Easy to Pick Up, and Hard to Get Wrong

The reason Mexican Train survives family gatherings is that it is easy to pick up and almost impossible to be badly beaten at. Playing it online makes that more true, not less: the board deals, keeps score, and simply will not accept a move that is not allowed. You do not have to know the rules before you start. Here is your first game.

From nothing to playing, in about five minutes

1. Make an account. A first name, an email address and a password — or the Continue with Google or Continue with Facebook button, if you would rather not have another password.
2. Create a game. One click. It names itself something like Warm Lynx, so you do not have to think of anything.
3. Send the code. You get a six-letter invite code — something like fox-oak — and a link that carries it. Text it, email it, or read it down the phone.
4. Press Start once at least one other person is in.
5. Tap a domino. Then tap where it goes. That is a turn.

Nothing was downloaded and nothing was installed, on your device or on theirs. If somebody in your group is nervous about computers, that is the whole of what they have to do too.

You cannot make an illegal move

This is the part that makes learning it online genuinely easier than learning it at a table. The board only accepts plays that are allowed. Try to put a domino where it does not match and nothing happens — you have not broken the game, nobody has to correct you, and there is no argument about whether that was allowed.

• Play hints are on by default. The spots where you could legally play are marked, with the number they need. If you are stuck, the board is already showing you your options.
• Safe Mode stops you drawing from the boneyard when you actually had a tile you could have played. It is off by default and worth switching on while you are learning — it only affects your screen, so one person at the table can have it on and nobody else needs to know.
• Confirm buttons ask before you draw, put your train up, or end your turn. They are on by default, so a mis-tap is not a lost turn. Once you are confident you can switch them off and play faster.

What you never have to keep track of

A physical game asks four or five people to agree, continuously, about a lot of small things. Online, none of it is anybody’s job:

• Shuffling and dealing, which is instant and genuinely random.
• Finding the round’s starting double — it is placed in the middle for you. Nobody hunts through the tiles for the 12-12.
• Whose turn it is, which is marked clearly.
• Whose train is open to everybody, which is shown rather than remembered.
• Which doubles are still waiting to be covered.
• Counting the pips at the end of a round, and keeping the running totals.

What is left is the interesting part: which domino to play, and when to open your own train. That is the actual game, and it is the only bit that needs a person.

The whole game, in five lines

If you like to know roughly what you are getting into before you start:

• Everyone gets a hand of dominoes. A starting double goes in the middle — the engine.
• You build your own train outwards from the engine, matching numbers end to end.
• If you cannot play, you draw one domino from the boneyard. If you still cannot, your train opens up and everybody else may play on it too.
• Play a double and it has to be covered before normal play carries on.
• The round ends when somebody plays their last domino. Everyone else scores the pips left in their hand, and low is good.

That really is the shape of it. The full version, including the bits that vary between families, is in how to play Mexican Train, and there is a glossary if a word comes up that nobody at your table can define.

Teaching somebody else

A few things make a first game go better, all of them set by whoever creates it:

• Start lower than 12-12. A full game is thirteen rounds. Starting at the 3-3 makes it four rounds, which is a comfortable first sitting; the 6-6 makes seven.
• Leave the default rules alone. They are the common ones. You can argue about house rules after everyone knows what a train is.
• Tell people to turn Safe Mode on and leave hints on. Both are personal settings, so nobody has to agree.
• Turn Element Size up if anyone is squinting. It scales the dominoes, not just the text.

And put a phone call or a group chat on while you play. The game is deliberately quiet so that the talking can happen wherever your family already does it.

Once it clicks

When the rules stop taking up any of your attention, there is a real game underneath — mostly about when to open your train, what to do with your heavy doubles, and how much you are willing to help everybody else by starting the Mexican Train. How to win at Mexican Train is where to go next, and it is a short read.

Keep reading

• How to play Mexican Train — the whole game
• How playing online works
• Built for players who want it simple
• Practising before you play anyone
• How to win at Mexican Train