Tilez! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Starting the Game
• Your Turn
  • Examples of Illegal and Legal Plays
• Scoring
• Ending the Game
• Children's Rule
• Shorter Game
• Solitaire

Object of the Game

Place each of your tiles on the board so that as many of its edges as possible match the color of the neighboring tiles or starter squares already on the board.

Starting the Game

• All tiles are turned face down and shuffled.
• Each player draws three tiles and places them onto his/her rack so that opponents cannot see them.
• The youngest player goes first. Play proceeds clockwise.

Your Turn

• Select one of your three tiles to place on the board.
• Each tile must be placed so that at least one edge matches a neighboring square.
• You cannot place your tile over another tile, over a starter square, or over a black square. You may place a tile over a star.
• No tile may be placed in such a way that any of its squares touches a square of a different color, with these exceptions:
  • Black is a "safe" color; it can touch any color, but does not score any points.
  • When an empty square already has two (or three) different color neighbors, you may place a tile with any of those colors on it.
• If you can't or don't want to place a tile, you may instead exchange any or all of your tiles for new ones.
• Once a tile has been placed, it cannot be moved.
• After placing your tile, draw a new tile.

Examples of Illegal and Legal Plays

Illegal plays:

• Non-matching adjacent edges.
• No matching edges.
• Tile overlaps other tile.

Legal plays:

• Black may touch any color.
• 2 different neighbors, either color is legal.
• 3 different neighbors, any of them are legal.

Scoring

• Each tile placed on the board scores 1 point for each of its edges that match the color of the adjacent square. Note that each tile has 8 edges.
• If you place a tile over a star, your score for that tile doubles.
• If you place a tile so that 3 or more of its edges match, take an extra turn.
• Keep score using the Scoring Strip on your side of the board.

Scoring examples (1 point for each matching edge):

• 1 point.
• 2 points.
• 3 points, plus extra turn.
• 4 points (star is under tile).

Ending the Game

• When the last tile has been drawn, play continues normally except that players who cannot place a tile simply pass their turn. When no player can place any more tiles on the board, the game is over.
• Highest score wins.

Children's Rule

• For younger children, permit plays even where edges don't match. However, the child scores points only for those edges which actually do match.

Shorter Game

• For a shorter game, after shuffling all 80 tiles face down, select 40 tiles (without looking at them) and remove them from play.

Solitaire

Use the normal rules with these exceptions:

• If you exchange tiles, the ones that had been in your rack are removed from play.
• If you place a tile so that 3 or more of its edges match, score a 3 point bonus.
• See how many points you can score.