Napoleon's Square is the friendly member of the Forty Thieves line. It uses the same two decks and the same suit-by-suit building, but it lays out twelve columns of four instead of ten, and it lets a packed run travel as a unit. The original deals the twelve columns as three sides of a square with the foundations in the middle, which is where the name comes from; the shape is decoration, and the game plays identically as a row. One pass through the stock and no redeal, but twelve open columns and moving runs to work with. Free in your browser, no sign-up.
Goal: build all eight foundations from Ace to King by suit, using both decks.
Twelve open columns and moving runs give you more room than Forty Thieves ever does. Use it deliberately.
Napoleon's Square is one of the oldest named members of the Forty Thieves line. It appears in a revised edition of Lady Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Patience in the early 1900s as Le Carré Napoléon, and in the mid-century references by Morehead and Mott-Smith and by David Parlett, which describe it as an easier variation of Napoleon at St Helena, the game we call Forty Thieves. The old texts allowed only the top card to move; Morehead and Mott-Smith let sequences move as a unit, and that is the rule that has stuck and the one played here.
In the family tree it sits beside Josephine, which keeps the ten-column deal but allows the same moving runs, and across from Limited, which also opens twelve columns but keeps the single-card rule. Napoleon's Square combines the two mercies, which is why it is among the most winnable games in the line.
For the stricter versions of the same idea, try Forty Thieves or Josephine.
Two ways. It deals twelve columns of four instead of ten, so 48 cards are open from the start and the stock is shorter, and it lets a packed run of same-suit cards move as a unit, where Forty Thieves moves one card at a time. The suit building, the single pass through the stock and the eight foundations are the same.
The traditional layout places the twelve columns along three sides of a square with the foundations in the centre. The arrangement is purely visual; this version lays the columns in a row, and every rule and decision is identical.
Yes, as long as the run is packed down by suit: the 9, 8 and 7 of hearts can move together onto the 10 of hearts. Cards of different suits never form a run here, even if they are in descending order.
No. The stock is turned one card at a time and only once. When it is empty, the cards left in the waste stay where they are, so the order in which you turn the stock matters.
Not every deal, but the twelve open columns and the moving runs give you a lot of room. The game detects a genuine dead end and tells you when no legal move remains.
Any single card or any packed same-suit run. Empty columns are your main working space, so clearing one early and keeping it free is the heart of the strategy.