Indian Solitaire
How to play Indian
Indian is a two-deck solitaire game of the Forty Thieves family in which ten piles of three, one face down under two face up, are built down in any suit but a card's own.
Ten piles of three with one card face down in each, built down in any suit but a card's own.
The goal of Indian
Move all 104 cards onto the eight foundations, two for each suit, each built up from the Ace to the King.
How to set up Indian
Two standard decks are shuffled together, 104 cards in all. Thirty are dealt into ten piles of three, one face down under two face up, and the other 74 form the stock.
Indian rules
Piles build down one rank at a time in any suit but the card's own: a Seven of hearts goes on an Eight of clubs, diamonds or spades, never on an Eight of hearts. Only one card moves at a time, the top card of a pile or of the waste. A face-down card turns face up once it is on top of its pile, and an empty pile takes any card.
Turn the stock onto the waste one card at a time, once through with no redeal. Only the top waste card is in play.
A card on a foundation never comes back into play.
Click a card to send it to its foundation, else onto the first pile it builds on, else into an empty pile. Drag it to choose yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
How to win at Indian
You win when all 104 cards are home. With the stock and waste empty, no card face down and every pile in order, Auto complete, on by default in Settings, plays the rest for you. The game is stuck when no card can move and the rest of the stock brings up nothing that can.
Indian strategy tips
Building on any suit but its own gives each card six places on the table, as many as in Midshipman and more than anywhere else in the family but Little Forty and Double Rail. The choice is the hard part: put a card where it covers nothing you need soon, rather than on the first pile that takes it.
Each pile has only one face-down card, under two face-up ones, so clearing the two face-up cards from a pile always turns up its one hidden card. Do that early: ten hidden cards are all that stand between you and a fully open table.
The stock holds 74 cards and goes through once, so most of the game is played from the waste. Before each turn, see whether a table move leaves a place for the card about to be covered.
Since a card of any other suit fits, a pile can grow long fast. Every card added is one more single move before the pile's hidden card can be reached, so build on the piles whose hidden card has already turned.
Indian questions and answers
How do you play Indian solitaire?
Shuffle two decks together and deal ten piles of three, one card face down under two face up, keeping the other 74 cards as the stock. Build the piles down in any suit but a card's own, one card at a time, and go through the stock once, one card at a time. You win when all 104 cards are home.
What does any suit but its own mean in Indian?
A card goes on the next higher card of any of the other three suits. A Seven of hearts may go on an Eight of clubs, diamonds or spades, but never on an Eight of hearts. Colour does not matter. A Six of diamonds may go on a Seven of hearts, which no game built in alternating colours allows.
What is the difference between Indian and Midshipman?
Only the deal. Indian deals ten piles of three, one card face down under two face up, and Midshipman deals nine piles of four, two face down under two face up. Both build down in any suit but a card's own, move one card at a time and go through the stock once.
How many places can a card go in Indian?
Six places on the table, plus its foundation. A Seven of hearts may go on either copy of the Eight of clubs, the Eight of diamonds or the Eight of spades, and home once a Six of hearts tops one of its suit's foundations.
Can every Indian deal be won?
Not necessarily. Searching up to a million positions per deal, the game's solver proved 47% of the Indian deals it tried winnable, so at least that share can be won. Midshipman, which deals nine piles of four with two cards face down, proved 60%. With Winnable on, in the menu beside New deal, each board comes from a list of 500 proved deals. Hint asks the same solver for a winning line before it suggests a move.
Is there a daily Indian game?
Yes. Indian has a daily board, the same deal for everyone that day, dealt the way a Winnable board is. Log in to play it.