Most players seem quite lost when they get in to a game with the variant board, so here is an overly verbose strategy guide.
The variant board offers less variance, more flexibility and better rewards for your decisions.
If you're not already familiar with it, the following are the changes compared to the standard mode:
- You can build a coloured star anywhere
- You can build a multicoloured star anywhere
- The center star costs 18 tiles (6x3) to complete
- Completing the center star entirely is a prerequisite to completing 3s[1]
While the overall strategy remains largely the same, some of these differences change up the conventions you learn playing standard.
In the variant mode the center star becomes your priority, usually alongside 1s and 2s[1].
To highlight it's importance lets break it down in to numbers, counting the tile costs, tile bonuses and scores:
We will assume that you're playing against a competent opponent and on average draft 60 tiles.
A) 3 outer stars comes out to a tile cost of 63 tiles, granting you 13 bonus tiles.
Including filling out 1s and 2s the total tile cost comes out to 72 out of 73 tiles gained.
69 points are gained from tile placements.
B) 2 outer stars alongside a center star comes out to a cost of 60 tiles, granting you 10 bonus tiles initially.
Including filling out 1s and 2s the total tile cost comes out to 72, but grants you an additional 4 bonus tiles, making your total tiles gained 74.
71 points are gained from tile placements.
But is two points and one tile really that significant?
The tile acquisition phase in Azul is seldom symmetric, and despite your best efforts you will have games where you are behind in tiles.
But in either game examples you have the option to spend 3 tiles to gain 2 tiles from a pillar. Lets add that to the tiles spent and gained:
A) 3 outer stars comes out to 75 tiles spent for 75 tiles gained.
B) 2 outer stars and a center star comes out to 75 tiles spent for 76 tiles gained.
The following examples are entirely unrealistic as they don't take additional variance or alternative strategy in to account, but lets humor some outcomes for the fun of it:
A is ahead 1 tile (61 to 59), but to no benefit as they receive a -1 penalty for ending the game with a spare tile.
B wins this game.
A and B draft an equal amount of tiles (60 to 60). B receives a -1 penalty for ending the game with a spare tile, but is still one point ahead.
B wins this game.
A is behind 1 tile (59 to 61) and lost 5 or more points. B can substitute the 3 for a 4 to end the game without excess tiles.
B wins this game.
Utilizing the center star grants you more flexibility, far less risk and scores you more points.
With the importance of the center star covered, let's move on to strategies and gameplay.
Acquiring tiles & first player tile:
When drafting[2] tiles consider the following checklist in descending priority order.
1. Acquire the most tiles
2. Claim the first player tile
3. Collect tiles that you need
4. Deny tiles that your opponent needs
Having more tiles than your opponent not only gains you points, but makes your opponent lose points, and ultimately wins you games.
Even just a 2 tile advantage can more than make up the point difference between a purple star and a multicoloured star.
Avoid giving up tile quantity for tiles of a specific colour, at least until you're in round 5 or 6.
Going first allows you to get a tile advantage every other round, which over the course of the game adds up to a significant tile lead.
The point subtraction from claiming it isn't too impactful as you tend to gain more points back from being ahead in tiles.
Colours:
In all of the following strategies the center star is completed, however it is up to you to decide what colour to build it with.
Typically you would want to make it purple, though you will have games where players make this difficult for you.
But similarly you can make it difficult for them by aggressively drafting purples and wilds[3].
Make sure to not draft less tiles yourself when doing so, and consider avoiding investing in a star of that same colour.
While coloured stars give a substantial amount of additional points, completing more than one every game isn't always feasible
Wild Tiles:
Like in the standard mode, using wilds effectively is detrimental as you will otherwise run out of the tiles you need.
When building 3 stars, lets say 1 purple star and 2 multicoloured stars, you will need at minimum 8/20 available purple tiles, two of which are going on the 1s of the multicoloured stars. If we assume that your opponent will on average draft half of the available purple tiles then that leaves you with 8 purple tiles to build your star with, requiring the use of 10 wilds.
Strategies:
I will tend to use purple as the priority colour in my examples, but you may substitute this for any other colour that is applicable to the situation.
3 Stars - 1s - 2s
Tile cost: 75
Bonus tiles: 14
Min score: 122 - 3 multicolour stars
Max score: 130 - 1 purple 2 multicolour stars
This is a safe and standard strategy in which you build a high value center star alongside two outer stars which are usually mixed.
