How to play
War is the simplest card game there is, and that is exactly why it works with kids, on a train, or for a quick coin-flip of a match. There are no decisions, only flips, tension and the occasional WAR.
Pick Computer or Friend in the menu, then the deck: Full (52 cards, 26 each) for a proper game or Quick (the 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces, 10 each) for a two-minute round.
Each player holds a face-down deck. Tap your deck to flip the top card. Against the computer, it flips right after you; with a friend, each of you taps your own deck, which sits on your side of the phone (the top one is turned around for the person sitting opposite).
- The higher card wins both cards. Aces are high, twos are low; suits don’t matter.
- If the cards are equal, it’s war: both players lay three cards face down and one face up. The higher face-up card takes everything on the table. Another tie means another war on top of the first.
- A player without enough cards for a full war lays down whatever they have, last card face up. A player with no cards at all loses the war.
Won cards are shuffled and slipped under the winner’s deck. The game ends when one player runs out of cards. If the war drags on past 300 battles, the bigger deck wins.
Auto. Against the computer, the Auto button in the top bar keeps flipping for you about once a second. Tap it again to go back to flipping by hand.
Strategy
There is none, and that is the charm. War is pure luck: the order of the shuffle decides everything. What you can choose is the deck. The Quick deck has only five ranks, so ties and wars happen far more often and the game ends in a couple of minutes. The Full deck is the long, swingy classic where a lead of twenty cards can vanish in two wars.
If you want to know who is ahead, look at the card counts in the top bar.
If you enjoy War, try Whist or Yukon Solitaire next.
