Eagle Wing

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order
3. The parts of the layout
4. Setup
5. Playing
6. Winning
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Eagle Wing is a quick patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire) of the Canfield family. The layout looks like a bird: a pile of thirteen face-down cards – the trunk – with four cards spread out on each side as its wings. Your goal is to sort all 52 cards onto four piles, one per suit. As in Canfield, these piles don't start with the Ace but with the rank of a card dealt at the start. It is also called Thirteen Down.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• Time: about 5 minutes per game.

Card order

The ranks run A – 2 – 3 … 10 – J – Q – K, and in Eagle Wing they go round the corner: after the King comes the Ace again, then the 2. So Q, K, A, 2 is a proper sequence.

The parts of the layout

• Trunk: a pile of 13 cards, face down. It is a reserve – a supply of cards that come into play one by one.
• Wings: eight face-up cards in a row, four on each side of the trunk.
• Foundations: four piles, one per suit, where you collect the cards. The first card of every foundation has the same rank – the rank of the card dealt at the start (the base card).
• Stock: the face-down pile of the remaining cards.
• Waste: the face-up pile onto which you turn cards from the stock.

Setup

1. Shuffle. Count 13 cards face down into a pile in the middle of the table: the trunk.
2. Deal eight cards face up in a row, four to the left and four to the right of the trunk: the wings.
3. Deal the next card face up above the trunk. It starts the first foundation, and its rank is the base card for all four foundations.
4. The remaining 30 cards are the stock. Leave room next to it for the waste.

In this example the 5♦ is the first foundation, so the other three foundations will start with the other three 5s.

Playing

There are no turns – you make one move after another, in any order.

1. To a foundation: when another card of the base rank becomes available, start a new foundation with it. On each foundation build upwards in the same suit, going round the corner: with base 5, the ♦ foundation runs 5♦ 6♦ 7♦ … Q♦ K♦ A♦ 2♦ 3♦ 4♦.
2. Available cards: every wing card and the top card of the waste may be played to a foundation. Nothing is built on the wings – wing cards can only go to the foundations.
3. Filling the wings: when a wing card has gone, fill the space at once with the top card of the trunk, turned face up.
4. The last trunk card: when only one card is left in the trunk, turn it face up. It may go straight to a foundation without waiting for a space in the wings.
5. After the trunk: once the trunk is used up, you may fill a space in the wings with the top card of the waste or the next card of the stock.
6. The stock: turn the stock one card at a time onto the waste. Only the top card of the waste is playable; when you play it, the one below becomes available.
7. Going through again: when the stock is used up, turn the waste over (without shuffling) to form a new stock. You may do this twice – three passes through the stock in all.

Example: With the layout above, the 5♣ from the left wing starts a new foundation. Its space is filled at once with the top card of the trunk – say the 6♦, which goes straight onto the 5♦. That space is filled from the trunk again. Later the stock turns up the 6♣, which goes on the 5♣, and the 7♦, which goes on the 6♦.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations, 13 on each, and the trunk and wings are empty. The game is lost when the third pass through the stock is over and no move is left. Morehead and Mott-Smith put the chance of winning at 1 in 20 games.

Tips for beginners

• The trunk is what beats you: every card played from the wings brings a hidden trunk card into play. Take wing cards first whenever a wing card and a waste card could go to the same foundation.
• Before you turn the next stock card, check every wing card and the top of the waste.
• Late in a pass, remember the order of the waste – on the next pass the cards come up in the same order.
• After the trunk is used up, a space in the wings is a parking place: put a waste card there if it frees the card below it.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Building on the wings: in Helen L. Coops' 100 Games of Solitaire (1939), and in many computer versions, you may build on the wing cards down in suit, round the corner (4♠ on 5♠, K♣ on A♣), with at most three cards on each wing space. Only single cards may be moved from wing to wing. According to Wikipedia, this raises the chance of winning to as much as 80%.
• Other versions: according to Wikipedia, some books change the number of redeals or the size of the trunk.