• Certain card games come in and out of popularity through the years; other games remain popular for generation after generation. War is one card game that has remained a favorite for children for many years. Its simple rules, lack of strategy and fast-paced format make it easy to learn and enjoyable to play.
  
  

Set Up

• To set up for the card game War, obtain a standard card deck. Remove the jokers, instruction cards and blank cards to leave the 52 face and number cards. One player deals the deck out, giving one card at a time to each of the two players until the whole deck is exhausted. Players may not look at their cards but place their cards face down in front of them.
  
  

Starting the Game

• Each player turns over the top card from his own deck. Whoever has the higher card gets to keep both cards and places the cards on the bottom of her deck.
  
  An ace is higher than a king and a jack is higher than a 10; the suit of the card does not have any effect on the card's value.
  
  

Continuing Game Play

• If both the cards played are the same value, such as an ace-ace or a 10-10, the players must face off in a war. Each player places one card face down on the table next to the original card, followed by another card face up. Whoever has the higher card face up wins all six cards. If both of the face-up cards are equal, players must play another two cards. Play continues in this way until one player lays down a higher card.
  
  

Winning the Game

• To win War, a player must have taken all of the cards from his opponent.
  
  If a player is running out of cards and both players lay down a card of the same value, the players go to war. However, if the player does not have enough cards to face off, the player loses and her opponent gets all the cards.
  
  

Multiple Players

• To play War with more than two people, deal the cards out evenly to each person. If three people play, deal 17 cards to each person. If four people play, deal 13 cards to each person.
  
  Everyone flips over his top card at the same time. The player with the highest card gets all the other cards. In the event that two or more players have the highest cards of the same value, every player must face off in a war, placing one card face-down and another card face up. Whoever lays down the highest card wins.