Review - Azul Board Game: Great Fun for all the Family

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any affiliate links will be marked with #ad)

During this Coronavirus lockdown, we have been so lucky to have a new game to play. I was first introduced to the board game, Azul (#ad) in February when I played it with a few friends and I was hooked from the start. It seems to retail for around £32 - £35 but I came across a brand new copy on eBay for £12 so I was very chuffed with that. Read on for our Azul review -

Azul is suitable for 2 - 4 players and adapts well to whichever number of players we've tried it with. I think 2 player is probably my favourite though as the gameplay is quicker and feels more exhilarating. It says it is suitable for ages 8 plus, but our friends have it too and they play with their 6 and 8-year-old daughters, so the concept is quite easy to grasp, but they may just need a little help with the scoring.

The box contains:
100 Resin Tiles
4 Player boards
9 Factory displays
4 Scoring markers
1 Starting player resin tile
1 Linen bag
1 Rulebook

The aim of Azul is to score the most points by placing various coloured tiles onto your game board, over a number of rounds. It sounds simple but there is actually a little more to it than that, the skill is in deciding which tile/s to pick up each turn and where to put them to gain the advantage against your opponent/s.

Set-up is super easy and the instructions are clear and give all the details you need. My 12-year-old twins had it mastered after one game and have played it dozens of times since. My 16-year-old has also joined them a few times to play and he plays a more cunning and devious game, as he likes to strategise and project where others might want to go. It is certainly more challenging when he is playing.

The quality of the board and tiles is really good. They are sturdy and feel like they will last a very long time. You get a large bag with the tiles, to hide them whilst you deal them out at the beginning of each round and that it is a bit flimsy and has already lost one of its strings in the first week. I really can't moan though, given the £12 price tag I paid.

Azul has only been on the board game market since 2017 and in 2018 it won the Spiel des Jahres award, making ti the board game of the year, a highly coveted accolade in the board gaming world. This seal of approval means that board gamers the world over agree with me and find it a fabulous fun game for all ages. That engages but is easy to learn and play.

Gameplay takes about 30-40 minutes and again that makes it very easy to play, or you may get hooked like us and still be playing 3 or 4 games down the line. There is also a more freestyle version of the game on the back of the game boards, but we haven't tried that as yet.

As I just had a look on Amazon I was pretty excited to see there are two newer versions of Azul as well - Azul Stained Glass and Azul Summer Pavilion, so I know what I might be buying if this lockdown goes on for too long!

(#ad) Azul is currently for sale on Amazon for £37.36

If you want a good instructional video on how to play Azul, rather than reading the instruction booklet, have a watch of this one, it is clear, concise and very accurate.



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Review - Scotland Yard board game

As a child I recall a friends big brother having the Scotland Yard board game and we always wanted to play it but he used to tell us we were too young and it was not for girls, so I never got to play sadly.

I then don't recall seeing the game anywhere else for quite some years so you can imagine my glee when I was offered the Ravensburger re-released version just recently.  Would we like to review this?  Easy, yes please! JJ was super pleased when it arrived as he knows what Scotland Yard is and he is a little obsessed with cop and spy programs, he seems to be think he is a bit of a super sleuth.

He announced that he could not wait for me and he would start to unpack the game and read the instructions and get on with it himself.  I did of course advise him one person could not play this game alone so he roped in his 6 year old sister. Now this game is aimed at children of 10 years plus and whilst she is a bright little thing it was a bit hard as a first attempt with a bossy 10 year old trying to teach a bossy 6 year old!

Getting Ready
Getting the board and pieces ready for play was easy, all the transport tickets had to be popped out and they are a nice thick laminated cardboard so I think they will last well. The board itself is really up to date and has all the popular London landmarks like Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, the London Eye and even the Shard. It is probably the thickest and most durable board to a game I've ever seen. I'll certainly say that for Ravensburger they know how to produce something that will stand the tests of time.

The Instructions
For some reason you get two instruction booklets and it really was not clear to me why this is. The English text is buried at the back behind 5 other languages and even the main writing on the box is in German, which feels a bit odd when the game is being sold in England and is about our capital city.

You need to prepare yourself to take some time to read these and absorb. As someone is playing Mr X and then others are playing the detectives, there are two different sets of instructions to grasp, so this is not a game you can pick up in 5 minutes.

Objective of the game
Notorious criminal Mr X is on the run in Central London. Can Scotland Yard’s finest detectives track him down, or will he escape forever? One player takes on the role of Mr X, whilst other players take on the role of detectives and work as a team to try to find him. Mr X only reveals his location every 5 moves, but the detectives can get clues as to his location by looking at his travel log, which reveals his chosen method of transport. The detectives also move around the board using taxi, bus and underground tickets, and must try to surround Mr X, and then move to his hidden location to catch him and win. But the detectives don’t always win and Mr X can escape to any of the 199 locations shown on the detailed map of Central London!

Did we enjoy it?
In a nutshell, yes. Once we had got the hang of it but it did take us a few goes to feel as if we knew what we were up to. We have also only played the beginners version of the game so far and we have yet to move to the more advanced or the two person game.

I love the fact that this game teaches kids to strategise and really think about what moves Mr X has made and how they should go about finding him and it also encourages team work as the detectives which is super and well needed in our house!

Another plus point is that no game is ever the same and that keeps it really fresh and means the kids want to come back to it again and again. I'm told that next time Miss M wants to try and be Mister X, so I think we will be roping Daddy in to help her.

How long does it take?
It took us about 5-10 minutes to set up the game and then with 4 players it was about an hour long and that is a real bonus as games like Monopoly can go on forever and ever.

Where can I buy it?
Scotland Yard is available from Ravensburger on Amazon and the price is just £17.99 currently.  I think this is a fabulous deal and real value for money. You can also watch a short video about how to play Scotland Yard on there too.

Disclosure:  We received this game free of charge for he purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.