To play the card game War, two or more players deal out a 52-card deck evenly. Players then simultaneously flip the top card from their face-down stacks. The player with the highest-ranking card wins the round, collecting all cards played and adding them to the bottom of their stack. If two cards are of the same rank, a "war" is declared. In a war, each player places three cards face down and then flips a fourth card face up. The player with the highest face-up card wins all the cards from the war, and the game continues until one player collects all the cards. 

For example, if I pull a 5 card and my opponent pulls a 7 card, I lose because I had the lowest number or the least-ranking card.

Cards

The cards for this game are the same ones you use in poker. There are 4 shapes, Diamonds, Hearts, Clubs, and Spades. These cards can range up to numbers of 2 through 10. There are also special cards. These are Jack, Queen, King, Ace, and Joker.

• Joker: Highest card. 
• Ace: The next highest rank. (Counts as 1) 
• King: Higher than a Queen. 
• Queen: Higher than a Jack. 
• Jack: Higher than a 10. 
• Number cards: Ranked from 10 down to 2.