How is Napoleon's Square different from Forty Thieves?

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.

Why is it called Napoleon's Square?

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.

Can I move a run of cards together?

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.

Is Napoleon's Square winnable?

Usually. The classic references put the odds at about nine games in ten, thanks to the twelve open columns and the moving runs. The game detects a genuine dead end and tells you when no legal move remains.

What can go on an empty column?

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.

Napoleon's Square Solitaire - Play Online & 100% Free

Play Napoleon's Square Solitaire — Forty Thieves With Two More Columns and Moving Runs

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, no redeal, and a win rate the old books put at nine games in ten. Free in your browser, no sign-up.

How Do You Play Napoleon's Square?

Goal: build all eight foundations from Ace to King by suit, using both decks.

Setup

Tableau: twelve columns of four cards (48 cards), all face up.
Foundations: eight empty piles, two per suit. Build up by suit, Ace to King.
Stock: the remaining 56 cards, face down. Waste: empty.

Rules

Build tableau columns down by suit: the 7 of spades goes on the 8 of spades only.
A packed run moves as a unit: any sequence of same-suit cards in descending order can travel together.
An empty column accepts any card or run.
Click the stock to turn one card to the waste. The waste's top card may be played to the tableau or a foundation.
One pass only. When the stock is empty there is no redeal.
Foundations build up by suit from the Ace. Cards on a foundation stay there.

Napoleon's Square Strategy

Twelve open columns and moving runs give you more room than Forty Thieves ever does. Use it deliberately.

Empty a column early, then keep it empty. With 48 cards exposed you can usually clear a short column in the first few moves. A space is where you park the odd card that arrives from the stock with no home, and where you assemble runs out of order.
Move runs, but only when it uncovers something. A run that travels whole is a tempting move, but if it leaves a card you cannot use on top of the source column, you have spent a move for nothing. Move a run when the card beneath it is a foundation play or a needed host.
Watch the waste, because it is the game. With no redeal, every stock card you cannot place goes to the waste and is buried by the next. Before each stock click, make every tableau move you can, so the arriving card has the most possible homes.
Prefer building on the twin suit's longer run. Each suit has two Aces and two foundations, so a run can end up split between them. Build the deeper foundation first and keep the shorter one for the second copy of each rank.

Napoleon's Square in the Forty Thieves Family

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.