Azul Duel Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Setup
  • Player Board Overview
• Gameplay
• Phase 1: Acquisition
  • A) Place a Player token to take a Dome-plate
  • B) Pick all tiles of the same color from the sun of a Factory
  • C) Pick all top tiles of the same color from the moon of all Factories
  • Placing picked tiles on your Pattern lines
  • Broken tiles space
  • D) Take a revealed Bonus chip
  • End of Phase 1
• Phase 2: Dome-tiling & Scoring
  • Bonus Chips
  • Dome-Plates
• Scoring
• Phase 3: Preparation
• End of Game
• Scoring Tablets Reference
• Credits

Game Setup

The goal of the game is to be the player with the most points at the end of the 5th round.

1. Give each player a Player board (A) and the 2 matching Player tokens (B).
2. Place the 4 small Factories and the large Factory (C) in a circle, with the moon sides close to each other.
3. Place the Scoring board (D) next to the Factories, ensuring players face their own color. Each player takes 2 Scoring markers (E) and places them on the 0 and the 5 of their section.
4. Shuffle the 18 Dome-plates and form a facedown pile (F) and put it next to the Scoring board. Draw 3 Dome-plates and place them face up onto the middle spaces (G) of the Scoring board. Unfold the Tower and place it nearby.
5. For your first game, find the 3 Scoring tablets (H) with a star symbol and place them, star-side up, next to the Scoring board (D) as the end game scoring goals. Once you are familiar with the game, choose or randomly determine which sides and which 3 (or 4) Scoring tablets to use.
6. From the 75 round tiles, set aside the 9 Special tiles as a separate supply (I). Place the Starting player tile onto the matching space (J) of the large Factory. Put the remaining 65 tiles (13 in each of the 5 colors) in the bag.
7. Fill the sun section of the large Factory with 5 tiles* and the 4 small Factories with 4 tiles each (K) by drawing randomly from the bag.
   • In the extreme case that all 5 tiles are the same color, return them to the bag and draw until at least one of them is a different color.
8. Form a facedown supply with the 20 Bonus chips (L). Place 1 Bonus chip face down on the moon of each of the 4 small Factories (M).
9. Randomly determine a starting player. The other player takes 1 of the 3 visible Dome-plates and places it, in any orientation, onto any Dome space on their player board. Fill the Scoring board by revealing the next Dome-plate from the pile. Then, the starting player does the same by choosing 1 Dome-plate, placing it on their board, and refilling the Scoring board.

You are ready to begin!

Player Board Overview

Each player board includes: the Bonus chips storage, the Dome (with 9 Dome-plate spaces), the Pattern lines, and the Broken tiles space. The large Factory has a sun section and a moon section; the 4 small Factories likewise each have a sun and a moon.

Gameplay

The game is played over 5 rounds, each of which is composed of the following phases:

• Phase 1: Acquisition
• Phase 2: Dome-tiling & Scoring
• Phase 3: Preparation

Phase 1: Acquisition

The starting player takes the 1st turn. Players alternate taking turns until the end of this phase.

On your turn, perform one of the following actions:

A) Place a Player token to take a Dome-plate

B) Pick all tiles of the same color from the sun of a Factory

C) Pick all top tiles of the same color from the moon of all Factories

D) Take a revealed Bonus chip

A) Place a Player token to take a Dome-plate

Place a Player token on your side of the Scoring board to take a Dome-plate and place that plate on one of your empty Dome spaces in any orientation. The same color can appear many times in a row or a column of your Dome. Once placed, plates cannot be moved or rotated.

When taking a plate, EITHER:

• take 1 of the faceup Dome-plates from the Scoring board display (do not refill), OR
• pay 1 point to draw 1 facedown Dome-plate from the pile. You may do this as many times as you want, one plate at a time, paying 1 point per plate you draw. You cannot look at the front of the plate(s) until you decide to stop drawing. After drawing, look at the plates, choose 1, and return the others under the pile in the order of your choice. (Each plate back shows its type.)

Important: You must use both of your Player tokens during each of the first four rounds. They are not used during the last round.

Example: Michael chooses to take a plate with his action, placing his token on the Scoring board. He could take 1 of the 3 visible plates but decides to draw one from the pile instead. He pays 1 point and draws the top plate from the pile (without revealing it) and does this a second time (paying another point). Michael decides to stop, looks at the 2 plates, and chooses 1. He places that plate onto one of his empty Dome spaces and returns the other plate under the pile.

B) Pick all tiles of the same color from the sun of a Factory

Pick all tiles of the same color from the sun of any one Factory. Then, if it is a:

• Small Factory: create a stack, in the order of your choice, with the remaining tiles and place it on top of the Bonus chip* on that Factory's moon;
• Large Factory: place the remaining tiles separately onto the indicated spaces of that Factory's moon (not all spaces may get filled).

