times be too methodological.
As you know, I rate games on a scale of:
Buy or play
Wait for sale or play if you like game XYZ
Avoid
Azul Summer Pavilion is a game I’m genuinely struggling to give a rating to. If you haven’t enjoyed other Azuls, then you aren’t likely to enjoy Summer Pavilion either. However, if I thought Azul was alright and needed a bit more, Summer Pavilion is a game I’d highly recommend. You’re probably thinking, so what rating are you giving Summer Pavilion to rather than rambling on! Azul Summer Pavilion gets a play if you enjoy Azul. I do genuinely think there is space in the collection for Azul and Azul Summer Pavilion, if you asked me to pick one after 7 vs 100+ plays, the newness and want to play more Azul Summer Pavilion I’d say Azul Summer Pavilion. But ask me again after more plays!
Want to buy Azul, Azul Summer Pavilion, or Azul Queens Garden? You can from Kienda: https://kienda.co.uk/login?ref=01503917&create_account=1
