Solitaire

Number of Players: 1

Year publication: 1697

Creator(s): Unknown

How to Play With Yourself – Solitaire:

Solitaire is an interesting game and the first game to be officially reviewed in 2014! Solitaire is an old (usually wooden) game, so it fits our theme for this month. This is the first post with our new standardized format so any feed back would be appreciated, let us know if there’s anything we are missing or if anything is too much.

What’s in the Box:

the board and peices — The board and pieces separately.

Solitaire only consists of two things:

1) A board with 33 holes or groves in it.

2) 32 pieces – sometimes pegs and sometime marbles – sometimes 33 pieces are included so you remove one before playing.

Playing the Game:

The aim of the game is to remove all of the other pieces leaving just one in the central hole that is originally left empty.

The Rules:

The board is set out with 32 pieces leaving a gap in the middle.
You move to take pieces by jumping over them.
Taking can only be done horizontally or vertically NOT diagonally.
You win if you manage to remove all pieces and are left with one pieces in the central slot.
You lose if you are left with one or more pieces not in the central slot and you cannot make any more moves.

Win — WINNING! (I did not actually win this I just set the board up like this to take this picture)

Strategy:

While this game has a very simple set of rules and is fairly easy to understand mastering it is a whole other matter! While I consider myself somewhat intelligent (and also modest) I have played this game through 30 or so times and still failed to win! I always end up in situations like this:

I’m getting closer but I still feel quite far way. As far as I can see it makes sense to clear the board systematically and try very hard to not leave any pieces out on the edges by themselves. Of course you could always cheat and watch this video:

I have refused to watch it as I want to solve the game myself and will not be helped by Youtube! Additionally, once you’ve committed to memory how to beat the game it’s a bit of a one trick wonder as it has no replay-ability because you will always be able to beat it!

History and Interesting Facts:

The aim of this is not to give you a full history lesson on the game – that would be long and boring! But just a quick ten bullets to give you a rough idea of the games history and cultural relevance as well as some interesting facts about it.

The earliest known reference to the game is a French engraving of Anne de Rohan-Chabot, pictured with the game, made in 1697. As seen here:
Borrowed lovingly from Wikipedia!
The first literary reference made to it is in a French magazine from the same year.
The Solitaire featured in these references, however, is not the same as the Solitaire featured in this post. There are two common/traditional versions of the game. The one featured in this post is the English version (which is fitting as we are in England) the one originally featured in the engraving is know as the European version. If you look at the engraving shown above you will see the board has four more holes that occur in the inside corners of the board to give it a more rounded shape. Additionally you do not traditionally start this game by leaving the middle hole empty but rather one offset towards the top of the board.
There are also a fair few other versions of the game including a version made by J. C. Wiegleb in 1779 in German that has 47 holes and is effectively an extended version of the English version.
There are also other ways of playing it on the same board, whether you’re using the English board, European board or any other. Including a version where your starting and finishing slot is in the bottom right corner. To take a look at some of these different versions and play them (and even see solutions to them) see HERE!
The shortest solution to the English version of the game was found by Ernest Bergholt in 1912 and was proven to be the shortest by John Beasley in 1964. This solution in full detail can be viewed HERE, but I challenge you to find it yourself first, in fact I will give £100 to the person who can irrefutably prove that they found the shortest solution to the game without any assistance!
While there is only one shortest solution to the English version of the game there are three shortest solutions to the European version of the game that are all very different from each other but result in the same amount of moves made. To read about them in detail see HERE!
A much thorougher analysis of the mathematics of the game(s) is provided in the book Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays – Volume 1 which on the extreme off chance anyone is interested in can be bought HERE and viewed as a pdf HERE (it’s discussed in chapter 23 under the name Peg Solitaire).
The game is historically called Solo Noble or Peg Solitaire, however in the UK it is usually just referred to as Solitaire as the card game of the same name(s) is commonly known as Patience.
Very interestingly there are 577,116,156,815,309,849,672 different sequences to the English version of the game (being how many different orders of things that can happen). From this set of sequences there are 40,861,647,040,079,968 different solutions (some are simply reflection and rotations of others). To see this maths in more detail see HERE!