If 4 tiles of the same color are on a small Factory, the associated Bonus chip is revealed as soon as a player takes these 4 tiles.

Example: Ina takes 2 turquoise tiles and stacks the remaining tiles onto the Bonus chip (black tile at the bottom and yellow on top). Michael then takes the 2 turquoise tiles from the large Factory and places the remaining 3 tiles from this Factory separately on the large Factory's moon.

C) Pick all top tiles of the same color from the moon of all Factories

Pick all top tiles of the same color from all 5 Factories' moons. When picking from small Factories, even if there are 1 or more tiles of the same color below the top tile, you pick only the topmost tile from that stack.

Important: The first player to pick 1 or more tiles from the large Factory's moon must also take the Starting player tile and place it onto the indicated space (worth -2) of their player board.

When the last tile is taken from a small Factory's moon, reveal the Bonus chip that was underneath.

Example: Ina decides to pick tiles from the moons, giving her the choice between 1 red, 2 black, or 2 yellow tiles. If she picks the yellow tiles, she won't take the Starting player tile; she must only take it if she picks at least 1 tile from the large Factory's moon.

Placing picked tiles on your Pattern lines

The tiles you picked (from action B or C) are added to exactly 1 of the 6 pattern lines on your Player board (the first line can hold 1 tile, the second 2 tiles, etc.), following these rules:

• Place the tiles, from right to left one by one in your chosen pattern line.
• If the pattern line already holds tiles, you may only add tiles of the same color to it.
• Once all spaces of a pattern line are filled, that line is considered complete. If you have picked up more tiles than you can place in your chosen pattern line, place the excess tiles in your Broken tiles space. (See Broken tiles space.)
• Tiles can be added to a pattern line, even if it turns out they cannot be scored yet during phase 2.

Your goal is to complete as many pattern lines as possible, since during the Dome-tiling phase, you can move tiles only from complete pattern lines onto your Dome.

Example: Michael picked 2 tiles. He has these options: he can stack tiles he cannot or does not want to place on the Broken tiles space. Ina revealed a Bonus chip after taking the last tile from a small Factory. On his turn, Michael uses his action to take the Bonus chip.

Broken tiles space

You must stack onto your Broken tiles space all picked tiles that you cannot or do not want to place according to the rules. Those tiles are considered broken and cost you points at the end of the Dome-tiling phase. If your Broken tiles space already contains 4 tiles, discard any further broken tiles to the Tower.

D) Take a revealed Bonus chip

Take a revealed Bonus chip and place it face up into your Bonus chips storage. You will take exactly 2 Bonus chips each round.

Remember that a Bonus chip becomes accessible once all tiles have been taken from a small Factory; i.e., all tiles have been picked up from both that small Factory's sun and moon.

Note: The Bonus chip storage is divided into 5 sections to help you track the rounds.

End of Phase 1

Phase 1 ends when:

• all Factories are completely empty (no tiles and no Bonus chips left on them), and
• both players have used their 2 Player tokens (except during the 5th round).

If you cannot perform any of the four actions, you must pass for the remainder of Phase 1. You cannot pass otherwise.

Note: Due to the phase end conditions, a player may be able to continue carrying out actions while the other cannot.

Proceed with Phase 2.

Phase 2: Dome-tiling & Scoring

Both players can resolve this phase simultaneously. In it, players move tiles from their complete pattern lines to their Dome.

• Go through your pattern lines from top to bottom. Move the rightmost tile of each complete line to an empty space of the same color on a Dome-plate in the corresponding line. Each time you move a tile, score points immediately. (See Scoring.)
• Even if there isn't currently a matching color space for a complete or incomplete line, keep the tiles in place until you have placed a suitable plate on your Dome.
• If there are already 3 plates assigned to a pattern line and no available matching spaces for the color of the tiles in that line, you must move these "unplaceable" tiles to your Broken tiles space now.
• There can be several tiles of the same color in the rows and columns of your Dome.

Example: Michael has these tiles in his pattern lines. 1st pattern line: The tile is unplaceable, so he stacks it onto his Broken tiles space. 2nd pattern line: It is complete, so he moves the rightmost black tile on the black space and scores 1 point. The other black tiles are discarded to the Tower. 4th pattern line: It is complete, so Michael moves the rightmost blue tile on the multicolored space and scores 1 point. The other blue tiles are discarded to the Tower. Since the 3rd and 5th pattern lines are incomplete, the tiles stay on his board.

Bonus Chips

You can use your Bonus chips to help you complete pattern line(s) during this phase:

If an incomplete pattern line includes at least 1 tile, you can use Bonus chips to complete this line. Each pair (2) of Bonus chips in the color matching the tiles in a pattern line, or any 3 Bonus chips, can be used to replace 1 tile. Flip the used Bonus chips face down in your storage area.

