Azure : FIRST IMPRESSIONS!

0:00 I've come to the realization that abstract games are they're kind of typically more misses for me than hits. However, having said that, I love the crap out of this game. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the channel. Today, my name is Kari and I'm so excited to share a first thoughts video on the brand new title Azure from Biteween Games. Now, I do want to mention I'm probably going to mispronounce a lot of words here. I think it's Azure. Azour Azure. I think it's Azure. I don't know. I might I might be wrong. I apologize beforehand. Bitewing Games has been on a roll lately. They have just been producing amazing game after amazing game after amazing game. And they've been kind of doing a little bit of a series. Um it's like a mythological series that is primarily abstract kind of more abstract based games. Now the first two it was Iliad Iliad and I think I liked those. they didn't really stand out a ton to me personally, but I think that's just because inherently I don't really gravitate towards um kind of more kind of more abstract feeling games and those kind of felt a little bit more abstract to me. They're still really good games. Um and I can definitely see the appeal and see why people are liking them so much. Just for me personally, I don't know, they I mean I enjoyed them.

1:12 They just didn't hit as as much as I was kind of anticipating they would. But Bitewing Games, they're always so kind to reach out and um offer prototype copies of the game so I can get my hands on them and kind of um kind of see my thoughts on them. And so they offered this one and I was a little bit hesitant just because Iliad and I were okay for me. But I said, you know what, let's just give it a shot. We'll just go for it. And I'm so glad that I took a risk on it because I really, really like this game. Before I get too far into this video, I do want to mention that this is just a first thoughts video. This is not official Kickstarter preview at all. There is a crowdfunding campaign going on for this game. I will make sure to have all of the information, the relevant information in the description below. So, if you are interested, make sure you go check out all those links.

1:58 But, this is just me simply explaining my first thoughts kind of after playing this game a handful of times. So, I'm not really going to go I'm just going to kind of do a general overview, explain a handful of my thoughts, and hopefully it'll give you the information that you need. If you are new to the channel though and this is the first video you've seen, hello. Welcome to Board Game Buzz. We're so happy to have you here. If you wouldn't mind liking, subscribing, doing all the good stuff to support the channel, I would really appreciate it. But without further ado, let's dive into this first thoughts video.

2:36 All right. So, we're going to chat a little bit about what you are kind of doing in this game. The premise or kind of theming of this game is that there are dragon pass basically lines of energy that cover the earth and they are basically derived from four specific type of beasts. There are t the tiger god I don't know if they're gods like the tigers there are dragons the turtles and then the vermilion birds. You are trying to invoke the power of these beasts and essentially gain umqi and wisdom and basically trying to do that before your opponent. So, this is a two-player head-to-head game where you will be taking turns placing your stones out onto certain specific locations on this board here. There are four different domains. So, there's this brown, blue, red, and then white domain.

3:23 And each of the dom domains are linked to one of those beasts. You always want to make sure you are placing stones on your turn because if a if a turn comes up where you are unable to place a stone, you immediately lose the game. How you collect points is again by placing your stones on certain locations. Now, in order to place your stone on a location, you have to actually pay for it. Every single location has a handful of different symbols that might appear on it. And based on how many symbols are there is indicative of how many like I think I think it's called boons. How many boons you have to pay in order to place a stone there. So, for example, if I wanted to place my stone here, there are two different symbols that are shown. one indicating wis wisdom and one indicating a red card. So in order for me to place my stone there, there are two different symbols which means I personally have to pay two cards from my hand and they have to be the same color of the region that I'm trying to go in.

4:18 So for example, two turtles or two browns. So if I did pay for those, okay, I paid the two, then I could actually place my stone here. And then by placing, I now can generate those symbols that were shown on that space. So I get one wisdom. I get to go ahead and go up one on this wisdom track over here. And then I also get to draw a red phoenix or bird card into my hand now. So that's essentially how you place. But the interesting part is as you are going out and placing more and more stones based on the stones that are aligned horizontally and vertically from you, your stones will actually generate those resources that you need to spend in order to place more stones. So there are certain areas that are worth that are very very expensive. For example, this blue spot is 1 2 3 4 5 six. You get you will generate six wisdom by going there.

