we should do something decisive about Agnes



The Agnes game in aisleriot is almost impossible to win. It comes down
to the fact that it's impossible to remove the highest-ranking card
without putting it on the foundation. If one of them happens to be
above a card of the same suit, the game is unwinnable.

Bug 352229 was related to this (and incorrectly marked as duplicate).
The reporter was apparently used to rules that are actually sane,
where the highest-ranking card can be moved to an empty tableau.

Some quick searching shows the following explanations of the rules:

* SolSuite's rules match ours: http://www.solsuite.com/games/agnes_I.htm
* Empty tableau piles can be filled with anything:
http://www.bvssolitaire.com/rules/agnes.htm
* Empty tableau piles can be filled with anything, and the stock deals
onto 7 reserve piles, not the tableau:
http://www.lenagames.com/bp_files/rul/agnes.htm
* There are two variations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_(card_game)
 * Agnes Bernauer: stock deals to reserve piles, tableau builds by
alternating color, spaces are filled with the rank below the base
 * Agnes Sorel: same as ours, but with the reserve piles

Given that no one seems to quite agree, and we've yet to find an
authority in solitaire rules, I'm going to say this is a license to do
whatever we want as long as we end up with a game that's vaguely
similar.

I'm going to suggest we (I would do the work) do the following, for no
particular reason:
* Delete our current Agnes game. (Or keep it, I don't mind.)
* Make a decent attempt at Agnes Bernauer/Agnes Sorel.
* Create a new game, based on our current version of Agnes with the
following rules changes (which I'm hoping will make it interesting but
not unwinnable most of the time):
 * Foundations build by color.
 * Tableaus build by rank only (suit does not matter).

Vincent Povirk


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