Guest Author - Lynn Little

War is a children's card game, but don’t let that stop you from giving it a try. You might have even played it as a kid. It might be time to take out that standard playing deck of cards and pass on this fun game.

The basic game of War pits two players against each other. A standard playing deck of cards is used with all cards being dealt to the two players. Remove the jokers from the set. Each round the opponents flip over the top card of their pile. The person with the larger value card takes the two revealed cards and places them on the bottom of his/her pile. Ace is the highest valued card while the 2 is the lowest. The suit of a card has no significance in War. If the two cards are the same value, then war is declared-which is a side duel to determine the winner of the cards. Players put one card face down and then the next card face up. The player with the higher card value takes the cards in the side match as well as the same valued cards. If there is another tie after the war, then another war is played until there is a winner. The winner then takes all of the previously tied cards and adds them to their deck. Play continues until one person has all of the cards and is therefore the winner.

War can also be played with more than two people. Game play is the same with the person who plays the highest card taking the played cards and putting them on the bottom of his/her pile. When war is declared (at least two people play the same face value card and the value of the cards is the highest in the round), everyone takes part in it even if their cards are not part of the same valued cards.

A variation that we played is the war had three cards on the bottom pile and then a fourth card was placed face up. Since this game can be quite long, using more cards during a war might help to speed up game play.

War is also known by the name “I declare War.” There are numerous variations on War-some even help to teach math. Addition War is war played with two cards and players add the total of the cards. The highest total wins the cards. Subtraction War is also played with two cards and the lower card value is subtracted from the higher card. The highest value wins. War may be a children’s game, but its simple rules and fun game play make it a great card game at any age.