La Belle Lucie
La Belle Lucie
La Belle Lucie
Saturday, February 14, 2009
La Belle Lucie is a classic game of solitaire that builds, depending on the rule, about 16 piles with three cards each. Via the info panel one can change the rules to play the rules: Fan, Trefoil, or La Belle Lucie. The rule for La Belle Lucie is too difficult to be solved frequently, so the default rule is Fan with an additional cheating cell.
General: You build down in same color and suit. Only the last card of a cascade can be moved. Hence, any move will make the cards below unreachable unless you can move the upper cards to the foundations.
The Fan: You are allowed to place kings on empty cascades. This is essential to solve a game. I recommend to play this rule.
La Belle Lucie, Clover Leaves: Empty cascades cannot be used. This rule makes most games unsolvable by default. Kings instantly lock all cards underneath.
Trefoil: Aces are removed from the deck and placed on the foundations during dealing. This rule has little impact on solvability, but 4x4 cascades look nicer.
Additionally, I have added a cheating free cell (gray) that you may or may not use if you want. Use the free cell to untangle unsolvable games. For example in the screenshot above, 1st row, 2nd cascade: Queen and Jack of Spades were dealt on top of each other, resulting in a most likely unsolvable game (you can try to untangle by getting A ... 10 to the foundations first, which works in this case, but then you will be stuck with a J/10 combination that needs the free cell again - see below). Place the Jack on the cheating free cell, move the Queen to the King and the Jack back. Using this free cell 1-3 times makes most Fan type games solvable, but Lucie keeps being a impossibly difficult woman.
Good Luck!