Azul Wall Planning: Know What Every Line Is Worth

The openings lesson got your first tiles near the middle and near each other. This lesson is about everything after that: turning a few early tiles into a wall that scores more each round. It rests on one habit, pricing your lines, and one shape, the block.

As in the scoring lesson, we name wall spaces by row and column, so (3,3) is the center.

Rows grow slowly, columns can grow fast

Each pattern line feeds one row of the wall, and a complete line moves exactly one tile. So each row gains at most one tile per round.

Columns are different. Every pattern line feeds a different row, so in one round several lines can land tiles in the same column. Finish lines 2 and 3 into the same column, scoring top to bottom, and the second tile already scores 2 down, more if the column has tiles above.

That gives you a planning rule: horizontal runs are built across rounds, vertical runs can be built inside one round. If two of your lines are close to complete, check whether they land in the same column. If they do, finishing both this round pays right away.

Price every line

On the colored side, each color has one space in each row, and its space shifts one column from row to row. So a color in pattern line 3 has exactly one possible home: its space in row 3. Before you pick, you can know what any tile would score.

Here is the habit. For each pattern line you might fill this round, find the space its tile would land on, then count the runs it would join, across and down. That number is the line’s price.

A worked example. Your wall holds (2,2), (2,3), and (3,3).

• Line 1, into (1,3): it touches (2,3) below, and the column run is (1,3), (2,3), (3,3). Price: 3.
• Line 1, into (1,4): nothing touches it. Price: 1.
• Line 3, into (3,2): across, (3,2) and (3,3) make 2. Down, (2,2) and (3,2) make 2. Price: 4.
• Line 4, into (4,3): the column run is (2,3), (3,3), (4,3). Price: 3.

Now the displays make more sense. A single tile of the color that lands on (1,3) is worth 3 points for one tile. A pick for line 3 in the color that lands on (3,2) is worth 4, and it squares off your block.

Remember that prices change inside a round. If line 1 places (1,3) first, line 2 tiles landing under it now touch more. Price your lines top to bottom, the order they score in.

Grow one block

Compare two ways to place four tiles.

• Scattered: four tiles with no neighbors score 1 each. Total: 4.
• A 2 by 2 square, built over rounds: the first tile scores 1, the second 2, the third 2, and the fourth touches two runs of 2, so it scores 4. Total: 9.

The gap grows with every tile. A tile added to the side of a 3 by 3 block joins a run of 4 at once, and a tile that fills a notch in a block scores in both directions. That is why strong walls look like one growing patch rather than a scatter.

Some block habits:

• Grow toward the middle. Middle spaces can be touched on all four sides, so tiles there join runs in both directions.
• Fill the holes. A space with tiles on two or more sides is usually your highest price on the board. Plan a line to fill it.
• Keep one column as the spine. A column you mean to finish gives you 7 points at the end, on top of the adjacency points every tile in it already scored.

Which line gets which color?

When a display offers a color, it could go in several lines, and each line lands it in a different column. Use that. Ask which line puts this color next to your block, then check whether you can fill that line this round or next.

If the only line that fits lands the tile far from everything, the pick is weaker than it looks, even if it fills a line exactly. A 1-point tile now can still be a fine move in round one. By round three, it is usually a sign to look at another display.

The traps

• Chasing a big price you cannot fill. A 6-point space is worth nothing if its line needs four more tiles of a scarce color.
• Ignoring the floor. A pick that scores 4 on the wall and drops two tiles on the floor nets 2.
• Building a long row. It ends the game for 2 bonus points, and that may help someone else. The endgame lesson covers when to finish one.

For the larger case for columns over rows, see our Azul strategy guide.