Undercover

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order and colours
3. The parts of the layout
4. Setup
5. Your turn
6. Empty columns
7. Markers
8. No talking
9. Winning and losing
10. Difficulty levels
11. Tips for beginners
12. Variants

Overview

Undercover is a cooperative patience for two: you play one Klondike layout together and win or lose as a team. (A patience, also called solitaire, is a card game in which you sort a shuffled deck by fixed rules.) Your goal is to sort the whole deck onto four foundations, one per suit, from Ace up to King. You take turns, each turn allows only three moves, and the stock ticks away like a clock. The twist: each of you may secretly peek at a few of the face-down cards in the layout – and you may not talk about what you saw. The only hint you can give is a marker: "this card is an Ace, 2 or 3".

• Players: 2
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers; for each player 4 peek tokens (matches or buttons – 6 for the easy level) and 2 markers (coins, a different kind for each of you).

Undercover is a new game written for this site and not yet playtested. It is our own cooperative version of the classic patience Klondike. It differs from Team Klondike, our other cooperative Klondike: there the stock is split into secret hands and a coin says "I hold a card for this". Here nobody holds any cards – the stock is shared and open, and the secret knowledge is about the face-down cards of the layout. One building rule differs from Klondike: an empty column may also take a single card, not only a King. The number of passes through the stock is the first thing to tune (see "Difficulty levels").

Card order and colours

As in Klondike, the Ace is low: A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K. ♥ and ♦ are red, ♠ and ♣ are black.

The parts of the layout

• Tableau: the seven columns in the middle, where cards are rearranged. The face-down cards of a column lie at the top, the face-up cards overlap them downwards. The bottom card of a column is the one nearest to you, not covered by any other card.
• Foundations: four spaces above the tableau, one per suit, built from Ace to King. At the start they are empty.
• Stock: the face-down pile of cards left over after dealing. It belongs to both of you.
• Waste: the face-up pile next to the stock. Only its top card can be played; the card below becomes available when the top card is gone.

Setup

1. Shuffle and deal the usual Klondike tableau: seven columns of 1 to 7 cards, 28 cards in all, with only the bottom card of each column face up. (Deal one card face up to column 1 and one face down to each of columns 2–7; then one face up to column 2 and one face down to each of columns 3–7; and so on.) 21 cards lie face down.
2. Put the remaining 24 cards face down above the tableau as the stock, and turn its top card face up onto the waste.
3. Each player takes 4 peek tokens and 2 markers (Normal level; see "Difficulty levels").
4. The younger player begins; then you take turns.

Your turn

A turn has three steps.

1. Peek (optional). Pay one peek token (put it in the box) and look at one face-down card of the tableau: lift its upper edge just enough to see the corner, don't show it to your partner, and put it back exactly where it was. You may choose any face-down card, even one your partner has looked at. Remember what you saw – no notes.

2. Up to three moves. Each of these counts as one move:

• Moving within the tableau: moving a bottom card, or a correctly built group of face-up cards, onto the bottom card of another column – it must be one rank lower and of the other colour (a red 6 onto a black 7), as in Klondike – or into an empty column (see below).
• Playing the top card of the waste onto the tableau.
• Taking a card back from a foundation onto the tableau, if it fits there.

These actions are free and don't count as moves – do them as often as you like:

• Playing a card to a foundation, from the tableau or the waste: an Ace starts a foundation, then the 2 of the same suit, and so on up to the King.
• Turning up a face-down card as soon as no face-up card lies on it any more.
• Placing a marker (see below).

You may also make fewer moves, or none at all.

3. Turn the clock. At the end of your turn, turn the top card of the stock face up onto the waste – even if you made no moves. When the stock is empty, first turn the whole waste over, without shuffling, as the new stock, then turn its top card. On Normal you may do this once: you go through the stock twice (Easy: three passes, so you turn the waste over twice; Hard: as Normal). If the stock is empty and you may not turn the waste over again, the game is over.

