Rules for Stalactites

Family: FreeCell
Categories: Rewarding, Large
Variants:
Also Known As: Old Mole,Grampus

Stalactites is reminiscent of Free Cell, but with only two “cells.” With good play most games are winnable, but you should expect to lose a few from time to time.

Layout

Shuffle the deck and lay out four cards face up to form the foundation piles. Lay out the remaining 48 cards in 8 columns of six cards each, face up and fanned down. Two reserve piles on the side start out empty.

Play

Top cards of tableaus and any cards in the reserves are available for play to the foundations. Top cards of tableaus are also avaiable for play on empty reserves.

Build the foundations up in suit circularly (Ace or 2 on King) to a maximum of 13 cards each. Your first move determines whether the foundations will build up by ones (for example, 5-6-7 and so on) or by twos (5-7-9 and so on).

Goal

The goal is to move all the cards onto the foundations.

Tips

Think ahead: use the reserves to give access to cards you can’t reach otherwise, but try to ensure that you can empty the reserves again as soon as possible.

Build the foundations as evenly as you can. Finishing foundations too soon will leave you fewer opportunities to move cards from the tableaus and reserves.

Don’t play the last card from a tableau until you have to. Empty tableaus reduce your choices.