War (card Game) - Gameplay

Gameplay

The deck is divided evenly among the two players, giving each a down stack. In unison, each player reveals the top card on his deck (a "battle"), and the player with the higher card takes both the cards played and moves them to the bottom of his stack. If the two cards played are of equal value, each player lays down three face-down cards and picks one of the cards out of the three (a "war"), and the higher-valued card wins all of the cards on the table, which are then added to the bottom of the player's stack. If one of the players has no more cards in a battle that player wins that battle. In the case of another tie, the war process is repeated until there is no tie. The face value of each cards is as follows: Ace=14 King=13 Queen=12 Jack=11 2 through 10=Same as number on card (10=10, etc.)

A player wins by collecting all the cards. If a player runs out of cards while dealing the face-down cards of a war, he may play the last card in his deck as his face-up card and still have a chance to stay in the game.

When the cards are dealt, the outcome of War is not fully determined because of slight variations in how the cards are returned to play. Shuffling is highly illegal, besides, even without shuffling, the order in which each individual card is placed in the deck can alter the outcome for one side or another. Indeed, if the order the winning cards are placed is fixed it is possible to create an infinite loop wherein neither side will win and the game will not end. Variations exist to increase enjoyment of the game play.

Since there are no choices in the game, and all outcomes are random, it is not considered a game by some definitions.