Fortune Foundation Strategies?

[Pankes From Idaho]

Really at a loss about how to get established playing this one.
Is the best method to go for the 0-21 cards as you can ween out cards in two directions?

[Pankes From Idaho]

or maybe to build up the top right cards at the same time? dunno haha

[Conro]

You're really going to have to think ahead, carefully, on this one. Make sure you always have a free column open. Since you can only move one card at a time, you need free columns to be able to move stacks to a new location, flipping them upside down and then right-side up. Going for the major arcana is a good place to start, but you can also get too focused on those and neglect the minor suits. Looking for the next card in sequence for them helps clear off the board, as suits are never needed after they're put into the foundations. Don't put anything on the free slot above the minor foundations unless you have a surefire plan on how you're going to get it back off, otherwise you'll find yourself with the next card in sequence and no way to get it in the foundation. And lastly, it's simple, but don't forget you can put cards on both the next highest AND next lowest card. Sometimes you'll be at a loss and realize that you need to put a 9 on an 8, or something like that. Be patient! It takes a while for the answers to reveal themselves.

[Dex]

I'm still learning it myself, but I've managed to get 4 wins so far and I'm starting to make decent progress more consistently (before getting overconfident and making a dumb mistake!).

So far my impression is that there doesn't seem to be one strategy that always works. You really need to evaluate the board at each turn and decide what approach seems like it'll have the highest chance of opening up opportunities without getting stuck.

Sometimes that means noticing that you can remove a load of minor or major arcana from the board really easily. Other times the best approach might be to focus on clearing up a few of the columns to give yourself more manoeuvrability. Sometimes there's just a bunch of cards that will be a pain to move out of the way without potentially blocking off other columns, so you either need to work around them or do your best to think of a plan for carefully getting them out of the way.

Some additional thoughts;

- Keep note of which cards are harder to remove from the board and be much more careful with them. Somewhat obvious but it's worth keeping in mind when making risky decisions.

- Keep an eye out for "free" moves. Most moves in this game have a degree of risk associated with them (unless you meticulously plan your entire solve). But occasionally there'll be moves you can make that have zero risk or downsides, make sure you recognise and take them! I find you get a lot of these when you've almost cleared a column, because you can often move a card temporarily and put it right back when the column is empty.

[brickmaster32000]

Much like what has been said, never block off a foundation without a plan to clear it. In addition to that before blocking off a foundation find all the stacks you can reverse using it and flip each one so they can accept the whichever card in the appropriate suite you are most likely to uncover first. If you have a stack that goes all the way to the foundation you can do this anytime you have a free foundation or a foundation with only a single card and you should always take advantage of that.

[Tenebrais]

Since cards can be stacked ascending or descending, make sure to stack in the order that frees up cards you need for your plan. Do you need the card under the 8 of cups, or the one under the 9? That will determine which way you need to stack them. If you don't have a plan to use either of the cards underneath, don't stack anything until you do - you need to keep your options open as much as possible. Making stacks just to tidy up your board is as likely to hurt as help.

On the other hand, if a card can be stacked on one of two cards (say, the 4, 5 and 6 of swords are all available, and the 5 can be moved to either) you might as well move it to one of them, since you can easily swap to the other and it frees up whatever was under the middle card.

Final thing, remember that there are always 6 cards that can be cleared from the board (unless you've already basically won). If you feel lost, go through and find all six. It might be that you're trying to find a place to put a card that will simply remove itself.

[Pankes From Idaho]

Thanks for all the tips everyone!

[☺ Gatorau ☺]

I don't play chess myself but I have read about chess champions who think so many moves ahead during a game. I found myself applying this strategy and finally got a win. Every move has a consequence and you need to keep several steps ahead at all times so that you don't lose the momentum. I was stacking my cards top to bottom, bottom to top, utilising the crossbar card over the aces and trying at all times to keep one row free to facilitate movement of the cards between rows. Get the 0 and the 21 out if you can and work from there.

[dark_fibre]

Stack invert, stack invert and stack invert!

[Askannon]

Since the games are meant to be solvable, the beginning, I find, is about finding moves that don't block you in (e.g. move card 5 to card 4 or rather card 4 to 5 due to what is unveiled)