How to play Mexican Train
A double-twelve set, 2 to 4 players. Build your own train from the engine, play on the Mexican Train anyone can use, and answer every double. Lowest total after the last round wins.
The double-twelve set
Mexican Train uses a bigger box than Block: a double-twelve set. Each half of a tile shows a number from 0 (blank) to 12.
A tile with the same number on both halves is a double. Every number is also a suit: all the tiles that show it.
When a round ends, the pips left in your hand are points against you, and the lowest total wins. Weight matters from the first turn.
Remember
- A double-twelve set has 13 doubles and 13 tiles in every suit.
- The pips left in your hand when a round ends count against you.
The engine and the trains
Pull up a chair. This is Aunt Bev’s game: she runs Tuesday game night, and you’ll meet her at the Train tables.
We play it with a double-twelve set. That’s a big box of tiles, with pips all the way up to 12.
The biggest double sits in the middle. We call it the engine, and every train starts from it.
Remember
- Every train starts with a tile that matches the engine, the double in the middle.
- The engine drops by one each round: 12-12, then 11-11, all the way to 0-0.
Your turn
On your turn you play one tile. Just one.
You can play on your own train or on the Mexican train, which belongs to everybody.
Everyone else’s train is theirs. You stay off it unless it has a marker. That’s next lesson.
Remember
- Play one tile a turn, on your own train or the Mexican train.
- Stay off the other players’ trains unless they carry a marker.
Markers and open trains
When you can’t play, you draw one tile. If it fits, play it. If it doesn’t, you pass.
When you pass, a marker goes on your train. At home we used pennies. Aunt Bev uses little plastic train cars.
A marker means your train is open. Anybody can play on it until you play on it yourself.
Remember
- Can’t play? Draw one tile. If it still doesn’t fit, pass, and a marker goes on your train.
- A marker opens a train to everyone until its owner plays on it again.
Doubles must be answered
Doubles are special. When you play one, you play again right away.
That next tile has to answer the double: same train, matching number.
Until a double is answered, nobody plays anywhere else. Not you, not anybody.
Remember
- Play a double and you play again: answer it with a matching tile on the same train.
- Until a double is answered, nobody plays anywhere else.
Scoring the round
A round ends when someone plays their last tile. We call that going out.
Everyone else adds up the pips left in their hand. Those are your points, and points are bad.
After all the rounds, lowest total wins. Aunt Bev keeps score on a yellow legal pad, and she never loses the pad.
Remember
- When someone goes out, everyone else scores the pips left in their hand, and points are bad.
- After all the rounds, the lowest total wins.