In response to Harold's War Challenge, I present my updated rules for the classic children's game War. Since I can name the game whatever I want, I chose Starr. 5 points to whoever posts a comment correctly guessing the reason for the name. I dunno if these rules will make the game faster or slower to play, but at least there's some mental exercise and decision making involved.
Objective
For one player to win all the cards.
Setup
The rules are for two people with a standard 52-card deck. Ranking of cards are A, K, Q, J, 10 through 2 (with suits ignored).
The deck is shuffled by the dealer and cut by the other player. The deck is fully dealt out, alternating cards, to result in 26 cards per player. Neither player may look at their cards or reorder them.
Rounds
On each turn, each player flips over one card to compare against the other player's card value. The player may choose to flip either the top card or the bottom card unless the previous card was drawn from the bottom (then the player must draw from the top). The player whose card has the higher higher value adds them face down to the bottom of his pile with the opponent's card (lower value card) at the bottom.
If a tie occurs when comparing cards, two cards from each player are placed (front the top of the deck) face down next to their face up card. At this point, either player can choose to surrender all the cards on the table to the other. If both wish to surrender, one side can retract their surrender and pick up all the cards. If there is no surrender, then the war continues and an additional face down card is played from the top of each player's deck. To resolve the war, a card is flipped over from either the top or the bottom (assuming the player did not use a bottom card the previous round) and these two card values are compared. The player with the highest value card wins, placing the face up cards at the bottom of his deck followed by the face down cards. Neither side may look at the face down cards. If a tie occurs, then the process is repeated with more face down cards until a victory is resolved.
End Game
If a player runs out of cards in a war scenario and cannot provide enough face down cards or the final face up card, then that player loses. If both players run out at the same time, then it is a draw.
When one player has all the cards, he is declared the victor.
Alternative rules
* After a war, you can look at the face down cards. The cards are placed in the victors deck in descending order, with the lowest value card on the bottom of the deck.
* The player can play from the top or bottom at anytime. The rule placing the lower card of each round at the bottom of the deck must be observed for this to work.
|
Join this Spot
Invite friend 
Sign In or join Fanpop to add your comment