Textile

A quick "nestortiles" game by Dieter Stein.

Material

• 30 nestortiles: A-type, 5 colors, 6 tiles each (or more tiles for a longer game)

The dice pips on the tiles are irrelevant in this game.

Objective

“Knot” the tiles together and score the most points.

Preparation

Textile is for 2, 3 or 4 players.

The nestortiles are sorted by colors and put in 5 single-colored supply stacks at the side of the table such that the players can easily reach them.

A player is chosen who places one tile from one of the supply stacks in the middle of the table. This is the starting tile of the growing “textile” the players are working on.

The next player in clockwise direction starts the game.

A game of Textile with 2 players.

Play

Players take turns in clockwise direction. On your turn you must start with one of the following three actions (and sometimes continue with another on the same turn, as noted in the following):

1. Choose a tile from any supply stack and lay it down in front of yourself. If there are already tiles in front of you, knot the new tile to them such that no color occurs twice on orthogonal or diagonal adjacent sides. This arrangement of tiles (which can be also a single tile) is called a “patch.” A patch cannot get larger than 5 tiles. By adding the 5th tile, you must add the patch immediately to the textile (continue with → action 2) or discard it (continue with → action 3).
   or
   
2. Take the patch in front of you and knot it to the textile in the middle of the table. Again, you must avoid the same colors orthogonally or diagonally. You can rotate the patch but you may not flip it over or rearrange the tiles. After you added the patch to the textile, draw one tile from any of the supply stacks and put it in front of you.
   or
   
3. Discard the patch in front of you. Put it aside – it is out of play. Your turn has ended, don’t draw a tile from the supply.

Scoring

When knotting a patch to the textile you score points by the formula:

(size of the patch) × (knotting sides)

Knotting the textile. Score: 4 knotting sides × 3 tiles = 12 points.

End of the game

The game ends when there are no more actions available. The player with the highest score wins. If there are multiple highscorers, the winner is the one out of them who ran out of moves earlier.

Team play

If there are 4 players, you should consider to play in 2 teams. Choose an alternating seating arrangement and sum up the points for each team in the end. During the game, team members may not openly discuss their strategies.