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Next Move Games

Azul Stained Glass of Sintra

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$49.00
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Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra is a standalone follow-up to the hit drafting game Azul, challenging 2–4 players to select translucent glass panes and complete vibrant palace windows without damaging or wasting their supplies. Games run 30–45 minutes, suit ages 8 and up, and offer medium-light, family-friendly strategy built on drafting, pattern building and tile placement.

Players
2–4 players
Play time
Up to 1 hr
Age
All ages
Complexity
Medium

About the Game

A typical game of Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra sees players drafting translucent glass panes and slotting them into the columns of their palace windows, racing to finish each panel for points while broken panes pile up in the glass tower as costly waste. Every draft is a tense balance between claiming the colours you need and avoiding a surplus you cannot place. It plays with 2–4 players over 30–45 minutes, suits ages 8 and up, and delivers medium-light strategy built on drafting, pattern building and tile placement.

Designed by Michael Kiesling and published by Next Move Games, Stained Glass of Sintra released in 2018 as the first standalone follow-up to Azul (2017), the original inspired by Portugal's azulejo tiles. Rather than tiling a palace wall, players now glaze the windows of Sintra, with double-sided player boards and window panels providing near-endless variability. The result is a familiar yet fresh twist on a modern classic.

History

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra was designed by Michael Kiesling and published by Next Move Games in 2018. It is the first standalone follow-up to the original Azul, designed by Kiesling and released by Plan B Games in 2017, which drew its theme from the Portuguese ceramic tiles known as azulejos.

Sintra is a complete standalone game rather than an expansion. While it shares the original's satisfying drafting feel, it swaps tiling a palace wall for glazing stained-glass windows, introducing translucent pane pieces, double-sided player boards and window panels, and a tower to hold discarded glass.

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Shipping details

Azul Stained Glass of Sintra

$49.00

Watch: How to play

Rules of Azul Stained Glass of Sintra

  • Setup: Give each player a palace board (same side up for everyone), 8 randomly drawn window strips laid above its columns, and a glazier figure placed on the leftmost strip. Set out factory displays (5/7/9 for 2/3/4 players) with 4 glass panes drawn from the bag, and keep the glass tower within reach.
  • Draft: On your turn, take all panes of one colour from a single factory display or from the centre of the table. Any panes left behind on a display slide into the centre.
  • The first player to draft from the centre also claims the starting player marker and will open the next round.
  • Glaze a window: Place your drafted panes onto spaces of the matching colour on the window strip beneath your glazier. To place on a different strip, move your glazier there first — but one of the panes you just took breaks and goes into your tower.
  • Broken glass: Any panes you cannot place fall into your glass tower and cost you points when the round is scored.
  • Complete strips: Fill every space of a strip to score it immediately: its printed value plus the value of each strip to its right that holds at least one pane, then tuck the finished strip beneath your palace board.
  • Round end: When the displays and centre are empty, apply broken-glass penalties, return glaziers to the leftmost strip, refill the displays and begin a new round.
  • Game end: After six rounds, add bonus points for the ornament symbols shown on your completed strips; the highest score wins.

Strategy

  • Plan around your glazier. Moving him costs a broken pane, so favour drafts you can place on the strip he currently stands over, and only pay to move when the colour really matters.
  • Work broadly left to right. A completed strip also scores every pane-holding strip to its right, so seed at least one pane into right-hand strips early, then finish strips on the left to cash in on them.
  • Finish what you start. Uncompleted strips score nothing and there are only six rounds, so committing to completing a few strips usually beats spreading panes thinly across all eight.
  • Respect the tower. A big pile of the perfect colour is a trap if you lack space for it — count your empty matching spaces before drafting, and sometimes take the smaller pile.
  • Time the centre. The centre pile grows all round; dip into it while it is small or when it holds exactly what a nearly finished strip needs, and remember the first centre draft also makes you starting player.
  • Match your ornaments. When choosing between strips to complete, prefer those whose ornament symbols match ones you have already finished, as they drive your end-game bonus.
  • Watch your opponents. Denying a colour someone clearly needs can be worthwhile, but only if you can place the panes yourself without feeding your own tower.