Play Terrace Solitaire

Terrace Solitaire game info

• Family: Terrace type solitaire games
• Decks: Two decks (104 cards)
• Game time: Long
• Change of winning: Low
• Also known as: Queen of Italy

Goal

The goal is to move all cards to the eight foundation piles, which are built up in ascending order and by alternating color, starting from the chosen foundation card.

Layout & deal

There are eight foundation piles in the middle of the playing area, the nine tableau piles are at the bottom, the reserve (also called the terrace) is at the top right of the screen and the stock is at the top left of the screen.

The foundation piles start empty, while the first four tableau piles are dealt one card each. The reserve has 11 face-up cards. The rest of the cards goes face-down in the stock.

Foundation card

Before starting the actual game, you have to pick one of the four cards dealt to the tableau to become the foundation card. This is the card with which the foundation piles will start. Drag the card you prefer to start the foundation piles with to one of the foundation piles to make your choice.

After you make your choice, additional cards are dealt so that each tableau pile has one face-up card.

Allowable moves

The foundation is built in ascending order and by alternating colour, starting from the foundation card picked before the game starts. If the foundation card is not equal to an Ace, you have to put the Ace on the King, put a Two on an Ace, etc. to get rid of all the cards.

The tableau is built in descending order and by alternating colour. You can only move one card at a time. You can put a King on an Ace if needed. Empty tableau piles can only be filled with cards in the discard pile, not with cards from other tableau piles or the terrace.

The cards in the reserve pile (the terrace) can only be moved to the foundations.

You can click the stock to reveal an extra card on the discard pile. The first time you cycle the stock you can flip an additional card when the previous one hasn’t been played, but the second time you have to play the card on the discard pile before you can flip an additional card.

Strategy

• Because the card in the reserve pile (the terrace) can only be moved to the foundations, the key to winning a deal is to get rid of these cards.
• When choosing the foundation card, look at the reserve and pick a card which will make moving cards from the reserve to the foundations easy.

Variants

Other games in the family of Terrace solitaire games are:

• General’s Patience: More difficult variation of Terrace Solitaire, with the reserve having 13 cards, and without a redeal of the stock.
• Blondes and Brunettes: Easier variation of Terrace Solitaire, with the reserve having 10 cards, but without a choice for the foundation card. There is no redeal of the stock.
• Redheads: Plays like Blondes and Brunettes, but slightly easier as reserve cards can be moved to tableau piles and empty spaces may be filled with any card once the reserve is empty.
• Empress of Italy: Same as Terrace Solitaire, but with four decks.

System requirements

Terrace Solitaire can be played in all modern browsers, on all device types (desktop, tablet, mobile), and on all operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, ...).