You may attempt to replace an outer multicoloured star with a coloured star, but pulling this off is unrealistic when you're spending 39/60 tiles on adjacent stars. I am including the score and tiles gained from a corner 3 as you are able to build it even when you are a tile behind.
With this strategy you want to draft large groups of the same colour tiles in order to complete your multicolour outer stars without burning too many purple and wild tiles. Try to use purple tiles on the 1s of the outer stars to preserve them for the center star.
Though it doesn't really count as it was in games against beginners, I attained a score of 158 with this strategy.
2 Stars - 1s - 2s - 3s
Tile cost: 69
Bonus tiles: 11
Min score: 120 - 2 multicolour stars
Max score: 134 - 1 purple 1 green star
A less common strategy as it doesn't give you much flexibility and runs a higher risk of having an incomplete star, but it is a viable fallback if you are behind while having the setup for it. It has slightly higher potential as it makes completing two higher value stars a more realistic possibility.
1 Star - 1s - 2s - 3s - 4s
Tile cost: 78
Bonus tiles: 22
Min score: 133 - 1 multicolour star
Max score: 141 - 1 purple star
This strategy is difficult to complete and requires you to be on point with drafting and gaining bonus tiles, but pays off with always outscoring other strategies if executed correctly. If you happen to be behind in tiles in the first two rounds and have yet to fill out 5s or 6s then you may want to consider pivoting to building 3 stars instead. You will have games where you may need to skip 1s, 2s or even 3s, but with a purple as the center star you're still looking at 120+ points. I would only recommend this strategy to more experienced players who keep track of their tiles and have a good sense for when to claim their bonuses. Though it doesn't really count as it was in games against beginners, I attained my highest score of 161 with this strategy.
Good luck in your games and happy winning!
[1] "Completing 1s, 2s, 3s & 4s" refers to filling out all positions of that value for the bonus 4, 8, 12 & 16 bonus points respectively.
[2] "Drafting" is common games terminology for selecting and acquiring something out of a resource pool, that being tiles in the context of Azul
[3] "Wilds" refers to tiles of the current round colour that can be used to substitute tiles of another colour
The variant board offers less variance, more flexibility and better rewards for your decisions.
If you're not already familiar with it, the following are the changes compared to the standard mode:
- You can build a coloured star anywhere
- You can build a multicoloured star anywhere
- The center star costs 18 tiles (6x3) to complete
- Completing the center star entirely is a prerequisite to completing 3s[1]
While the overall strategy remains largely the same, some of these differences change up the conventions you learn playing standard.
In the variant mode the center star becomes your priority, usually alongside 1s and 2s[1].
To highlight it's importance lets break it down in to numbers, counting the tile costs, tile bonuses and scores:
We will assume that you're playing against a competent opponent and on average draft 60 tiles.
A) 3 outer stars comes out to a tile cost of 63 tiles, granting you 13 bonus tiles.
Including filling out 1s and 2s the total tile cost comes out to 72 out of 73 tiles gained.
69 points are gained from tile placements.
B) 2 outer stars alongside a center star comes out to a cost of 60 tiles, granting you 10 bonus tiles initially.
Including filling out 1s and 2s the total tile cost comes out to 72, but grants you an additional 4 bonus tiles, making your total tiles gained 74.
71 points are gained from tile placements.
But is two points and one tile really that significant?
The tile acquisition phase in Azul is seldom symmetric, and despite your best efforts you will have games where you are behind in tiles.
But in either game examples you have the option to spend 3 tiles to gain 2 tiles from a pillar. Lets add that to the tiles spent and gained:
A) 3 outer stars comes out to 75 tiles spent for 75 tiles gained.
B) 2 outer stars and a center star comes out to 75 tiles spent for 76 tiles gained.
The following examples are entirely unrealistic as they don't take additional variance or alternative strategy in to account, but lets humor some outcomes for the fun of it:
A is ahead 1 tile (61 to 59), but to no benefit as they receive a -1 penalty for ending the game with a spare tile.
B wins this game.
A and B draft an equal amount of tiles (60 to 60). B receives a -1 penalty for ending the game with a spare tile, but is still one point ahead.
B wins this game.
