Kittyhawk
Designed by Ezra Bradford
Players 1
Length
Extra Material A double decktet

Another olde style solitaire game for the Decktet. (Rules version 2.0)

Objective

Organize all of the cards into 6 piles that share a single suit and are in ascending rank order from Ace to Crown.

Setup

From a double decktet, form a 60-card Myrmex deck, comprising:

  • 6 Aces, one of each suit
  • 6 Crowns, one of each suit
  • 2 copies of each numbered card (48 total)

Lay out the six Aces to start the six Foundation piles. The goal is to eventually stack all the cards here. (I like to put these in a row across the top of my play area, in order by suit.)

Shuffle the other 54 cards together. This becomes the Stock (aka deck) which you will deal cards from.

From the stock, deal one card face up into each of six Tableau piles. This is your active working area. (I like to arrange these in a three by two grid in the middle of my play area.)

Finally, deal three face-up cards into each of two Heap piles. Splay them so you can see all three cards. This is where new cards will enter. (I like to put these to the side of my play area, with room to extend either sideways or down.)

In summary, you have:

  • 6 Foundation piles, each with an Ace
  • 6 Tableau piles, each initially with 1 face-up card
  • 2 Heap piles, each initially with 3 face-up cards
  • 1 Stock, now with the remaining 42 cards face-down

Game play

Move a single card at a time.

Foundation:

  • You may move the top card of any stack.
  • You may move onto any card that is 1 rank lower, if the moving card has the suit of the pile's ace.

The cards in any particular pile will all share one suit. Stack them straight, but with the Ace a little offset so you can see its suit.

Tableau:

  • You may move the top card of any stack.
  • You may move a card to any empty Tableau pile.
  • You may move a card onto a card that is 1 rank higher, if the moving card shares a suit with the target card.
The Mill 8waves.pngleaves.png on The Merchant 9leaves.pngknots.png on The Windmill crown.pngknots.png is a valid Tableau stack.

Heap:

  • You may move the top card of either stack.
  • Do not move cards onto the Heap except by dealing.
  • Do not move cards into a blank space except by dealing.

Stock:

  • You may deal. To deal, take six cards from the deck, then put three of them on top of each of the two Stock piles.
  • Do not move cards from the Stock except by dealing.
  • Do not move cards to the Stock.

When all 60 cards are stacked in the foundation piles, you win!

Variants and the Extended Deck

  • Level 2: Add six Pawns to the deck when you shuffle it. (I recommend two each of all except the Light Keeper/Confidant.) These are ranked in between 9 and Crown. Having more high cards can be troublesome, but their three suits make it easier to stack nines on crowns.
  • Level 3: No Pawns, but instead shuffle in the Aces. The foundations start empty, and you move the Aces there once you find them. This makes it very difficult to get going on foundations.
  • Level 4: Take the Aces back out, like levels 1 and 2 - instead put in the six Pawns and also add six Courts. (I recommend two each of all except the Rite/Reversal.) Due to their suits any Pawn can be stacked on any Court, but this is really quite a lot of high cards.
  • Level 5: Aces, Pawns, and Courts all. For true experts only.
  • Blind: To make a blind variant of any difficulty level, when dealing to either Heap, put two cards face down and only the third face up. Turn face-down cards up when they reach the top of the Heap. This is more challenging since you don't know which cards are ahead and which you're leaving behind. Unfortunately, I find it tedious to clean up a mixed-facing pile, so this is best left to computer-assisted gameplay or to experts in need of even more challenge.

Version History

1.x: Initial rules. (Corresponds to Blind Level 3 in the new system.)
2.0: Added difficulty levels and extended deck rules.

Credits

  • P.D. Magnus, for the Decktet.
  • Greg James, for Myrmex, which showed me how to adapt a solitaire game.
  • The traditional-deck solitaire game The Spark, on which Kittyhawk is loosely based.

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