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Solace I
a Black Ice
game designed by Dale Newfield
WHAT YOU NEED
- Additional equipment: none
- Number of players: 1
- Playing time: 1-3 minutes
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OVERVIEW
Solace is a traditional patience (solitare) game played with
a set of Black Ice pieces. It is more reminiscent of Carpet than
Spider in that a single game lasts a very short time. The game
starts with ten randomly created nests, and ends when no more
monochromatic towers can be created. The score of a game is the
number of full towers sitting directly on the playing surface.
SETUP
Randomly assemble ten (non-monochromatic) full nests. Do this
however you like; however, try this technique if you are not satisfied
with your own. (Since games are quick, setup must also be quick if
you want to play at least as much as you setup.) Arrange all 30 pieces
so that they are all standing up, and separate them into 3 groups according
to size. Lift four or five two pointers with one hand so that they are
all still oriented the same way, and so that your hand blocks the pieces
(and you therefore don't know which piece is which color). Now place these
on top of the one pointers. Continue doing this until all ones and twos are
nested, then do the same thing with the three point pieces onto the partially
constructed nests. If you've been focused on the mechanic of how to build
these nests quickly and easily they should wind up fairly randomized.
Arrange the ten nests in two rows of 5, each row containing the nests
whose outermost pieces are of one of the colors. (I.E. one row of 5 nests
with black three pointers, one row of 5 nests with clear three pointers.)
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An example starting state
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PLAY OPTIONS
| Foundation:You may use any full nest as a
foundation upon which to start building a monochromatic tower.
You may move any three point piece from the top of a full nest and
place it on top of any full nest, so long as the piece being moved
and the top of the nest being capped are the same color. |
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| Building: If at any time you have exposed
two and three pointers of the same color you may move the two onto
the three. Likewise, one may move any exposed one pointer onto any
like-colored two pointer. |
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| Promotion: Any full tower may be moved to any
open space so long as that space started the game with nests whose
outermost piece were of the same color as the inbound tower. |
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RESTRICTIONS
No Cheating: Just like in regular card-based patience games,
if you make a move that provides you with more information by its
execution (like uncovering what's inside an opaque piece) you cannot
later decide to undo it and make another.
ENDING
THE GAME
The game ends when no more forward progress can me made toward
having full towers sitting directly on the playing surface.
SCORING
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When the game is over, count up one point for every full tower
sitting directly on the playing surface. I believe the highest
achievable score is an Eight, although I've at times been convinced
that Nine was achievable. |
A score of 4 |
A (perfect?) score of 8 |
A score of 5 |
STRATEGIES
Grab the free ones early: The solid clear full nests are,
in a sense, free to convert into full towers, as each can simply be
inverted on it's neighbors and then moved into the space that left
open.
It's a game of information hiding: Start by laying a black
foundation, since that exposes more information, which can be used
to help build nests of both colors.
Copyright © 2000 by Dale
Newfield.
