Clackyard: Mexican Train

Mexican Train and Chicken Foot, for a table of two to sixteen.

Domino night as you know it: the markers, the double nobody can cover, the groan when someone lays a chicken foot. Clackyard deals, checks every play and keeps score, and everyone plays from their own iPhone, iPad or Mac, with Clackyard installed.

MEXICAN TRAIN Each round starts from a double, one lower each round: 12-12 down to 0-0 in a full double-12 game. Build your own train from it, or add to the Mexican train, which is everyone's. Can't play? Draw one tile. If that won't go either, your marker goes out, and anyone may play on your train until you play on it again. Lay a double and you must play again, and an open double has to be covered before anyone plays anywhere else.

CHICKEN FOOT The centre double takes six tiles first. After that, every double grows a chicken foot: three toes, one per turn, and nothing else can be played until all three are down. Leave a double nobody can answer and watch the whole table draw.

EVERY ROUND COUNTS A round ends when someone lays their last tile, or when the boneyard is empty and nobody can play. Every tile left in a hand costs its pips, and the scoreboard shows every hand face up. After the last round the lowest total wins, and a tie goes to whoever had the most zero rounds.

A TABLE OF 2 TO 16 • Solo: you against three bots, all on your device, with no internet needed. • Same Wi-Fi: one device hosts and everyone else joins with the address the lobby shows; between Macs the table also shows up by itself. • Online: the host reads out a six-character code and friends anywhere type it in. Epic Online Services lists the room and carries the moves; the host's own device still deals every tile and decides every turn. • Bots fill any empty seat and see only their own tiles, just like you. • The set grows with the table, up to double-18 for sixteen players.

HOUSE RULES, REMEMBERED FOR NEXT TIME • Tiles: double-9, 12, 15 or 18, or picked for the size of the table. Length: the full game, or 1, 3, 5 or 7 rounds. • Mexican Train: lay your whole train on turn one; open the Mexican train on turn one or only after it; one double per turn; cover your own double; mark or not when you can't cover one; go out on a double. • Chicken Foot: four or six tiles around the centre; drawing even when you could play; 50 points for going out on a double. • The double-blank worth 0, 25 or 50. Bots: easy, normal or hard. Turn timer: off, 15, 30 or 60 seconds. Private tables that need the host's code.

MADE TO BE READ ACROSS THE TABLE Every number has its own colour, and colour is never the only clue. Choose pips or large numerals; 13 to 18 always show as numerals. An open train says OPEN in words, and when a tile won't go, the game says why. Ask for a hint on your turn, or sort your tiles by the longest train you can build. Reduce Motion is honoured throughout, and sound and haptics have their own switches.

ONE PRICE, AND THAT IS ALL No ads. No in-app purchases. No account to make. No tracking, and no server or analytics of ours. The tiles at a solo or Wi-Fi table never leave the building. An online table signs in to Epic anonymously, and while it is open Epic lists its name, the host's chosen name, the game and the seats taken. Epic's SDK may also collect usage and performance data under Epic's own privacy policy. We receive none of it.

Buy it once for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Family Sharing shares it with your household.

YOUR RECORD FOLLOWS YOU Your stats, name, avatar, settings and house rules are kept in your own iCloud, so they survive a reinstall and follow you to a new iPhone, iPad or Mac. We cannot read them.

Cross-platform save is optional and off until you sign in with Apple, or with Google on iPhone and iPad: then Epic Online Services keeps your stats for your other devices. Settings can reset the stats and delete the save.

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