You can do this as many times as you have useable Bonus chips, but there must be at least 1 tile.

Example: With his 2 half-turquoise Bonus chips, Michael can complete his 3rd pattern line. However, he can also combine any 3 of his Bonus chips to complete his 4th pattern line.

• After going through all 6 pattern lines, remove all tiles from any pattern lines that now have no tile in their rightmost space and discard them into the Tower.
• Any remaining tiles on the pattern lines stay on your player board for the next round.

Dome-Plates

There are two types of Dome-plates:

• Special plates have an "uncolored" space that can be filled only with a Special tile. That tile is placed immediately after the plate's other 3 spaces have been filled. After placing a Special tile, immediately score the points shown on the right side of that row. This is the only way to place a Special tile.
• Joker plates have a multicolored space on which a tile of any color can be placed, as per the usual Dome-tiling rules.

Scoring

Each tile you move over to your Dome is always placed on a space matching its color (or a multicolored space) and immediately scores as follows:

1. If there are no tiles directly adjacent vertically or horizontally to the newly placed tile, score 1 point.
2. If there are any adjacent tiles, do the following:
   • Check if there are 1 or more tiles horizontally linked to the newly placed tile. If so, count all these linked tiles, including the newly placed one, (and Special tiles, if any) and score that many points.
   • Then, if there are 1 or more tiles vertically linked to the newly placed tile, count all of them, including the newly placed tile, (and Special tiles, if any) and score that many points.
3. If the tile fills the 3rd space of a Special plate, add a Special tile to the matching space, and score the points on the right side of that row. A Special tile does not score for adjacent tiles.

Finally, check if you have any tiles in your Broken tiles space. For each tile there, lose the number of points per tile indicated on your Broken tiles space (e.g., if you have 2 tiles, you lose a total of 3 points). Adjust your Scoring marker on your score track accordingly and discard these broken tiles into the Tower.

In addition, the player with the Starting player tile loses 2 points.

Note: You can never drop below 0 points.

Example: The first yellow tile Michael places scores him 2 points for the 2 horizontally linked tiles (including the just placed yellow tile) and 2 points for the 2 vertically linked tiles (also including itself). This completes the Special plate. He places a Special tile and scores 2 points (because it is in the 2nd pattern line). Then, the blue tile scores him 3 points for the vertically linked tiles, which includes the just placed Special tile. At the end of the Dome-tiling phase, Michael loses a total of 8 points: 6 points for his 3 Broken tiles, and 2 points for the Starting player tile. He discards the Broken tiles into the Tower.

Phase 3: Preparation

This phase is skipped during the 5th round, otherwise prepare the next round as follows:

1. Take back your 2 Player tokens from the Scoring board.

2. Refill the Dome-plates display to 3 Dome-plates.

3. Refill the large Factory with 5 tiles*, and each small Factory with 4 tiles and a Bonus chip.

   • In the extreme case that all 5 tiles on the large Factory are the same color, return them to the bag and draw until at least one of them is a different color.

   If the bag is empty, restock it with all tiles from the Tower and continue filling the remaining Factories randomly.

   Rare case: If you run out of tiles again and the Tower is empty, start the new round as usual even though some Factories will not be filled. In these cases, a Bonus chip on an empty small Factory is immediately revealed (since the Factory is empty).

4. The player with the Starting player tile returns that tile to its space on the large Factory and starts the new round.

End of Game

The game ends after the Dome-tiling phase of the 5th round, which is followed by scoring the tablets, as described in Scoring Tablets Reference.

The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the Starting player tile wins.

Scoring Tablets Reference

At the end of the game, score additional points for each fulfilled condition described on the Scoring tablets.

• Score 3 points for each complete horizontal line (row of 6 tiles) on your dome.
• Score 7 points for each complete vertical line (column of 6 tiles) on your dome.
• Score 10 points for each complete diagonal line (6 tiles) on your dome (possible twice).
• If all multicolored spaces on your dome are filled, score 2 points for each of them. Do not score anything if at least one multicolored space is empty.
• Score 4 points for each horizontal line on your dome consisting of at least 5 different colored tiles in any order (may include 1 Special tile).
• Score 1 point for each tile on the outer Dome spaces of your dome.
• Score 3 or 8 points (as shown) for each filled Dome-plate placed in one of the four corners of your dome.
• Lose 3 points for each empty Special tile space on your dome.

Credits

• Game Design: Michael Kiesling
• Head of Studio: Jean-François Gagné
• Editorial and Development: Pierre-Olivier Gravel, André Bierth, Yannick Beaulé, Anh Tú Tran
• Art Direction and Illustrations: Maëva Da Silva
• Graphic Design: Émeline D'Aoust, Alexandra Gosselin, Adrian Harper
• Marketing: Tommy Beaulieu, Isabelle Frenette
• Administration: Manon Sylvestre, Julie Thibault

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