Description

Pleiades, an early adaptation of dominoes to triangular pieces, was granted a patent in 1879. The game consists of a central six-pointed star piece, each point being marked on both outer edges with a number of dots from one to six, and thirty-six triangular tiles marked along their edges with numbers ranging from one to six.

To begin the game, the tiles are placed face down and shuffled, and two or more players draw an agreed upon number. The player who has drawn a tile with three sixes goes first, matching a tile to one of the central star's numbered edges. The players then take turns matching their tiles to the original in order to create a hexagon shaped star adjoining the central piece. If no match is possible, a player must pass. The player who completes the hexagonal star gets one point, and the next player begins another star by matching a tile to the central star. If no player can match a piece, that star is blocked and play begins on another. The player scoring the most points (there are a maximum of six) wins the game.