5:10 But you need to spend six boons in order to go there. So if you did happen to have six of these blue dragons cards in your hand, you could spend those to then place your stone, which would then advance oh which would then advance you six on this wisdom track. Okay. But if I had built out a lot of stones horizontally and vertically, those stones of mine would actually help generate and go towards those boounds. I mentioned at the beginning of the video how something you are trying to do is trying to call upon the beast's favors. Um right. So, how that works is basically um whoever placed whoever has the majority of the stones that are um in line with the certain mountains that are on the board with the beasts on them, then they will be able to gain control of those beasts and potentially gain the rewards of those. For example, this dragon would get get grant you three wisdom. Um this bird would allow you to draw two cards from this hidden deck here. But that control can always shift and change. For example, if right away the blue player happened to place two stones right there, they would automatically be able to gain control of the dragon. But if at a future turn um oh, and by doing that, they would place their their stone out, indicating that they have that. But if at a future turn the um black stoned player were were able to place even more of their stones out um with aligned with that particular mountain then the favors

6:42 would shift actually and blue would have to take away three wisdom on this track while the blackstone player will be able to um gain three because of that. So the power dynamic is always kind of shifting and changing in this game. Um, I don't know if I mentioned this at the beginning, but when you do set up the game, you randomly will just kind of randomly throw the tiles out, and they are double-sided. So, there's a lot of different combinations you can make where the mountains are will be shifting. In this particular setup, I didn't even mean to do it this way, but the mountains are pretty far away from each other, but you could set up the exact opposite where the mountains are really close and tight and it's a little bit more of a struggle to try to get um the particular lines that you might need. But that's essentially what you're doing on your turn is you'll you have your stones, you need to place them out.

7:28 Um based on where you place, you need to pay. Um again, most of that, especially at the beginning of the game, are going to be the cards in your hand. But as the game goes on and you build out more and more, you can strategically place in such a way that you can actually use those previously placed stones to count as those boons. A majority of the places that are on these boards will grant you wisdom, and it's going to be the first to 25 wisdom. So, the game game pick picks up. It goes pretty quick. So, hopefully that gives you a general idea of how the base game plays. There are a couple expansions. Um, I'm not sure if they are separate and you purchase them as add-ons or if you purchase throughout the Kickstarter if it's just inherent within this um box, but there are a couple expansions that I'll just touch on briefly. So, the first is this gifted expansion. Um, and essentially what this is is it gives players a special stone that when they place out, they could potentially activate some abilities. You can only place that stone um once per game and then once it is placed, it can never be moved throughout the game. It is a little bit extra to do that. It costs you a little bit more um but it also gives you kind of access to different abilities. So, it just kind of gives that extra thing to kind of think about. And then there's also this cosmos expansion which inter which um basically gives you two larger boards to play with along with the track that has a yellow dragon that will slowly be moving on it which as it moves you can potentially gain wisdom and cards or lose wisdom and cards based on the movement of that dragon. So that's essentially it as far

8:59 as like a brief overview of the game. Um hopefully that kind of gives you an idea of what you're um going to be doing. This one really did surprise me though. I I definitely took a chance on it cuz when I first saw it, my first impression was eh, okay. Like I don't I there was nothing that was really drawing me to it. But then when we sat down and we played it, I I really really enjoyed the puzzle that was going on here. There's a lot that you have to line up and kind of keep track of in your head. You obviously have the cards that are in your hand, but it's interesting because the cards in your hand are linked with a particular type of zone. If I wanted to go to this white zone over here, right? if I wanted to try to get um more power over here and I only had red cards, well then I I couldn't go there even if I wanted to. Um so what I would have to do instead is go in the red zone in certain areas that I could then collect white cards to then actually go and spend those in the white zone. Or I could also just maybe build out a decent amount in the red and line it up in such a way that then I wouldn't even have to spend any cards in my hand in order to go to the particular area that I want. It was a really fun balance of trying to get the appropriate cards in your hand, but then also activating the certain areas to then generate the the resources that you need. Right? Obviously, wisdom at the beginning of the game is fairly I mean you you can always get a little bit of wisdom, but there are some areas that generate a ton of wisdom for you, but inherently you won't be able to get that right at the beginning of the game. You really you feel like you are working

10:31 your way up to unlocking that future wisdom. And then it also feels very much like a race because this board is so tight and it fills up really stinking fast. It's a really fun puzzle to try to work around not only where you're placing your stones, but also potentially blocking your opponent from placing somewhere that you know is going to generate them quite a bit of wisdom. And you can kind of see too. You can kind of see, oh my goodness, if they place there, that means they're going to have that mean like I know exactly where they're going for. How can I get there before before they get there? I really liked the puzzle for my brain. I thought it was really really fun. It was really clever. I really liked how each of the beasts um in order to like gain control of them or gain their their influence, I forget what it's kind of called in the game. Um they're they're all very similar but slightly different in different ways. For example, this turtle, in order to gain their um ability is you have to actually retain the most control on all of these little circles that are on actually all of the boards versus the dragon or the tiger, which is just whoever has the most control horizontally and vertically. I like how you can kind of switch up the way that the boards are laid out. Um, having said that, it doesn't feel like a super different game to me every single time. Um, I know that's kind of one of the things that it says in the rule book is there's like a ton of different combinations that you can do. It feels essentially like the same game. I mean, it's it's slightly different. It's a slightly different puzzle, but it

