Farm Mahjong

Farm Mahjong is a small thing done plainly: a tile board wearing a barnyard skin from Agame, where the pieces carry farm imagery and the instruction amounts to matching every similar tile until none is left. The whole list is kept in the Kids shelf.

No scoring wrinkle or extra rule is layered on top. Tile boards of this shape generally release a piece only when nothing covers it and one flank is clear, and reading which farm tiles currently qualify is the whole of the play. The 800 by 500 frame is wide and shallow, which spreads the layout sideways instead of piling it upward, so more of the board stays in view at once than on a tall stack. Also under this heading: Battle.

Touch works alongside the mouse, and the artwork is cute rather than detailed, which is what places this one at the younger end of the catalogue. For a board of the same kind, see the Fruits board.

1. Look across the wide layout for two farm pieces showing the same picture.
2. Make sure neither is covered and that each has a side edge free.
3. Click the first and then its match to clear both from the board.
4. Keep pairing until every similar tile has been matched away.

• Use the width — the shallow Farm Mahjong frame shows most of the layout at once, so scan the whole board before the first click.
• Clear covered pieces early — the tiles sitting under others are the ones that strand you at the end.
• Check the flanks — two identical farm tiles are still not a move if both are boxed in.
• Work the outside first — the crowded middle of the board frees itself as the outer pieces go.