To Conclude:

The thing I find most interesting about this game is your could vary it almost indefinitely and it would still be a playable and difficult problem, it is rare that you find a board game that is so interchangeable but still maintains its fundamental characteristics. It also stands as a classic mathematical/logic problem that is quite challenging to initially complete.

While it is fun and simple it is also quite limited in the sense that is is simple. You can furiously try for 40 minutes to try and figure out a solution and then lose interest completely because you feel like you’re just repeating the same thing again and again and never getting closer to your goal. So it might be a steer clear for those of you who are more OCD about things as you may never be able to put it down until you find the solution. However if you’re not OCD then definitely give it and play! I challenge you to find the solution without help!

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me…

05/01/201429/11/2016 manaiaclemim Boggle, Published Games, Twelve Games of Christmas - 2013 Aunt Jean, Board Game, Board games, Boggle, Christmas, Game, Gameplay, Games, Review, spelling, Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelve Games of Christmas, Word games

…A Twelve-Player Game and I Introduced Him to Some Men in White Coats! – Boggle…A Million Points if You can Score a Twelve Letter Word in It.

Twelve Booglers Boogling! — Twelve Bogglers Boggling!

The Rules:

Boggle is a brilliant quick game for any number of players, all you need is a piece of paper and pencil to play. Before you start players must decide on the number of rounds that are going to be played, and the time allowance for each round. The timer that comes with the game is two minutes, and, although the timer for our copy doesn’t work properly any more, we still play to that, using someone’s phone as a timer. However, if you also have to do this, having the vibrate function on when you set the timer is a bad idea, as we found out when playing with Aunt Jean. The first time the timer went off and started vibrating on the table, it made such a strange sound that I was almost responsible for giving her a heart attack!
To play, one player shakes up the cube containing the dice, until they’re all flat, showing one face up. Then another player flips (or starts) the timer, and you have two minutes to make as many words as possible from the letters you can see. These words must be at least three letters long, and the letters must be connected either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. You cannot use the same letter twice in one word. When the timer goes off, one player reads out their list of words, any word that any of the other players has also written down is crossed off and doesn’t get you any points. When everyone’s checked their lists, you score. Three and four letter words are worth 1 point each, any word with more letters is given one extra point for each subsequent letter, i.e. 5 letters = 2 points etc.
After you’ve played through the appointed number of rounds the player with the most points overall wins.

For Christmas?

A great game for fans of Scrabble or similar games, not so much fun for dyslexics (like Dave) who get overexcited when they score two points in a round, mostly with three letter words. However, it’s a fantastic game because it can be played super-quickly with any number of people, you could challenge yourself and whoever you’re playing with to find the longest or silliest words possible, making it a superb game for any occasion!

Happy Twelfth and last day of Christmas and a Happy Epiphany too … For those who celebrate that kind of thing!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me…

04/01/201420/01/2014 manaiaclemim Pictionary, Published Games, Twelve Games of Christmas - 2013 Aunt Jean, Board Game, Board games, Christmas, Game, Gameplay, Games, Pictionary, Recreation, Review, Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelve Games of Christmas

…An Eleven-Player Game and The Suggestion That I Make More Friends – Eleven Pictionarys Drawing!

Eleven Pipers...Playing Pictionary! — Eleven Pipers…Playing Pictionary!

