Forecell is the older game, and playing it is the quickest way to understand what FreeCell actually gave you. The board is the same: eight columns, four cells, four foundations, everything face up. Two things are different, and both of them take something away. All four cells arrive already full — the four "fore" cards the game is named for — and an empty column will accept only a king.
The result is a game that opens almost locked. Where FreeCell begins with four free cells and a move limit of five, Forecell begins with a move limit of one. Your first job is not to plan a transfer; it is to find somewhere to put a fore card.
As in every game in this family, a multi-card move is really a series of single-card moves through your spare room:
(1 + free cells) × 2empty columns
At the deal you have no free cells and no empty columns, so the answer is one. Playing a single fore card onto the tableau lifts it to two; emptying a column and holding a king to fill it later can double whatever you have. Moving a run into a space is worth half, because the destination column cannot double as working space for the move arriving in it.
Look at the four cells before you look at anything else. A fore ace is close to a free move — send it up and the cell is yours. A fore king is a problem you may never solve, because a king cannot be built on anything and only leaves for an empty column. Two fore kings on a deal is often a deal worth restarting.
With every cell full you have exactly one legal kind of move: a card from a column onto another column. If no such move exists, the deal is over on move one. Any line that empties a cell is worth more than a line that gains a foundation card, because a free cell is what lets you keep playing at all.
Forecell is on the FreeCell side of the family: a red seven sits on either black eight. That gives every card two possible hosts rather than one, and it is the single thing making Forecell playable despite its opening. Look for the doubled options — they are the compensation for everything else the game takes away.
Emptying a column is the most powerful move in the family, but here it only pays if you can fill it. Before you spend six moves clearing a column, find the king you intend to put there and check it is actually reachable. An empty column you cannot fill still doubles your move limit, so it is not wasted — but a column you empty and are then forced to fill with your only accessible king often costs more than it gains.
Aces and twos should go up the moment you can reach them. Beyond that, be careful: a card on the foundation cannot host anything, and with the board this tight you frequently need a six left in play so a five has somewhere to go. Send a high card up only when both black or both red cards one rank below it are already safe.
Nothing is hidden, so a Forecell deal is a puzzle with all its pieces on the table. The players who win consistently spend their first minute not moving at all: they find the aces, count how deep each one is, note where the kings are, and only then decide whether the deal can be opened.