Napoleon's Shoulder deals the same twelve columns of four as Napoleon's Square, but it plays a very different game. Columns build down by rank regardless of suit, one card at a time, which sounds generous until you meet the rule the game is built around: an empty column may be filled only by the top card of the waste. No card from another column may move into a space, not even a King. So a cleared column is not a parking place for the tableau; it is a landing strip for the stock, and knowing when to open one is the whole art. Two decks, eight foundations, one pass through the stock, no redeal. Free in your browser, no sign-up.
Goal: build all eight foundations from Ace to King by suit, using both decks.
Forget what spaces mean in other games. Here they are for the stock alone, and the timing of opening one is everything.
Napoleon's Shoulder is one of the Napoleonic variants listed alongside Napoleon's Square: the same two-deck, twelve-column deal, with the building loosened to rank and the spaces tightened to the waste. The PySol collection implements the space rule precisely, refusing any card into an empty column unless it comes from the waste, and the BVS rule page states it in plain words. Its nearest live relative is Diplomat, which builds by rank on eight columns and lets any card fill a space; the two games make a neat pair for feeling what the space rule is worth.
The fill is a permission, not an obligation. You are never forced to put a waste card into a space, so an open column can be held for the right card, which is the decision the game turns on.
For the same deal with suit building and moving runs, play Napoleon's Square; for rank building with ordinary spaces, play Diplomat.
Same deal of twelve columns of four, different rules on top. Napoleon's Square builds by suit and moves runs as a unit, and any card may fill a space. Napoleon's Shoulder builds by rank regardless of suit, moves one card at a time, and lets only the top card of the waste into an empty column.
Only the top card of the waste. No card from another column may move into a space, not even a King. This is the rule the game is named for, and it turns each cleared column into a landing place for the stock rather than a parking place for the tableau.
No. The rule is a permission, not an obligation. You may leave a column empty as long as you like and fill it when the right waste card appears.
No. Only the top card of a column moves, one card per move, even when the cards beneath it are in descending order.
No. The stock is turned one card at a time and only once. Cards left in the waste at the end stay there, so every stock card should be placed if it can be.
Not every deal. Rank building on twelve open columns gives many hosts, and PySol rates the game balanced. The game detects a genuine dead end and tells you when no legal move remains.