Emperor (card game)

Last updated
Emperor
A Patience game
OriginEngland
Alternative namesThe Emperor, Emperor Patience
Type Simple packer
FamilyNapoleon at St Helena
DeckDouble 52-card
Related games
Deauville, Dress Parade, Rank and File

Emperor is an English patience or solitaire card game which is played using two packs of playing cards. Although similar to other members of the large Napoleon at St Helena family, Emperor introduced the unique and distinguishing feature of worrying back as well as the novel term "sealed packet".

Contents

Emperor is not to be confused with another patience sometimes called the Emperor of Germany.

History

Rules for Emperor Patience appear in the 1890 edition of Mary Whitmore Jones' series of Games of Patience, [1] the game featuring a new procedure known as 'worrying back' as well as the novel term "sealed packet". However these early rules were vague on the use of the rubbish heap and whether sequences could be moved between tableau piles. These issues are clarified in Tarbart's account of Emperor in 1901: only single cards, not sequences, could be moved, and the top card of the rubbish heap was available for play. [2] This early form of Emperor appears to have survived until the 1960s. [lower-alpha 1] From the 1930s, accounts appear that allow entire sequences to be moved and this rule has become the norm. [lower-alpha 2] The accounts also vary in the use of the rubbish heap or wastepile; in some cases, once the stock is used up, a reserve of three cards is allowed, which may be replenished from the talon as cards are played from it. [lower-alpha 3]

Emperor is sometimes equated in the literature to two other members of the Napoleon at St Helena family – Rank and File or Dress Parade and Deauville – probably because they are the only ones that share the same tableau layout. However, neither has the worrying back feature. The first appeared during the First World War as Rank and File, [8] but, in later accounts, also as Dress Parade, perhaps to distinguish it from an earlier unrelated game also called Rank and File. Like modern Emperor, but unlike most games of the family, sequences could be moved from pile to pile. [lower-alpha 4] In 1939, rules for the second relative, Deauville, were published in which only single cards could be moved. [9]

Rules

The goal is to put the aces in the foundations as soon as they are available and build each foundation up in suit sequence to the king.

Forty cards are set up into ten columns of four cards each. Each column should have its bottom three cards face down (collectively known as a 'sealed packet') and its top card face up.

All the exposed (face-up) cards are available for play, to be built on the foundations or on other exposed cards on the tableau. When the top card of a column is played, it 'opens the sealed packet' i.e. the downcard beneath it is turned face-up and becomes exposed (i.e. it is now available to be played). Building in the tableau happens in descending order and by alternating color. Modern rule sets allow moving of packed sequences as a single unit, while the earlier rule sets do not permit this.

When all possible moves are made, the talon or stock is dealt one at a time. A card that cannot be played yet onto tableau or on the foundations is placed on the waste pile, the top card of which is available for play.

The game ends soon after the stock has run out. The game is won when all cards are built onto the foundations.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Dalton records it in 1967. [3]
  2. ↑ An early example is Coops (1939), [4] but she is followed by Moyse (1950), [5] Hervey (1977), [6] and Magna (1993). [7]
  3. ↑ For example, Moyse (1950) and Hervey (1977).
  4. ↑ See, for example, Hervey (1977).

Related Research Articles

Glossary of patience terms List of terms used in the card games known as patiences or solitaires

Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in describing, succinctly and accurately, how the games are played. Patience games are usually for a single player, although a small number have been designed for two and, in rare cases, three or even four players. They are games of skill or chance or a combination of the two. There are three classes of patience grouped by object.

Klondike (solitaire) Solitaire card game

Klondike, also known as Canfield, is a card game for one player and the best known and most popular version of the patience or solitaire family. It has spawned numerous variants including Batsford, Easthaven, King Albert, Thumb and Pouch, Somerset or Usk and Whitehead, as well as the US variants of Agnes and Westcliff. The distinguishing feature of all variants is a triangular layout of the tableau, building in ascending sequence and packing in descending order.

Accordion is a patience or card solitaire using a single deck of playing cards. It is so named because it looks like accordion pleats, which have to be ironed out. The object is to compress the entire deck into one pile like an accordion.

Napoleon at St Helena

Napoleon at St Helena is a 2-deck patience or solitaire card game for one player. It is quite difficult to win, and luck-of-the-draw is a significant factor. The Emperor Napoleon often played patience during his final exile to the island of St Helena, and this is said to be the version he probably played. Along with its variants, it is one of the most popular two-deck patiences or solitaires. The winning chances have been estimated as 1 in 10 games, with success typically dependent on your ability to clear one or more columns. The game is the progenitor of a large family of similar games, mostly with variations designed to make it easier to get out.

