boardgamegeek logo boardgame geek Ingenious Cover Artwork REIMPLEMENTED BY: AXIO + 3 MORE RANK: OVERALL 408ABSTRACT 18 7.1 Ingenious (2004) Place hexagonal tiles to score lines of colors. 15K Ratings & 3.9K Comments · GeekBuddy Analysis Gameplay 1–4 Players 45 Min Playing Time Age: 10+ Weight: 1.92 / 5Complexity Rating Alternate NamesMensa Connections + 20 more DesignerReiner Knizia ArtistMichaela Kienle, Fabio Maiorana, Scott Nicely, Simone Peruzzi, Nick Whyles PublisherKOSMOS + 28 more See Full Credits Overview Forums Images More AD Get Ingenious on Amazon.com $35.33 Eligible for Super Saver Shipping! Sponsor: Amazon.com (See All) Macro - Completed gamegame imageA closeup of the scoring track of Ingenious. Slow and steady wins the race!Tile holders are included in the game boxEinfach Genial being played in JapanClose-upSome of the tiles in Ingenious casually spread out on a black background.Fantasy Flight Games‘ 2005 edition (from the FFG website)A Night on the TilesEscape to Victorygame imagefull frame shot of the German edtition (Kosmos)Spectrum Victory! All 18; Ingenious!Love is a Wonderful ColourMy first play!Hey, stop that! Peeking is not allowed.Box Cover to the Sophisticated Games/Green Board Games edition 461 IMAGES Description CLASSIFICATION EDIT Type Abstract Category Abstract Strategy Mechanisms Hand Management Highest-Lowest Scoring Pattern Building Team-Based Game Tile Placement Family Game: Ingenious Misc: Mensa Select Players: Games with Solitaire Rules Reimplemented By Axio Einfach Genial Junior Ingenious Extreme Ingenious: Travel Edition In Ingenious, a.k.a. Einfach Genial, players take turns placing colored domino-style tiles on a game board, scoring for each line of colored symbols that they enlarge. The trick, however, is that a player‘s score is equal to their worst-scoring color, not their best, so they need to score for all colors instead of specializing in only one or two. In more detail, the game includes 120 domino-style tiles, each consisting of two conjoined hexes; each hex has one of six colors in it, with most tiles having different-colored hexes. Each player has a rack with six tiles on it, and on a turn a player places one tile from their rack onto two hexes of the game board. For each hex on this tile, they score one point in that color for each hex of the same color that lies adjacent to it and each hex in a straight line from it. If a player brings the score of a color to 18, they immediately take another turn. At the end of their turn, they refill their rack to six tiles. (Before refilling their rack, if they have no tiles on it that contain hexes in their lowest-scoring color, they can discard all of their tiles, then draw six new tiles from the bag.) When no more tiles can be placed on the game board or when one player scores 18 in each color, the game ends. Players then compare their lowest scores, and whoever has the highest low score wins. Ingenious includes rules for solitaire and team play; in the latter case, two teams of two play, with each player not being able to see their partner‘s tiles and teams keeping a combined score that maxes out at 36 instead of 18.