Welcome to Royal Rendezvous!

Hey there! I’m excited to introduce you to Royal Rendezvous, a really cool solitaire game with a unique twist. In this game, you’ll be forming foundations using a double deck of cards. And get this, there are not just a few foundations, but a whopping twelve of them! But wait, it gets even better. Two of the foundations are built up using pairs of cards. Sounds interesting, right?

Let’s Get Started!

First things first, you’ll need two sets of regular playing cards, that’s a total of 104 cards! Now, before we dive right in, we need to do a bit of preparation. Take all the Aces and one 2 from each suit, that’s eight Aces and one 2, and separate them from the rest of the cards. These special cards will be the starting point for our twelve foundations.

Next, let’s create the first row of foundations. Take one Ace from each suit and place them in a row, this will be known as row 1. Easy peasy so far, right? Now for the second row. Place two 2s and then two Aces, and continue this pattern until you have placed all four 2s and eight Aces. Make sure the Aces in row 2 match the Aces directly above them in row 1, so that each Ace has a buddy.

Alright, let’s get started! First, we need to set up the game by arranging the cards. We’ll have rows of cards, and we’ll start with two rows of eight face-up cards each. That means we need a total of 28 cards in the tableau.

Now, here’s how we play the game. Our goal is to build up the first row, called Row 1, from Ace to Queen, using cards of the same suit. We want to do the same for Row 2, but with a twist. For Row 2, we’ll start with the Aces and build them up by twos, using cards of the same suit. So the sequence will be A, 3, 5, 7, 9, Jack, King. As for the 2’s, they also need to be built up by twos, but in the same suit, so it’ll go like this: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, Queen.

Now, in order to complete the game, we need to place the four Kings on Row 1. But here’s the catch: we can only place a King on Row 1 when its counterpart has been played to Row 2. So we have to keep that in mind and plan our moves carefully.

Below the foundations, we have two more rows called the reserve. We can play cards from the reserve on the foundations. However, if we create any empty spaces in the reserve, we need to fill them immediately with cards from the waste pile. If we don’t have a waste pile, we can fill the space with a card from the draw pile.

When I play the game, I draw one card at a time from the draw pile. These draw pile cards can only be played to the foundations. If a card is unplayable, it goes on the waste pile. The top card on the waste pile can also be played onto the foundations. I keep playing until I reach a point where I can no longer make any moves, or until I win the game. There are no opportunities to reshuffle the cards.

WINNING

The game is won when I have successfully built up all twelve foundations correctly. That’s when I can declare victory!

When all twelve foundations have been built up correctly, I win!