How To Play Azul Master Chocolatier

The end of the game is triggered when at least one player has completed a horizontal line of five consecutive tiles. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins and in the case of a tie, the player with the most horizontal lines wins, with any further tie resulting in a shared win.

The phases of the game

A. Factory offer

The starting player places the starting player marker in the centre of the table. They then either a) select all the tiles of the same colour from a factory, moving the remaining tiles into the centre of the table, or b) pick all the tiles of the same colour from the centre of the table. If you are the first player this round to choose this second option, then take the first player marker and place it on your board on the leftmost space on the foundry line – tiles placed in this row count as penalty points when scoring.

Strategy note: You may be forced to pick from the centre, but often you are likely to choose it because the selection of tiles is better. Yes, there is a -1 penalty but often it is outweighed by the better choice which in turn may net you more points overall and give you first choice of tiles in the next round. As a round progresses, more tiles get placed in the centre meaning when you collect a set of tiles, you get to pick a larger number of tiles; this is good in terms of increasing the chances of completing the longer rows, but not good in terms of increasing the potential for penalty points. Overall, I would say choice is a good thing.

Once you have chosen the tiles you must pick one of the five pattern lines on the left side of your player board, and starting from right to left, start placing tiles on the chosen pattern line. On future turns, if a pattern line already holds tiles, you may only add tiles of the same colour to it, if there are free spaces. If you have picked up more tiles than spaces then any excess is placed on the foundry line, starting from the left most uncovered space.

Note also that in subsequent rounds, you can only place tiles of a certain colour in lines whose corresponding line in the chocolate box doesn’t already have a tile in that colour.

You’ll note the different colours of the tiles which I like a lot aesthetically. I do tend to think of the tiles in terms of dark chocolate, white and caramel with two milk types.

The Foundry line. Any tiles you have picked that you either cannot or do not want to place, must be placed here, filling the spaces from left to right. Once all the line spaces are filled, any further excess tiles are simply discarded to the box waiting for a bag refill.

B. Box confection

In this phase of Azul Master Chocolatier, all players score. This can be done simultaneously, although if introducing new players to the game, it is helpful for each player to score in turn to help the learning process.

To score, a player looks at each pattern line on their board. Starting at the top, if a line is complete, move the rightmost tile to the space of the same colour in the chocolate box area. The rulebook gives illustrations of the phases and steps to take to help visualise these.

Each time you move a tile, score for it immediately. Each tile scores one point for itself and one point for each tile directly linked horizontally. Then repeat the process for a linked vertical line scoring one point for each tile in the line including the tile just placed.

Again, the rulebook is helpful, giving illustrations of scoring. This means a tile on its own will score one point, but it is possible for a tile to be placed to score from both a horizontal and vertical line of tiles each scoring more points in the process.

Repeat the process for each completed line in the pattern line area and then don’t forget to deduct all penalty points for tiles on the foundry line. Once scored, the tiles in the foundry line are discarded.

Once scoring is done, remove all tiles from the pattern line area on lines with no tile in the rightmost space. In other words, if you completed the line, one tile moves to the chocolate box and rest are discarded. All other tiles on a pattern line ie on incomplete lines remain where they are going into the next round.

C. Preparation for the next round

If no-one has completed a horizontal line, then the game continues. Refill each factory with four random tiles. If the bag is ever empty, simply add all the discarded tiles to date back into the bag, give them a mix and continue to select tiles for the factories.

Game end

Once at least one player has completed a horizontal line of five tiles, the game will end after the Box confection phase ie no refill required as no further rounds.

In addition to the accumulated points so far, each player will score two bonus points for each complete horizontal line, seven points for each completed vertical line and ten points for each collection of five tiles of the same colour in the chocolate box.

Variants

There are variants to play. There is a variant chocolate box with all the printed tile square are beige allowing a more free-form approach to placing tiles. However, this is more of a challenge as you cannot have a colour appear more than once in any vertical or horizontal line.

In additional there is a special factory variant. You’ll note that the reverse side of each factory is of a gold colour. These offer additional actions or effects in game, and the rulebook lists these.

Final thoughts on strategy

Azul Master Chocolatier is a clever game. Ultimately, you will need to form blocks of tiles and adjacent lines to score a greater number of points and completing where you can full lines of tiles or sets of colours. In practice, with a little luck, success comes through good choices made in respect of what colours you take and their placement. As a bonus, you will want to choose where you can, based on what will also hinder your opponents either by taking tiles they need or leaving them with tiles that may score penalty points for them. Enjoy the game.

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