Split the deck
A standard 52-card deck is shuffled and divided equally. Each player starts with 26 face-down cards.
Luck-driven classic · 2 players
War
Flip together. Highest card wins. When ranks tie, the table erupts into war.
C
OpponentComputer
26 cardsReady to battle
Cards at stake0
Y
YouYour deck
26 cardsGame complete
You won the war!
01 How to play
No choices.
Just the highest card.
War is one of the easiest card games to learn. You never choose which card to play: both players simply reveal the next card in their deck.
Flip together
Both players reveal their top card. Suits do not matter. Only rank matters, and Ace is the highest card.
Capture the cards
The player with the higher card wins every card currently at stake and places them at the bottom of their deck.
Declare war
If the ranks tie, each player places three cards face down and one face up. The new face-up cards decide who takes the entire pot.
War can repeat
If the deciding cards tie again, another war begins and even more cards are added to the same pot.
Win every card
The game ends when one player owns all 52 cards. If a player cannot produce a deciding card during war, they lose.
One battle, explained
9♣
beats7♥
The Nine is higher than the Seven, so the player with the Nine collects both cards. The suits have no effect.
02 History & variants
The simplest contest of high card.
An old comparing-game idea
War belongs to a long family of games in which players reveal cards and the highest card captures the others. Closely related games are known as Bataille in French and by many translated names elsewhere. Because decisions are replaced by chance, it is often used as a first card game for children and as a way to learn rank order.
How many cards make a war?
The best-known difference is the tie procedure: players may place one, two or three cards face down before revealing the deciding card. Multi-player games need rules for players who cannot complete a war. Some versions return shuffled capture piles to play immediately, while others keep the original order or end after a fixed time and count cards.