Plan B Games | Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra | Board Game | Ages 8+ | 2 to 4 Players | 30 to 45 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

In this way, Stained Glass of Sintra joins Queendomino as a follow-up to a Spiel des Jahres-winning game that builds on a simple gameplay hook with a slightly more complicated expansion of those ideas. The difference here is that where Queendomino and Kingdomino could be combined, the Azul games remain completely standalone, so there's not quite as much value in owning both. Here are our thoughts on the positive and negative elements of each game in the Azul series. Azul What Azul does best: The modular boards make the game fiddly in a way the other two are not as you will flip and remove window panels throughout the game. This often results in bumping and disrupting your placed tiles if you aren’t careful. Craig M (5 plays): Given the choice, I would choose Azul of Sintra. While I have enjoyed my games of the latter, I think apparent depth is illusory. Sintra is a nice variation on a theme that I would be happy to play, but in the long run Azul owns a permanent spot in the collection.

With that health and safety announcement complete you can start getting the game ready to play. The Setup is a little more involved than Azul but not too bad. Place the scoreboard on the table, set out round factory discs according to player count and place the glass tower in the play area. The game in play. The glazier pawns are a new concept in Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra and provide an extra constraint to consider as tiles can only be placed below or to the right of them. Here, for instance, there’s a glazier who limits which strips of the variable player board can be filled as they travel from left to right, forcing players to plan ahead to slot in as many panes as they can before the glazier is eventually reset to the left like a typewriter. The progressive movement of the glazier neatly counterbalances a combo system that makes filling in right-hand columns first more valuable, as any completed strips to the right of a newly-finished window add bonus points to that score, presenting the chance to set up game-winning combos with the right strategy. It's a notably different but no less interesting flow to Azul’s rewarding of adjacent tiles on a grid, and gives a nice structure and flow to each round. Gameplay: Stained Glass of Sintra takes everything about Azul and makes it a bit more complicated with not too much upside. The trademark tile drafting system of Azul remains the same in Sinatra, but the big difference is that you are working a more dynamic board that changes and there are many more rules to scoring. Scoring is probably easier to do than in Azul but there is more to it.No, you do not reset the Glazier each round. The only way to reset the Glazier is to use a turn to reset him to the left most pattern strip. Azul released two years ago and took the board gaming hobby by storm. The sequel, Azul Stained Glass of Sintra, has recently been released by Next Move Games. Designed by Michael Kiesling, with art from Chris Quilliams, this time around 2 – 4 players will be constructing windows with colourful glass panes. Taking around 30 – 40 minutes to play, the tile placement mechanics have been shaken up somewhat. However, is there enough of a change to warrant owning both this and the original? Let’s find out! If you are looking for an abstract game with a bit more depth and don’t mind a lot of moving parts, Azul Stained Glass of Sintra could be a great choice for you. Sintra is a Portuguese city in the foothills of the Sintra Mountains near the capital city of Lisbon. It is a popular tourist destination as it contains some picturesque palaces and castles which contain the colourful artwork of the Moors. It is this artwork that was captured in the original Azul game using tiles and has been carried through to the glass of the follow-up game, Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra. Whilst the tiles looked very effective, I am not so convinced by the “glass” Pane Pieces which remind me of hard boiled sweets from my youth called “Spangles”. Nevertheless Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra is an attractive game and looks interesting on the gaming table.

Keep an eye on your opponents: If there is a colour, you’re after that won’t work for your opponents then you can afford to take that colour pane piece later. Prioritise pieces that both you and your opponents need as they will likely be snapped up if you don’t take them immediately Your decisions are often skewed by what you think your rivals are trying to do, and the game offers a couple of end game bonus variants that increase replayability – in addition to the variability of your window design and the way tiles come out of the bag. The game has nice components and play moves along at a good pace without too much downtime. Move the Glazier by moving the Glazier to above the leftmost Pattern Strip. If the Glazier is already above the leftmost Pattern Strip this action cannot be taken. You must then allocate your glass to matching positions in your design. Your design is divided into vertical panels, and all glass must go to the same panel. Any excess pieces are treated as breakages – for which you accumulate penalties. Your choice of panel is indicated by a glazier token, and you can only place glass into the panel your glazier is currently working on, or a panel to the RIGHT of that panel.With the introduction of the glazier pawn, the columns into which you can place tiles are limited unless you skip a turn to reset the pawn. You’ll also need to plan ahead carefully to ensure you are getting the most points out of every column you complete, timing it to complete on the right turn for bonus points and also trying to make the most of gaining extra points for columns already completed. To add even more variability, each column is double sided and flips over once complete, so the game setup with be very different every time.

Mechanics: In Azul classic, you have a set square grid of your own that you need fill while in Sinatra you still have your own grid, but it is made of different strips and they flip over throughout the game with different formations. There is also a wild system and a meeple character that changes the value of things round by round. Cascadia (Review)– This is a nature themed tile drafting and placement game, it’s not as cutthroat as Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra. Each player must draft and place combinations of habitats and wildlife to maximise points. There are multiple wildlife scoring cards which can be varied each game to keep things interesting. This one also has a great solo mode. There is not a lot of player interaction here but it is a fantastic game. Due to the heavier nature and the considerable playtime for an abstract game, this can push Queen’s Garden outside the realm of “welcoming” for those looking for an easy to teach game for new players. The first time a window is completed four of the tiles on it are added to the glass tower and it is flipped over, being removed the second time around. The fifth tile, which is chosen by the player, slides down onto their player board for end game scoring. The window then scores based upon the number below it on the player board plus the points earnt by any previously completed windows to the right. Note when calculating these points to the right each is only awarded once for each column whether a window is completed once or twice. Bonus points are then awarded per tile of the rounds special colour.In the Azul game series, players will take turns drafting colored tiles from the center circles to their player board. When certain sets of tiles are collected and satisfy placement requirements on their board players are able to score points. If players draft more tiles than they need they must discard the leftovers — this causes them to lose points. What age is appropriate for Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra? We think 8+ is about right for this game. Our 7 year old needed a little help at first to understand the Glazier and scoring rules. Verdict For the Shelf: Azul (90% of the time) and Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra (10% of the time). Sintra is a valiant effort at a follow up and is a great game all on it’s own. When compared to the original Azul, however, Sintra is just a little bit too jumbled and not focused to be as good. Again, both games are top notch, fantastic games, Azul classic just has the advantage.

Azul (Review) – This is the original in the series and is a super simple tile drafting and placement game. Fantastic game but can be very cut throat. Azul: Summer Pavilion is the third game in the Azul series and is a little less cutthroat than the previous games. It now features a separate tile placement round and the ability to earn bonus tiles. The original is perfectly simple. With straightforward and easily understood rules, this is the least overwhelming in the series. It doesn’t try to get too cute with mechanics and that’s the beauty of it.Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra should take around 40-50 minutes for a complete four-player game. Final Thoughts on Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra All players now share a score board instead of having one on their personal board. This is better in my view as it is easier to see where everyone is at and any applicable penalties. It also has prompts to remind players how bonus points are earned for each side of the Palace Board. Side B scores points based on the number of completed “windows” (i.e. where a Pattern Strip has been completed twice during the game and discarded). The player chooses one colour and multiplies the number of times that colour occurs in the completed windows by the number of completed windows.