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 king, awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist, you have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.
In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Read More
Sixty six podcasts. Can you imagine such a thing? Try and picture sixty six podcasts lying jumbled-up in a big pile. You can’t, can you? Well, today we’ve made things even stranger by releasing the 67th SU&SD podcast, a spoooOOOoooky Halloween special in which we forgot to do any Halloween-related content of any kind. Instead we talk about how Matt’s been groovin’ on Gloomhaven, Paul “actually really quite likes” Azul, Quinns did his Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 review and there’s even talk of the blue beast that is Lisboa. Lovely stuff! (It all goes downhill towards the end, though, with Quinns trying to coin the word “handfeel” and begging Paul to review Sidereal Confluence instead of Charterstone. When will that boy get it together?)
Read More
Paul: Good News to you, my friends. Or, as we say here in Canada, News Be With You. I’m writing this Games News from atop a rock on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, watching the sun plunge past the horizon, thinking about the final touches we’re putting to SHUX. I’m already considering how to make next year bigger, better and cheaper, so it’s all that I can do to pull my head out of all this and tell you about Fantasy Flight’s BATTLE FOR ROKUGAN.
Quinns: It’s time to have a Really Honorable War.