Playing on the Mexican Train

The Mexican Train is the one track that belongs to nobody. Anyone can start it, anyone can play on it, at any point in the round. It is the friendliest thing in the game and also a real tactical resource, and those two facts sit together more comfortably than you might expect.

What it is, briefly

A communal train, started by any player with a domino matching the engine number, and open to everybody from the moment it exists. It is not anyone’s property, it never closes, and it does not need a marker. If you want the rules rather than the tactics, see what the Mexican Train actually is.

It is the thing that keeps a round moving

Without it, every player has exactly one place to play — their own train — and everyone else’s is shut to them until its owner gets stuck. Rounds bog down. People draw, and draw again, and the boneyard empties while nobody has done anything interesting.

The Mexican Train adds a second place for everybody at once. It is the difference between a round where people have choices and a round where people take turns being unlucky. If nobody has started one and the table is grinding, starting it is a kindness that costs you a single domino.

The community-train pleasure

It is worth saying plainly, because strategy writing tends to skip it: the shared train is fun. It is the one place where everyone is building the same thing. It gets long, it wanders through numbers nobody expected, and it is common for a round to be remembered for what happened on the Mexican Train rather than who won.

That is a real reason to start one even when it is not strictly optimal. This is a game people play with their family on a Sunday, and a round where everyone had somewhere to play is a better round than one you edged by four points while three people drew tiles in silence.

Using it well

It is also, straightforwardly, a resource. Four ways to get value from it:

• Dump weight. The best use of the shared train is getting a heavy domino out of your hand when your own train cannot take it. A 12-11 played anywhere is twenty-three points you are not holding.
• Protect your own train. Playing on the Mexican Train leaves your train ending where it was, so you keep the number you were planning around instead of committing it to something else.
• Start it on a number you hold. If you have three 8s, a shared train ending in 8 is a lane you can use repeatedly. Everyone else can use it too, but you are the one holding the eights.
• Take it away from the next player. If the shared train ends on a number the player after you clearly needs — they have been passing on it — playing there changes the number and it is gone.

The catch worth knowing

Every domino you play on the shared train changes the number it ends on, for everybody. Sometimes that is exactly what you wanted; sometimes you have just handed the next player the number they were waiting for.

So before playing there, look at the end you would leave behind, not only at the tile you are getting rid of. If you have a choice between two plays that shed the same weight, leave the number that fewest people seem to want. You can tell more than you would think from what people have been drawing on.

When to leave it alone

Two moments. First, when your own train is open — a marker on your train means anybody can play there, and playing on it yourself closes it again. Fixing that is usually worth more than a slightly better placement on the shared track.

Second, near the end of a round, when the number you would leave behind is one your closest rival needs. At that point the shared train is the widest open door on the board, and it is worth a moment to check who else is about to walk through it.

The honest summary

Start it when the game is stuck, when you hold several of the number it would end on, or simply because you want a communal game. Use it to shed weight your own train cannot take. Watch the number you leave behind. And do not agonise over it — the Mexican Train is the part of this game that most rewards being generous, and a game where everyone had somewhere to play is the one people come back for.

Keep reading

• How to win at Mexican Train
• What the Mexican Train actually is
• Opening moves and sorting your hand
• When to play your doubles