Mexican Train
Everyone builds their own branch from a shared engine, plus one branch open to all; whoever cannot move opens their branch to everybody else.
Mexican Train solves a problem ordinary dominoes cannot: how to seat eight people at one game. A classic line has only two ends, and with a large company most of the table simply waits.
Here there are as many ends as there are players, plus one shared. Everyone builds , and a move is almost always available.
A marker is both a plea and an invitation
A stuck player puts a marker on their branch and it becomes : anybody with nowhere else to go may now unload onto it.
That cuts both ways twice over. Other people's tiles go into your branch, but its end changes without your say, and by your turn it may show a number you do not hold.
Double-Twelve Set
Under these rules: Double-twelve, ninety-one tiles. A double-nine set serves a smaller company.
Ninety-one tiles covering every pairing of halves up to twelve-twelve.
Thirteen doubles in the set — exactly the number of rounds in a game: each round opens with its own double, counting down from twelve to the blank.
Train Markers
Under these rules: One per player.
One counter per player, used to mark that anyone may play on your train.
Boxed sets supply little plastic locomotives, but anything recognisable serves — a coin, a button, a matchbox. All that matters is that it can be seen across the table.
The rules of Mexican Train
The rounds
A game runs thirteen rounds. The first opens with the twelve-twelve, the next with the eleven-eleven, and so down to the blank.
That double goes in the centre: it is the , and every branch grows from it.
The deal
Each player is dealt tiles — how many depends on the number of players. The rest form a face-down boneyard.
The branches
From the engine run the personal trains, one per player, and one communal branch — the , which anyone may play on.
The turn
One tile is played per turn, matching numbers. It may go on your own branch, on the communal one, or on somebody else's open branch.
With no move available, draw one tile from the boneyard. If it will not go either, the turn ends.
The marker
A player who still cannot move after drawing puts a marker on their own branch. From then on everybody may play on it.
When the owner next plays on their own branch, they take the marker off and it is closed to the others again.
Doubles
A double is laid crosswise and must be satisfied — the next matching tile added to it.
While an unsatisfied double is on the table the other branches are blocked: the following players must satisfy it first. Ordinary play resumes after that.
End of a round
A round ends when somebody plays out all their tiles, or when nobody can move.
Whoever went out records zero. The others total the pips on their remaining tiles and record that as a penalty.
Winning
After the thirteenth round the records are totalled. The lowest total wins.
Worth knowing
How many tiles to deal depends on the number of players and is fixed nowhere: anywhere from nine to sixteen is named. The value of the double blank varies too — nothing in some places, fifty penalty points in others. Worth settling before the first round, because all the caution at the end turns on the second.
Glossary of terms
- Engine
- The double in the centre from which every branch grows this round. Each round opens with its own: twelve-twelve first, then eleven, and so down.
- Mexican train
- The communal branch from the engine, open to anyone.
- Open train
- A personal branch marked after a failed turn: while the marker stands, everybody may play on it.
- Personal train
- A player's own branch growing from the engine. While it is closed, only its owner may play on it.