Play Gotham Solitaire Online — New York With Runs
Gotham is New York with more on the table. Two decks give eight columns of three, and one card goes to a foundation: its rank is the base of all eight foundations. The stock is open: its top card is face up and you play it by hand to a foundation, a column, or any of three waste piles, which take cards from the stock only. Columns build down by rank regardless of suit, turning the corner, and a packed run moves as a unit. An empty column takes a card from the stock or a waste only. Foundations build up in suit from the base rank, turning the corner. No redeal. Bank all 104 to win.
Setup
Shuffle two decks. Deal three cards face up to each of eight columns and turn the next card onto its foundation; it fixes the base rank for every suit. Turn the following card face up on the stock. Three waste piles start empty.
Rules
- Foundations build up in suit from the dealt base rank, turning the corner from king to ace. Each suit has two piles.
- Columns build down by rank in any suit, turning the corner: a king on an ace.
- Runs travel. A packed sequence moves as one.
- Spaces are filled from the stock or a waste. A card from a column may not enter an empty column.
- The stock is open. Its top card is face up and in play: move it to a foundation, a column, or any of the three waste piles. Nothing is dealt by clicking; the next card turns up when the top one leaves.
- The wastes take cards from the stock only. The top card of every waste is in play.
- No redeal. The stock is played once, card by card.
- Win when all eight foundations hold thirteen cards.
Strategy
The rank build with runs makes Gotham's columns far more fluid than New York's: any card one rank lower fits, and whole sequences slide between columns. The tension is the space rule, which keeps column cards out of empty columns, and the wastes, which hold whatever the stock brings that fits nowhere.
- Build long runs. With any suit allowed, runs grow fast and travel whole; a long run on a high card is a shelf for half the deck.
- Bank from the stock and the wastes first. A card a foundation wants should never be buried.
- Save spaces for the stock. Only a stock or waste card may fill one, so an empty column is where a stubborn stock card goes when no run wants it.
- Sort the wastes by distance from the base. Near ranks on one pile, middle on the second, far on the third; the hint follows this rule.
- Turn the corner. Read ranks as distance from the base: with a base of ten, a queen is two away and a two is five.
- Twins split the work. Two decks hold every card twice; send one copy of each rank up each pile of its suit.
Where It Sits in the Forty Thieves Family
Gotham is New York's deeper deal on the Forty Thieves engine: the same open stock, three wastes and dealt base, with three cards a column, a rank build and runs. Dover and Vincent are the line's dealing-stock members.
Other Games to Try
- New York — one card a column, colour build, single cards
- Dover — the stock deals to three wastes, down by rank
- Vincent — one deck, down in suit with runs
- Rank and File — a rank build with runs on the classic Forty Thieves board
About This Online Version
Gotham 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.