Play Josephine Solitaire Online — Forty Thieves, With Runs

Josephine deals the classic Forty Thieves board — two decks, ten columns of four cards, everything face up — and changes exactly one rule: a packed sequence may be moved as a unit. In the parent game every card has to be carried across one at a time, which is what makes an assembled run there a liability rather than an asset. Here a run is a tool you can pick up. It sounds like a small mercy, and against most of this family it is: the sequences still have to be built by suit, and a same-suit run is far rarer than an alternating-colour one.

Setup

• Tableau: ten columns of four cards, all face up — the classic forty.
• Stock: the remaining 64 cards, face down.
• Waste: one card at a time from the stock; only its top card is in play.
• Foundations: eight piles, two per suit, built up from ace to king.

Rules

• The tableau builds down by suit — the 7 of hearts goes on the 8 of hearts and nowhere else.
• A sequence already packed in suit moves as a unit, however long. There is no free-cell-style limit.
• An empty column takes any card or any packed run.
• Click the stock to turn one card to the waste. There is no redeal.
• Foundations take one card at a time. Only the tableau accepts a run.

Strategy

Build runs on purpose, but do not chase them. The run rule only pays when a sequence actually forms, and same-suit sequences do not form by accident. When you have a choice of hosts, take the one that extends a run you can imagine moving later. When you do not, do not contort the board trying to make one.

An empty column is worth far more here than in Forty Thieves. In the parent a space accepts one card. Here it accepts an entire staircase, which is the only way to relocate a long sequence in one move. That makes clearing a column the highest-value project on the board — and refilling it casually the most expensive mistake.

Dig for aces and twos above everything. Two decks mean every rank appears twice, so a buried ace is survivable. A suit whose ace and two are both deep will stall both of its foundations, and with no redeal there is no second pass to free them.

Play the board out before every stock click. One pass, one card at a time, no way back. A card you skip is a card you will never see again, so exhaust every free tableau move first.

Where It Sits in the Forty Thieves Family

The Forty Thieves group varies along a handful of dials: how much of the board is hidden, whether you build by suit or by colour, whether runs may travel, and whether the stock comes round again. Most members turn one dial away from the parent's hardest setting. Josephine is unusual in turning the run dial while leaving the build on suit — a combination no other common member has. Rank and File moves runs but builds by colour; Streets builds by colour without runs; Forty Thieves does neither. Because same-suit runs are scarce, Josephine ends up closer to the parent in difficulty than Rank and File is to Emperor, which makes it the natural next game once Forty Thieves stops feeling impossible.

Other Games to Try

• Forty Thieves — the strict parent, one card at a time
• Rank and File — runs move, but the build is by colour
• Diplomat — the loosest build in the family
• Forty and Eight — suit building softened by a redeal

About This Version

Josephine runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer and it works offline. You get unlimited undo, a hint button that names a legal move, statistics that track your wins and times, and seeded deals: every game has a seed you can replay, so a board you enjoyed (or lost) can be played again exactly.