Azure

My Gathering comments on Azure — “Surprisingly good abstract filler that I’m still thinking about. Might buy, even though I dislike abstracts.”

And now it is bought, and after playing another game I ordered the expansion. “Filler” is always a crowded category, but most of my fillers are card games (R4TG used to be a filler, before Counterstrike). Azure reminds me of Marrakesh (the Joli Kansil backgammon-esque trick taker. Or trick-taking backgammon game). It takes a classic game and then restricts your moves based on cards. In Azure, each space has one or more benefits …. typically points, but also cards and playing on a space requires one card of the suit for each boon on it ….

…. less one card for every piece on it’s row or column.

First to 25 points wins, except that if you have to play a piece and can’t you lose (and there are limited pieces). Also there are mountains, which block connectivity across their space, and the first person to have two “influence¹” on the mountain gets the benefit, but it can be lost if the other player gets more influence.

It’s a little brain burney, but because you start with random cards you can’t calculate everything in theory. (And the second player gets an extra card, so it’s not clear if the first or second player has an advantage, at least to me).

I’ve recently downsized my game bag²., but I’ll bring this for a while. I guess I like abstracts that have a bit of card-driven chance.

Rating — Suggest

Update — Clarified how to influence the mountain pieces, as per the comment below.

1. Which is sometimes done the same thing as a discount … a piece on the row or column, but it is sometimes any piece in the same region, or on a special symbol. ︎
2. I’m getting old and the walk from the car to the store is a bit long these days ︎