Deal all players a random deck of 6 cards. Place all remaining cards to the side as a facedown draw pile.
For your first game, just follow the simple base rules. Once familiar with the rules, however, I recommend using the Simulwars variant so that players can fight simultaneously instead of waiting for their turn.
The game ends when a player has fewer than 2 cards left. Whoever has the most cards at that moment wins!
From start player, take clockwise turns. On your turn you always wage war against another player.
- Pick another player to fight.
- Say a number. That’s how many piles (or “dice”) both fighters must create out of their deck.
- Every pile must have at least 2 cards (if possible). You can’t pick a number you or your opponent can’t legally follow.
- When done, shuffle your piles well.
Once those piles are created, place them in pairs (one against one) on the table, in two rows. Every single pair is called a “battle”; the entire turn is called a “war”.
For every pair, from left to right (for the attacker),
- Roll the dice. That is, simply reveal the top cards.
- Some cards have special actions. Handle those now: attacker first, defender second.
- If they require a choice, its player makes that choice now.
- Check who won this battle.
- If one card is strong against the other, it wins.
- If both are strong against each other, both players win.
- Otherwise, nobody wins.
This continues until all battles have been fought. Then, both players get their spoils of war.
- For every battle you’ve won, grab 1 card from the opponent’s pile (inside that battle).
- If you won the war—you won the majority of battles—you grab the entire pile from one of your won battles. (If it’s a tie, nobody wins.)
For all cards grabbed, decide if you want to take them into your hand or discard them.
Beware! Wait with grabbing your spoils until the war is definitely over. Actions are executed immediately, yes, but later actions might still change how the war ends or what you get in the end.
That’s it! Have fun!
Played the base game and ready for more? Or looking to tweak the game to fit your playing group better? Check out these variants and expansions!
Instead of waging wars between 2 players at a time, everyone wages their war simultaneously. Each round,
- In clockwise order (from current start player) …
- Everyone simply picks an opponent that isn’t in a war yet …
- Until all players are in a war.
Now your players have been divided into pairs, and they can just wage war at the same time! No need to wait.
If you have an odd number of players, the start player of a round does not join a war. Instead, they might arbiter if others are waging their war legally.
For a deeper and more tactical game, change the rules for who wins the game.
- The number of strengths on a card is its value in negative points. (For example, an animal with 3 strengths is worth -3.)
- At the end of the game, every player sums the points of every card in their hand.
- Highest score wins! (That is, the least negative score.)
Or alternatively, also for a more tactical game, add this little extra rule.
Once per war, if your card has an action, you can decide not to execute it. If so, look at the top cards of an upcoming battle and reshuffle your die if wanted.
This expansion adds more animals with their unique strengths and powers.
Terminology clarifications:
- “Earlier battles” refers to all battles before this card’s position in the row. If this is the very first card, such a power always does nothing (as there haven’t been any battles yet).
- “Later battles” refers to all battles after this card’s position in the row. (Which are yet to come and should be unrevealed at this time.)
- A reroll, by default, just means rolling your specific dice for one battle again. If it means something else—such as both players rolling—this is clearly stated.
- To lose on purpose, means you declare before revealing a battle that “I concede this battle!”. You still reveal, but no actions trigger and the opponent simply wins that battle.
- To destroy a card means to permanently discard it, out of the game.
- To draw a card means to draw blind from the top of the draw pile and take into your hand/deck.
In this expansion, all players are involved in every single war (just like the Simulwars variant). The difference, though, is that this expansion works in teams and also allows an odd number of players to be active at all times.
During setup, break the players into two teams as fairly as possible: A and B.
The objective changes as follows.
- After every war, the loser must place one card to the side. (If nobody wins, both are losers.)
- Once this “war pile” has 10 cards, the game ends. The team with the most cards (combined) wins.
- If a player ever has 2 cards or fewer, the game also ends, and that player’s team loses.
During gameplay,
- Every round is a battle between these two teams.
- The “attacker” alternates between Team A and Team B.
The biggest change is in how dice/piles are created at the start of a war.
- The current attacker states a number (of dice), as usual.
- This number must be greater than the number of players on their team.
- Every team member must supply at least one die. (Who delivers any leftover dice is up for discussion within the team.)
- Every die must contain at least 3 cards, but there’s no maximum size.
Then the game continues as normal: place piles, reveal, execute the war. If there’s a choice to be made, the player who supplied that pile makes it.
Finally, any cards grabbed are divided amongst the team members however they like
Communication is restricted. Team members can’t tell each other the cards in their hand or dice. They can only literally say what they want: “I want to be the second pile”, or “I am fine with supplying 2 dice”, or “I want that and that card from the spoils of war”. (This includes, of course, affirming they understand the plan or will do as promised.)
The only new material you need is a small set of communication cards.
- If revealed in battle, they allow you to communicate freely about this war, until the next card is revealed. (You may say what’s in your dice, what’s in your hand, anything!)
- But it always loses its current battle.
This expansion adds Rooster Cards.
How to use them?
- On your turn, when creating your dice, you may play such a card.
- Place it faceup in the position of the first pile (instead of creating a pile for it).
- Its rule will be true for the entire war that follows. (This is usually a restriction on what can be played or done.)
In battle, this first Rooster card (called “Dawncard”) will always lose.
The “Rooster Change”, however, applies to all Roosters played later (through a regular roll). In a sense, the Dawncard decides how all Roosters (from both you and the opponent) fight the rest of the war.