Waste-pile builders · The Greenway
Deal cards one at a time from the stock. Each card must immediately go to one of four foundations (built up by colour, starting at ranks 2, 3, 4, and 5 with circular wrap from King back to Ace) or be placed face-up on one of six waste piles. Only the top card of each waste pile is available for play.
Deal from stock, then place the dealt card on a waste pile or foundation.
Colours Solitaire (also spelled Colors) is a foundation game with an unusual color-pairing rule. In this game, each foundation keeps one color, allowing Hearts and Diamonds to share a red lane or Clubs and Spades to share a black lane. The four foundations start on specific ranks (2, 3, 4, 5) and build upward with wraparound through King then Ace. The first card played to any foundation locks in the color assignment for all four.
One 52-card deck. Foundations start on ranks 2, 3, 4, and 5, building upward with wraparound by color (not suit). The color pairing — which colors go to which foundations — is determined by the first card placed on any foundation and locks for the rest of the game.
Stock deals one card at a time. Each card goes to a foundation (if it fits the color and the next needed rank) or to one of several waste piles. Waste top cards are always available. Win when all 52 cards reach foundations.
The most important decision in Colours happens early: the first card placed on any foundation sets which color goes to which pair of foundations for the entire game. A poor first placement can make large sections of the deck permanently difficult to route, because the color pairing determines which waste pile holdings are useful and which are stranded.
Before making the first foundation placement, scan the available waste cards to identify which color assignment would make the most cards immediately playable.
Foundations starting at 2, 3, 4, and 5 and building with King-to-Ace wraparound means each foundation completes a full 13-rank cycle. A foundation starting at 3 builds: 3→4→5→6→7→8→9→10→J→Q→K→A→2. Planning around the full cycle — not just the immediate next rank — prevents the common mistake of treating early-rank cards as less urgent when they are actually one step from the wraparound completion.
Colours is part of The Greenway · Waste-pile builders and is a variant of Sir Tommy.