The War card game is a public domain game that has been around for a long time. You can play the game with a standard deck of playing cards. Many standalone decks for War have been released over the years as well. Some contain the standard 52 cards, while others have less cards. I will start with the standard rules for the War card game used by most people, and will then talk about some of the variant rules that have been created for the game.
Looking for specific War Card Game rules? | Setup | Playing the Game | Matching Cards | Winning the Game | More Than Two Players | Variant Rules |
Setup
- Shuffle all of the cards.
- Deal the cards out facedown to the two players so both players have the same number of cards. Players gather up their cards into a facedown pile, and place the pile in front of themselves.
How to Play the War Card Game
The War card game consists of battles. Each battle begins with both players flipping over the top card from their pile. You will then compare the two revealed cards. Whichever player flips over the higher valued card, wins the battle. If you are playing with a standard deck of cards, face cards are higher than tens in the order of Jack, Queen, King. Aces are considered the highest cards in the deck. The card’s suit does not matter when comparing cards.
The player who played the highest card takes both cards from the middle of the table. They will place both cards on the bottom of their pile of cards.
The next battle then begins with the players both revealing the next card from their pile.
Matching Cards
Eventually there will be a battle where both players reveal a card that are the same number. When this happens, a war has begun.
Both players take the top card from their pile and place it face down on the table. They then take the next card and place it face up on top of the face down card. Both players compare the values of these two new face up cards. The player who played the higher valued card takes all of the cards in the middle of the table. This includes the two original cards, and the four cards used for the war. You will place all of the cards face down on the bottom of your pile.
Should both players turn over the same card in the war, both players once again take the top card from their pile and place it face down. They then take the next card from the pile and place it face up. The players then compare these cards. This continues until one of the players plays a higher card. The player who plays the higher card takes all of the cards played to the middle of the table and adds them to the bottom of their pile.
Should a player run out of cards during a war, there are some different variants on how the situation should be handled. Some variants have the person who runs out of cards immediately lose the game. You can also play it where the player plays their last card face up and it remains face up for the rest of the war.
After the war is resolved, gameplay returns to normal with each player only revealing the top card from their pile.
Winning the Game
The game ends once one of the players acquire all of the cards in the game. The player with all of the cards wins the War card game.
More Than Two Players
If there are more than two players, you have to slightly alter the rules. All of the players receive the same number of cards.
During battles each player reveals a card. If only one player plays the highest card, they win the battle and take all of the cards played by the other players.
Should there be a tie for the highest card, all of the players go to war including the players that didn’t initiate the war. The player that wins the war takes all of the played cards.
When one of the players run out of cards, they are eliminated from the game. The rest of the players keep playing until only one remains. The last remaining player wins the game.
Variant Rules
Automatic War
You can play the game where whenever a two is turned over, a war is started even if the other player played a different card.
Multi-Card Wars
Typically only one card is placed face down during wars. Some variant rules have players place multiple cards face down before turning a card face up. The most common number other than one is three cards.
Peace
Instead of having the high card win each battle, you can choose to play where the low card wins each battle.
Prisoners of War
Whenever you win a battle, you can choose to take one of the cards you collect (not your own card) and set it face up next to your deck. This card is a prisoner.
In future battles you can choose to either play the prisoner card or turn over the top card from your pile. You must make the decision before you look at the top card from your pile.
If you choose to use the prisoner, the battle is handled the same way as a normal battle. If you win, you collect the prisoner card and the card played by the other player(s) and add them to your pile. You can choose to take one of the won cards (not the prisoner card), and make it your new prisoner. If you lose the battle, you will give the other player the prisoner card as well as the top card from your pile.
Should you win a war, you can choose to take one of the face down cards played by one of the players as your prisoner.
Underdog
Should you lose a war, look at your face down cards. If one of them is a Jack, you win the war and take all of the cards.
Year: Unknown | Publisher: Public Domain
Genres: Card, Children’s
Ages: 4+ | Number of Players: 2 | Length of Game: 10-30 minutes
Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High
For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.