The Rules:

Pictionary is supposed to be played on teams of two (or four), but eleven is an incredibly hard number to find a game for, I mean, Aunt Jean may be willing to make up your 12th player, but given her tendency to shout things out in a slightly turrets-y way you may want to direct her to some other occupation whilst you’re playing. For her own good . So, just pretend that eleven is the optimum number for this game, and all will be well! The objective of the game is to advance round the board by guessing the words that the other teams are drawing out on their turns. At the start of the game, each team is given a pad of paper, a pencil, a category card and a playing piece. Each playing piece is placed on the start square on the board. Each team then elects one player to be their picturist. It’s this player who will draw out clues for the other teams for the rest of the game. Then each team rolls the die, highest roll selects the first first card. The first word sketched is an All Play sketch, meaning that all teams can guess. At the start of the game, the die is not rolled to advance. There are five different categories, as follows; All Play – this can be any word or expression and all teams participate, Difficult – challenging words, Action – verb, things that can be performed, Person/Place/Animal – self explanatory, proper names can be included and Object – noun, things that can be touched or seen.
To play, the starting picturist selects a word card from the front of the deck the word that matching the coloured square that the playing pieces is on is the one being described. The picturist is allowed five seconds to examine the word, then the timer is turned and the picturist begins sketching. The other team(s) can then begin guessing, this continues until the word is guessed or the time runs out. If the word is guessed the team then continues by rolling the die and advancing the appropriate number of squares, they then select the next card and picturist. If the word is not guessed, play then continues clockwise, the next team then begins by drawing a new card not rolling the die.
The first team to land on the Finish square and guess the word correctly, wins.

For Christmas?

So describing the rules may have been a little lengthy, but it’s actually a very simple game. It’s good fun with a small or large group of people, and a fantastic family game, whether being played for a challenge, or just for a few laughs as we all enjoy our different (and sometimes dubious in my case) artistic abilities. This game can be a fantastically relaxed way to end an evening, or it can be a creative challenge for younger kids! it’s good for everyone old enough to talk (well, possibly not quite) and is a timeless classic for family time. Appropriate for this time of year, no?

Happy Penultimate Day of Christmas!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me…

03/01/201420/01/2014 manaiaclemim Published Games, Twelve Games of Christmas - 2013, Yahzee Aunt Jean, Board Game, Board games, Chance, Christmas, Dice, Game, Games, Luck, Review, Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelve Games of Christmas, Yahzee

…A Ten-Player Game To Which I Responded “When Are We Ever Going to Play This!?” – Yahzee…leaping

Ten Yahtzee's Leaping — Ten Yahtzee’s Leaping

The Rules:

Yahtzee! The first ever dice game to appear on this blog! (Don’t worry dice lovers we have a whole month set aside for them next year). Yahtzee in some respects could be considered the poker of dice. Each player roles five dice three times each with the aim of scoring in a particular way e.g. getting three dice on the same number = 3 of a kind (similar to poker). The scores are recorded on a score card and this goes on until one player scores zero on all three of their roles then the scores are tallied up and the winner is decided.

For Christmas?

Now if you have a big family (like we do) and will have ten or more people in your house on Christmas Day then this is a good game to play because you can play with up to ten players. However if your Aunt Jean, like our Aunt Jean, gets confused and angered by dice then perhaps this is a steer clear as the whole game revolves around them. She maintains there’s no logic to chance and all chance should be avoided…”That’s how a real British man does it” (her words not mine).

Anyway, on that note, A Very Happy Tenth Day of Christmas! It may almost be over but that’s no excuse to stop eating everything in sight!

On the Ninth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me…

02/01/201420/01/2014 manaiaclemim Nine Men's Morris, Published Games, Twelve Games of Christmas - 2013 Aunt Jean, Board games, Christmas, Nine Men's Morris, Review, Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelve Games of Christmas

… A Nine-Men’s Game, Apparently From Some Bloke Called Morris… – Nine Men’s Morris!

The Rules:

Nine Men’s Morris, is a very quick, easy to learn game. You play on a square board with three squares drawn on it, a big, a medium and a little one, all inside each other. These are connected by horizontal or vertical lines in the centre of each side. Each player starts with 12 pieces in either black or white and the objective is to make a line, either horizontally or vertically (but not diagonally), of three, called a mill. Once a player has created a mill, they can remove one of their opponents pieces from the board. Play continues in this manner until one player has less than three pieces left. It’s so simple that even Aunt Jean could learn it, although you may run into some trouble explaining why the three-in-a-row are called mills…
Each player takes it in turns to place a piece on the board, either on one of the points in the middle of the side where the squares are connected, or on a corner of one of the squares. Then you move one piece one space per turn to try and make your lines of three. Easy, right? If you wish for any more info about this game, go to our previously published post, here!

