How To Play Forty Thieves
A tough two-deck patience — get all 104 cards up onto the foundations.
The layout
Two decks are used. Ten columns are dealt four face-up cards each, and the rest form the stock you turn one card at a time. Above the columns sit the eight foundations and the stock and waste piles.
Goal
Build all eight foundations up by suit, each from the A to the K (A 2 3…K). There are two foundations per suit, since it's two decks.
Moving cards
- In the columns, build down by suit — a card goes onto one of the same suit, one rank higher: 7♥ onto 8♥.
- Any card may be placed on an empty column.
- Tap a card at the bottom of a column (or the waste) to send it straight to a foundation when it fits. Drag to move a card onto a column.
The stock
Tap the stock to turn its top card onto the waste, then play it if you can. There's no redeal — you get a single pass through the stock, so spend it carefully.
Moving a run
Officially you move one card at a time, but as a shortcut you can drag a whole same-suit descending run at once — as long as you have enough empty columns to have shuffled it across by hand. The more empty columns, the longer the run you can move.
To make the game easier, there is an option to relax the rules for moving a run.
Buttons
- Hint — points out a card you can play.
- Auto — sweeps every card that's ready up to the foundations.
- Undo — steps back as far as you like.
- New game — deals a fresh board.
Tip: Forty Thieves is hard — guard your empty columns. They're your only maneuvering room, so don't fill one unless it clearly frees a card you need, and try to keep an escape route before committing to the stock.
