Mahjong Solitaire, Fortress Layout

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A walled square: a thick outer wall, a tower of three layers in each corner, and a low keep in the courtyard. The walls give you long rows to work along, and the corner towers are the tallest stacks. Free, with no sign-up.

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How to play Mahjong Solitaire: Fortress

Clear the board by matching pairs of tiles. The board starts with 144 tiles. A walled square: a thick outer wall, a tower of three layers in each corner, and a low keep in the courtyard. The walls give you long rows to work along, and the corner towers are the tallest stacks.

Only free tiles can be matched. A tile is free when no tile sits on top of it and its left side or its right side is open.
Free tiles have a dark outline. Blocked tiles look greyer, and you can't choose them.
Two identical tiles match. Any tile marked Flower matches any other Flower, and any Season matches any other Season.
To match, tap one free tile, then its twin.
If no pair is free, choose Shuffle to mix the tiles left into a new arrangement that can still be cleared.

Every tile has a large number or letter in its top corner, so you can match tiles without reading the Chinese characters: 1 to 9 for dots (circles), bamboo (sticks) and characters (萬), E, S, W and N for the winds, and R, G and Wh for the red, green and white dragons. Undo, hints and shuffles have no limit, and there is no time limit.

Keyboard

Tab or the arrow keys move between free tiles. Enter or Space chooses a tile. H shows a hint, S shuffles, Escape cancels a selection, and Ctrl+Z undoes a move.

Questions

Is the Fortress hard?

It's the hardest layout here. When we tested 100 boards by matching free pairs at random, only 10 cleared, against 39 on the Turtle. Each corner tower is three tiles deep, so take the tower tops early. The keep in the middle is one layer, so it can wait.

Can every board be cleared?

Yes. We build each board by playing it backwards, so there is always a way to clear it, and Shuffle keeps that true for the tiles left.

Which tiles match?

Two identical tiles match. Any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season.