Forty Thieves is a very popular solitaire card game implemented in many online and downloadable versions of solitaire game packages for Windows, Macintosh and Palm. It uses two decks or 104 cards. Since it is a double deck game Forty Thieves take more time to complete compared to other single deck solitaire card games but it is a relatively easy game.
Foundation in Forty Thieves consists of 6 piles. Object of the game is to bring all cards to foundation from tableau and waste piles. Foundation card arranging order is Up in Suit and foundation base card is Ace. So in each foundation pile player has to arrange cards in ascending order by suit from Ace to King. For example in a hearts pile you have to put Ace of hearts first, then 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and10 of hearts, then Jack, Queen and King of hearts. To finish the game you have to fill all 8 piles with 13 cards or total 104 cards.
In Forty Thieves Tableau consists of 10 piles and each pile contains 4 cards in initial play. So when you start a new game tableau piles contain 40 cards. So it is called Forty Thieves. In Tableau cards has to be arranged in Down in Suit. Player has to start building from the King to Ace in same suit. For example you can put a clubs of 9 on top of clubs of 10. Top card of each pile is called open card and is available for play. You can play it to another tableau top card or to foundation. Only one card can be moved at a time. Multi move is not allowed. Empty Tableau space can be filled with any available card.
Forty Thieves has one stock pile and one waste pile. At the starting point tableau piles are filled with 40 cards and remaining 64 cards reside in Stock pile. You can turn up one card at a time and move it to stock with a single click. Top card of the waste pile is available for play. There is no redeal option in Forty Thieves i.e. when the stock is empty you cannot reload it from waste. If a card is stuck in waste pile then the game cannot be completed.
Chance of winning is low in Forty Thieves because there is no redeal and no multi move in tableau piles. There are many variations of Forty Thieves are available today with redeals and multi move but with different name. Forty Thieves is a very old classic solitaire game so still solitaire players love to play this game.
To complete the game, try to get an empty tableau pile at the earliest and also don't pile up too many cards in the waste pile.
Forty Thieves Games List
Some of Forty Thieves variations are also popular like Ali Baba, Big Forty, Busy Aces, Carre Napoleon, Courtyard, Deuces, Dieppe, Double Rail, Famous Fifty, Forty and Eight, Little Forty, Little Napoleon, Lucas, Maria, Midshipman, Quadrangle, Rank and File, Red and Black and Number Ten. |