Forty Thieves

Another two-deck game, and perhaps the best known of them. Forty Thieves is interesting in the way the discard pile first grows, then (in a successful game, at least) shrinks again. The two keys to success are knowing how to transfer builds by clever use of empty tableaus, and knowing when not to make an obvious play because it might block more important play later.

Layout Size: This game is best played on a large screen, but is playable on medium screens as well. Small screens will almost always require sideways scrolling, and may sometimes require vertical scrolling as well.

Difficulty: Forty Thieves, as its name suggests, is pretty tough. This is a game for thinkers and planners and people with patience. Good players can win at least 10% of their games.

Rules: Shuffle two decks and lay out forty cards in ten tableau piles, four cards to each pile, face up and fanned down. Keep the remaining cards in your hand. There are also eight foundation piles and a discard pile, which start out empty.

Top cards of tableaus and the discard pile are available. The tableaus are to be built down in suit; any available card may be played to an empty tableau. The foundations build up in suit from the Ace to the King. Whenever you wish, deal a new card from the hand onto the discard pile. The goal is to move all cards to the foundations.

(See picture: Forty Thieves. A game is shown in progress. The 8 of Clubs on the discard pile can be moved onto the 9 of Clubs in the tableaus.)

On the Screen: Solitaire Till Dawn will lay out the cards for you. Deal cards from the hand onto the discard pile by clicking the hand.

The rules state that you can move only one card at a time. But as a shortcut, Solitaire Till Dawn will allow you to move a full or partial build if there are enough empty tableau piles, because you would have been able to accomplish the same effect by temporarily moving the extra cards into the empty tableaus.