The Azul Board Game: Rules, Editions and Spin-Offs

What the Azul board game is

Azul is a tile game about decorating a palace wall. Each player has a board with two halves: five short rows on the left, called pattern lines, and a 5-by-5 wall on the right. You take tiles from shared displays, fill your pattern lines, and at the end of each round move one tile from each full line onto your wall. Tiles score when they land next to other tiles.

The designer is Michael Kiesling. The original game came out from Plan B Games, and the English rulebook we read is published by Next Move Games. The rulebook's story is short. Portuguese king Manuel I fell for the decorated tiles of the Alhambra and wanted the same for his own palace, and you're the tile setter.

The box facts, from the Azul listing:

• Players: 2 to 4
• Ages: 8+
• Play time: 30 to 45 minutes
• Mechanics listed: tile placement, drafting
• Competitive, not co-op
• Base game, not an expansion

What's inside, per Next Move Games: 100 resin tiles (20 in each of 5 colors), 4 player boards, 9 factory displays, 4 scoring markers, a starting player marker, a linen bag and the rulebook.

How Azul plays

The rules below are in my own words, from Next Move Games' English rulebook for the original Azul. The other games in the family change some of this, and I note the big differences further down.

Setup

1. Everyone takes a player board, colored-wall side up. Everyone has to use the same side.
2. Put your scoring marker on 0.
3. Set out factory displays in a circle: 5 for 2 players, 7 for 3, 9 for 4.
4. Put all 100 tiles in the bag.
5. The starting player fills each factory with exactly 4 tiles drawn from the bag.

Who starts? The rulebook says the player who most recently visited Portugal. That's the best first-player rule I've read in a while, and in my house it has never once been used, because nobody on Piñon Loop has been to Portugal. We roll a die and feel a little left out.

Each round has three phases

Phase 1: take tiles. On your turn, do one of two things:

1. Take every tile of one color from one factory, then push the rest of that factory's tiles into the middle of the table.
2. Or take every tile of one color from the middle of the table.

The first player to take from the middle in a round also takes the starting player marker. It goes on your floor line, where it counts like a dropped tile, but you'll start the next round.

Then put the tiles you took into one of your five pattern lines. The top line holds 1 tile and the bottom line holds 5. A line can only hold one color. You also can't put a color in a line if the matching row of your wall already has that color.

Any tiles you can't place, or don't want to, go on your floor line. Those are tiles you dropped. They cost you points at the end of the round.

The phase ends when every factory and the middle of the table are empty.

Phase 2: tile the wall. Everyone does this at the same time. Go through your pattern lines from top to bottom. For each full line, move its rightmost tile to the matching color space in the same row of your wall, and score it right away. Clear the rest of that full line into the box lid. Lines that aren't full stay where they are for next round.

Phase 3: get ready. If nobody has finished a full horizontal row on their wall, the starting player refills the factories with 4 tiles each. If the bag runs out, pour the tiles from the box lid back in and keep going.

How scoring works

When a tile lands on your wall:

• If it touches no other tiles, it's worth 1 point.
• If it's in a horizontal line of touching tiles, count that line, including the new tile.
• If it's also in a vertical line of touching tiles, count that line too, and add both.

So a tile that finishes a cross of tiles can score a lot in one move. Then you lose points for every tile on your floor line. The penalty for each space is printed above it on the board, and it grows as the floor line fills. You can't go below 0.

The floor line is where Azul gets its teeth. The game never forces you to take a bad set of tiles, until it does. Late in a round, the only tiles left might be four of a color you can't use. Somebody has to take them. The whole table can see who.

How the game ends

The game ends after the wall-tiling phase in which at least one player has finished a full horizontal row of 5 tiles. Then you add end-game bonuses:

• 2 points for each full horizontal row
• 7 points for each full vertical column
• 10 points for each color where you've placed all 5 tiles

Most points wins. On a tie, the player with more complete horizontal rows wins. If that's tied, you share it.

The gray side

The back of each player board has a gray wall with no printed colors. The rulebook's variant lets you put a tile anywhere in its row, as long as no color repeats in any row or any column. It's the same game with a sudoku problem stapled to it. If a tile has no legal spot, the whole pattern line goes to your floor.

June found the gray side before I did. She uses it on purpose to make the rest of us lose track. It works.

Azul editions on Amazon US right now

Our data for this page lists 10 Azul listings on Amazon US as of October 2026. The table above shows players, age and play time as each listing states them. Where a listing leaves a field out, the table shows a dash. Here's how they group.

