Mahjong Bay › Layouts › Fortress
Fortress Mahjong Solitaire
- 114tiles
- 3layers
- 36free at the start
- 20.5pairs open on a fresh deal, average
- 59%of boards lost by random clicking in my test runs
A wall two tiles thick, a tower on every corner, a moat of empty space and a three-storey keep in the middle. Fortress is the largest board on the site after the Turtle, at 114 tiles, and the one where random clicking fails most often: 59 times in a hundred in my runs.
The reason is the wall. Its outer ring has only the corner tiles free, and the corners carry the towers, so the towers have to come down before the wall can be shortened from any side. The inner ring of the wall is worse: none of its tiles touches an open edge until the outer ring has been cut through somewhere. Meanwhile the keep in the courtyard is free on all four sides and tempts you with easy pairs.
The winning pattern, as far as I can tell, is the opposite of what the board suggests. Spend the early game on the towers and on cutting one gap through the wall, and save the keep and the gate for the moment you need a free tile of a particular face. Undo is your friend here; there is no shame in stepping back ten moves to reopen a wall.
