Rules for Eagle Wing

Family: Aces High
Categories: Pretty
Variants: Eagle Wing Easy
Also Known As: Thirteen Down

Eagle Wing is a unique and pretty game, but wins are very rare. You’ll need a lot of patience, but the occasional runs of half a dozen or more cards are all the more fun when they happen!

For a variant that is much easier to win, see Eagle Wing Easy.

Layout

The layout is in the shape of an eagle. (Use your imagination!) Start by placing a stack of 13 cards face down in the center; this is the trunk. On either side, place a row of four cards, all face-up: these are the wings. Above the trunk, place one more face-up card to start the first foundation; the other three foundations start out empty. Keep the rest of the deck in your hand, ready for dealing into a discard pile.

Play

The foundations build up in suit. The rank of the first card played onto any empty foundation pile must match the rank of the card placed on the first foundation in the initial layout. (For example, if the first card placed on a foundation pile is an eight, then eights must also be played onto the other empty foundations.) Building is circular, with Ace following King.

Cards in the wings, and the top card of the discard pile, may be played to the foundations. Whenever a space appears in the wings, fill it immediately with the top card from the trunk. The last card in the trunk may be turned face up and made available for play to the foundations.

When the trunk is empty, you may fill empty spaces in the wings at will from the discard pile.

Dealing

You may deal at any time by turning up a card from the deck and playing it either to the foundations, to an empty wing space, or to the discard pile.

You may redeal twice: when the deck is empty, pick up the entire discard pile and turn it over to form a new deck.

Goal

The goal is to move all the cards onto the foundations.

Tips

Until the trunk is empty, you won’t really get any choices about your moves. Just play to the foundations whenever possible, and hope that you can empty out the trunk.

When the trunk is empty, you can fill empty spaces in the wings from the discard. Remember that you don’t have to fill them immediately! Save those precious empty spaces for cards that can’t go to the foundations immediately, but that will be able to go soon.

Eagle Wing really can’t be won very often. But Solitaire Till Dawn X won’t score a game as a loss unless you make at least one move, so you can improve your scores by not trying games whose initial layout isn’t attractive. Look for layouts where you can fill at least three foundations right away, and where several cards are available that can be played to the foundations soon.