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When I eat a good hamburger I lick my fingers and think “I can’t wait till my next hamburger.”

And that is how I feel when I play Azul…minus the actual finger licking.

Usually when I end a game of Azul I think “if I had one more turn I could have done this.” Or “I can’t wait until next time, I’m going to try this different strategy.”

And when a game gives you that feeling, you know you’ve got a winner.

Azul is a game for 2-4 players that plays in about 45 minutes.

About Azul

In Azul you are collecting tiles from a set of center draw piles, called factories. Each factory has 4 tiles. You are able to take all of one color from any factory, with the remaining tiles going to the center. Players are then able to draw from any draw pile, including the newly formed center pile.

This creates interesting choices as you are deciding not only which tiles to take, but at the same time which tiles to make available to another player.

After taking tiles, you will place them on the beige “lines” section of your player board. The round ends once all tiles have been taken. All completed lines are moved over to the player “wall.” Incomplete lines remain as they are for the next round.

The tiles are moved from the lines to their predetermined place on the wall. Points are awarded based off of where you place the tile.

You earn points for each tile adjacent to the one you have just laid. You can see that where and when you place tiles will play a large role in earning many, or just a few points.

Another way to earn points is by completing objectives – having a full vertical or horizontal row completed on the wall, or having all five of a colored tile on the wall.

Final Review – Is Azul Fun?

Azul truly does make me want to play again as soon as the last game has ended. I guess even if I don’t want to immediately play, I’m immediately looking forward to the next game, strategizing and scheming.

Azul lets you make interesting decisions that make you feel clever. There is of course the luck of what tiles are placed on what factory, but you get to choose which tiles you take, which in turn can determine which tiles are available for your neighbors to draw from.

More and more I am appreciative of games that add something unique or elegant. In Azul that is the eye catching tiles.

Rather than cards or cardboard pices, Azul has beautiful tiles. There is something mysteriously satisfying about collecting and laying tiles opposed to something paper or cardboard.

There is something beautiful about a game that can create a challenge for the brain, yet remain simplistic in nature. That is exactly what Azul has accomplished.

It remains a game that your average Joe can learn and play, but it still provides opportunities to push yourself and make decisions that aren’t always “right” or obvious. And that is what makes Azul fun!

Out of obligation I feel that i have to mention a negative. The one downside I can really think of is that the game may be a bit too thinky. For me that is a really good thing, that is what makes Azul so fun! But, for a gateway game, this may be something that some think is too “brainy” or too “thinky.” Other than that one “negative” I think Azul is nearly as spot on as could be.

Pros: Replayability / Decisions / Table Top Presence / Thinky

Cons: Too thinky for a gateway game?

Overall Azul is an “essentials” game, something that if you don’t own, you should have at least tried a few times. There are three versions of Azul. I’d be curious which is your favorite if you’ve tried them. Let me know.

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Jaipur // 2 players // 30 minutes

In Jaipur you are collecting and selling goods. These goods include things like gold, silver, cloth. There are also camels…which are not goods, so they aren’t really part of your hand or used to directly gain points…more on camels later.

On your turn you can either collect or sell your goods. To sell goods you lay down one set of goods you have collected and take the associated tokens. So if I lay 2 jewel cards, I earn 2 jewel tokens.

There are a few different methods of collecting cards – you can just take one card from the market. Or you can take all of the camels from the market and add them to your camel stash. As a third option you can trade any number of goods from your hand with that same number of goods from the market.

The unique thing there…you can trade camels. Now, you can’t sell camels for points…so why collect camels? They act as a great currency or filler, allowing you to quickly snatch up a lot of goods from the market without having to discard the other goods you’ve collected.

The camels are the first thing that I LOVE about this game. There are lots of interesting decisions of when to use and when to take camels.

Say you and I are playing a game and there are a few camels available in the market. If you take all of the camels from the market, you will flip over new cards to replace them…that might give me exactly what I want.

But, maybe I already have 7 cards in my hand, the max number I can hold. This might be a perfect time for you to take camels, reveal new cards…cards I won’t be able to snatch up…allowing you access to any new cards revealed.

And I didn’t even mention that you gain 5 points for having the most camels at the end of the round. The camels provide a lot of interesting choices and chances for you to deduce what I’m going to do on my turn.

The second thing that makes Jaipur so fun is the timing of selling goods. When you sell goods, the tokens, which earn you points, are arranged from largest to smallest. So the sooner you cash in the higher the point value.

But…there is incentive to wait to sell, and that is because if you sell multiple goods at a time you are given a bonus token. If you sell 3, 4, or 5 goods at a time you gain one of these tokens, which can be worth a lot of points.

This pits you against your opponent as you are trying to deduce if they are going for the same thing…and if it is worth waiting to get the bonus token, or if it is better to sell now to earn the higher point good tokens.

Final Review – is Jaipur Fun?

In Short – yes! I love the decision making of when to sell or take cards. Included in that is the player deduction, trying to figure out “if I take these cards now, what will you do?” The artwork is pretty, the length is just right, the game never overstays its welcome.

I will also mention Jaipur’s positive player interaction. Naturally a 2 player game has a competitive feel – either I win or you win. That can make games feel cutthroat and mean.

While this game can have those moments, they feel minor compared to other 2 player games. I generally feel like the game has a playful banter feel rather than a cutthroat “you’re sleeping on the couch tonight” feel.

The only negative I can say about the game…and I hate even saying this…is the game doesn’t have that “IT” factor. And I don’t know what “IT” even is.