A is behind 1 tile (59 to 61) and lost 5 or more points. B can substitute the 3 for a 4 to end the game without excess tiles.
B wins this game.
Utilizing the center star grants you more flexibility, far less risk and scores you more points.
With the importance of the center star covered, let's move on to strategies and gameplay.
Acquiring tiles & first player tile:
When drafting[2] tiles consider the following checklist in descending priority order.
1. Acquire the most tiles
2. Claim the first player tile
3. Collect tiles that you need
4. Deny tiles that your opponent needs
Having more tiles than your opponent not only gains you points, but makes your opponent lose points, and ultimately wins you games.
Even just a 2 tile advantage can more than make up the point difference between a purple star and a multicoloured star.
Avoid giving up tile quantity for tiles of a specific colour, at least until you're in round 5 or 6.
Going first allows you to get a tile advantage every other round, which over the course of the game adds up to a significant tile lead.
The point subtraction from claiming it isn't too impactful as you tend to gain more points back from being ahead in tiles.
Colours:
In all of the following strategies the center star is completed, however it is up to you to decide what colour to build it with.
Typically you would want to make it purple, though you will have games where players make this difficult for you.
But similarly you can make it difficult for them by aggressively drafting purples and wilds[3].
Make sure to not draft less tiles yourself when doing so, and consider avoiding investing in a star of that same colour.
While coloured stars give a substantial amount of additional points, completing more than one every game isn't always feasible
Wild Tiles:
Like in the standard mode, using wilds effectively is detrimental as you will otherwise run out of the tiles you need.
When building 3 stars, lets say 1 purple star and 2 multicoloured stars, you will need at minimum 8/20 available purple tiles, two of which are going on the 1s of the multicoloured stars. If we assume that your opponent will on average draft half of the available purple tiles then that leaves you with 8 purple tiles to build your star with, requiring the use of 10 wilds.
Strategies:
I will tend to use purple as the priority colour in my examples, but you may substitute this for any other colour that is applicable to the situation.
3 Stars - 1s - 2s
Tile cost: 75
Bonus tiles: 14
Min score: 122 - 3 multicolour stars
Max score: 130 - 1 purple 2 multicolour stars
This is a safe and standard strategy in which you build a high value center star alongside two outer stars which are usually mixed.
You may attempt to replace an outer multicoloured star with a coloured star, but pulling this off is unrealistic when you're spending 39/60 tiles on adjacent stars. I am including the score and tiles gained from a corner 3 as you are able to build it even when you are a tile behind.
With this strategy you want to draft large groups of the same colour tiles in order to complete your multicolour outer stars without burning too many purple and wild tiles. Try to use purple tiles on the 1s of the outer stars to preserve them for the center star.
Though it doesn't really count as it was in games against beginners, I attained a score of 158 with this strategy.
2 Stars - 1s - 2s - 3s
Tile cost: 69
Bonus tiles: 11
Min score: 120 - 2 multicolour stars
Max score: 134 - 1 purple 1 green star
A less common strategy as it doesn't give you much flexibility and runs a higher risk of having an incomplete star, but it is a viable fallback if you are behind while having the setup for it. It has slightly higher potential as it makes completing two higher value stars a more realistic possibility.
1 Star - 1s - 2s - 3s - 4s
Tile cost: 78
Bonus tiles: 22
Min score: 133 - 1 multicolour star
Max score: 141 - 1 purple star
This strategy is difficult to complete and requires you to be on point with drafting and gaining bonus tiles, but pays off with always outscoring other strategies if executed correctly. If you happen to be behind in tiles in the first two rounds and have yet to fill out 5s or 6s then you may want to consider pivoting to building 3 stars instead. You will have games where you may need to skip 1s, 2s or even 3s, but with a purple as the center star you're still looking at 120+ points. I would only recommend this strategy to more experienced players who keep track of their tiles and have a good sense for when to claim their bonuses. Though it doesn't really count as it was in games against beginners, I attained my highest score of 161 with this strategy.
Good luck in your games and happy winning!
[1] "Completing 1s, 2s, 3s & 4s" refers to filling out all positions of that value for the bonus 4, 8, 12 & 16 bonus points respectively.
[2] "Drafting" is common games terminology for selecting and acquiring something out of a resource pool, that being tiles in the context of Azul
[3] "Wilds" refers to tiles of the current round colour that can be used to substitute tiles of another colour
