Add Forty Thieves as a game variant. Also known as Napoleon at St Helena, it is one of the best-known two-deck patience games. It builds on the two-deck support introduced for Spider (#21 / #48), but offers a distinct, longer-form game centered on strict same-suit building, single-card movement, and careful stock management.
Rules
- Deck: two standard 52-card decks shuffled together (104 cards total).
- Deal: deal 40 cards face-up into ten tableau columns of four cards each. The remaining 64 cards form a face-down stock. Start with an empty waste and eight empty foundations.
- Tableau building: build downward by suit, one rank at a time — for example, 7♠ onto 8♠. Only the exposed top card of a tableau column may be moved; sequences cannot move as a unit.
- Empty columns: any single available card — an exposed tableau card or the top waste card — may fill an empty tableau column.
- Foundations: build eight foundations upward by suit from ace through king. Because two decks are in play, there are two complete foundations for each suit. Cards placed on a foundation cannot return to the tableau.
- Stock and waste: turn one stock card face-up onto the waste at a time, whenever desired. Only the top waste card is available for play to the tableau or a foundation. The stock is used once; there is no redeal.
- Win: move all 104 cards to the eight foundations. Loss: after the stock is exhausted, no legal move remains from the tableau or waste to either the tableau or foundations.
References
Add Forty Thieves as a game variant. Also known as Napoleon at St Helena, it is one of the best-known two-deck patience games. It builds on the two-deck support introduced for Spider (#21 / #48), but offers a distinct, longer-form game centered on strict same-suit building, single-card movement, and careful stock management.
Rules
References