War Card Game Rules: How to Play War

If you want to know how to play war card game, you can learn it in about a minute. War is a pure luck game where two players flip cards and the higher card takes both. Because there are no choices to make, it is perfect for young children who are just learning to recognize numbers and card ranks, and it is a handy way to pass time on a rainy afternoon or a long trip. Some families call it "I declare war" after the phrase players say when cards tie.

Quick rules

• Deal the whole deck face down, half to each player.
• Both players flip their top card at the same time.
• Higher card wins both cards. Aces are high, 2s are low, and suits do not matter.
• If the cards tie, it is war: each player places one card face down and one face up, and the higher face up card takes everything.
• Won cards go face down on the bottom of your pile.
• The player who collects all the cards wins.

What you need

• One standard 52-card deck, jokers removed.
• A flat surface. A floor or a big table works best because cards get flipped quickly.

Setup

1. Shuffle the deck well.
2. Deal all the cards face down, one at a time, so each player has 26.
3. Each player squares up their cards into a face down stack without looking at them.

How to play

1. The battle

1. Both players say "one, two, three" and flip the top card of their stack face up in the middle.
2. Compare ranks. From high to low: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
3. The player with the higher card takes both cards and places them face down on the bottom of their stack.

2. When cards tie: war

1. If both cards are the same rank, someone calls "war" (or "I declare war").
2. Each player places one card face down on top of their tied card, then one card face up.
3. The higher face up card wins all the cards in the middle: the tied pair, the face down cards and the face up cards.
4. If the new face up cards tie again, repeat the war: one more card face down and one face up each, until someone wins.

Many families play the war with three cards face down instead of one, which makes the pot bigger and the game swing more. Both versions are common, so pick one before you start.

3. Running out of cards in a war

If a player does not have enough cards to finish a war, they play their last card face up and that card is used for the comparison. If a player has no cards at all, they lose the game.

Scoring

There are no points in standard war. You simply count who holds the most cards. If you play the timed version (see Variations), count your stack at the end, and the player with more cards wins.

How to win

You win when you collect all 52 cards. Because a full game can take a long time, many families agree to stop after a set time or a set number of rounds and declare the player with the most cards the winner.

War card game rules for 3 or 4 players

• 3 players: remove one card (for example the 2 of clubs) so the 51 remaining cards deal out evenly at 17 each. Everyone flips together and the highest card takes all. If two players tie for highest, only those two play the war.
• 4 players: deal 13 cards each and play the same way. Ties for highest go to war between the tied players.

Variations

• Timed war: set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes. When it rings, the player with the most cards wins.
• Winnings pile: instead of putting won cards under your stack, keep them in a separate pile. When your stack runs out, shuffle your winnings and keep playing. This stops the game from looping forever.
• Peace: the reverse game, where the lowest card wins and ties trigger "peace" with three cards face down.
• Addition war: each player flips two cards and adds them. The higher total wins. Great for practicing math with kids. Use A as 1 and J, Q, K as 11, 12, 13.
• Jokers: add the two jokers as the highest cards in the deck.

Tips and strategy

War has no real strategy because every flip is luck. You can still make the game better:

• Let younger kids flip their own cards, even if it is slow, so they stay involved.
• Shuffle carefully at the start. A poorly shuffled deck makes long games even longer.
• Flip at exactly the same time so nobody can react to the other card.
• For young children, say the card ranks out loud, which turns the game into a counting lesson.
• If the game drags on, switch to the timed version rather than abandoning it.

House rules to agree first

• One card or three cards face down in a war.
• Whether won cards go straight under your stack or into a separate winnings pile.
• Whether you play until one player has all the cards or until a timer ends.

Once kids are hooked on war, try the fast slapping game Slapjack, the matching game Go Fish, or the speed contest Spit. Our list of card games for kids and card games for two has plenty more.