For Christmas?

Definitely! It’s quick, fun, clever, and can be taught to people of all ages! (With the possible exception of children under the age of about 5 or 6, we wouldn’t want them eating the pieces, now would we?) This game probably takes about 5 minutes to play, so you could even set up some kind of tournament with all the relatives that visit you around Christmas time.

Happy ninth day of Christmas!!

On the Eighth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me…

01/01/201420/01/2014 manaiaclemim Published Games, Taboo, Twelve Games of Christmas - 2013 Aunt Jean, Board Game, British Empire, Browser Based, Card game, Christmas, Game, Recreation, Review, Taboo, Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelve Games of Christmas

…A Eight-Player Game and I Flatly Refused to Let Any More Couples Into Our House – Taboo

The Rules:

Taboo is a very simple game, up to eight people can play, and you play on teams of two. The objective of the game is score more points than every other team by guessing words on cards that are flipped up every turn. On each card is a title word, and another list of words associated with it. One player on the team must try and describe the word to their team mate without saying the word or any of the words on the list. Points are scored every time you correctly guess a word. There is a pad of paper used to keep score, and a timer used to make sure the length of time for each turn is the same. One team is chosen to play first and the team opposite them takes responsibility on marking their points and watching the timer. After a predetermined number of rounds (or when you run out of cards, your choice) the game ends, and the team with the most points wins.

For Christmas?

Definitely! This a fantastic game to play with family or friends, especially if there’s someone around that you’re very close with and can say the strangest things to to describe a word. On that note, I wouldn’t, under any circumstances invite Aunt Jean to play this game with you. Chances are, she’ll misunderstand everything from the simple objective of the game, to how you’ve chosen to record points, and she’ll probably shout out random words in an endeavour to contribute whilst everyone else relocates the game to a different room. However, this game is a solid investment for any game-lover the cause of many a hilarious evening.

Happy Eighth Day of Christmas and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

On the Seventh Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me…

31/12/201320/01/2014 manaiaclemim Java, Published Games, Twelve Games of Christmas - 2013 Aunt Jean, British Empire, Christmas, Dice, Game, Games played, Java, Review, Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelve Games of Christmas

…A Seven-Man Game and I Began to Think She Was Insane! – Java…Not a Seven Player Game!

The Rules:

Java is a tactical game with very little luck involved! Which make me like it a lot as games which no matter how good you are at them you can still be beaten by a bad throw of the dice annoy me (yes I realize this is a high percentage of games). However it is NOT a seven player game unfortunately. We’re running thin on the ground for games that are higher than six players so from now on not many of the games we do will be the right number of players but they should still be entertaining games that we recommend. Java was part of the very first post we ever posted on this site so it seemed fit that it should get a mention. To read the first post we ever posted and about Java in detail click HERE!

For Christmas?

Why not? Its fun, and anyone who loses at it only has themselves to blame, not a poor hand of cards or a dodgy set of dice. It’s up to four players so can be played in a nice small group! However it being the colonizing of a small island it may set Aunt Jean off about the power and supremacy of the British Empire, so if you want the keep the potentially racists old ladies at bay it may be better to give it a miss?

Happy Seventh Day of Christmas and Happy New Years Eve! I hope you are keeping the spirit…by spirit I do not mean Vodka!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me…

30/12/201320/01/2014 manaiaclemim Outrage!, Published Games, Twelve Games of Christmas - 2013 Aunt Jean, Christmas, Crown Jewels, England, Game, London, Outrage!, Recreation, Review, Tower of London, Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelve Games of Christmas

…A Six-Player Game and Asked How I’d Like to TRIPLE Date! – Six Crown Jewels a-Stealing – Outrage!

Six Geese a-Laying...Outrage — Six Geese a-Laying…Outrage

The Rules:

Outrage! Is a great game in which you play as a criminal bent on stealing the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. However there are other players trying to do the same thing and trying to stop you doing it first! See out full article on this game Here!

