Goal of the game
Move all 104 cards (two complete decks) onto the eight foundations by suit. Four foundations build up from Ace to King; four foundations build down from King to Ace. The game is won when the up-built and down-built foundations of the same suit meet in the middle — typically with a 7 or 8 as the final card placed.
Setup
Shuffle two standard 52-card decks together (104 cards). Place one Ace and one King of each suit as the eight foundation piles in the centre — four Aces below, four Kings above (or vice versa, layout varies). Deal the remaining 96 cards into 16 reserve piles of 6 cards each, arranged in a crescent (half-moon) around the foundations. Only the top card of each reserve pile is in play.
Crescent-Regeln
- Lege 4 Asse und 4 Könige als Fundamente ab.
- Teile 16 Reserve-Stapel à 6 Karten im Halbmond aus.
- Baue Fundamente aufsteigend von den Assen und absteigend von den Königen, nach Farbe.
- Verschiebe Einzelkarten zwischen Reserve-Stapeln nach Farbe, in beide Richtungen.
- Drei Neuausteilen: jedes rotiert die unterste Karte jedes Stapels nach oben.
Win and loss conditions
You win when both halves of every suit's foundations have built towards each other and exhausted all cards — typically meeting at the 7 and 8 of each suit. You lose when no legal moves remain and all redeals have been used. The Solitaire Royal undo button lets you rewind costly moves; you can also restart the deal or shuffle a new one. Deals are randomly shuffled and tuned to be solvable.
Strategie & Tipps
- Nutze das bidirektionale Aufbauen – manchmal öffnet das Zurückschicken einer Karte auf das absteigende Fundament den richtigen Reserve-Stapel.
- Setze deine Neuausteilen klug ein: jedes mischt die unterste Karte nach oben und verändert das Spielfeld drastisch.
- Entspannt erlaubt zusätzliche Neuausteilen – nutze sie beim Erlernen.
Crescent's distinctive half-moon layout dates to late-19th-century European patience books, where its decorative geometry was as much the point as the gameplay. The bidirectional foundations and three-redeal mechanic were standardised in mid-20th-century English solitaire collections, and the game has remained a fan favourite among two-deck enthusiasts for the unusual rhythm — building towards the middle rather than racing from Ace to King in one direction.
