War — rules card

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War 2 players · one standard 52-card deck THE IDEA • Both players turn over their top card at the same time. The higher card wins both. • Ace is high: 2 is the lowest card and Ace the highest. Suits do not matter. THE DEAL • Shuffle and deal the whole deck one card at a time, face down: 26 each. Nobody looks at their cards. A BATTLE • The winner takes every card in the battle. In the Full game they go to the bottom of the winner's pile; in the Short game they go to a won pile beside it. • A battle, wars and all, is played to its end before the next one starts. A WAR • When the two cards are equal it is WAR: each player lays three cards face down, then turns over one more. The higher card takes everything. Equal again: another war. • A player with fewer than four cards lays down all but one, and turns that one over. • A player with no card to turn over loses the battle. If neither has one, each takes back their own and the game is over. THE END • Short game: play through your pile once. When the piles run out, whoever won more cards wins. • Full game: won cards go back into play. Whoever ends up with every card wins. • A Full game can last a very long time, so it stops after 500 battles, and whoever holds more cards wins. WORDS THIS GAME USES Battle — Both players turning over a card, and the higher one taking both. War — What happens when the two cards are equal: cards face down, then one more face up to settle it. Won pile — In the Short game, the cards you have won, kept beside your pile and not played again. Face down — Laid with the back up, so nobody sees what the card is. Your pile stays face down all game. The cap — The 500th battle of a Full game, where it stops and the player holding more cards wins. WHERE THESE CAME FROM Pagat.com — War. A folk game with no authority. Pagat records the common form; households differ on how many cards go face down in a war. w.richardpringle.com/games/war/ ▲ FOLD ▼ ▲ FOLD ▼ ▲ FOLD ▼ FOLD & TEAR