Canfield (US) or Demon (UK) is a patience or solitaire card game with a very low probability of winning. It was an English game first called Demon Patience and described as "the best game for one pack that has yet been invented", but was popularised in the United States at the turn of the 20th century by casino owner Richard A. Canfield, who turned it into a casino game. As a result it became known as Canfield in the United States, while continuing to be called Demon Patience in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. It is closely related to Klondike, and is one of the most popular games of its type.

Agnes (card game)

Agnes is a patience or solitaire card game that emerged in England about the same time as Klondike appeared in the US. The classic version has the unusual feature of packing in colour, a feature it shares with Whitehead. By contrast, the later American variant appears to have been influenced by Klondike with packing is in alternate colours. The classic game has been described as the best single-pack patience yet invented.

British Square is a patience or solitaire card game which uses two decks of 52 playing cards each. It is a fan-type game in the style of La Belle Lucie. It has an unusual feature of switchback building whereby each foundation is first built up and then built down.

Tournament is a patience or solitaire card game which uses two decks of playing cards shuffled together. It is a variant of the much older game of Napoleon's Flank or Nivernaise and was first known as Maréchal Saxe.

Eagle Wing is a Patience game which is played with a deck of 52 playing cards. The game takes its name from the tableau which depicts an eagle-like bird spreading its wings in flight. It is somewhat related to the Canfield variant Storehouse.

Baroness (card game) Solitaire card game

Baroness is a patience or card solitaire that is played with a single deck of 52 playing cards. It is similar to other members of the Simple Addition family and is also distantly related to Aces Up.

Red and Black is a patience or card solitaire which uses two decks of playing cards. The game is so called because all building is done in alternating colors of red and black. It is not related to another similarly named solitaire game of Rouge et Noir, although Red and Black can also be known under that name. It is part of the Napoleon at St Helena family of patiences and solitaires.

Westcliff is the name of two closely-related patience or card solitaire games of the simple packer type, both of which are played using a deck of 52 playing cards. One version is particularly easy to win, with odds of 9 in 10; the other is harder with odds closer to 1 in 4. The game has a variant, Easthaven.

Napoleon's Square is a patience or solitaire card game which uses two decks of playing cards. First described in a revised edition of Lady Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Patience or Solitaire in the early 1900s, it is an easy variation of Napoleon at St Helena. It is not determined if Napoleon actually played this game, or any solitaire game named after him.

Deuces or Twos is a patience or card solitaire game of English origin which is played with two packs of playing cards. It is so called because each foundation starts with a Deuce, or Two. It belongs to a family of card games that includes Busy Aces, which is derived in turn from Napoleon at St Helena.

Amazons is an old patience or card solitaire game which is played with a single deck of playing cards. The game is played with a Piquet pack minus the kings or a standard 52-card pack that has its twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, and kings removed. This game is named after the female-led tribe, the Amazons, because the queen is the highest card, and all queens are displayed if the game is won.

Four Seasons (card game)

Four Seasons is a patience or card solitaire which is played with a single deck of playing cards. It is also known as Corner Card and Vanishing Cross, due to the arrangement of the foundations and the tableau respectively. Another alternate name is Cross Currents.

Fortunes Favor

Fortune's Favor or Fortune's Favour is a patience or card solitaire which is played with a deck of 52 playing cards. It is so-called probably because the chances of winning are completely on the player's side. It is a significantly simplified version of the game Busy Aces, a member of the Forty Thieves family of solitaire games.

Patience (game)

Patience (Europe), card solitaire or solitaire (US/Canada), is a genre of card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Most are intended for play by a single player, but there are also "excellent games of patience for two or more players".

Algerian or Algerian Patience is a unique and difficult patience or card solitaire using two decks of playing cards. The object of the game is to build 8 foundations down from King to Ace or up from Ace to King in suit.

Acme is a patience or card solitaire of the reserved packer type using a single deck of playing cards.

References

  1. ↑ Whitmore Jones (1890), pp. 72–74.
  2. ↑ "Tarbart" (1901), PP. 93–95.
  3. ↑ Dalton (1948), pp. 84–87.
  4. ↑ Coops (1939), p. 14.
  5. ↑ Moyse (1950), p. 96.
  6. ↑ Hervey (1977), pp. 92–94.
  7. ↑ Magna (1993), p. 67.
  8. ↑ Bergholt (1917), pp. 38–43.
  9. ↑ Phillips & Westall (1939), pp. 233–234.

Bibliography

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