🚂 Domino Train USA

Mexican Train dominoes — the classic American family game, played exactly by the traditional rules. Double-12 set · 2–4 players · every seat Human 👤 or CPU 🤖 on one phone.

🎲 Set Up Your Game

Players: Each seat: a person on this phone (pass-and-play) or the computer.

Game length:

Full Game — 7 rounds
Engines run double-12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. Lowest total score at the end wins. The real Mexican Train match. Quick Round
Just one round on the double-12 engine. Lowest hand pips wins the round.

Traditional rules, never twisted: double-12 set (91 tiles), draw 15 tiles with 2 players / 13 with 3–4 players, cover-your-double rule, markers make a train public, pips left in hand count against you.

📖 Domino Train USA — How to Play

The game: Mexican Train, the beloved American family domino game, played with a double-12 set (91 tiles). You build a “train” of dominoes out from the central engine, shed all your tiles if you can, and leave as few pips as possible in your hand — because leftover pips count against you.

🎯 Goal

Finish each round with the fewest pips left in your hand. After the last round, the player with the lowest total score wins.

🃏 The deal

Players	Tiles each
2	15
3	13
4	13

All remaining tiles form the boneyard (the draw pile).

⭐ The engine (start of every round)

A full game has 7 rounds. Round 1 starts on the double-12, then double-11, double-10, double-9, double-8, double-7, and double-6. (Quick mode plays only the double-12 round.) The round's double is the engine, placed crosswise in the centre of the table.

Exactly how the engine is found: after the deal, if a player is holding the round's double, that player places it in the centre as the engine and takes the first turn. If nobody holds it, players take turns drawing one tile at a time from the boneyard into their hand until somebody draws the double — that player places it as the engine and starts. Tiles drawn during this search stay in your hand.

🚂 The trains

Your train starts at the engine. Only you may play on it — unless it is marked PUBLIC (see below).
The Mexican Train 🚂 is one extra shared train starting at the engine. Anyone may play on it at any time.
A tile may be played when one of its ends matches the open end of a train you are allowed to use: your train, the Mexican Train, or any train flagged 🚩 PUBLIC.

▶️ Your turn

Play one matching tile onto an allowed train.
Doubles are played crosswise — and a double must be covered: after playing a double you must immediately play a second tile on it. If you have none that fits, draw one from the boneyard; if it fits, play it. If you still cannot cover, your turn ends and the double stays open: the next player must try to cover it first — while a double is open it is the only legal target on the whole table, for everyone, until it is covered.
If you cannot play at all: draw one tile from the boneyard. If it plays, play it. If you still cannot play, you place your marker 🚩: your train becomes PUBLIC — anyone may play on it — until you play on your own train again, which makes it private once more.

🏁 End of a round

A player who plays their last tile calls “Domino!” and the round ends at once.
The round also ends when the boneyard is empty and every player passes in turn (the game is blocked).
Scoring: the pips on the tiles left in your hand are added to your score. Low score is good!

🤖 Computer players

Every seat can be a person (pass-and-play — hands stay secret behind a hand-off screen) or the computer. Easy plays casually, Normal sheds its heaviest tiles first, and Hard also watches the public trains, dumps heavy tiles on them, covers doubles smartly and keeps its own train flexible. Playing alone? The computer seats are real opponents — you are never locked out of a game.

📱 Controls

On your turn, tap one of your glowing tiles, then tap the glowing train you want to play it on (if it fits only one train, it plays straight away). Use the Draw and Pass buttons when you are stuck. ❓ reopens these instructions at any time.