W A R !

Traditional Rules

War is a simple card game traditionally played between two players. A deck is shuffled and then split between the two players. Neither player views their draw deck. At the beginning of a new turn, each player draws the top card from their draw deck. Whichever person plays the card with the highest value is the winner for that turn and collects both cards. These cards are placed at the bottom of the winner's draw deck. In some game variations, these cards may also be placed separately in a win deck which then becomes the draw deck once the draw deck is depleted.

If the two cards have the same value during a turn, a "war" is started. Each player puts the next card from their draw deck into the play area. Depending on the game variation, these "war" cards may be face up (and visible) or face down. Each player then plays an additional card. The card which the highest value out of these additional cards is the winning card, and that player takes all of the cards in the play area (both the "play" cards as well as the "war" cards). If the values are the same, a new war is started, with additional "war" cards placed in the play area followed by new "play" cards.

The game ends when one player has all the cards.

Several variations of the game exist, but in most versions, there are little to no decisions that the player is allowed to make. Instead, play continues following the rules above until one player wins, sometimes after a very long time. The simplicity of the game makes it excellent for younger players. However, more mature players may lose interest due to the lack of strategic choices available to them through the gameplay.

Special Rules

This version of War adds extra rules to the standard game, though it is customizable to offer the basic version as well.

It supports up to four players. In the event of a war, only those players who initiated the war place "war" cards into the play area. Additionally, only those players who are originally part of the war are eligible to win that turn.

If a player runs out of cards while in the middle of a war, that player loses the game and the remaining player in the war wins that turn, taking all cards. If all players in a war run out of cards and there are still other players in the game, the players in the war lose and the cards that turn are discarded.

In order to allow players a level of strategy, several choices are available. As part of every turn, each player may choose to draw their top card, their bottom card, or a card randomly from their deck. Once a player runs out of cards in their draw deck, they may choose to sort their won cards before forming a new draw deck. Won cards may be sorted high to low, low to high, randomly, or in the order they were collected.

A "Crazy Mode" is also available to shake up the current game situation (sometimes drastically). It can be used to completely turn the game around for a losing player or just for those who like a bit of extra excitement. Crazy Mode is accessed using the "Crazy" button. This acts the same as the "Random" button (selecting a card at random from the draw deck), but it also casts a vote to initiate Crazy Mode. Any other selection ("Top," "Bottom," or "Random") is considered a vote against Crazy Mode. The more votes are placed for Crazy Mode, the more likely it is to occur that turn. (Computer players cannot vote for or against Crazy Mode. Only votes by human players are considered.) Please note that the "Crazy Likelihood" set on the "Button Options" modal also affects how frequently Crazy Mode occurs.

If a vote is made for Crazy Mode but it fails, play proceeds normally. If Crazy Mode occurs, a dialogue box appears explaining what Crazy Mode will take effect during the turn. Here are the possible options:

• Swap Draw Decks: All players trade their draw decks. The decks are rotated in either a clockwise or counterclockwise manner. Only players still in the game participate.
• Swap Won Cards: All players with win decks trade their win decks. The decks are rotated in either a clockwise or counterclockwise manner. Only players who currently have win decks participate.
• Shuffle Draw Decks: All draw decks are shuffled, making it impossible to know which cards are on top and which are on bottom.
• Everyone Loses This Round: Play proceeds normally, but no card is declared the winner, and all cards are discarded at the end. Wars may continue to happen in this Crazy Mode, so some players may lose more cards than others.
• Suit Wins This Round: Play proceeds normally, but instead of the card with the highest value winning, the card with the highest suit wins. All suits have a value between one and six, though as their symbols or images aren't tied to numbers, it will not be immediately obvious which suit trumps another. After activating this Crazy Mode enough times, however, you may catch on to suit order.
• Lowest Number Wins This Round: Play proceeds normally, but instead of the card with the highest value winning, the card with the lowest value wins.
• Random Player Loses All Won Cards: One of the players loses their win decks, which is discarded from the game. This selection is made randomly. If only one player currently has a win deck, that player automatically loses it. If no players currently have win decks, play proceeds as though no Crazy Mode had been activated.

