EURONIMOES



OBJECTIVE OF EURONIMOES: Be the player with the lowest score

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 – 4 Players

MATERIALS: One or two sets of 6/6 dominoes, 4 small chips per player, printable playing mat

TYPE OF GAME: Domino game

AUDIENCE: Adults


INTRODUCTION OF EURONIMOES

Euronimoes is a euro-style domino game created by Dave Ross.  In this game, 2-4 players are trying to build out their own personal area of dominoes and create as small of a score as possible when doing so.  To view the printable rule book and play mat, visit Dave’s official website here.

MATERIALS

To play Euronimoes, a double six set is required for 2 players.  If there are 3 or 4 players, two double six sets are used.  Each player will need their own set of four colored chips.  Coins or buttons can be used.  Make sure each player has their own color.  Finally, the game requires the use of the printable playing mat found here.

SETUP

To begin setup for the game, place all of the dominoes face down in the center of the table and give them a good shuffle.  Draw five at random and place them face up on the Market (playing mat).  Each player is given two chips of their color, and the remaining two chips are placed near the Market to form the bank. 

Each player draws three dominoes from the pile to form their hand.  Players should not allow their opponents see their dominoes.

The remaining dominoes are pushed to the side and form the draw pile.

THE PLAY

The player who has the domino with the highest pip count goes first.  If two players have the same highest valued domino, the younger player goes first.  Play will move left around the table from Player 1.

Players performs two actions on their turn: Draw and Play.

DRAWING

A player may draw a domino from the draw pile or buy one from the Market.  When drawing from the draw pile, the player also takes one chip of their color from the bank (if one is available).  This player also rotates the the dominoes that are in the Market by moving the domino in the -1 slot and placing it in the 3 slot after sliding the other dominoes over one space.

If a player buys a domino from the Market, they must pay the price in tokens to the bank.  The domino in the 0 slot is free.  Buying the domino in the -1 slot actually allows the player to take one chip of their color from the bank (rather than pay).  If there are no chips of their color in the bank, they can still take the tile in the -1 slot.  After buying a domino from the Market, the remaining dominoes to the right of the empty slot are slid down.  The now empty 3 slot is filled with a new domino from the draw pile.

PLAYING

Unlike most traditional domino games in which players are building onto a shared layout, in Euronimoes, each player is building their own personal layout.

When playing a domino to their layout, it can be oriented vertically or horizontally.  All dominoes played must be adjacent to another domino in the layout.  This means that each domino must be touch at least one side of another domino.  Corners are not legal connections. 

As dominos are played, columns and rows will begin to form.  Numbers within columns must ascend or descend in numerical order.  For example, once a 6 and 5 are played in a column, the next number below the five must be a 4.  It cannot be another 5.  This also means that a domino in which both sides contain numbers in numerical order can be played vertically in a column.  For example, the 6/5 domino can be placed vertically to begin the column.  The next domino played below the 5 will need to have a 4.

Dominoes that are placed next to each other in the same row do not have to follow certain rules.  Any domino can be played, but once the new column begins, it must adhere to the rules for building it.  Once a domino is played, it cannot be moved.

STACKING UP

Players are able to build upward on their layout.  Once a player is able, they can begin a second layer of dominoes.  To do this, the domino must be placed on two match numbers.  They can be placed horizontally or vertically, but one domino cannot be placed directly on top of another domino.  It must rest on two halves from separate touching dominoes.  Once there are enough dominos in the second layer, a third layer may begin and so on.

Once a player has drawn and played, their turn ends.  Play passes left.  The game continues until both the draw pile and Market are empty of dominoes.  When there are no longer any dominoes to draw, play continues without the draw phase.  Once each player has 0 or 1 domino remaining, the game ends.  There is no penalty for having a leftover domino.

SCORING

Points are earned for columns, levels, and chips.

A player earns points for the small number in the run of each column.  If the run is built to go from 6 to 0, the player is able to deduct 3 points from their score.  If a column has more than one run, the player adds up the score for each run to find the total score for the column.

Deduct 2 points for each domino played on the second layer, 3 points for any domino on the third layer and so on.

Finally, deduct 1 point for each chip the player possesses. 

WINNING

The player with the lowest score wins.  If there is a tie for lowest score, the player to go last wins the tie.

Mark Ball
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