Azul/Gameplay

Here is the gameplay for *Azul*:

## Objective

The objective of the game is to score the most points by creating a beautiful tiled wall. The game is played over multiple rounds, each of which is composed of three phases: Factory offer, Wall-tiling, and Preparing the next round.

## Gameplay analysis

### 1. The Factory offer

The Factory offer phase is the first phase of each round, and it starts with the starting player placing the starting player marker in the center of the table and taking the first turn. The game then proceeds clockwise, with each player taking their turn. During your turn, you must pick tiles in one of two ways: either pick all tiles of the same color from any one Factory display and then move the remaining tiles from this Factory display to the center of the table or pick all tiles of the same color from the center of the table.

If you are the first player in this round to pick tiles from the center of the table, you must also take the starting player marker and place it onto the leftmost free space of your floor line. In all later rounds, you must comply with the following rule: you are not allowed to place tiles of a certain color in a pattern line whose corresponding line of your wall already holds a tile of that color.

Any tiles that you have picked but cannot or do not want to place according to the rules must be placed in your floor line, filling its spaces from left to right. These tiles are considered to have fallen on the floor and give minus points in the Wall-tiling phase. If all spaces of your floor line are occupied, you must return any further fallen tiles to the lid of the game box to store them for now.

This phase ends when the center of the table AND all Factory displays contain no more tiles. Then, the game proceeds to the Wall-tiling phase.

### 2. Wall-tiling

During the Wall-tiling phase, players can move tiles from their pattern lines to their walls. This can be done simultaneously by all players. To start, players should go through their pattern lines from top to bottom. Move the rightmost tile of each complete line to the corresponding space of the same color in the wall. Each time a player moves a tile, they immediately score points based on the rules outlined in the Scoring section of the game.

After moving tiles from their pattern lines, players should remove all tiles from any pattern lines that now have no tile in the rightmost space. These tiles should be placed into the lid of the game box for later storage. Any remaining tiles on the pattern lines stay on the player board for the next round.

Each tile that a player moves over to their wall is always placed on the space matching its color and immediately scores points. The number of points depends on the number of adjacent tiles, either vertically or horizontally, to the newly placed tile. If there are no tiles directly adjacent, the player gains one point on the score track. If there are any tiles adjacent, however, count all these linked tiles (including the newly placed one) and gain that many points.

At the end of the Wall-tiling phase, players should check if they have any tiles in their floor line. For each tile in the floor line, they lose the number of points indicated directly above it. The player should adjust their scoring marker on their score track accordingly, although they can never drop below 0 points. Finally, all tiles in the floor line should be removed and placed into the lid of the game box.

Note that if a player has the starting player marker in their floor line, it counts as a normal tile there. However, instead of placing it in the lid of the game box, the player should place it in front of them.

### 3. Preparing for next round

The Preparing the next round phase is the final phase of each round. If nobody has completed a horizontal line of 5 consecutive tiles on their wall yet, the player with the starting player marker refills each of the Factory displays with four tiles from the bag as in the setup phase. If the bag is empty, players must refill it with all the tiles they have placed in the lid of the game box and then continue filling the remaining Factory displays. Once the Factory displays have been refilled, the next round begins.

In the rare case that the game runs out of tiles again while there are none left in the lid, players must start the new round as usual, even though not all Factory displays are properly filled.

The game continues in this way, with players taking turns to pick up tiles and add them to their wall until someone completes a horizontal line of 5 consecutive tiles on their wall. At this point, the game ends immediately, and players score their final points.

The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the game. In the event of a tie, the player with the most tiles on their wall wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the fewest tiles in their floor line wins.

## Variant play

To play a slightly different version of the game, use the gray side of the player boards. All rules are the same as in the normal game, except for the following change: When moving a tile from a pattern line to the wall, players may place the tile on any space of its corresponding wall line.

However, as the game progresses, a new rule comes into play. In each of the five vertical lines of a player's wall, no color may appear more than once.