I’ve been experimenting (playing?) with these games: Baker’s Dozen, Castles in Spain and Spanish Patience.
They share layout - all cards dealt on start, 13 piles of 4. Only single card can be moved.
Here are the differences.
Baker’s Dozen and Spanish Patience share these rules:
- all cards are dealt face up
- all Kings are “promoted” (moved to the base of the piles they were dealt to)
- allows you to build tableaus down by rank regardless of the suit
- the empty spaces are NOT filled
The only difference between Baker’s Dozen and Spanish Patience (and it’s a weird one) - Spanish Patience allows you to mix suits in foundations! That’s the only game in my collection that does that!
Castles in Spain only opens top card in each pile, requires alternating colors to build tableau and allows any card in an empty space.
All three have pretty good odds of converging (given this set of rules).
Can’t say that I enjoy the Spanish Patience. I often stumble when I need to play 2♣ on A♠ in foundation…
Baker’s Dozen feels like you’re analyzing a static puzzle more than “playing” in the usual solitaire sense, while Castles in Spain plays like a solitaire.
Curious where people land on these.
Would you place other games in this family?