Wend

A collection of tile-laying games using the same basic set of tiles. Wend tiles are square in shape, and have 2 path entry/exit points on each edge. They each have four path sections which go from one path entry/exit point to another. When placed side by side, the path sections from one tile join up with those on the adjacent tile, to create meandering paths.

There are 35 Wend tiles in a set, which includes one copy of all possible combinations of 4 path sections on a tile. A 36th ‘start/end’ tile is also included in a set, which is used by some games in the Wend family. This tile has 8 short path sections (used as starting or ending points), two on each edge.

The number of sets of Wend tiles required varies from game to game. The free format games (Wend-loop, Wend-edge, etc) can use multiple sets, with more sets needed as the number of players increase. Games constrained by a board (Wend-maze) use just one set.

Wend tiles are topologically equivalent to the tiles used in Tsuro, and were first described in the lapsed patent for that game. Other games that use topologically equivalent tiles include Metro and Cable Car.