How to Play Tri-Ominos Game - Rules and Instructions 2023

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Triominos is a cousin of the famous dominoes game. It is played using triangular tiles.

The most famous commercial model of Triominos was made public by Pressman Toy Corp. in 1965.

In contrast to dominos, Triominos utilizes triangular tiles and has a distinctive playing style. Here’s how to play Triominos.

How to Play Tri-Ominos Game – Rules and Instructions

The Basics

Triominos is tailored for 2-4 players. the requirement to play this game is a series of Triominos.

Tiles

Triomino tiles have the shape of an equilateral triangle. These tiles have at each corner a number between 0-5 and have the same rules as dominoes, in which the three numbers mustn’t decrease in a clockwise direction.

Overall, there are 56 tiles in a 0-5 Triomino set.

You may find sets with the numbers 0–6. Instead, they’ll have 8 tiles.

In this article, our attention will be focused on sets of 0–5 for two players.

Set-up

The game makes use of a set of 56-triangular tiles, with numbers from zero to five at every corner.

The shuffling is similar to ordinary dominoes: Turn them over facing down and jumble them up with your hands.

Depending on how many are playing the games, the players take out their tiles:

2 players draw 9 tiles each

3 or 4 players draw 7 tiles each

5 or 6 players draw 6 tiles each

The rest of the tiles form the “well” where they are kept in a reserve that can be utilized necessary.

Write down the name of every participant on a piece of paper. For each game, the scorekeeper adds or subtracts the points in the corresponding column.

There isn’t an exact set of rules, but most players will decide to begin the game with 10 tiles each.

The tiles are selected randomly from the well. The game begins as soon as all the players have 10 tiles.

Who Goes First?

The player who has three of a kind starts the game by playing the token. If the two players have a triple, the person with the highest 3’s goes first.

For example, if participant A has a 3-3-3, and participant B has a 4-4-4, player B goes first.

If none of the players has a triple, then each player calls out the highest tile they have.

The player that has the bigger tile plays out that tile and starts the game.

The Goal

The aim in the Triominos is to be the first player to hit 400 score points by playing all the tiles in your hand.

The tiles must match the tiles already on the board to achieve this. The rules are close to those of dominos, with some additional complex elements due to the triangular tiles.

How the Game Is being Played

Once the first player has started the game with his highest tile or triple, playing of the game starts from the first tile.

Since each tile contains 3 numbers, the main rule is that every match must have at least 2 matching numbers.

For example, assuming the first tile is a triple 4-4-4, then make a match with one side of the tile.

Each side correlates with two corner numbers, and therefore every match must have 2 corresponding numbers.

To continue with this example: To match a 4-4-4, you need a tile that has not less than two 4s, like 2-4-4. Matching is achieved by putting the tiles on their respective sides.

The first player gets the sum of the 3 numbers on the Tri-Omino with the addition of a 10-point bonus.

If three Ominos begin the game, there’s a 30-point bonus, along with the standard 10-point bonus.

The player, who has the beginning Tri-Omino and the three Os, can play one of them.

If that player decides to start the game with the three 0s to get the bonus points, he‘s to show the other players the Tri-Omino carrying the same highest number on it.

If none of the players has a Tri-Omino with three matching numbers on it, the participant with the one total highest Tri-Omino starts the game.

The combined numbers on that Tri-Omino are added to the player’s scores but do not score any bonus points.

If a player wasn’t able to make a match, he must remove tiles from the stock.

The player keeps taking until he can make a match. Remember that for every draw from the stock results in a point penalty.

Determine who the scorekeeper will be and have them write down the name of each player on a piece of paper with enough space to add and subtract points during the game rounds.

How to Win a Round in Triominos

The 1st player to match all of his tiles and achieve 400 points is the winner of the round.

He also gets a bonus of 25 points plus the total of all triples still in the hands of the other players.

These points are not deducted from the other player’s score.

When all players have folded, it blocks the game, and the player that has the lowest number of Tri-Ominos wins the round.

All points from the remaining players’ hands are credited to that player, but no bonus points are given.

The player also has to subtract the total of points remaining in his hand from his score.

To start a new round, set all the tiles to face down, and shuffle them so each player can select new ones.

Each round is played similarly as the first, starting with the player that has the Tripple number Tri-Omino.

Triominos Rules

As with dominoes, there are rules to improve the game experience.

Completing Shapes

The inconsistency to the rule of matching 2 numbers occurs when you’ve to complete a shape.

For instance, a hexagon contains 6 contiguously placed tiles. If a partially completed hexagon contains 5 tiles, a sixth tile is needed to complete it.

This 6th tile must, however, match 3 numbers, unlike the usual 2. This is because 2 sides match simultaneously.

Summarized Rules

The Triominoes rules:

All tiles are laid face down and mixed.
All player draws 10 tiles each from the mixed stack.
The game begins with the player having the highest triple placing it down.
In the following rounds, players match tiles on the board.
Matches are acceptable as long as both tiles match 2 numbers in-between.
If a player cannot achieve a match, he draws tiles from the well until he makes a match.
The round ends when one player has removed all the tiles from his hand.

Scoring and Points

Scoring is a key aspect to pay attention when learning how to play Tri-ominos.

The scoring of this game is based on the tile values of every tile. The tile values are based on the score values of an individual tile.

For example, a tile from 4-5-3 is valued at 4 + 5 + 3 = 12 points, and a tile of 2-4-4 is also valued at 2 + 4 + 4 = 10 points.

Record the tile value for every tile played on a score sheet.

Other steps that have an impact on the score are listed below:

-5 points for drawing a tile out of the stockpile
+10 points for starting the game with a triple
+40 points for starting the game with a triple-0
+50 points for completing a hexagon
+25 points for removing all tiles from your hand

For forming a bridge, you earn 40 points with the addition of the three numbers from the Tri-Omino used are added together.

If after a bridge has been formed, a player can match two sides of a Tri-Omino and add them to the bridge, he gets the sum of the three numbers on the Tri-Omino and 40 points.

Note: These bonuses pile up with the tile values for the tile played.

Example Plays

Blocking of a hexagon is a common strategy in Triominos because by completing a hexagon, you receive the highest number of points.

For example, an ongoing hexagon contains 4 tiles. If you carefully choose the 5th tile, you can block the hexagon.

To block hexagons, you must pay attention to the tiles being played on the board.

Since the last tile required to complete a hexagon must have 3 specific numbers, you can force a block by making the last tile to be a tile played earlier on.