Beleaguered Castle: the Aces start on the foundations and every other card is face up. Move one card at a time and build each suit to King.
What is Beleaguered Castle Solitaire?
Beleaguered Castle Solitaire is a one-deck solitaire game in which the four Aces start on the foundations and you build each suit up to the King, moving one card at a time between eight columns of face-up cards. There is no stock, no reserve and no free cell. Every card is on the table and visible from the first move.
That makes it a game of pure planning. Nothing is left to luck once the cards are dealt, so a lost deal is either one with no solution or one where a better order of moves existed. Undo lets you find out which.
How to play Beleaguered Castle
The deal: the four Aces are taken out and placed on the four foundations. The other 48 cards are dealt face up into eight columns of six.
Moving cards: only the end card of a column can move, one card at a time. A card goes onto a card one rank higher, of any suit and either colour, so a 5 of clubs may go on any 6. Any card can go into an empty column.
Foundations: each foundation already holds its Ace and grows by suit, 2, 3 and so on up to the King. A card on a foundation stays there.
Winning: you win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. In practice the game is decided earlier. Once every column runs from high to low, the lowest card left on the table is always at the end of a column and can go up next, so an Auto-finish button appears to play the rest.
Beleaguered Castle strategy
Plan before you move. All 48 cards are in view, so take a moment at the start. Find where each 2 lies and how many cards cover it, then the 3s. The low cards with the fewest cards on top are the place to begin.
Make an empty column early. An empty column is the only spare space in the game and the tool that makes everything else possible. Look for the column whose cards can most easily find homes on other columns, and clear it.
Count what an empty column buys. Because you move one card at a time, moving a run means parking its cards. With one empty column you can move a run of 2 cards, with two you can move 4, and with three, 8. Keep that in mind before you build a long run you might need to move later.
Build with the foundations in mind. Since any suit can go on any higher card, you will often have several places for a card. Prefer a card whose own suit is far from the foundations, so you will not need to move it away soon. Avoid placing cards on a low card that is about to go up.
Sort the columns. The win is really about getting each column into descending order. A move that puts a column in order is often worth more than one more card on a foundation.
Use undo freely. Beleaguered Castle is a game of exploration: test a line of play, see where it ends, and step back. Undo has no limit, though each undo counts as a move.
Rules in our version and related games
Our Beleaguered Castle has one rule set and no menu options: Aces on the foundations at the start, eight columns of six face-up cards, building down regardless of suit, single-card moves and any card in an empty column. Traditional layouts fan the cards sideways in rows on either side of the foundations. Ours fans them down in columns so the table fits a phone held upright.
Other variants exist. Streets and Alleys is the same game with the Aces dealt into the columns with the other cards, which makes it harder. For a two-deck game with the same one-card moves, try Forty Thieves on Hevagames, and for a game with free cells, try FreeCell.
Where Beleaguered Castle comes from
Beleaguered Castle is a classic patience game found in card game books under this name and a few others, such as Laying Siege. The name comes from the traditional layout: the four Aces form the castle in the middle, and the rows of cards on either side are the army laying siege to it.
It belongs to the family of open solitaires, where every card is visible, together with games such as FreeCell.
Play Beleaguered Castle on Hevagames
Our Beleaguered Castle runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers, with nothing to download. Drag a card, or tap a card and then where it should go. A double tap sends a card to its foundation if it fits, otherwise to another column. On a keyboard, the arrow keys move between piles and Enter picks up and places; Z or Backspace undoes and N deals a new game.
Undo has no limit and each undo counts as a move. The deal in progress, with the last 60 undo steps, is saved in your browser and survives a reload. The top bar shows moves, time and score.
Scoring: 10 points for each card you move to a foundation; the four starting Aces do not count. A win adds a bonus of 1000 minus 2 per move and minus half a point per second, never below zero. The timer starts with your first move, and your best score is kept on your device.
How to play
- 1The four Aces start on the foundations. The other 48 cards are dealt face up into eight columns of six.
- 2Build the foundations up by suit to King.
- 3In the columns, a card goes on a card one rank higher of any suit. Move one card at a time.
- 4Any card can go into an empty column.
- 5When every column runs from high to low, tap Auto-finish.
Controls
Tips
- Every card is visible from the start, so plan a few moves ahead.
- An empty column is your most useful tool; do not fill it without a reason.
- Free the Twos and Threes first.
