Alexander the Great Solitaire
How to play Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great, as played here, is a one-deck solitaire game dealt face up into twelve fans of four that build up or down by suit, where clubs and spades go home from the Ace and hearts and diamonds from the King.
Clover Leaf dealt into twelve fans of four.
The goal of Alexander the Great
Move every card onto the four foundations: clubs and spades build up by suit from Ace to King, hearts and diamonds build down by suit from King to Ace.
How to set up Alexander the Great
The Aces of clubs and spades and the Kings of hearts and diamonds start on the four foundations. The other 48 cards are dealt face up into twelve fans of four, and there are no free cells and no stock.
Alexander the Great rules
Fans build up or down one rank at a time in the same suit, and a fan can change direction as it grows. Only the top card of a fan moves, one card at a time, onto its foundation or onto a fan where it builds.
An empty fan can be filled only with an Ace or a King. A card on a foundation never comes back into play.
Click a card to play it: to its foundation if it fits, otherwise onto a fan. Drag a card to choose where it goes yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
How to win at Alexander the Great
You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. When the cards left are lined up so the next card each foundation needs is always on top, Auto complete, on by default in Settings, moves them up for you. The game is stuck when no card has a legal move left.
Alexander the Great strategy tips
With four cards to a fan, a card you need can lie three deep. Count how many cards cover it before you decide which fan to work on.
A card laid on a fan covers the cards under it until it moves off again, so build on the fans whose lower cards you need last.
With the black Aces and the red Kings already home, an empty fan in practice takes a red Ace or a black King, and the cards next to it in its suit then have somewhere to go.
At the start only the twelve cards on top are uncovered, with the other 36 lying under them.
A fan here empties only once four cards have left it, one more than in Clover Leaf, so the first empty fan tends to come later.
Alexander the Great questions and answers
How do you play Alexander the Great solitaire?
Start the black Aces and the red Kings on the foundations and deal the other 48 cards face up into twelve fans of four. Move the top card of a fan onto a card one rank higher or lower of the same suit, or to its foundation, one card at a time. Only an Ace or a King can fill an empty fan.
What is the difference between Alexander the Great and Clover Leaf?
Only the deal. Alexander the Great deals the 48 cards into twelve fans of four, where Clover Leaf deals sixteen fans of three. With fewer, deeper fans more cards start buried, and the game's solver proves fewer deals winnable.
Is Alexander the Great the same as La Belle Lucie?
Some books use the name Alexander the Great for La Belle Lucie, a fan game in which the fans are gathered and dealt again. The game here has no redeal: it is played like Clover Leaf, on twelve fans of four.
Can every Alexander the Great deal be won?
Many cannot. Of 100 shuffled deals, the solver's dealing search proved 32 winnable and 35 lost, and the deeper search the Hint button uses proved 41 winnable and 42 lost, so it finds more deals lost than won. Even so, at least two deals in five can be won. Switch on Winnable in the menu beside New deal and each board is reshuffled until a win is proved, two shuffles on a typical deal and up to eleven in testing.
Is there a daily Alexander the Great game?
Yes. Alexander the Great has a daily board, the same deal for everyone that day, dealt the way a Winnable board is. You need to be logged in to play it.