War Card Game Rules: How to Play War

War is the game that turns a deck of cards into a toy. There is nothing to memorize and nothing to decide: two players turn over cards, the higher card wins, and every so often a tie sets off a war that sends a whole stack of cards one way or the other. Many of us learned it on a living-room rug long before we could add, and many of us taught it to our own children and grandchildren the same way.

This page sets out the standard rules step by step, with worked examples, the same rules our free War game uses. Families have always played it a little differently, so where there is a common house rule we say so, and the rule variations page goes into each one.

What You Need

• Two players.
• One standard deck of 52 playing cards, with the jokers taken out.
• A table, a floor or a bed: anywhere with room for two piles and a few cards in between.
• Time. A full game of War often lasts a good half hour at a real table. If you want something shorter, see the short game below.

The Goal

Win all 52 cards. Each time you turn up the higher card, you take your opponent's card too. The game ends when one player has every card, and that player wins.

The Rank of the Cards

Only the rank matters in War. Suits are ignored completely: the 9 of spades and the 9 of hearts are exactly equal. Aces are the highest card.

Ace low? A few families play Aces as the lowest card. That works perfectly well, as long as everyone agrees before the first card is turned. Our game plays Aces high, which is by far the most common way.

The Deal

Shuffle the deck well and deal it out one card at a time, face down, alternating between the two players, until all 52 cards are gone. Each player now has 26 cards. Square your cards into a neat pile in front of you, face down. Don't look at them; nobody ever gets to choose which card comes next.

Playing a Round

1. Both players turn over the top card of their pile at the same moment and place it face up in the middle. At home people often count "one, two, three, go!"
2. Compare the two cards. The higher rank wins.
3. The winner takes both cards and puts them face down under their pile.
4. Turn over the next two cards and carry on.

Example: a plain round

You turn up the Queen of hearts. The computer turns up the 9 of clubs. A Queen is higher than a 9, so you take both cards and slide them under your pile. You now have 27 cards and the computer has 25. In our game the status box says: "Your Queen beats the 9. You take 2 cards."

Example: an Ace takes a King

You turn up the King of diamonds; the computer turns up the Ace of spades. Aces are high, so the computer takes both cards.

When the Cards Tie: War

When both cards have the same rank, two 7s say, neither one wins. That is a war, and it is the exciting part of the game. Leave the two tied cards where they are and then:

1. Each player puts the next card from their pile face down on top of their tied card.
2. Each player then turns one more card face up on top of that.
3. Compare the two new face-up cards. The higher one takes everything on the table: both tied cards, both face-down cards and both new face-up cards, six cards in all.

Many families put down three cards face down instead of one, often while chanting "I de-clare war!", one card for each word, then turn the fourth card up. That makes each war worth ten cards instead of six. Both ways are popular; our game uses one card unless you choose three in Settings.

Example: a war

You both turn up a 7. War! You each put one card face down, then one face up. Your face-up card is a Jack, the computer's is a 4. Your Jack wins, so you collect all six cards: the two 7s, the two face-down cards and the Jack and the 4. Notice that you never look at the face-down cards before they are won. They might be Aces, they might be 2s; that is the gamble of a war.

Double and triple wars

If the new face-up cards tie as well, it is a double war. Leave everything where it is and do it again: one card face down, one face up each. Keep going until somebody turns up a higher card. The winner takes the whole stack, which can be a great many cards.

Example: a double war

You both turn up a 7. In the war you both turn up a Jack, so it's a double war. This time you turn up an Ace and the computer turns up a 4. Your Ace takes the lot: the two 7s, the two Jacks, the Ace and the 4, and the four face-down cards in between, ten cards in all.

Running Out of Cards in a War

Sooner or later a war arrives when one player is nearly out of cards. The usual rule is simple: a player who doesn't have enough cards to finish the war loses the game. With one card face down and one face up, you need at least two cards in your pile; with three face down, you need four.

The gentler house rule. Many families let the short player put down as many face-down cards as they can and turn their last card face up. If they have no cards left at all, the tied card they already turned up stays as their card for the war. It gives the underdog one last chance, and you can choose it in our game's Settings under "Running out of cards in a war."

In the very rare case that both players run out of cards in the middle of the same war, nobody can settle it. Each player takes their own cards from the table back, and whoever then holds more cards wins. In our game this almost never happens, but the rules have to say something!

Where Won Cards Go

Cards you win always go face down under your pile, never on top, so you don't see them again until you have played through everything above them. At a real table the cards get scooped up in a jumble, so they go under in no particular order. Our game copies that by shuffling the won cards before they go under. That matters more than you might think: if won cards always go under in exactly the same order, a game can fall into a pattern and go round and round. You can turn the shuffle off in Settings; our variations page explains what happens then.

Winning the Game

The game ends when one player has all 52 cards, or when a player runs out of cards during a war under the usual rule. Either way, the player still holding cards wins.

The short game

A full game of War can take a long time, often several hundred rounds. Plenty of families agree to stop after a set number of rounds, or when supper is ready, and count the cards: whoever holds more cards wins, and an even split is a draw. Our game offers short games of 26, 50 or 100 rounds. A round counts once someone takes the cards, however many wars it took to get there.

How Our Game Handles the Details

• The big Turn Over button turns your card and the computer's at the same time. During a war, one more tap puts down the face-down card(s) and the new face-up card for both of you.
• The cards slide calmly to the pile of whoever won them, and the counts next to each pile always show how many cards each of you holds.
• A plain sentence in the status box says what happened every round, for example "The computer's King beats your 7. It takes 2 cards."
• Auto-play turns the cards for you, at a calm or a quick pace. Finish the Game plays out the rest at once and shows a summary: rounds played, number of wars, the longest war and the biggest haul.
• Deal numbers. Each game has a number. The same number always gives exactly the same game, including how the won cards get shuffled, so Replay This Deal plays out identically.
• No Hint, no Undo, no difficulty. War has no decisions, so these would mean nothing. The computer plays exactly as you do.

A Few Questions People Ask

Do suits ever matter?

Not in the standard game. A tie is a tie whatever the suits are.

Can I look at my cards?

No. Your pile stays face down, and you always play the top card. That is what makes it fair.

Who wins more often?

Neither player has any advantage. Over many games you will win about half. In our test of 1,000 games, you won 532 and the computer 468, which is just the ordinary wobble of chance.

Is War good for teaching children?

It is one of the best. Children learn to read the numbers and compare them, and they practice taking turns and winning and losing gracefully. The variations page has an adding version for young mathematicians.