The Newest, Most Unique Domino Game

Dominid is a result of buying a set of dominoes and realizing how boring and skill-less domino games were. So, here is the first ever published instructions for the best new domino game of the 21^st century.

Dominid

• Required: 28 regular dominoes (0 to 6) and 2 people
  
• Objective: To have the lowest score after all dominoes have been played.
  

Like most domino games, the two players draw and add dominoes to a single structure of dominoes that takes form in the middle of the playing area. But as you can see from the figures, this shape can be built "up" as well as "out." It is for this reason that standard dominoes that are exactly twice as long as they are wide are necessary in order to stack correctly. Also, the big difference in Dominid is that players place dominoes side-by-side as opposed to end-to-end. In placing a domino, the only constraint is that it borders two numbers (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 5) – it doesn't have to be the same numbers. The issue is that one's score is determined (in part) by the distance between the placed domino and the one it borders. By distance, I am referring to the total difference in the numbers. So, for example, the last domino placed by a player in Figure 1 is the top one (2 6). Since this is adjacent to (2 5), then user score goes up one point (1 pt. = 2 – 2 + 6 – 5). And yes, this is always positive – that's why we call it a distance.	Figure 1: Unlike other domino games, the numbers don't have to match, but your scorce will depend on how different your "placed" domino is from its neighbors.
Next up. Building upwards. The next player drew the doublet (5 5). She wants to place it next to the 5 & 4 to minimize how much her score goes up. She can actually place this right on top of the 5 & 4 as is shown in Figure 2. Here it gets a tad more complicated. Determining the distance to 5 & 4 is only one option, since it is also next to 2 & 1 and (6 4). So, she could choose to make her distance 7 or 2 respectively. But, of course, since she wants to minimize her score it is compared to the 5 & 4 below. In this way, more options are available when building up than building to the side. But there is one constraint: a domino cannot be placed directly over another. For example, this (5 5) domino could not be placed on top of the (6 4) in the first and second figures. You can only build up by straddling two other dominos that are at the same height.	Figure 2: Building on Figure 1, a 5-doublet is placed on top of the (5 4).
That's the easy part. Now here comes the real strategic element. One player is assigned the odd numbers (1, 3, 5) and the other is assigned the even numbers (2, 4, 6). At the end of the game, the evens player can subtract off from their score any contiguous cluster of same even numbers, so long as that cluster is greater than 3. An example? Good idea. In Figure 3, all dominoes have been played. The evens-player current has 17 but since there is a cluster of three 4's and three 6's, the end score is 17 – 3 – 3 = 11. The odd player ends with a 15, and he also has two clusters of three: the row of 5's and the 1's to the right. His score is 9. Hence, "odd" wins since 9 is lower than 11. A cluster of three pieces is worth three points, a cluster of four is worth four, five is worth five, etc. A cluster of two (or one) is not worth any points. Okay, that the gist of it. Let me start over with a more detailed description.	Figure 3: A final configuration shows that "even" has 2 contiguous clusters of three numbers (4 and 6), and "odd" has two clusters (1 and 5).
Start: All pieces are placed face down on the table and shuffled (moved about randomly). Both players simultaneously draw a piece from the pile and place it face up (as in Figure 4). Add the total of each piece. The player with the higher value goes first. If the two tiles have the same total (e.g. (4 0) and (1 3)) than the player with the highest single value wins (4 0). The player with the losing domino must arrange the two side by side in the center of the table while the winning player draws three dominoes to start their hand. Then, the losing player draws their 3 dominoes. The winning player plays his first domino and then declares whether he want odds or evens. Note, this doesn't change what you dominoes you play. Even though, you declare evens you will likely be forced to play many odds, since drawing new dominoes is a random affair. However, since your score in the end will depend on the clusters of the numbers you declared in the beginning, you will find yourself playing different strategies with these pieces. After each placement of a domino, draw a new one so that you always have 3 dominoes in your hand. It's best to keep them a secret from the other player, otherwise they can use this knowledge against you. Players take turns until all dominoes are played. In the last few rounds, the draw pile will be empty so your hand will dwindle from 3 to 2 to 1 final piece. There will be countless places to play a piece at any given turn. The only limitation is that your pieces must border two other pieces and cannot completely cover another piece. Figure 5 illustrates these two forbidden cases. With each turn, players should announce their new score. You can think of the scoring like golf. You want to have the lowest score, so each move will cost you some "strokes" depending on how different your placed piece is from those around it. If your piece stacks on top of others, remember - you can take whatever pair of neighbors leads to the lowest score (as in the example of Figures 1 and 2). But it must be a neighboring pair - not one number to the left for the top digit and one to the right for the bottom digit. Okay, so that's it for basic game play. In terms of strategy, that's a whole other matter. You want to try to connect your numbers in clusters while you play so that at the end, you can take off a big chunk of points. You can also strive to cover your opponent's numbers to break up his clusters. Since you can't control what dominoes end up in your hand, you will often be playing odds even though you're trying to build even clusters. You will also learn that doublets take on a particular advantage in this game. If possible, hold onto those until the end. This is the first attempt to write up these instructions, so feel free to post your questions.	Figure 4: First two pieces of a new game are simultaneously drawn by the two players.
	(a) (b) Figure 5: The only types of moves that are not allowed are (a) placing a piece completely over another, or (b) not being along side two other numbers.