Rules for Queen of Italy
Also known as Terrace. Similar games in Solitaire Plus include Forty Thieves and Indian Patience.
Layout
- A "reserve" of eleven cards at the top of the game window.
- Four initial cards dealt to the tableau. Select one of these four cards as the foundation base value.
- After selection of the foundation base card, the base card is moved to the first foundation, and additional cards are dealt to the tableau to form nine columns each containing one card.
Play
- The top cards of the tableau piles are available for play on foundations or other tableau piles.
- Only one card at a time may be moved.
- Build tableau piles down in value and alternating suit color.
- A King may be built on an alternately-colored Ace in the tableau.
- A space made by clearing a column may be filled by any available card from the tableau or the wastepile.
- Cards from the "reserve" may only be played to a foundation until the stock and wastepile are depleted.
Stock
- Click on the stock to turn up cards to the wastepile.
- The top card of the wastepile may be played to a foundation or tableau.
Foundations
- Move cards of identical value as the initial foundation base card to the row above the tableau as they are made available.
- Build the foundations in ascending suit sequence, turning the corner from Kings to Aces as necessary.
To Win
- Move all the cards to the foundations.
Grace
- Once the stock is depleted, it may be recycled once. However, once the stock has been recycled, a card turned up from the stock must be used before the next card from the stock can be accessed.
- Once the stock and wastepile are depleted, the reserve cards are freed for play to the tableau.
Strategy: Choose the foundation base card wisely. For example, if the reserve contains one or more cards of identical rank to the foundation base card, then one or more foundation piles may be unavailable for play until the latter stages of the game - perhaps too late.
Also, use open spaces in the tableau to reorder or consolidate builds. Allowing one or two tableau piles to remain open during game play may sometimes be preferable to filling the space with cards from the wastepile.
Many questions about the chances of winning Queen of Italy are received. A known solvable deal is game # 3102733 with 6's chosen as the foundation base value. Try it! If you don't win, consider changing your strategy.
Scoring: One point for each card moved to a foundation. Maximum score is 104.
Chance of Winning: 1 in 2 games.