Explore the city of Águeda during the famous Agitágueda festival, an art festival with umbrellas covering the streets.

Quick Info

• Águeda: City of Umbrellas on BGG
• Designers: Dustin Dobson, Milan Zivkovic
• Publisher: 25th Century Games
• Artists: Matt Paquette & Co.
• Release Year: 2024
• Affiliate Purchase Link

Overview

Águeda centers on a real-life art festival in Águeda, Portugal. Several streets in the city are covered in colorful umbrellas, and there are bright murals and music throughout. I’ve never been to this festival, but Águeda: City of Umbrellas attempts to capture the experience in board game form. How does it do?

Art and Design

I played the deluxe version of Águeda, and it was absolutely stunning. There are completely unnecessary metal coins, and the umbrellas themselves are delightfully colorful chunky plastic. The rest of the game is simple cardboard, but the art is wonderful. If you enjoy art in your games, this will be a delight.

Mechanics

Águeda is a simple game. Even counting the teach, our five-player game took only 40 minutes. Some have compared it to Azul, and there are a few minor similarities. You’re drafting and placing colorful chunky pieces into rows, but that’s where the similarities end. I won’t describe a full how-to-play, but the drafting mechanic is simple and easy to teach (though different from Azul), and the placement is much friendlier than Azul. If you’ve never played Azul…well, to spoil my impressions, you should probably just play that instead of Águeda.

Impressions

I enjoyed my play of Águeda. It was pleasant. Like any drafting game, you can end up in a situation where you want a particular set, only to have it taken away from you shortly before your turn. And there is the opportunity for hate-drafting (drafting what someone else needs to keep it away from them, rather than what you need), particularly near the end of the game. But the game is generally a friendly multiplayer-solitaire kind of game.

Unfortunately, there are some significant downsides. The lack of interaction and even nature of the game leads to a feeling of not really doing much. The end of the game will likely end up with a tightly packed group because everything you’re doing is so easy and so similar. There are a few variable goals, but they don’t provide much in the way of variation game-to-game.

Águeda was pleasant. I enjoyed my game of it. But I wouldn’t purchase it—there are better 20–40 minute fillers—and I probably wouldn’t choose to play it again. If you’re looking for a solitaire-ish, pleasant, even-keeled, and gorgeous production, though, it may be for you.