12:01 doesn't feel very different, if that makes any sense. My brain's doing something different, kind of triggering off different areas or different zones, but it does essentially feel like you're kind of jumping into the same game. So, I in my opinion, there's not a ton of variety um from game to game. I did like the expansions that it offered. those kind of changed up um a little bit more, especially like the Cosmos one. I think that one probably changed up the most for me and kind of made the game the most interesting. I really liked like the tactile nature of these stones. Um I don't know. They could have done anything, but I really like these little stones. Something about them. They're almost like um like if you go do a massage and it's like they like they do like the hot stones. They almost feel like they could be like little mini hot stones. Um, but something like they're just smooth and they're nice and I really like um, playing them out. The board is really easy to read. I will say I I struggled a little bit. Um, in regards to the rule book and I do want to mention this is a prototype. I don't know if I mentioned that before. So, everything could change. But when I was teaching myself the rule book for the first time, it did kind of confuse me.

13:05 Um how well just just um the difference between like boons and gaining something cuz at first all these symbols that are on a spot, I thought you had to pay that, but that's actually just the reward. And based on how many are there, that's how many of the same color of cards in that zone you would have to pay or have the stones lined up. Um, so that kind of threw me off at first. I wish there were a little bit more picture examples in the rule book. Maybe like two more just kind of explaining that process of boons, like what's a boon and what's like what's a boon and what is a reward. Um, so I wish that would have been explained a little bit more, but for the most part it's really really simple to read. The rule book is quick. It's easy to dive into. In my opinion, this is the Well, it is. I mean, I've played the other ones and this is the easiest and it was the easiest for me to dive into of the rest of their like mythological series at Iliad and IR.

14:02 This one is very straightforward. Um, it definitely feels the most abstract in my opinion, which is I'm which is why I'm surprised that I liked it and enjoyed it so much, but it just felt really it it was very quick game and it gave me just the right amount of thinkiness. And for it being an abstract game, I find I found myself wanting to kind of dive back into it because I just loved the puzzle of trying to get the right color cards in your hand to go to the particular zone you need. And sometimes there are times where where you are trying to go for is not generating the cards that you actually need. So you kind of have to shift and change your strategy a bit. I do wish there was a little bit more of kind of I don't know maybe a little bit more secrecy in regards to um the cards that the other person has and I don't quite know how you would do that but if I saw sometimes it was kind of clear where people were going for based on the locations that they were at. There is this hidden deck here which I liked um to kind of have a little bit of uncertainty in regards to what you're doing, but we you really only activate this like once or twice a game. So, it doesn't really I don't know. I just wish there was a more uncertainty. I maybe a way that I didn't know the cards that the other person was going for just to kind of I don't know leave me in suspense a little bit more. No, I did really like this game. And I think for like an abstract game, I haven't played

15:32 any of the Oh my goodness, what are they called? Oh, they're like the really bizarre name ones. Well, I'll throw up pictures of them. They're I'll put pictures on the screen right now because my mind is blanking on what they're called. They're like the really interesting ones. Um, but I've never played any of those, but the this kind of again it's there's more theme than those ones. Those ones have like zero theme. So, this has a little bit more theme, but it feels kind of similar. And a it I for whatever reason, I kept thinking of those ones while I was playing it. I was like, "Oh, I wonder if this kind of has a similar feeling to those ones with a little like a drop more theme kind of put on top of it." So, maybe if you do enjoy those ones, if you do enjoy more abstract games, um, or kind of gravitate towards those in general, then this might be one worth looking into. I said, I really enjoyed it. Everyone that I've played this with has actually liked it and they even even one person in particular, they they pulled me aside after like I really wasn't expecting to like that as much as I did, but I I want to play it again.

16:32 Um, so again, it for in my opinion, I think this is a really fun abstract one. I wish the replayability was a little bit more there for me. Again, after I played this a handful of times, I kind of felt okay, like I feel like I'm kind of doing the same thing. So, I wish there was more v variability. Again, the expansions help with that a drop. Um, but it's not as Yeah, I wish it was just a little bit more. But other than that, I really liked the puzzle here. Really liked um I I like two-player games in general, and I think this is a really great addition to Bitewing's two-player mythological head-to-head kind of more abstractish games. Thanks so much for watching this video today. Hopefully, it kind of gives you the information you need if this would be one um that would be a good fit for you in your collection. If you enjoyed this game and you haven't yet subscribed to the channel, it means so much if you could do that. that really helps support me in everything that we're doing over here.

17:20 But until next time, I hope you have a great rest of your day and we'll see you later. I really hope that's how you pronounce it. Azure. Azure. Azure. Azure. It's not Azour. It's Azure. I think I Why am I so bad at pronunciating