Mahjong: Fortress
How to play Mahjong Fortress
Mahjong solitaire is a tile-matching puzzle for one player in which you clear a stacked layout of mahjong tiles by removing free tiles in matching pairs.
A courtyard walled twice around, with a tile on every corner tower.
144 tiles, 4 layers
About Mahjong Fortress
The Fortress floor is a solid block of 11 by 8, 88 tiles. On it stand two identical rings of 9 by 6, one on the other, so the wall is two tiles high, and a single tile caps each of its corners. Inside the wall the courtyard is 28 floor tiles, 7 by 4, all in plain sight, yet not one of them is free at the start.
Only 28 tiles are free at the start, against 35 on the Turtle: the ends of the floor rows, the top of the side walls and the four corner caps. A courtyard row opens only from outside in: first the end tile of its floor row, then the two wall tiles standing on the next one, then that floor tile. Take the corner caps to open the long top and bottom walls.
The four layers hold 88, 26, 26 and 4 tiles, and 56 begin covered. Were every free tile removed together each turn, the Fortress would need eight such sweeps to clear, as many as the Turtle, and its second sweep would free only 16, fewer than the first: the opening is the slow part. The last tiles to come free are the floor tiles under the middle of the long top and bottom walls.
The goal of Mahjong
Mahjong solitaire is a tile-matching puzzle for one player, not the four-player game. Clear the board by removing its tiles in matching pairs; you win when no tile is left.
How to set up Mahjong
A full set has 144 tiles: bamboo, characters and dots from 1 to 9, four winds and three dragons, four of each, plus four flowers and four seasons. Some layouts use fewer tiles. A new board is dealt at random and may be impossible to clear, unless you turn on Winnable under New game. Even a winnable board can be lost by matching the wrong pairs.
Mahjong rules
Select two free tiles that match and both leave the board. Tiles match when they show the same face, but any flower matches any flower and any season matches any season.
A tile is free when nothing lies on top of it, even partly, and its left or right side is not touching another tile on the same layer. Only the left and right sides count. You can have free tiles highlighted in the settings.
Hint shows a pair to take, chosen to keep the board winnable when a winning line can be found. Undo takes back a match, and Restart deals the same board again. There is no reshuffle: if tiles remain but no free pair matches, you are stuck and can undo, restart or start a new game.
The full Mahjong guide, with strategy tips and common questions