I’m still so pumped from Wednesday’s game night. I just want to play more Mahjong. Luckily, FFXIV is always there to help with that need. I’m still a novice, an absolute beginner, so I sat down at the beginner board and the game gave me some AI opponents to play with.
I have played on the intermediate board; I didn’t win any more, but it was nice to chat with people, and they would offer help when asked. But I think for now it’s enough to just play against the AI and try to build up some skill.
Riichi Mahjong (called Doman Mahjong in game) is played in eight rounds, four with the prevailing east wind, and four with the prevailing south wind. The east wind rotates among the players. If the player wins who has the same wind as the prevailing wind, then an extra round is played with the same positions. If anyone has negative points at the end of a round, the game is over. Everyone starts with 25,000 points.
A Small Glossary
The vocabulary is probably the hardest part of learning Mahjong, second only to learning the yaku. Doman AKA Riichi Mahjong uses the Japanese words. Chinese Mahjong uses different words, and also has slightly different rules. American Mahjong is different again, though I believe it is based on Chinese Mahjong.
- Pon — taking a discarded tile to form a triple or quad (a kan).
- Chii — taking a discarded tile from the previous player in order to form a sequence
- Tenpai — being one tile away from a ready hand
- Ready hand — typically a hand with four melds and a pair
- Closed hand — you have not taken any discarded tiles with Pon or Chii.
- Open hand — you have taken discarded tiles with Pon or Chii.
- Meld — a triplet, a quad or a sequence
- Kan — a quad, four of a kind
- Yaku — a win condition. The more win conditions, the more the hand is worth. Everyone starts out with one yaku, a closed hand.
- Han — the worth of a particular yaku. Can potentially differ depending if the hand is open or closed.
- Tsumo — winning a hand on a drawn tile
- Ron — winning a hand on a discarded tile
- Riichi — a declaration that your closed hand is in tenpai. You are not allowed to change your hand from this point on. All you can do is draw and discard tiles until you win with a Tsumo or Ron.
- Pin, Man and Sou — the three suits. Called Circles, Numbers and Bamboo in FFXIV Doman Mahjong.
- Honor tiles — the tiles not part of a suit; the four winds and the three dragons
- Terminal tiles — ones or nines of a suit
- Dora — A tile drawn at the beginning of the hand to indicate which tile will be worth extra points if present in the winning hand. The Dora tile will be the next tile in the sequence in real life; in Doman Mahjong, the Dora tile is the one drawn and doesn’t affect the number of that tile remaining to be drawn.
- Wind — players are seated around a square table, and one is chosen to be the East wind. The other players, going counter clockwise, are South, West and North, and yes, North and South are swapped. The winds rotate among the players each hand. At the beginning of the game, the East wind is the prevailing wind, and that shifts to South midway through. On rare occasions, West and North may become the prevailing wind. Wind tiles corresponding to the prevailing wind or your player wind can be used to make a yaku.
- Dragons — the White dragon (Pai), Red dragon (Chun symbol — a box with a vertical line through it) and the Green dragon (Fa) can be used as a pair, triplet or quad. The latter two form a yaku.
Round 1: South, East prevailing, Dora 2 man
All Simples — I’d have to chuck the pair of white dragons and my wind, as well as the green dragon and the west wind and the 1 sou. Call this my plan “B”.
Honor Tiles — If I get another white dragon, that would satisfy that yaku. My wind is useless unless I draw one early in the game. I often go for this yaku if I draw a pair of dragons.
I did not get the dragons, but I was in tenpai at the end.
Round 2: South, East prevailing, Dora 8 pin
This is a terrible hand without any obvious win conditions at the start. The 1-2-3 of sou is really the only thing I’m starting with, so I’ll take that. I opened my hand to get into tenpai first round, but I’d better keep it closed to have the closed hand yaku.
I drew a second red dragon and stole a third from west, opening my hand but getting an honor yaku from it.
I stole another 2 sou, hoping to chii or draw another 3 sou, but no such luck, and I lost that round.
Round 3: East, East prevailing, Dora 8 sou
There’s an outside change I could get 6-7-8 in all three suits, which would be worth a lot. I’m close on pin and sou but far on man. I’d also get dora on that, and if that fails I can still get it for a pair, which is decent. No easy yaku from this so keeping my hand closed seems prudent.
