There were people around the bar from 6pm, but we had the back room to ourselves, just the four of us.  The feel was similar to the Sunday after the fire, when people turned out and sat in the garden partly to help drink the smoke and water damaged stock, but largely to show support for a valued amenity, knowing that they would have to do without it for a while.  There was sadness, a sharing of news, some gossip, a certain amount of gallows humour, and for us, lots of desserts and Azul: Summer Pavilion.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game uses the same market mechanism used in the original Azul and the re-implementation, Stained Glass of Sintra.  The idea of this is that there are several markets (nine in the four player game) arranged in a circle and each with four coloured tiles.  On their turn, players either take all the tiles of one colour and put the rest in the centre, or take all the tiles of one colour from the centre.  Summer Pavilion differs from the other versions because each round has a special colour:  tiles of this colour are “wild” and can be used to replace any other when placing.  Additionally, only one tile of this colour can be taken from a market or the centre, and then as a bonus with other tiles.

– Image by boardGOATS

The structure of the game is also different with two phases; players take it in turns to take tiles, then they take it in turns to place tiles (rather than taking and placing straight away).  Perhaps the most obvious difference is the shape of the tiles though—rhombus shaped instead of square and the individual placement mats are built round pretty six-fold symmetric “flowers”.  When placing a tile, players have to match the colour on the mat, and the number on the space throwing the leftovers into a red tower—the build-quality of this is distinctly superior to the one in Stained Glass of Sintra, in fact, the build-quality of pretty much everything is better than in the first re-implementation.

– Image by boardGOATS

Players score according to the size of the segment after addition, thus adding a piece to connect two other single pieces would score three points.  Enclosing special features on the board gives bonus tiles which are added to the players pile of tiles to be placed.  The game takes six rounds (one for each colour) and players get end-game bonuses for completing flowers and for filling all seven spaces with the same number.  The player with the most points is the winner.

– Image by boardGOATS

Although Blue was the only person who had played it before, it was quickly clear that everyone liked this version more than the last, but found it more challenging than the original adding a new level of complexity.  Purple went first, and Lime quickly got his nose in front.  Every time someone threatened to catch him, he put on another spurt and increased his speed to maintain his lead at around ten points.  That left it down the bonuss and the question was whether anyone had enough to catch him.

– Image by boardGOATS

Blue took the most points in the end game scoring, but starting at the back, she also had the most ground to make up; Lime took the least and starting at the front he had the most to lose.  Purple was the closest to catching Lime and looked to be in a good pace taking twenty-four points in bonuses (as many as Blue), but sadly had three tiles she had been unable to place.  That made all the difference as she finished three points behind Lime, with seventy seven points to his eighty.

– Image by boardGOATS

Lime suggested playing again, something only he ever does—not that this is a bad thing at all, it’s just particularly unusual within the group. Not that anyone minds playing games more than once, but he is the only one to ever suggest it.  This time, most people seemed to think they could do a better job the second time round, so the suggestion was really well received.

– Image by boardGOATS

The second time round, Black and Blue started out with a different strategy, going for some of the expensive tiles first to maximise the extra tiles they could take early on.  Lime started as he had before taking an early lead and trying to keep it.  This time he found it much more difficult though.  Blue weathered his early spurt and kept with him, eventually overtaking him and sneaking into the lead.  This time everyone did better on the bonuses, as they knew what to look for, indeed everyone did better overall, though Lime said it didn’t feel like it.

– Image by boardGOATS

Blue had the lead going into the final round and with two completed stars finished twenty point ahead of second place.  It was really tight for that though, with only a handful of points between second and fourth.  Despite a three point penalty at the end, Lime just managed to hold off Black, beating him into second place by a single point.  And that was it, the end of what is likely to be the last game for the group for what could be a very long time.  Everyone sadly said goodbye to the landlord, Charles, and we all wish him and all the staff at The Jockey our very best for what will, no doubt, be an extremely difficult few months for them.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome:  You only fully realise what you’ve got when you are about to lose it.