McClellan deals the same eight columns of four as Diplomat, then hides three of the four. Twenty-four of the thirty-two dealt cards are face down and turn up only as the cards above them move. The build is by suit and a packed suit run travels as a unit, so the game is about choosing which columns to open and building the runs that open them. Two decks, seventy-two cards in a stock turned once. Free in your browser, no sign-up.
Goal: build all eight foundations from Ace to King by suit.
Three hidden cards under every column and a strict suit build: the early game is about uncovering, and the suit rule makes every uncovering expensive.
PySolFC registers McClellan as a Diplomat variant with a suit row stack and a deal of three face-down rows plus one face-up, and rates it balanced. It is the third way the Diplomat board is played in this catalogue: Diplomat builds by rank one card at a time, Lady Palk lets rank runs move, and McClellan hides three rows and builds by suit. Its hidden-row shape resembles Emperor, which hides three rows across ten columns with an alternate-colour build.
Like every game in this family here, the first stock card is left for you to turn rather than dealt to the waste at the start.
Twenty-four: three in each of the eight columns. Only the top card of each column is face up at the start, and each hidden card turns up the moment the card covering it is moved away.
Three ways: it builds by suit rather than by rank, a packed suit run moves as a unit rather than one card at a time, and three of its four rows are dealt face down rather than face up. The board, the stock and the single pass are the same.
Yes. There is no king rule and no forced fill, and with three hidden rows a space is usually the key to reaching a specific buried card.
No. The 72 stock cards are turned once, one at a time.
Both hide three rows and allow one pass. Emperor spreads forty cards across ten columns and builds in alternating colours one card at a time; McClellan uses eight columns, builds by suit and moves runs. McClellan's board is smaller and its build stricter, but its run move gives it more mobility.