Warfare (A Game A Week - 2)

Warfare is like war, but with strategy! This is my second entry in the A Game A Week challenge.

Warfare is a 2 player card game and a variant of the card game War. It was designed to have the fun and excitement of flipping up cards to defeat opponents but with the inclusion of skill and strategy. It borrows some themes from the Italian card game Briscola, in which the strongest cards are determined by the suits of the card. I combined these elements along with some drafting to create a card game that is fast, skill-intensive, and hopefully fun!

To play a game of Warfare, shuffle a traditional deck of 52 cards. Deal 3 cards to each player and flip over the top of the deck. Play then begins with a battle.

The objective of Warfare is to score points by defeating your opponent in battles. In each battle, each player secretly selects a card from their hand and  then both players simultaneously reveal their card. The winner is determined by the suit of the cards. The suit of the card turned face up at the beginning of the game is the trump suit, which beat all other suits. The remaining suits defeat each other in a rock-paper-scissors manner, with the suits organized alphabetically. For example, if the 4 of spades is turned face up at the start of the game, then spades beats any other suit, clubs beats diamonds, diamonds beats hearts, and hearts beats clubs. If both revealed cards share a suit, then the highest number wins, with Ace being the highest. 

After each battle, the winner takes the two cards involved in the battle and places them face down in a pile next to them. The loser then looks at the top three cards of the deck and secretly takes one before turning the other two face up. The winner of the battle then places one of the face up cards in their hand. The last card is discarded face down in a discard pile. Play then continues with the next battle.

This continues until the deck runs out of cards. At that point, consecutive battles take place with the cards remaining in players' hands. Once players are empty-handed, they determine their score based on the cards they've won in battles. Each face card (Jack, Queen, King, Ace) is worth three points, and each other card is worth one point. The player with the most points wins!

Some strategy tips! The crux of the game is anticipating your opponent's actions! Every time you lose a battle, you learn a card in your opponent's hand. You can also sculpt their hand by offering them specific cards when you are deciding which card to take. There's usually some combination of known and unknown information, so learning how your opponent plays is essential. You must also keep track of which of your cards are known to your opponent, so you can anticipate their strategy. Lastly, since the face cards are worth the most points, those should be handled carefully! Try to throw them when you're fairly confident that you'll win the battle.

As always, feedback is welcome! I hope you enjoy Warfare :)