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If there is one thing loved in my household, it's the Azul line of games. It’s something about the clackiness of the bakelite tiles, the lovely coloured pieces and the thinky abstract puzzle that resonates with a lot of the family. After seeing a short video about Queens Garden, it did seem like the thinkiest, most unique Azul game yet, colour me intrigued.
It's All A Bit Drafty In Here
For the few people reading who have never played any of the Azul games, they are abstract, tile drafting, puzzle games. Each one has its differences, but the basic premise is to draft a set of tiles from a shared pool and place them on your player board to score points.
How you place them, when you place them and what tiles you draft is paramount skills required to win. Each version of Azul has different scoring systems and other systems thinly laid over this simple template and Queens Garden is by far the ‘gamiest’ of them all.
Unlike the other Azuls, Queens Garden’s drafting starts out as one pool to draft from and steadily increases as more tiles are taken, rather than all pools being available from the start. This simple change changes the feel of the drafting quite a bit, akin to Seven Wonders Duel, taking something you want may lead to you revealing something your opponent desires.
As well as drafting tiles you are now drafting Garden Expansions to put your tiles onto as well, a massive change from what I have played before in these games.
More Freedom
In Queens Garden, instead of the rounds being very regimental like in the original title or Summer Pavillion, the other two Azul’s I have played, you have a tad more freedom in what you are doing. On your turn, you can either draft tiles and Garden expansions or place tiles or Garden Expansions.
This flow is very important due to your storage board which is just restrictive enough to nag at the back of your mind and put a splinter into your well oiled strategy. If you do not have space for what you want, you are not getting it, end of the story.
So, unlike the other Azul’s I have played your board is yours to design and yours to fill as you please. There are rules in place, obviously but in all the games I have played of this so far, all players gardens have been massively different at the end of the game.
The chains of rigidity of previous entries have been thrown away for a more free, more personalized approach to your tile placement. I really like this a lot; it broadens the space for you to create what you want and allows you to change your layout and design on the fly.
Costly, Costly Tiles
Each of Queens Gardens tiles is one of six designs and one of six colours. When drafting you can take any combination of tile and expansion pieces as long as they share the same pattern or colour.
When placing tiles or expansions, each of the six symbols has a cost, from one to six tiles and you must discard as many tiles or expansions, including the one you place to pay for the placement. Each of these tiles must be either the same symbol or colour but not a mix of the two.
This system seems costly and it is but it does lead to some heart-wrenching decisions about how you are going to pay for your lovely new tile. Luckily, there are Joker tiles, which are colourless in comparison to normal tiles but boy do you need them.
They can be used as a wild when paying for any placement you see fit. You can get more of these tiles by surrounding certain features in your garden, similar in Summer Pavillion and again, they must be placed in your storage. Damn you storage!
Points Make Prizes
The scoring systems of Queens Garden are also different to what I am used to in Azul titles. Where the original and Summer Pavilion score as you place pieces and again at the end of the game, Queens Garden scores at the end of each round and then at the end of the game but both scoring phases are very unique to the series.
Firstly, there’s a wheel in the middle of the shared board that dictates which three tiles score at the end of each round and their respective point values. It will give you a mix of three colours or symbols and it is definitely worthwhile shooting for them in each round to maximise your score.
At the end of the game is a very different affair. You step through all six colours and all six symbols and score groups that are more than three tiles in a continuous area. This is where Queens Garden starts to make sense, it costs you quite a varied amount to place tiles but this is the amount of points you get for the tiles at the end of the game.
When placing a tile, it can only touch a tile of the same colour or symbol so when it comes to end-game scoring, planning and how you build your board is vital.
You also get a bonus of six points for groups of tiles that are all of the colours or all of the shapes but the same colour. You will also score negative points if you are left with any tiles or expansions, so being thrifty is key. A bit like another of my families favourites, Quirkle. It makes my brain hurt sometimes, in a good way.
Components
Everyone knows what to expect here. Lovely artwork, nice clean symbology and a lovely presentation make up a game that looks fantastic on the table and after a play or two, is very simple to understand.
As with all the Azul’s, I would have liked the boards to be double-layered so the tiles do not slide about but that is a very small negative on something I think is fantastic. Holding the tiles in your hands, listening to them clickity-clack and the lovely bright colours make Queens Garden something special to look at and experience.
The design-it-yourself boards really make Queens Garden a lovely thing to play and make sure everyone’s board looks different and unique. The components for this game are great, bright and certainly well-made. It's one of those games, similar to the other games in the same line, that grabs people’s attention. It's gorgeous.
Final Thoughts
I originally bought this for someone who loves Azul games but little did I know this would be, not only the most unique title in the series but by far my favourite. It offers more choice, has more malleability and is a little bit more thinky than the other games in the series.
Hate drafting could be a thing, especially when you see your opponent one tile away from collecting all six of a type but that will be a group dependent thing. I will definitely take a tile to stop you from getting all 6 of a type and the bonus that comes with it.
More planning is required than in other games in the series, especially when placing your tiles and paying for them respectively. As you can probably tell, I loved this game, in my opinion, it's the most rewarding and fun in the series and even if you own other Azul games, it is different enough to warrant a purchase. Right, I am off to carry on designing the Queens Garden, laters tile layers!
