War Card Game
Flip your top card against the computer's. The higher card takes both, and a tie means war — win all 52 cards to win the game.
How to play war card game online
- Open the War cards face down select and pick 3 cards down (the default) or 1 card down. Changing it starts a new game at once.
- Open Game length and pick Full game (the default) or Short: 100 battles. This also starts a new game.
- Click or tap your deck or the Flip card button. Both players turn over their top card, and the battle result appears under the table.
- Check the gold outline on the winning row and read the status line to see who took the cards.
- Keep flipping, or click Auto-play to run battles for you. Pick Normal or Fast in Auto-play speed. Click Stop auto-play to pause.
- When the end dialog appears, click Play again, or Close to look at the final table. The table stays as it ended until you click New game.
On a keyboard, Space or Enter flips a card when no button or select has focus. A starts and stops auto-play, N starts a new game, F opens fullscreen, and Esc closes the end dialog. New game shuffles at once with no confirmation. Adding ?seed=123 to the address makes the shuffle repeatable: the same seed and the same settings give the same game. New game removes the seed from the address.
How do you play the war card game?
Each player is dealt 26 cards in a pile, all face down, and you never look at the cards in your pile. In each battle, both players turn over the top card of their pile. The higher rank wins both cards, and the winner puts them at the bottom of their pile. Aces are high, 2 is the lowest rank, and suits do not matter.
The order of the returned cards is fixed. The winner’s own cards go to the bottom first, then the loser’s, each in the order they were played. Cards are never shuffled when they come back, so the whole game is set by the initial deal.
What happens when cards tie in the war card game?
A tie starts a war. Each player lays a number of cards face down (1 or 3, depending on your setting) and then one card face up. The higher face-up card wins every card in play. With 1 card down, that is 6 cards. With 3 cards down, it is 10 cards.
If the face-up cards tie again, there is another war, and all the cards stay in the pot until someone wins them. The Wars counter counts every tie, so a double war counts as 2 wars, while the Battles counter counts the whole battle once.
In the seed 12 game with 3 cards down, the fifth battle was 9♥ against 9♣. Both sides laid 3 cards face down, then 5♠ beat 2♣, and you took all 10 cards. The piles then held 29 cards for you and 23 for the computer.
What happens when a player runs out of cards during a war?
A player who has fewer cards than the face-down count plus one lays down as many as they can and keeps one card to turn up. That last card is the face-up card. A player with no cards at all when a war starts loses, and so does the game. If both players have no cards at that moment, the game is a tie and each player gets back the cards they played.
In one short-handed war, you had 8♠ and 2♠ against the computer’s 8♥ and a long pile, with 3 cards down. The 8s tied. You had only one card left, so you laid 0 cards down and turned up 2♠. The computer laid 3 down and turned up J♠. The computer won 7 cards: 2 from the battle, 1 of yours, and 4 of its own.
How does a war card game end?
In a Full game, the game ends as soon as one player holds all 52 cards. In a Short game, the game ends after the 100th battle if nobody has won, and the player with more cards wins. Equal counts are a tie. A Full game also stops after 5000 battles, and the player with more cards wins.
In runs of seeds 1 to 300 with the Full game setting, games with 3 cards down averaged 204 battles, with the longest at 918. Games with 1 card down averaged 306 battles, with the longest at 1378. None came near the 5000-battle cap.
Does the computer play differently in the war card game?
No. The computer has no strategy and no setting. It plays the card on top of its pile, the same way you do.
War card game strategy and tips
There is no choice in the game, so tips are about settings and expectations, not moves. The number of cards down changes the size of each war. With 3 cards down, a single war moves 10 cards, so one tie can swing the game. The averages above show that 1 card down games run longer.
If you want a quick game, choose Short: 100 battles. It always ends after 100 battles, so you know roughly how long it will take. If you want to replay a deal, keep a seed in the address and the same settings, and the same game will return. Fast auto-play is useful for watching a full game without clicking through each battle.
Frequently asked questions
Is this war card game free, and do I need to sign up?
Yes, it is free, and there is no sign-up or account. The game runs entirely in your browser. Your games won and played are kept only on the device you use.
Can I play the war card game on a phone?
Yes. Tap your deck or the Flip card button to play. The keyboard shortcuts only apply when you have a keyboard connected.
Is my game saved?
Yes. After every battle, the game saves both piles in exact order, the battle and war counters, the last battle on the table, and the settings for that game. A reload restores it, and a finished game shows the end dialog again. Auto-play is not restored, so it starts off after a reload.
What happens if my saved game data is damaged?
The game ignores invalid or damaged saved data and starts a new game.
Can I play the same deal again?
Yes, if you use a seed. Adding ?seed=123 to the address with the same settings gives the same game every time. Clicking New game removes the seed from the address.
Does the computer ever make a choice in the war card game?
No. Nobody chooses a card in War. The outcome is fixed by the shuffle and the war setting.
Can I stop auto-play and keep the game going?
Yes. Click Stop auto-play at any time, then click your deck or Flip card to continue one battle at a time.
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