New Game Options

Number of Players: Select the number of players for the new game. You may select between two and four players. Note that this includes both human players and computer players.

Human Players: Select the number of human players for the new game. You may select between one and the total number of players. If you select fewer human players than total players, any remaining will automatically be computer players. Please note that computer players play by traditional rules, always playing the top card and sorting their win decks by collected order. If you wish the computer players to make different selections, make them human players and set their automatic choices on the "Button Options" modal.

Cards per Suit and Number of Suits: Select the sort of deck you want. A standard card deck has four suits with thirteen cards per suit: two through ten along with an ace, a jack, a queen, and a king. In this game, all cards are numbers, but you can choose four suits with thirteen cards to mimic a standard deck. However, you can make any variation you want, from one to twenty cards per suit and from one to six suits.

Clicking "Start" will start a new game with your chosen rules. Occasionally the game will not be able to restart if it was in the middle of calculations. In this case, it will prompt you to refresh the browser so you may start a new game.

Button Options

Buttons: Choose what choices are available to human players. "Top/Bottom" only allows the top and bottom buttons. "Include Random" allows the top and bottom buttons as well as the random button. "Include Crazy" allows the other three and also gives the option to vote for Crazy Mode. Note that if you only want to allow the top button, simply set all players' autoselects to top.

Crazy Likelihood: Determine how likely Crazy Mode will occur. When set to "Certain," if all human players vote for Crazy Mode, it will automatically occur. Otherwise, it selects randomly based on the number of votes, making it more likely the more human players have voted for it. When this is set to "Common," Crazy Mode will occur less often. Setting this to "Rare" will make it occur even less frequently.

Autoselect: Choose to make a specific player automatically pick a button every turn. It only affects human players.

Autosort: Choose to make a specific player automatically sort their win cards a certain way. It only affects human players.

Clicking "Accept" will apply these rules to the current game and any subsequent new games.

Aud/Vis Options

Sound Effects: Choose to mute sound effects or to leave them on.

Card Style: Choose what style of deck you want. This changes the symbols or images for the suits and the back of the cards, but it does not affect gameplay.

Color Mode: Choose a color scheme. This affects the color of the background, header, buttons, and text. Some color modes are also considered dark modes and will adjust the cards as well. (Each card style has a standard mode and a dark mode.) If you have set your device to use dark mode by default, it will automatically have the basic dark mode in effect.

Touch Screen: Choose how you want the buttons displayed for touch screen devices. When "Standard" is selected, all buttons will be oriented normally. But if you select "Table Top," some buttons will change orientation. This can be useful when a device is placed face up on a table or on the ground and several players surround it. Note that this option will change button orientation whether or not your device actually has a touch screen.

Control Options

This allows you to choose whether keyboard controls work or not. Please see the accompanying table on the "Set Controls" modal to see which keys on a keyboard press which button for which player. Keyboard controls can be useful for multiple players around a laptop or PC. However, you can turn it off if you are concerned about someone accidentally pressing something on the keyboard.

Other

In the top-right corner, you will find a button shaped like a box. This is the fullscreen button and will allow the game to use the full screen area of your device. Press it again to exit fullscreen mode. (Most browsers also have another way to exit fullscreen mode, such as pressing the ESC key.)

Privacy

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Copyright

This game was programmed using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No frameworks or libraries were used.

This is a copyrighted work. Please enjoy it freely. However, you are not permitted to copy or redistribute it. If you want to share this game with others, please share the URL and allow them to visit this site themselves.

Graphics and fonts are used under license from various rights holders. Most of the images are not in the public domain or otherwise freely available. You may not copy or redistribute them unless you also have license expressly granted by their copyright owners.