For Christmas?

Most probably! There must have been at least one Christmas when we played this game! It’s a fun game but can lead to some hostility between people. If you don’t want to upset Aunt Jean because she can’t understand that the Jewels aren’t real and that no one is threatening to undermine the power of the (non-existant) British empire by taking them, it might be safer to give it a miss.

So here we are… Half way through the Christmas period, already the shopping centers have taken down most of their festive things, and everyone has gone back to their normal routine or is just anticipating getting really drunk on New Years Eve… Speaking of getting drunk on New Year, check out our New Years post on a couple of fun Drinking Games right HERE!

Happy Sixth day of Christmas!

On the Fifth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me…

29/12/201320/01/2014 manaiaclemim Published Games, Twelve Games of Christmas - 2013 Aunt Jean, Board games, Browser Based, Games, Pirateology, Recreation, Review, Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelve Games of Christmas

…A Five-Player Game To Play With His Parents and Sister. – Five Gold Pirateologys

The Rules:

Pirateology, the long and the short of it (and it’s pretty long game, as they go) is that it’s a last-man-standing game. Literally. At the end of the game, the last pirate left on the board wins. So, with a nice, clear win-objective, how complex could this game be? Well, actually, it’s got lots of bits, gold coins and Skull Cards and such, but once you’ve played it once, you’ll probably have grasped all the important factors to the game. You start the game with just a pirate piece (and can only roll one die to move), and you have to journey to get a Crew Card before you can exchange it for a ship, which moves much more speedily (with two die). There is also a Compass Spinner which is used to determine the direction in which you’re sailing. Now that this has been established, there’s a pretty simple following to the rest of the game, you can find treasure, bury treasure, battle other pirates, face sea monsters and sail through hurricanes, all in aid of being the toughest pirate sailing the seven seas!
To remove other players from the board, all you have to do is battle them to the point where you’ve taken all their treasure, they’re then eliminated from play. Easy, right?

For Christmas?

The game itself is brilliant, but it can be quite lengthy, so I wouldn’t invite Aunt Jean to play unless you’re at your wits end for ways to get her to fall asleep, since she probably doesn’t have the attention span required for this game. It’s a good family game, for 2-5 players, that teaches strategy and patience (good for educating children) and has lots of epic-looking little figures and coins and stuff to fiddle with. I would recommend this game to play on Christmas, but only if you don’t have anywhere important to be anytime soon…

This post hasn’t been linked to a full post about the game because we haven’t written one yet, however, there is a plan for one to go up later this year!

Happy Fifth Day of Christmas! May you receive five beautiful gold somethings 🙂

On The Fourth Day Of Christmas, My True Love Gave To Me…

28/12/201320/01/2014 manaiaclemim Buccaneer, Published Games, Twelve Games of Christmas - 2013 Aunt Jean, Board Game, Christmas, Game, Piracy, Recreation, Review, Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelve Games of Christmas

… A Four Player Game, And The Suggestion That We Double Date – Four Calling Buccaneers

The Rules:

Buccaneer is a pretty straightforward game, in which you sail around the ocean as a pirate; trading with ports and fighting (or running away from) other pirates to collect treasure. The aim is to get treasure worth 20 points in your home port to win the game. You can also choose to sail to an island in the middle of the board and take cards which can be anything from an errand, to a disaster or letting you have free treasure. It’s a very exciting game, if you desire to read more about it, go here, and read our exciting post on the game!

For Christmas?

A great game to play with friends or family, with very clear rules and a simple objective. So simple in fact, that you could give Aunt Jean a copy and it wouldn’t matter that she lives alone because she could probably teach her favorite dogs to play on teams against her. Or at the very least, trying would keep her off the streets and stop her terrorizing the neighborhood. It’s a very light-hearted game, good for laughs and great for small gatherings.

Happy Fourth Day of Christmas! If you get bored in the days to come, have a pirate-impression contents with your friend or family, laughter guaranteed!