The original Azul

Two listings carry the plain Azul name. One, under the brand Azul, says 2 to 4 players, ages 8+ and 30 to 45 minutes, with tile placement and drafting. The other, from Plan B Games, doesn't state players, age or time in our data. Both are marked as base games. If you want the rules above, start with this group.

Azul Mini and Summer Pavilion Mini

These are smaller boxes of full games.

• Azul Mini lists 2 to 4 players, ages 8+ and 30 to 45 minutes. Next Move Games' Mini rulebook follows the original game's rules and slides each player board into its own plastic tray. The publisher lists 100 resin tiles and 5 plastic trays.
• Azul: Summer Pavilion Mini lists 2 to 4 players, ages 8+, 30 to 45 minutes, and 132 resin tiles, 6 plastic trays and a linen bag.

If you play at a cabin, on a train or anywhere a bumped table is a risk, these are the ones to look at.

Azul: Summer Pavilion

A standalone game from Plan B Games. The listing says 2 to 4 players, ages 8+, 30 to 45 minutes and 132 resin tiles. Next Move Games' rulebook makes three big changes from the original: the game runs exactly 6 rounds, there are 6 tile colors, and each round one color is wild and can stand in for others. Being first to take from the middle also moves your score marker back one space for each tile you took. If you've played the original a lot, this is the next step.

Azul: Queen's Garden

A standalone game from Asmodee. The listing says 2 to 4 players, ages 10+ and 45 to 60 minutes, with tile placement and drafting. Next Move Games describes it as building a garden for the Queen with plants, trees and ornaments, and lists 108 colored tiles and 24 jokers among its parts. It's the longest and highest-age game on this page.

Azul Duel

The two-player version, from Asmodee. The listing says exactly 2 players, ages 8+ and 30 to 45 minutes. Next Move Games' rulebook runs it over 5 rounds, with one large factory and four small ones, and you also choose dome plates that set the pattern your tiles complete. If your table is almost always two people, this is built for you.

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra

Listed under the brand Azul at 2 to 4 players, ages 8+ and 30 to 45 minutes. The listing marks it as an expansion, but our data doesn't name a base game for it, and Next Move Games' page lists a complete set of parts: palace boards, pattern strips, glass panes, a scoring board, a bag and a rulebook. The publisher describes drafting glass panes and placing them in palace windows over six rounds. Check the listing before buying if you're unsure whether it plays alone.

Azul: Crystal Mosaic

An add-on from Plan B Games. The listing marks it as an expansion and names Azul as the base game. It lists 4 double-sided player boards with plastic overlays. Next Move Games' page says the original Azul is required. Buy this only if you already own the original.

Azul Kids

From Asmodee, listed at ages 5+, 2 to 4 players and 30 minutes. It's the youngest age in the family by a wide margin. The listing doesn't explain how its rules differ from the original, and I couldn't open a publisher page for it, so I'll stop at the listing facts.

Which Azul fits your table

Quick matches, from the listings:

• First Azul, 2 to 4 players: the original Azul
• Travel, or tiles that stay in place: Azul Mini or Summer Pavilion Mini
• You've worn out the original: Summer Pavilion, then Queen's Garden
• Two players, most nights: Azul Duel
• Kids aged 5 to 7: Azul Kids, at 5+
• You own the original and want new boards: Crystal Mosaic

Lucho picked up the tile bag once and said, "Linen bag, resin tiles. That's nicer than anything I keep my helmets in." He then asked where the tiles go when they break. I showed him the floor line. He said that's where his tiles would go too.

Who should skip Azul

Skip it if your group wants a lot of talking and laughing between turns. Azul is quiet. Everyone stares at the same factories, counting.

Skip it if one of your regular players hates being blocked. Taking the tiles somebody else needs is half the strategy, and the other player always sees it coming.

Skip it if your usual group is 5 or more. Every Azul on our list that states a player count stops at 4.

Skip the 8+ boxes for now if your youngest player is under 8, and look at Azul Kids at 5+ instead. Nothing on this page lists an age below 5.

Check the age label on the listing. Toys with small parts are a choking hazard for children under 3, and Azul's tiles are small parts. Count them back into the bag after each game.

If you like Azul, look at these

Pages chosen by what they share with Azul: tile placement or drafting, 2 to 4 players and short-to-medium play times.

• Qwirkle: match colors and shapes in lines of tiles
• Splendor: take gems from a shared supply and build up points
• Blokus: a spatial puzzle game about claiming space on a grid
• 7 Wonders Duel: drafting from a shared layout, for 2
• Strategy board games: the wider shelf

Mind the floor line. It's the only part of the board that keeps a tally of your mistakes.