Josephine Solitaire – Play Online (Classic Forty Thieves Variant)

Introduction

Ready to steal some fun? Josephine Solitaire is a classic two-deck patience game (solitaire) with a playful twist 😃. It’s a beloved variation of the notorious Forty Thieves solitaire, but a bit more forgiving for the player. In fact, Josephine is named after Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife – a nod to the Napoleonic legend behind Forty Thieves. This game lets you do something sneaky the original didn’t: move entire sequences of cards at once, which opens up clever new moves and boosts your chances to win. If you’ve ever found Forty Thieves too tough, Josephine might just become your new favorite way to play cards! ♠️♥️

Playing Josephine Solitaire online here at solitairex.io/josephine-solitaire is easy and completely free 🎉. The game runs directly in your browser (no downloads needed), so you can jump straight into the action. Whether you’re a seasoned solitaire pro or just discovering this classic Forty Thieves variation, you’ll enjoy the mix of strategy and luck Josephine offers. Give it a try right on this page and see if you can outsmart the deck – a solitaire adventure awaits!

How to Play

Josephine Solitaire starting layout: 10 columns of 4 cards form the tableau, with 8 foundation piles above (using two decks of cards).

Setup & Goal: Josephine Solitaire uses two standard 52-card decks (104 cards). To start, deal 40 cards face-up into 10 tableau columns (4 cards per column). Above the tableau, leave space for 8 foundation piles – your goal is to move all cards here, building each foundation up in suit from Ace to King. The remaining cards form a stock pile that you can draw from when no more moves are available on the tableau. You win by moving all 104 cards onto the foundations in ascending order, completing all eight piles from Ace through King.

Tableau Rules: On the tableau, you build cards downward by suit. That means you can place a card onto another card that is one rank higher and of the same suit (for example, you can move a 5♣ onto a 6♣). You may move only the top card of a column at first – unless you have a ready-formed sequence in descending order by suit. Josephine’s special rule allows you to pick up and move an entire sequence of cards if they are all in perfect descending suit order! This nifty ability is what makes Josephine stand out: you can shift around a stack of cards in one go, which really helps to uncover hidden cards and create new opportunities. Keep an eye out for chances to move a whole run of cards instead of one-by-one. Also remember, any time you clear a column and create an empty space, you can fill that empty column with any card or sequence of cards – it’s a free slot to park whatever card(s) might help you most. Use those empty columns wisely to reorganize the tableau and set up your next moves.

Stock & Waste: If you run out of moves among the face-up cards on the tableau, you can draw from the stock. Click or tap the stock pile to flip one card at a time into a waste pile. The top card of the waste is available to play – you can either add it to a tableau column (if it fits the descending-suit sequence rule) or play it directly to a foundation if its rank and suit allow. Plan carefully because there are no redeals in Josephine – you only get one pass through the stock. Once you’ve gone through all stock cards, that’s it, so make every draw count! The game continues until you either run out of moves or successfully move every card to the foundations. Get all those piles to King and you’ve conquered the puzzle. Good luck, and enjoy this engaging solitaire challenge 😄!

History & Trivia

Josephine Solitaire was born as a clever offshoot of Forty Thieves (also known as “Napoleon at St. Helena”) – a classic two-deck solitaire game famous for its difficulty. The exact inventor of Josephine is unknown (it likely evolved from players tweaking Forty Thieves), but one of its earliest known mentions in print was in the late 1930s. The game fittingly carries a Napoleonic theme in its name: it’s named after Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife. This naming wasn’t just random – in the lore of solitaire, Napoleon himself has a game named after him (the original Forty Thieves), so Josephine Solitaire became the “companion” game named after his wife, presumably as a nod to the idea that this variant is a gentler counterpart.

A fun bit of trivia: legend says Napoleon passed the time playing solitaire during his exile, which is why the Forty Thieves game took on the name Napoleon at St. Helena. Josephine Solitaire, as the “easier” variant, continues that story by offering a more winnable game in honor of the Empress 😉. By allowing multi-card moves, Josephine is indeed more forgiving than standard Forty Thieves. In fact, skilled players can win roughly 1 in 4 games of Josephine, significantly better odds than the notoriously low win rate of the original Forty Thieves. This balance of challenge and opportunity has made Josephine a enduring favorite for solitaire enthusiasts who enjoy Forty Thieves-style games but appreciate a fighting chance to beat the deck.

More Forty Thieves Solitaire Games

Josephine is just one member of the Forty Thieves solitaire family. If you enjoy this style of two-deck, strategic gameplay, there are plenty of other variants to explore! For example, Diplomat is another popular offshoot that relaxes the rules a bit (it lets you build down regardless of suit), giving a different flavor of challenge. You can find many more Forty Thieves–style games to try in our collection – check out the Forty Thieves solitaire games on solitairex.io for a full list. There you’ll find Diplomat and other fun variants, each with its own twist and theme. Whether you stick with Josephine or venture into other versions, the Forty Thieves family offers hours of strategic card-playing fun. ✨ Enjoy exploring and happy solitairing!