Does anyone remember playing the children's card game 'War'? When I was a kid, we always dealt out exactly eight cards to each player, then eight more cards were dealt to any player who needed them to complete the play known as a "war" (and only then).
When I found this game in a rulebook, it said to deal out the entire deck. The problem with that is that it makes the game take way too long - okay, children like to play for hours at a time, but even they would tire of an activity lasting as long as that.
Dealing out just eight cards per player at the start of the game made it last a much more reasonable amount of time and made it more interesting - even enabling strategy with a skilled player, which would be impractical using the entire deck due to the sheer volume of cards.
So, I'm curious if anyone else remembers playing with the eight-card rule or if I was taught incorrect rules to the game? Perhaps Hoyle got the rules after the eight-card rule was lost.
Incidentally, if anyone is interested, I remember the rules I played by quite well. Also, there's a variation that makes the game a little more interesting, for the older kids. We would always deal the entire deck for that variation because dealing out only eight cards made the alternate version unplayable. This other version of the game was not in the rulebook at all.
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Comments: 11
We even had decks missing cards bundled up and marked only good for the war game. We played cards and board games all the time; there were no PCs, video games, or even TV back then for us.
What's the older kid variation? I'm curious now.
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We always dealt out the entire deck and it did take a long time.
So apparently, I was playing by the wrong rules.
Laura, now you've heard of the eight card variation - that's how we played. We called the "tie" a "war". When playing down the three cards face down, we had to call out, "double-u, a, ar!" This is also when additional cards were sometimes introduced into play; if a player did not have the required four cards remaining, they received eight more from the deck, provided there were enough therein. When the deck ran out, the player received only four cards. After that, the player short on cards would simply turn up his or her last card, even though there were not three cards face down.
Kathy, you combined THREE decks? Wow, one game must have gone on for WEEKS.
Okay, now on to the 'older kid variation'.
For that game, when the high card was a jack, queen, king or ace, the other player(s) would get one to four chances to turn up a jack, queen, king or ace of their own, by playing additional cards. One chance to challenge a jack, two for a queen, three for a king and four for an ace.
Of the player(s) who succeed, the one with the highest card would take over the win, even if his or her card does not beat the challenged player's card. (Aces are the highest.)
The player originally with the highest card and any other players turning up a lower face card (jack, queen king) would get the appropriate two to four chances to take the lead. Players turning up only 2 thru 10 would lose the round.
Sometimes challenging players might get into a tie, i.e. two queens (with no one turning up a king or an ace). They would place the three cards face down and then one face up - of these, the player with the highest card would then be set for the win, even with a number card, such as a 7. In this case, assuming the two queens, the challenged player and any other player turning up a jack would get two chances (because of the queens) to take the winning position.
Example:
player A....player B....player C
....7.............. A...............J.........Player B is highest with an ace, so the other
.................................................players get four chances.
9, 2, J.....................7, 5, 2, 4...Now, player A is in the winning position;
.................................................player C loses the round.
.................................................Player A does not take all four chances as
.................................................the jack turned up.
....................10.........................Player B has one chance (due to the jack),
.................................................but plays a 10.
.................................................Player A wins the round.
Incidentally, you do have to deal the entire deck for this one, or the game becomes unplayable.
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