Fortress Mahjong

Fortress Mahjong is the hardest layout on this site. The 144 tiles are built into five levels, each one sitting inside the level below, so the middle of the board starts under four layers of tiles.

If you clear it without a shuffle, you are playing very well. Most people need one, and that is fine.

How the layout is built

• Ground level: 72 tiles, twelve wide and six deep.
• Level two: 40 tiles, one tile in from every edge.
• Level three: 16 tiles in two rows of eight.
• Level four: 12 tiles in two rows of six.
• The keep: 4 tiles in a row at the top, sitting half a tile down so they cover two rows below.

How to play it well

Every level is much wider than it is deep. That means the middle tiles of each level are pinned left and right by their own neighbours, and a level only opens once you work in from its ends.

• Work from the short ends. Each level unravels from its left and right edges.
• Don’t waste a pair. On a five-level board, a pair used for nothing is often the move that loses the game.
• Clear the keep and level four quickly, then work level three from both ends at once.
• Save your hints. A hint shows you a good pair, but early on you rarely need help finding a move. Late in the game you will.

If it’s too hard

Step down to Pyramid, which uses the same stacked idea with gentler proportions, or the classic Turtle. For a calm game, Garden is the easiest board here.