If you are fortunate enough to have a grandchild young enough to enjoy playing ‘War,’ this blog post is for you, because you are  going to learn how to make ‘War’ more enjoyable, exciting, and–roll of drums–shorter!

You know the basic rules of War:  Each player turns up a card at the same time, and the player with the higher card takes both cards. When the cards are the same rank, it is War. Each player turns up one card face down and one card face up. The player with the higher cards takes both piles (six cards). If the turned-up cards are again the same rank, each player places another card face down and turns another card face up”, and the higher card takes the whole pile.

Played that way, a game of ‘War’ will last for hours and days, seemingly forever.  

And so my 12-year-old granddaughter and I recently modified War in six ways. Here’s how to play the new and improved War:    

1) Two full decks each with two jokers.  108 cards in all. Each player starts with a complete deck.

2) For the first War, each player puts down two cards, face down, and turns over the next one, with the higher card winning everything, but, for the SECOND War, each player puts down THREE cards.  For the third War, FOUR cards. This number keeps going up and up and up and up (In our first tournament playing with these rules, she and I had Wars with 17 cards being placed face down!).

3) If there is a War and one player does not have enough cards to put face down, the game is over and that player has lost. (We each lost a game that way.)

4) if one player wins THREE consecutive wars, the game is over. This adds incredible tension to the game, because Wars occur all the time. (I lost a game that way.)

5) If there is a “Joker War”, the winner of that war wins the game.

6) While ‘Double Wars’ occur occasionally, ‘Triple Wars’ are very rare, and so, in the event of a “Triple War,” its winner of wins the game.

Playing by these rules, she and I were able to complete a Best-of-Seven series, over three evenings, in less than three hours.  

And if you really want to know, my granddaughter won, 4-3, and is now calling herself “World Champion.”  

I can’t wait for the rematch!!