Azul seems to have joined the boardgame club in his first year after Ortho introduced him to board games that simulate making trade deals: “To say I was impressed is an understatement.
Imagine, a game that lets you hone your business acumen! I signed up for the club on the spot.” Azul says, “I think l’d credit that with helping me develop a stronger nerve when I have to take risks. And more to the point, it’s highly entertaining to use your wits to grind an opponent underfoot.”
Azul spends at least part of the culture fair of Book 5 occupying the board game club’s exhibit. When Riddle sees him there he says, “I’d almost forgotten you were in this club,” and Idia once greets Azul at a club meeting with, “You actually showed today” and “Why not act like a member of the Board Games Club for once,” so it is possible that Azul does not spend as much time with the club as other members
The board game club apparently has competitions, with Idia saying, “Board Game Club competitions are as dry as it gets-people sitting around tables indoors, with no applause or cheering. The players barely ever talk,” and Azul says, “Jade and Floyd mentioned wanting to come to a board game competition to
‘offer moral support.’ I of course shut that down immediately and warned them against distracting me.”
In a vignette we see Idia try to convince Azul to play a dice game, that Azul refuses for hinging “primarily on luck.” Idia says that Azul only ever plays strategy games that involve developing land or managing a store (Azul: “I do, in fact, never get tired of thinking about every single move”).
Idia goads Azul into playing the game anyway by implying that Azul would lose, which he does. A week later Idia walks in on Azul in the boardgame club room practicing how to roll dice in such a way that he can decide the result for himself. Idia observes, “For all your complex logistics and strats, you sure are a cinch to read. I can’t think of anyone more stubborn.”
Tsumsted also involved the boardgame club room and dice-rolling techniques, with Azul bringing both his tsum and Floyd along to play a dice-based game. Azul observes that the tum uses “a dice-rolling technique to produce consistent sixes and continually expanding its business…after observing that, I’m positive that it takes after me in thought process as well as in looks.”
Azul struggles early on in the game, which is later reveals was his strategy: “I’ve been continually expanding my market with no regard for profits, on the assumption we’ll collaborate. That way we can both grow more efficiently. Let us join forces, tsum! Together, we shall expand our business and devour Floyd’s!”
Azul wins the game in the end and immediately suggests another. Floyd observes, “Seems to me like you’re more interested in havin’ fun at this point,” and when the tsum leaves Azul encourages it to visit again, saying, “I’d love to play more boardgames with you.”
In Book 4 Azul leverages his position in the boardgame club in order to distract Jamil, whom he convinces to teach him how to play mancala, at which he beats Grim five to zero: “I’d be an affront to the Board Game Club with anything less, of course.”
Book 6 begins with a CHARON invasion of the school that interrupts a chess game during the boardgame club between Idia and Azul. Idia says, “I was totally winning that match. Now the chessboard’s all messed up!,” but when encouraging Idia to return to NRC as the end of Book 6 Azul says, “We never did finish the game your troops so rudely interrupted. And as I recall, I was winning. You’d better not be trying to cut and run.”
Azul compares their situation during Glorious Masquerade to a chess game in an analogy that other students struggle to follow (Riddle: “…I’m sorry about Deuce”), and Idia teases him with, “Nice try with the Board Game Club flex.”
For his first birthday Azul has a voice line about receiving a boardgame from Idia, saying, “I can’t wait to crush him in it,” but for his second birthday he has a line of, “I suffered a crushing defeat by Idia in a boardgame.”
Azul tells Silver, “The constantly shifting landscape of a board game is the perfect environment to learn to think on one’s feet. They teach you useful skills for dealing with all sorts of everyday issues, as well as for one’s business dealings,” and inviting him to visit the club.
Azul says that he is the only member of the boardgame that “bothers to drum up new members.”
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 