Best laid plans and all, I had to break the 6-7-8 sequences but did manage to get a triple dora and was first to call riichi. And I was able to ron (take a winning tile from someone) with a closed hand. This gave me the win and scored a bunch of points with five han, which double your score for each one.
Round 4: East, East prevailing, Dora 6 sou
Start off with a few sequences and a pair of west winds. Since they are not my wind (east) or the prevailing wind (also east), they can’t be used for an honor tile win. I’m going to try for the three of the same sequence, 2-3-4. There is no reason to look to open the hand unless I get that yaku first.
Opportunity came to make my number sequence with a chii, which opens the hand and requires me to get a 4 pin. I’m so close, though, I’m going to do it, though the game recommends not. What does the game know? Well, the very next move someone called ron for the win. Since they did it off my tile, I have to pay the penalties for the entire table — big loss.
Round 5: North, East prevailing, Dora 6 man
The two prevailing winds could easily be made into a triple for an honor win. Additionally, it looks like a terminal win might be in reach, so definitely going for that. Pretty far away, we’ll see what happens. If I win with a terminal hand, I’ll make back all the points I just lost.
Opportunity to pon an east wind for a yaku in exchange for opening my hand — game says no, but this early in the game, I’ll do it.
Drew a kan for the east wind and having abandoned the triple sequences was just trying for a ready hand. Two players called riichi, and one player won with someone else’s discarded tile for a ron, making them pay all the points and not me. Works for me.
Round 5: West, East prevailing, Dora Green Dragon
(Looks like I forgot to screenshot this hand).
Not seeing a lot. Couple of pairs and drew a green dragon I’ll be holding on to, as it’s dora. Keeping the hand closed until the hand begins to shape up. Right now it’s looking like a no point hand.
I kept my hand closed to the end and lost the fewest number of points. However, the winner won so big that even my share hurt.
Round 6: South, South prevailing, Dora White Dragon
The wind shifts as we enter the second half of the match. There’s a couple of sequences. I have to get rid of that 1 pin ASAP because I need to get a non-terminal sequence wind.
I played defensively but was forced to give up a white dragon, which was taken immediately by the eventual winner. I didn’t lose worse than anyone else but it’s not the same as winning.
Round 7: South, South prevailing, Dora 6 pin
Starting with a small sequence in pin, as well as pairs in pin and man, and one of my wind. Will have to see where the hand wants to go. A chii was offered first draw but there’s absolutely no reason to open the hand. Playing defensively is the best option.
Drew a second south wind, hoping to turn it into a triplet and gain an honor yaku. Game keeps wanting me to discard my winds but I am refusing. I finally opened my hand to complete a triplet of 7 pin, but an opponent took my 3 man for a ron and won, and I paid all the penalties. I should have played defensively.
Round 8: East, South prevailing, Dora 5 man
I’m way behind but not last. Still, playing recklessly isn’t a great idea. I start off with a 1-2-3 in sou, a 1-2 in man, and a pair of 1 pin, so trying for a terminal win doesn’t look un-possible as long as I don’t open my hand — which is definitely not safe to do this close to the end of the game and down so many points.
Called a riichi and two turns later someone called a ron, winning. I wavered back and forth on calling a riichi, since that would have me waiting for a 3 man, which is risky. Calling riichi bets a thousand points; if I hadn’t done that, I’d have lost nothing, but instead I lost that thousand points. Not good.
Round 9: North, South prevailing, Dora 7 sou
Two more hands, still 3rd. Start off with pairs of 2, 4, and red dragons, setting things up for an honor win with triplets, but that’s betting on something happening with the pins. I’ll only open the hand for a third red dragon.
Made the triple 4 sou. Game wants me out of pins, so I go along with it. It was a long shot anyway. Nothing is stopping me from four triplets yet. Red dragon comes up, I open my hand with it.
8 man comes up to complete another triple, and this time the game agrees with me about taking the pon. Another pon to complete the 2 man triplet. I realize I’ve backed myself into a corner where I’m waiting for a 5 man tile, with one already in discards. I’m saved by south taking a ron from East, who loses and has to pay the penalty. This makes him negative and I think this is the end of the game.
End of match
With Spriggan going negative, the game ends with one hand left unplayed. I was second for a couple hands but a couple of lost bets put me third. Defensive play from then on meant I didn’t lose much more but didn’t gain any ground either.
