About Forty Thieves
Forty Thieves is a challenging solitaire game played with two full decks of cards. A tableau is laid out with forty cards from the two decks shuffled together, and the rest are placed in the stack. You can only move one card at a time, placing each individual card on another card of the same suit with one higher rank. So a 9 of spades can only be placed on a 10 of spades, for example.
An empty pile can take any card. This can give you some flexibility for moving cards around. You win the game when you build all eight foundations, two for each suit, from ace to king.
Scoring
Traditionally, in Forty Thieves, you can only play through the deck one time. It is very challenging to win that way. In this version of the game, you get points for each card that you place on the foundation. Points are awarded based on the value of the card placed. An ace is worth 1 point, a two is worth 2 points, etc. The jack, queen and king are worth 11, 12 and 13 points respectively.
It is possible to move cards, one at a time, from the foundation back to the tableau. Doing so will cost you the same amount of points.
There is an undo button. Using it for the first time costs 1 point. The second time will cost 2 points, and the cost will continue to go up with each use of the button. If you don’t have enough points, you can not undo.
Once you have exhausted the deck you can pay points to restore it and go through again. The cost to refresh the deck is calculated based on the points you have against all the possible points. The total possible is 728, if you do not undo any moves. The cost to refresh the deck is determined by subtracting the points you have from the 728 total, then getting 25% of that amount (rounded up). So, if you have 200 points in your score, the amount left is 528. 25% of that is 132, which is what it will cost to refresh the deck. Note that the deck is not shuffled, and the card at the bottom of the discard pile will come up first, the second card, second, etc.
Strategy
The real fun of this game comes from minimizing / maximizing your overall statistics. You will not be penalized for re-dealing the deck, if you don’t move any cards. As soon as you move a card in the tableau, foundation, or deck, you are committed to the score you get in that game. This means you can look at the tableau and decide if you want to play that game or re-deal. Judging the playability of the game is part of the fun and it’s harder than it looks!
History of Forty Thieves Solitaire
The title “Forty Thieves” is likely a playful reference to the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, but functionally it reflects the game’s starting layout of forty cards in the tableau. The game is believed to have French origins and has been known by various names: Big Forty, Napoleon at Saint Helena, Roosevelt at San Juan, and Le Cadran. In English-speaking countries, it became particularly associated with Napoleon, due to legends that he played solitaire while exiled on Saint Helena after his defeat in 1815. While this association is widely repeated, historical evidence for Napoleon actually playing this specific game remains debated among game historians.
This Version of Forty Thieves Solitaire
I made this version, because other versions online that you could play for free were either ugly, or had rules I did not like, or both. This version is created with plain vanilla HTML, CSS and JS. I used the GSAP library for animations, but that probably wasn’t even necessary. I just wanted to learn how to use it.