Pitchfork is Needle with its one convenience removed. The board is the same — eight cards in a reserve, nine columns dealt face up in the shape 8, 8, 4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 8, 8, alternating-colour building one card at a time, any card into a space — but the reserve accepts nothing. Its eight cards may be played out from the top; no card may ever be put back. Four foundations build up from the ace; bank all 52 to win.
Shuffle one deck. Deal eight cards face up into the reserve, then nine columns of eight, eight, four, two, none, two, four, eight and eight cards, all face up. There is no stock; the four foundations start empty.
With no cell to park in, Pitchfork is a game of spaces. The only storage you have is an empty column, and the deal gives you exactly one. Everything else must be built, banked or left alone.
A typical game turns on the first ten moves. Clear the two short columns, bank whatever aces and twos are on top, and then look at the reserve: if its top card can be placed, the board opens up; if it cannot, every space you make should be aimed at finding that card a host before anything else is parked.
Pitchfork is Needle with the reserve's acceptance turned off — a one-line rule delta on the family's capacity-cell axis. Needle lets the reserve take up to eighteen cards; Haystack caps it at eight; Pitchfork takes none. Among the family's one-cell members, it plays closest to Stronghold with the cell replaced by a queue you empty and never refill.
Pitchfork 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.
One rule. The reserve accepts no card. In Needle you may park any card on it while it has room; in Pitchfork its eight dealt cards come out one by one and that is all it ever does.
No. The reserve is a source only. Its top card may be played to a column or a foundation, but nothing may be placed on it, even after it is empty.
No. Every move is a single card, and the only parking places are empty columns.
Empty columns. The deal leaves the middle column empty, and the two two-card columns beside it can be cleared quickly for two more spaces.
Yes. Needle gives you up to eighteen parking slots in the reserve; Pitchfork gives you none, so a space is the only place to put a card that is in the way.