As the title says is version of Azul has the strongest element of play of all 3 versions of the game. The game is played over 6 rounds. You have 5 to 9 cardboard discs on the table and start by placing 4 tiles blind drawn from a bag on each disc. Each round 1 color of tile is designated as “wild” that is it can count as any other color when played. Each player has a designated score marker that starts on the score track at 5 points. On your turn you draw all of 1 color plus(if there are any) 1 wild tile from any disc or from the center of the game area if there are any there. Then, if you took from a disc place the unchosen tiles from that disc in the center area of play. Place the chosen tiles next to your playmat and the choice moves to the next player’s turn. Continue this process until all tiles have been chosen. The first player to choose from the center will score negative points(move the marker back but it can not go below 0). You then take turns placing 1 tile on your playmat. Each “flower” has 6 petals with a numeric value of 1-6. To place a tile on a matching petal requires that number of tiles 1 of which is placed on the playmat and the rest are discarded into a cardboard tower. You must have at least 1 of the color you want to play the rest of the needed tiles can be that color or the tiles designated wild for that turn. You will immediately score 1 point for the tile played and 1 for each tile that connects adjacent to it. i.e. if you place one on the 3 space it is 1 point. If you then on a future turn placed one on the 2 or 4 space it is 2 points, however if your 2nd placement was on the 6 space it would only score 1 point. If you maintain the adjacency when you place the 6th petal on a flower it would score 6 points. There is a dark blue flower in the center of the playmat which allows you to place 1 of each color tile as a petal. At the end of the round you may save 4 tiles as unplayed for the next round. At the end of the game any unplayed tiles are -1 point each. For final scoring you get points for each completed flower and for having all of the 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s which will be 7 of each. Additionally, there is a bonus tile board which has extra tiles on it. When you have played the 5s and 6s of a flower you will get to choose 3 tiles from the bonus board and those spaces are immediately refilled afterwards with blind draws from the bag. There are 2 other figures on your playmat-statues which are surrounded by a total of 4 petals from 2 flowers and when those petals are filled you get to draw 2 tiles; and circles that are also surrounded by 4 petals from 2 flowers and give you 1 bonus tile from the bonus board, but be careful because you can’t choose to refuse your bonuses you must take them and if you end up with unplayable tiles they will be negative points.

This is a rarity. A game designed for 3 players that overcomes one of the main stumbling blocks for 3 player games-one player vs. 2 that leads to 1 being beat up the whole game or running away with the game. The game mechanisms deal with this problem. The game will be played at least 4 hands and usually 6 or 7 or occasionally longer. the play is as follows: Shuffle the deck and 1 of the players who is not the dealer(choose your own method of selection) cuts the deck and then flips the top card from the lower half face up and places it on top of the top 1/2 of the deck and then places bottom half on top 1/2 of deck. Then deal top 3 cards from deck into a pile face down and set them aside. This is the “Chimera’s Nest”. Deal out all remaining cards into 3 piles 1 for each player. After looking at your cards you can bid 20, 30 or 40 or pass. Passing does not eliminate your chance to bid on future rounds. If the bidding passes all players twice the cards are turned in and re-dealt. On this second round of bidding if everyone passes the dealer has to then make a mandatory 20 bid. The bid winner adds the “nest” cards to his hand and plays first. The object of the hand is to be the first person to get rid of all of his cards. If the player who made the bid goes out first he gets double his bid plus points for all 2s and 11s captured as well as certain special bonus points. If he doesn’t go out first he gets negative points for his bid but still gets 2s and 11s. There is a reference card for each player on what are legal plays and you must follow the type of trick played with a higher trick of that type. There are also traps-which are 4 of a kind are playing the 2 special cards in the deck together. The other 2 players win the round if one of them goes out first(doesn’t matter who) and both get 20 points for “setting” the bid winner and points for the 2s and 11s they capture, but none for the traps played.

The base game focuses on birds of the Americas and has excellent art and is a fun engine builder. This expansion continues by adding the European birds. You still have the same excellent art work. In addition to adding the birds you also get new bonus cards, and new game mechanisms. You can now get birds that have end of the round bonus scores and once per turn bonuses such as “once per turn if another player takes the lay eggs action this bird will lay 1 egg in an X type nest of another bird”. This can give potentially higher scores and new engines to build during the game. If you enjoyed the original game I believe you will enjoy these new possibilities.