War
Two players, no decisions, one long battle. The first card game most children anywhere learn.
Played everywhere under a local name: Război in Romania, Guerra in Spanish, Krieg in German, Bataille in France. There are no choices to make, which is exactly why it works for a five-year-old and for a train journey.
Goal
Win every card. In practice, play until one player clearly has most of the deck and the other concedes.
Setup
Shuffle and deal the whole deck face down, 26 cards each. Nobody looks at their cards. Keep them in a stack in front of you.
Play
- Both players turn over their top card at the same time.
- The higher card wins both. Aces are high, twos are low, and suits do not matter.
- Put the cards you win face down at the bottom of your stack.
- When your stack runs out, shuffle what you have won and carry on.
The war itself
When both cards are equal, that is the war. Each player puts three cards face down and then one face up. The higher of the new face-up cards takes the whole pile, all ten cards.
If those tie as well, do it again. If a player does not have enough cards for a full war, they put down what they have and turn their last card face up.
Ending a game that will not end
War can run for an hour if the cards keep circulating. Two fixes people actually use: set a timer for fifteen minutes and count cards at the end, or play to a fixed number of wars, usually five, and count then. Both are more satisfying than surrendering out of boredom.
Questions
Are aces high or low in War?
High. The order runs 2 up to 10, then Jack, Queen, King, Ace. Suits are ignored completely.
How many cards go down in a war?
Three face down and one face up from each player. The face-up cards decide who takes all ten.
Can you play War with three people?
Yes. Deal the deck as evenly as you can and the highest of the three cards takes the trick. When two tie for highest, only those two go to war.