The rules of Quarante Voleurs
In brief
Play with two decks, making 104 cards: 10 columns of 4 face-up cards and a stock of 64 cards. Move only one card at a time, onto a card of the same suit one rank higher. The game is won when all 8 foundations have been built up from ace to king.
Setup
The game uses 104 cards: 2 complete decks of 52 cards, shuffled together. Each card therefore has two copies. The app deals 40 cards into 10 columns of 4 cards, all face up. The remaining 64 cards form the face-down stock. Above them, 8 empty spaces await the foundations, and the waste is empty.
Stock: 64 cards; waste empty. foundation 1: empty, foundation 2: empty, foundation 3: empty, foundation 4: empty, foundation 5: empty, foundation 6: empty, foundation 7: empty, foundation 8: empty. column 1: ace of diamonds, 3 of spades, king of hearts, 2 of hearts; column 2: jack of clubs, 3 of hearts, 2 of spades, 9 of hearts; column 3: 9 of clubs, jack of hearts, ace of hearts, 8 of hearts; column 4: 8 of diamonds, 9 of diamonds, king of clubs, 7 of diamonds; column 5: 10 of diamonds, 9 of spades, ace of hearts, jack of spades; column 6: king of clubs, jack of spades, 8 of spades, queen of spades; column 7: 9 of diamonds, queen of hearts, 6 of diamonds, 4 of hearts; column 8: 9 of hearts, ace of spades, ace of clubs, 3 of hearts; column 9: 6 of clubs, 5 of spades, 7 of hearts, 4 of diamonds; column 10: 5 of diamonds, 9 of clubs, 2 of spades, 10 of clubs.
Allowed moves
- Move only one card at a time: the top card of a column or the top card of the waste.
- In a column, place it on the card of the same suit (spades, hearts, diamonds or clubs) one rank higher: the 7 of spades on the 8 of spades, never on the 8 of hearts.
- Nothing can be placed on an ace in a column, since no card ranks lower.
- Two cards forming a same-suit sequence cannot move together: you must move them one after the other, so you need to find a place for each one.
The empty column
An empty column accepts any card, not just a king: a card from another column or the top card of the waste. It is the only free space in the game, and the most useful.
The foundations
There are 8 foundations, two per suit. In the app, each space has a fixed suit, from left to right: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. A foundation starts with an ace of its suit, followed by the 2, the 3, and so on up to the king. Each card placed on a foundation earns points.
The app lets you drag the top card of a foundation back onto a column, but doing so costs points.
The stock and waste
Tapping the stock turns over one card onto the waste. Only the top card of the waste can be played, onto a foundation or a column. The stock cannot be cycled through again: when it is empty, all 64 cards have been seen once, and any cards buried beneath others in the waste can only be freed by playing the cards above them first.
The end of the game
You win when all 8 foundations hold their 13 cards, from ace to king, accounting for all 104 cards. The app does not detect a blocked game: when no moves remain, you can undo moves or start a new game.
Scoring
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Start of the game | 0 |
| Card placed on a foundation | +10 |
| Card moved from the waste to a column | +5 |
| Card taken back from a foundation to a column | -15 |
| Card moved from one column to another, drawing a card | 0 |
The score never falls below 0. There is no bonus for winning: the 104 cards placed on the foundations are worth 1040 points, plus 5 points for each card moved from the waste to a column. Taking a card back from a foundation costs 15 points, and returning it earns only 10.
Example: the game on the Examples page moves 29 cards from the waste to a column. It finishes with 1040 + 29 × 5 = 1185 points. This is the app’s scoring system; other versions of the game score differently, or do not keep score at all.
App-specific features
- Tapping a card sends it to a foundation that accepts it; for the waste card, if no foundation accepts it, it goes to a column that accepts it.
- Double-click (enabled by default): the card goes to a foundation, otherwise to the longest column that accepts it, otherwise to an empty column.
- Drag and drop; “Auto placement” (disabled by default) sends the dropped card to the best position.
- Placement assistance: while you drag a card, valid columns are highlighted. Interactive rules: after a rejected move, the app reminds you of the rule.
- Undo: the last 100 actions, including moves and draws. The score returns to its previous value, but the move counter does not decrease.
- Game code: each deal has a code in the form FT1-N- followed by 7 characters, which you can copy to replay or share it.
- No hints or solver: the app does not tell you whether a deal is winnable.