| War | |
| Image Link: | Wojna gra karciana.jpg |
| Image Caption: | A "war" in the game of War: having dealt matching 7s, both players play a stack of three face-down cards on top of their card, followed by a face-up card. In this case, the king wins. |
| Alt Names: | Battle |
| Type: | Catching type |
| Players: | 2 |
| Play: | Clockwise |
| Card Rank: | Joker (optional) A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 |
| Ages: | any |
| Num Cards: | 52(54 or 55 with optional jokers) |
| Deck: | French |
| Related: | Beggar-My-Neighbour |
| Playing Time: | 10–40 min. (theoretically might be infinite) |
| Random Chance: | High |
| Skills: | Counting and card values |
War (also known as Battle in the United Kingdom) is a simple card game, typically played by two players using a standard playing card deck - and often played by children. There are many variations, as well as related games such as the German 32-card Tod und Leben ("Death and Life").
The objective of the game is to win all of the cards.
The deck is divided evenly among the players, giving each a down stack. In unison, each player reveals the top card of their deck—this is a "battle"—and the player with the higher card takes both of the cards played and moves them to their stack. Aces are high, and suits are ignored.[1]
If the two cards played are of equal value, then there is a "war". Both players place the next card from their pile face down and then another card face-up. The owner of the higher face-up card wins the war and adds all the cards on the table to the bottom of their deck. If the face-up cards are again equal then the battle repeats with another set of face-down/up cards. This repeats until one player's face-up card is higher than their opponent's.
Most descriptions of War are unclear about what happens if a player runs out of cards during a war. In some variants, that player immediately loses. In others, the player may play the last card in their deck as their face-up card for the remainder of the war or replay the game from the beginning. There also exists a variant where the player that possesses a larger amount of cards must provide the cards to fight the war.
War can also be played by multiple people. Each player in a three-player game receives 17 cards, while each person in a four-player game receives 13. Each player must simultaneously reveal their card, just like in the two-player version. If the highest cards played are tied, they will go to war. All players, including those who are not tied, will play one face-down card and the following face-up card. The person who has the highest card at the end of the war obtains all of the cards that have been played. When a player runs out of cards, they are eliminated and are no longer in the game. The game will continue until one player has collected all of the cards.
Game designer Greg Costikyan has observed that since there are no choices in the game, and all outcomes are random, it cannot be considered a game by some definitions.[2] However, the rules often do not specify in which order the cards should be returned to the deck. If they are returned in a non-random order, the decision of putting one card before another after a victory can change the overall outcome of the game.[3] The effects of such decisions are more visible with smaller size decks as it is easier for a player to card count; however, the decisions can still affect gameplay if taken in standard decks.
Being a widely known game, War has many variations. Recorded variants include: