Rules for Cardinal Mexican Train

Setup

• Begin by setting up the game by placing all 91 of the available dominoes into a pile, which will be known as the rail yard. Next, deal dominoes to each players based on the amount of people participating in the game. Use the following chart to determine the amount of dominoes for each player: four players each receive fifteen dominoes, five or six players each receive twelve dominoes, seven or eight players each receive ten dominoes and nine or ten players each receive eight dominoes. Keep the remaining tiles in the rail yard.

Start

• Once the dominoes have been dealt, each player should keep the dominoes out of view of their opponents. The player who is in possession of the 12-12 domino goes first. If no player has drawn that domino, have every player pick another domino from the rail yard at the same time. Repeat until one player has drawn the 12-12 domino. The game will proceed in a clockwise direction from the first player.

First Move

• The player who has the 12-12 domino should place it in the middle of the board. He then has two options. The first player can create his own train, extending from the center domino with each domino matching the number of dots as the previous. For example, every train must start with a domino that features twelve dots on one side. The first player can also create a Mexican Train, a train that can be added to by any player in the game if they cannot add on to their own train. On the first turn only, the player can place as many dominoes as he chooses.

Game Play

• During each turn, a player should place one domino onto his own train. If during a turn, a player cannot add a domino to his train, he must place one of the train tokens included with the game. This train token means that any player can now add a domino to this train. If a player has a double domino, or one that has the same number on both sides, place this domino horizontally on the board and take another turn. A double domino can be built in two directions, only by the player who placed it.

Winning

• The round ends when one player has played all of his dominoes. All players who have leftover dominoes, must add up the dots on each piece and report that score to the scorekeeper. The rounds winner will not have any points recorded. After the scores have been written down, place all the dominoes into the rail yard and deal them out once again. During the second round, the 11-11 piece is played first, followed by the 10-10 piece during the third round, all the way up to the 0-0 domino during the final round. At the end of thirteen rounds, the player with the lowest score is declared the winner.