Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra is the sequel to the incredibly popular Azul, from the same designer, Michael Kiesling, and the same publisher, Next Move Games. However, doing this may put her at risk of having to take unwanted tiles, because once she has reset her pawn, she cannot “pass” again until it has moved off of the far-left column once more.

After 3 games (a 4 player and two 2 players), I have to say that I enjoyed this version of Azul a lot more than the original. This allows you to draft first on the next round, but also moves you down one on the Broken Glass Track. You’ll now select 1 Color Pane Tile of each color, shuffle them, and place them one at a time on the round indicator, starting on Round II. This can also create incentives to force a player to take too many tiles of one color by pushing the color they need to the middle of the table. This is unusual as most games have a lot of table banter going on, but maybe it is a sign of how fast this game plays and how much thought players are putting into it.For me, there is a certain elegance about the original game that gets lost in the machinations of moving tiles here and there in this version. The simple, yet elegant, nature of the Glazier dictating where you can place tiles, and allowing you to essentially “skip” your turn changes the math of the game. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The “A” side will reward you for groupings of Panes on the Palace Board around the 4 small “ornaments” on the board, while the B side rewards you for removed Strips (completed twice) times the highest numbered color of Panes on your Palace Board. We played one four-player game where a player was forced to take 11 yellow tiles as the final move of a round, essentially eating a -15 point penalty at the end of the game.

Azul is one of those rare instances in which the original game and its sequel are both exceptional; it is honestly hard for me to pick a favorite.

Secondly, when you complete a panel, you score points for that panel AND re-score any previously completed panel to the right of that panel. Instead of only one color per row and being able to place anywhere, your choices become more limited in Sintra. But a lot of folks aren’t going to like that, as it takes what made Azul a nearly perfect game and obfuscated what made it so endearing to so many people. Other fearless seafarers have also landed on the shores of Catan: the race to settle the island has begun! The lower section of the board has “Side A” and “Side B,” much like how the original Azul has a double-sided board.

We, as gamers, seem naturally more keen on games that go from more complex to less as opposed to from less to more, and those that are successful in getting more complex are usually a system of games that gradually add more and more to them. Work together as you travel the globe to treat infections while collecting the cards you need to discover a cure for each disease. I loved the additional strategic considerations that are needed, and they multiple ways of scoring during and at the end of the game. This creates an interesting dynamic where you want to complete (and score) as many windows as quickly as possible, but also complete windows on the right first since they’ll score you extra points every time you complete a window to their left. 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.Because of this design and ease of play -- all while packing it in such quick decision spaces -- Azul rightfully won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award for 2018. The top of the Strip tells you what is on the other side) If I were to then complete the first Pane on the left, I would score 4 points PLUS the 1 point for the Strip with the Yellow Pane.

After furnishing the Palace of Evora, King Manuel I now seeks to commission the World’s greatest stained glass artisans to adorn the Chapel windows of the Palace of Sintra.At the start of the game, players receive a game board with window designs and a series of circular factory tiles are placed in the middle of the table. A real twist comes in to the game at this point, in that Pane Pieces can only be placed on Pattern Strips either under the Glazier or the right of the Glazier’s position (in which case the Glazier is moved to above the Pattern Strip on which the Pane Pieces are placed). Introduced by the Moors, “azulejos” (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese, when their King Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The same goes in Sintra, except it seems to have a bit more agency with it, so it feels more punishing.