Beleaguered Castle, also called Laying Siege and Sham Battle, has a pleasing tableau although it must be admitted that it can be frustrating game.

The four Aces are removed from the pack and placed in a column in the centre of the table to form the foundations. The remainder of the pack is shuffled and a column to the right of the Aces.

Succeeding columns are dealt on these successively, each column overlapping the last until the whole pack is dealt and the tableau resembles that in the illustration. The cards to the left of the Aces are called the left wing and those to the right the right wing.

The object is to build on the foundations suit sequences up to the Kings. The cards available for poker play are those at the far end of each row, i.e. those whose faces are fully exposed.

They can be built directly onto the foundations or packed onto another available card in descending order of rank, irrespective of suit, e.g. a 6 can be packed on any 7. When one of the rows is emptied, it can be filled by any available card game. There are thus always eight available cards for play.

In the above picture, the ♥ 2 and ♠ 2 can be played to the foundations; the ♦ 4to ♦ 5; ♣ 5 to ♦ 6; ♦ 3 to ♦ 4; ♦ 2 to foundation; ♦ 3,4,5 to foundation; ♠ 6 to ♦ 7; ♣ 4 to ♣ 5; ♣ Q to ♣ K; ♥ 6 to ♥ 7; ♦ K to the space created in the rows; ♥ 9 to ♦ 10; ♠ 5 to ♠ 6; ♣ 3 to ♣ 4; ♣ 2 to foundation, thus clearing another row and allowing the club foundation to be built on.

But the game is soon doomed to failure, there being too many high poker cards burying low ones. The game is a quick one and the player will soon be optimistically re-dealing, which is the way with patience games.

Games for Five or More Players