War
Flip a card. The higher card wins both. A tie means war.
Dealing…
How to play War
2 players · 52 cards · win all the cards
Goal
- Win all 52 cards.
The deal
- Deal the whole deck, so each player has 26 cards in a face-down pile.
The play
- Both players turn over their top card. The higher card wins both cards (ace is high). Won cards go to the bottom of your pile.
- If the cards are equal, it is war: each player puts one card face down and one face up. The higher face-up card wins all the cards on the table. If they tie again, war again.
- If you don’t have enough cards for a war, your last card is played face up. A player with no cards left loses.
Quick game
- A full game can take a long time. In a quick game, the player with more cards after a set number of battles wins.
Good for learning
War is pure luck, which makes it a great first card game. Young players practice comparing numbers and learn the order of the cards: 2 is lowest, then up to 10, jack, queen, king and ace.
Print the War rule sheet (PDF) or see all rules.
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