Empty columns

In Klondike only a King may go into an empty column. In Undercover an empty column takes a King – alone or with the cards built on it – or any single card: for example the top card of the waste, or the only face-up card of a column – the card beneath it is then turned up. A group of several cards may only go there if it starts with a King. This is where your peeks pay off: an empty column lets you choose which column to dig out next.

Markers

At any time during your turn you may put one of your markers on a face-down card you have peeked at – this turn or earlier. It always means: "This card is an Ace, 2 or 3." It must be true. The marker stays until the card is turned up; then it goes back to its owner. It tells your partner: dig here.

No talking

During the game you may not tell your partner anything about the face-down cards, what you saw or what you are planning: no "column 5 is worth it", no pointing, no sighing. You may talk about the rules, whose turn it is and how many tokens and passes are left. The only message is a marker.

Example: The start of a game, as in the picture. Anna begins, but neither the waste card (the 3♣) nor any face-up card of the tableau fits anywhere. She spends a peek token on the face-down card directly under the 9♠ in column 5 – it is the A♦ – and puts a marker on it. That is her whole turn: she turns the next stock card, the 10♦. Ben knows only what the marker says. Move 1: he puts the 10♦ from the waste onto the J♣ in column 3. Now either the 9♠ from column 5 or the 9♣ from column 7 could go onto it. Without the marker he would probably dig out column 7, the one with six face-down cards – but the marker promises a low card in column 5. Move 2: the 9♠ onto the 10♦. The card under it turns up for free – the A♦ – and goes to a foundation, also for free; Anna gets her marker back. Column 5 turns up its next card, again for free: the 8♥. Move 3: the 8♥ onto the 9♠, and column 5 turns up another card. Ben ends his turn by turning the next stock card.

Winning and losing

• You win together when all 52 cards lie on the foundations. As soon as every tableau card is face up and the stock and the waste are both empty, the rest always works out – you have won.
• You lose when you have to turn a stock card at the end of a turn, the stock is empty and you may not turn the waste over again.
• All stock cards used, but face-down cards left: if the stock and the waste are both empty, there is nothing to turn – the clock stops. Play on. If neither of you can turn up a card or play one to a foundation any more, you have lost.

Difficulty levels

On Easy you may also talk about what you saw – good for learning how the knowledge helps.

The budget: a full pass through the 24-card stock takes 24 turns, 12 for each of you, with up to three moves per turn. Every stock card you use makes the next pass shorter. At the start 21 cards lie face down: on Normal the two of you may look at 8 of them, on Easy at 12, on Hard at 4.

In a computer simulation with a simple strategy – it looks only a few moves ahead and knows only the cards it has seen – the team won about 74% of 20,000 deals on Easy, 48% on Normal and 21% on Hard. A won game took about 35 turns. The peeks were worth only a few points to the computer: on Normal it won 45% without peeking at all, and 57% even when it knew every face-down card. With Klondike's rule that only a King may fill an empty column, knowing every face-down card added just two points – the hidden cards come up in much the same order whatever you know. That is why this game lets a single card into an empty column. People play differently from a computer, and these numbers are a first guess: if you win or lose too easily, change the number of passes first.

Tips for beginners

• Peek at the long columns first. Their cards stay hidden longest, and knowing what lies there tells you whether digging is worth it.
• A marker is a promise. When your partner has marked a card, dig there – an Ace, 2 or 3 goes straight to the foundations and turns up the next card for free.
• Don't block the way to a marker. If a marker lies in a column, don't cover the card that column's face-up cards need to move onto.
• Save an empty column for the column you know hides something good.
• Watch your partner. Where they peek and which column they dig out after that tells you a lot.
• Play Aces and 2s to the foundations at once – it costs no move.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• No clock: you may go through the stock as often as you like – a relaxed game.
• Four moves: allow four moves per turn instead of three.
• Klondike rule: only Kings go into empty columns, at every level (as on Hard).