I love to play the game, but there are some games that I haven’t played for a while that I’m just itching to play and it is all I can think about. Jaipur has never had that for me. And while I’ve never turned down the opportunity to play Jaipur…I’ve never been dying to play it.

But that is a fairly minor thing. It is a solid game that I absolutely love and highly HIGHLY recommend.

Overall I give Jaipur an A and a thumbs up. Jaipur is fun! It is a game that I think is about as perfect as it could be. For a simple, quick, lighthearted trading type game, Jaipur is perfect. I think most any couple could add this to their collection and be very pleased.

Pros: Meaningful Decisions / Player Deduction / Artwork / Length / Player Interaction

Cons: No IT Factor

This may be my number one suggested 2 player game. What is yours? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Photosynthesis // 2-4 players // 60 minutes 

About Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis has the most adorable little standing cardboard trees. In Photosynthesis you are trying to gain points by growing and eventually uprooting trees. “What, you’re killing trees?” my wife said in disgust…no we’re not killing, it is the cycle of life, I feel very green while playing this game!

You will begin by placing 2 trees on the main board. Each turn you will gain light points (the form of currency used in the game). You gain light points from sunlight shining on your trees.

The sun shines on all trees in a straight path, trees that aren’t shaded by another tree receive sunlight. If it sounds simple, just wait.

The sun moves each turn of the game. So your tree that is currently blocking an opponent’s tree may be blocked by that very same tree just a few turns later. And therein lies the fun.

Each turn all players earn their light points from the sun hitting their trees. So, what do you do with these light points? You spend them of course.

With light points you upgrade your small tree to a medium tree. And it feels awesome! They could have just used tokens that said small, medium, and large…but they didn’t. And I’m so glad, because it is so fun to see trees literally growing on the table!

Each turn you will gain light points and spend them to buy and plant more trees. These light points are just a form of currency, they aren’t really worth points at the end of the game. So how do you get points, you ask?

To actually gain points you “end the life cycle” of a tree. You uproot one of the largest sized trees, earning actual end game points for doing so. The closer to the center of the board, the more points you earn.

But if you uproot a tree, aren’t you missing out on all those light points? Yes, yes you are! And that is where the meaningful decision making comes in (whole post on decision making here), That is what makes me say “Yes, Photosynthesis is fun.” You have to decide when getting end game points is better than gaining immediate light points, that are mostly useless at game end.

Final Review – Is Photosynthesis Fun?

PROS: We’ve discussed the great look and feel with the beautiful cardboard trees, that Tabletop Presence. I mentioned meaningful decisions, when to keep a tree to earn light points vs when to uproot it for end game points.

I haven’t mentioned how intuitive and easy to learn the game is. It is logical…small trees turn into medium trees, so the rules are easy to learn. Not to mention there is a phenomenal cheat sheet on your player board.

The most important thing to me in a game is feeling clever. Photosynthesis makes me feel clever. When and where do I plant and grow trees? Every time I have played Photosynthesis I’ve had an experience of “if I build this tree here and wait to upgrade this tree till next turn, I’ll get a ton of points”…I felt clever.

CONS: Since there are really clever and good decisions you can make, there tends to be a lot of thinking time, analysis paralysis. The game can really drag. If you think about it – 18 turns per player, and maybe each player takes 1 minute per turn in a 4 player game, you are suddenly up to 75 minutes. I generally like to max out games around 1 hour. I don’t want a fun light-hearted tree planting game to feel like it is dragging on.

That is especially true when you consider my second negative about the game. It is impossible to catch up once you are behind.

In 3 of the 5 games I’ve played, within the first round I see a player place trees in such a way that they won’t get a ton of light. Usually they build a straight line down the center. They don’t get many light points at first, so they get fewer trees out.

The other players with more trees now upgrade to bigger trees, casting shadows on the player who was already behind. Suddenly they find themselves in a cycle where they can’t get more than 4 light points per turn while all other players are earning 8 or 9.

By the time the sun has gone around once they know they’ve lost, they CANNOT catch up. So, now this game they are 15 minutes into has maybe another 60 minutes left, all of which are painful and frustrating because they are watching everyone around them earn double the light points for a full hour. 

Overall, this game has some AMAZING positives, but the negatives are pretty big – I have felt miserable as both the one who can’t catch up, and as the one who is watching another player suffer through an hour of knowing they can’t win. This makes Photosynthesis less fun.

Both of these Cons may not be an issue for you depending on who you play with. If you play with a group that will analyze the board and make decisions while other players take their turns, the game will play in under an hour.

Usually players will pick up on their poor choices after their first 5 or 6 turns, so by then it is too late, but the next time they play they will not get behind, so the lack of a catch-up mechanism won’t be a problem. I play with many different people, so more often than not I’m teaching the game to someone new.

Subjective Review: Overall I give Photosynthesis a B-.  Fix the catch up mechanism and you’re looking at a B+ or A-. I love the game – I plan to keep it on my shelf…but I likely won’t show it to a ton of new players, and if I do I’ll probably have to be an alpha gamer for a few rounds so I don’t have to suffer watching them suffer for an hour.

Objective Review: I give it a thumbs, my stamp of approval. It is a very well designed game that will appeal to a lot of players. The rotating sunlight which provides a dynamic method of earning resources (light ponts) is a beautifully designed mechanism.

I haven’t heard many people talking about this game. I’d love to hear your thoughts on if you think Photosynthesis is fun. Let me know.

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