Queen’s Garden is also quite a bit heavier than the previous four games due to all of the drafting and placement restrictions. This leads to a much longer play time and Queen’s Garden outstaying its welcome. (All our games lasted 70+ minutes.) Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra is the sequel to the incredibly popular Azul, from the same designer, Michael Kiesling, and the same publisher, Next Move Games. To summarise the drafting of glass, there are nine glass factories (in a four-player game). Each offers four pieces of coloured glass, drawn randomly from a bag. In your turn, you can select ALL glass of ONE colour from ONE factory. Any remaining glass pieces in that factory are moved to a central pool.

Azul (Review) – This is the original in the series and is a super simple tile drafting and placement game. Fantastic game but can be very cut throat. Azul: Summer Pavilion is the third game in the Azul series and is a little less cutthroat than the previous games. It now features a separate tile placement round and the ability to earn bonus tiles.

ABOUT THE GAMES

No, you do not reset the Glazier each round. The only way to reset the Glazier is to use a turn to reset him to the left most pattern strip. The Palace Boards have an ‘A’ and ‘B’ side each with different scoring objectives so players must agree on which one to use before the game. The 8 pattern strips are placed in slots above each player’s board ensuring the strip with the ‘joker’ spaces is placed with the joker side face down. Rounds In this way, Stained Glass of Sintra joins Queendomino as a follow-up to a Spiel des Jahres-winning game that builds on a simple gameplay hook with a slightly more complicated expansion of those ideas. The difference here is that where Queendomino and Kingdomino could be combined, the Azul games remain completely standalone, so there's not quite as much value in owning both. While there doesn’t seem to be specific mention of this situation in the rules, the common view appears to be that you can not go below 0 points.

Overall, the additional elements in Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra add some additional complexity but it’s not hard to get your head around and results in a unique and interesting experience. I do however think that the original Azul is better suited to introducing new or younger players to the series first, it is the simpler to learn of the two games. Components Is it just me or do these look a little like Sparkles lollies? Remind the kids they are not for eating. Players compete to complete their stained glass windows. The window panels making up the player boards are double sided and modular. Players determine where they can place drafted tiles by moving their “glazier” (player marker) left to right down their window, using a turn to reset when necessary. What Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra does best:There has been a bit of a mixed response to the inclusion of the ability to rest – effectively passing. Some have seen this as an unwanted addition, which can add a little analysis paralysis via more options on a turn. Whilst this is somewhat true it gives choices more meaning, as on future turns you can only build to the right, before resetting. This makes it extremely beneficial to reset just before the next round. Though what if there are tiles you want to take too? It gives a balancing act to manage and something to time – perfect for some but not everyone. The game ends suddenly, so if you aren’t paying attention, you can get caught completely unaware. You must always be watching to know just how much longer the game is likely to go on. Both sides require different considerations and change your strategy slightly. When playing with side A you are more concerned with clustering completed Palace Board spaces around ornaments. When playing with side B of the Palace Board you are trying to focus on a particular colour of tile and to remove as many pattern strips as possible to maximise the end game bonus.

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. The first time a window is completed four of the tiles on it are added to the glass tower and it is flipped over, being removed the second time around. The fifth tile, which is chosen by the player, slides down onto their player board for end game scoring. The window then scores based upon the number below it on the player board plus the points earnt by any previously completed windows to the right. Note when calculating these points to the right each is only awarded once for each column whether a window is completed once or twice. Bonus points are then awarded per tile of the rounds special colour. Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra maintains some of the core tile drafting mechanisms of Azul, but introduces new tile laying techniques and a new theme. In Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra players are challenged to select colourful glass panes to adorn the windows of the chapel of the Palace of Sintra in Portugal. Side A scores points for the number of Pane Pieces placed on the Player Board when Pattern strips have been completed. These are scored in pairs of Pattern Strip columns (i.e. Pattern Strips 1 & 2, 3 & 4…). Points range from 2 points for 2 Pane Pieces to 10 points for 4 Pane Pieces. 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.

Queen’s Garden plays out in four rounds. However players can choose to pass and end their participation in the round when either they can’t or do not wish to continue. Rounds continue until all players have passed. Why You May Not Like Azul Queen’s Garden:

So how does it compare to the original Azul game? Overall there are some similarities: the factories and taking pieces mechanic, the negative impact of taking more pieces than you can place on your player board and the quality of the artwork and components. That said there are some significant differences with the way in which you are able to place pieces on your player board along with the Glazier function which when taken with the scoring method changes the gameplay. I prefer the single scoreboard used in Sintra as I found with the Azul scoreboards being part of the original player boards, accidents did happen and the scoring marker could easily be jogged out of position. I am happy for both games to reside in my collection and I would choose to play Sintra as it breathes new life into the Azul game which was one of my most played games from 2017. For two player games though I would prefer to play the original. So if you fancy a bit of Moorish glazing then give Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra a try. What will Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra teach my kids? There is a lot of strategy in this game. Kids will learn to plan and adapt their strategies as the game develops. There is also an element of ensuring patterns will work within the constraints of the rules. Finally, there are plenty of opportunities to learn basic maths as they tally their scores each round and apply bonuses at the end of the game. Gameplay: Stained Glass of Sintra takes everything about Azul and makes it a bit more complicated with not too much upside. The trademark tile drafting system of Azul remains the same in Sinatra, but the big difference is that you are working a more dynamic board that changes and there are many more rules to scoring. Scoring is probably easier to do than in Azul but there is more to it. What age is appropriate for Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra? We think 8+ is about right for this game. Our 7 year old needed a little help at first to understand the Glazier and scoring rules. If you’re interested in trying out the original before you buy, we explain how we did so on this post. Azul Stained Glass of SintraOnce the game ends players will add any bonus points to their total score to determine the winner. The side of the palace board you play with determines what bonus points are on offer for that game. At the start of the game a number of Factories (circular disks) depending upon the number of players are put out in a circle in the centre of the table. A cardboard Glass Tower is assembled and placed near the Factories. This will be used to hold “broken” Pane Pieces during the game. Each player chooses a colour and takes the appropriate Player Board together with the 8 Pattern Strips. The Pattern Strips each show a column of 5 coloured spaces on which Pane Pieces will be placed during the game. The Player Boards are doubled sided and change how the final scoring is carried out. All players agree on which side of the board will be used for the game. The Pattern Strips, also doubled sided, are randomly placed as vertical columns above the Player Board. One of the Pattern Strips shows 2 joker spaces instead of coloured spaces and this Strip must be placed with the joker spaces face down. Each player places their Glazier pawn above their leftmost Pattern Strip. The Spiel Des Jahres award winning Azul from designer Michael Kiesling and publisher Next Move games is a tough act to follow. Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra is the next instalment in the series and when we first tried it some of us thought it may have missed the mark a bit. Many months later we have now had a chance to get more plays under our belt and much like the original it has grown on us… a lot. It still has that great core gameplay from Azul, but we now have an appreciation for the new elements that have been introduced. We’ll explain why we think this is another exceptional entry in the series in our review below. How to Play Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra Each turn, a number of market tiles will be filled with four random transparent plastic tiles, drawn at random and in a possible five different colours. On a player’s turn they will select to take all the tiles of one colour from a market location and add them to one column in their player board, representing a stained glass window. Tiles must be placed on a spot of a matching colour and any extra tiles will be wasted, resulting in a deduction of points. Is it different enough to warrant owning both Azul and Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra? For me the answer is absolutely! I love both games and I feel both offer a different experience. If you like Azul I think you are likely to like Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra too. I would suggest getting Azul first if you don’t have either as the rules are simpler and easier to learn.