Mahjong Bay › Layouts › Dragon
Dragon Mahjong Solitaire
- 88tiles
- 3layers
- 26free at the start
- 12pairs open on a fresh deal, average
- 41%of boards lost by random clicking in my test runs
The Dragon is a long body that winds across the whole width of the board, doubles back on itself, and carries a raised spine along each of its two long stretches. 88 tiles, three layers, and a shape with a lot of edge, which is why it feels open even though it is one of the bigger boards.
The two spines are where the game is decided. Each is nine tiles long with a single tile on top, and each lies over the widest row of the body. While a spine is in place, the row under it cannot be shortened from the middle, only from its ends. The tiles at the tips of the body, the head and the tail, are free from the first move and get used up fast, so it is worth rationing them.
A careless run gets stuck 41 times in a hundred. The board rewards working both spines at once rather than clearing one stretch entirely: pairs tend to be split between the two halves of the body, and you want both halves open when you go looking for the second copy of a face.
