In the card game War, players take turns simultaneously flipping their top cards in their respective stacks. The player with a higher ranking card wins the battle, and they get to collect both cards to place at the bottom of their stack.
Occasionally, both players flip cards of the same rank. When that happens, that’s a tie, and both players have to battle once again to break the tie.
Both players will be forced to draw an additional 3 cards, place them on the table face down, and flip over the next card to determine who wins the battle. The player who wins gets to take all 10 cards into their pile.
What happens if you tie on your last card in war? Official rules have not clarified exactly what should happen when a player runs out of cards, and their last played card is a tie. In a sense, that player automatically loses the game because they have no cards to complete the tiebreaker battle.
In some war variants, a player has two piles (one for the cards dealt at the beginning of the game, and the other for the cards won in each battle). If a player plays their last card they have to battle, then they shuffle the winning pile and draw the cards to battle.
In other variants, the player has to use this card as their face-up card and assume the card stands for the remainder of the battle. Other variants allow the opponent to draw the cards as required from their pile and give them to the player so that both players can battle in the same order.
War is a card game of many variations, and players can always settle for the rules they are comfortable with, especially when it comes to a controversial situation like how to play the last card. Answered below are frequently asked questions about dealing with a tie on the last card in War, and what the rules say for handling this situation.
What happens when you tie in War card game?
When both players flip cards of the same rank and tie, they have to break it by battling with new cards. Each player puts three cards facedown, and flips the fourth card battle as the tiebreaker.
The player whose fourth card has the highest rank gets to collect all 10 cards involved in the battle. If the 4th cards drawn have the same rank as well, then both players tiebreak again until one player emerges victorious.
No official rule outlines what a player should do when they tie on their last card. Each versions treat the scenario in different ways.
What are the rules of the last card in the War card game?
When a player has only one card remains in their pile, the card is flipped face up for the final battle. If the card wins that battle, the player collects both cards and gets an additional card in their pile.
Sometimes a player may run out of cards before the battle is over. In that case, the last card played is turned over to serve as a face-up card to battle all the players’ war.
If the card causes a draw (having the same rank as the opponent card), some variants treat the player as the loser since they have no cards to battle.
Can the card game war end in a tie?
If the player ties in their last card, some war variants declare the player the loser, and some allow the player to use the card as a face-up card to break the tie. But no rules say the game will end as a tie.
In fact, the meaning of the game name itself is symbolic of what players need to do to break the tie. War, meaning players have to battle until one player emerges victorious over their opponent.
However, that doesn’t mean ties do not occur in between battles, they do, but they need to be broken. A tie appears in a war game when both players flip the same rank card.
Normally, a player with a card of the highest rank gets to win the battle, but when the two cards flipped belong to the same rank, a tiebreak must ensue so that only one player wins the battle.
In this case, both players pick three more cards and place them face down on top of the playing table. Next, each player picks another card (the 4th card) to battle as the tiebreaker.
The player with the highest ranking tiebreaker wins the battle, and gets all 5 cards from the opponent.
A round of War can never end in a tie! As a result, a tie must be dealt with in one way or another.
Last Card Tie in War: Conclusion
War Card is a game of variations, and each version with a different set of game rules. As always, players can develop their own house rules as long as both players are comfortable.
When it comes to the treatment of the last card, official rules are very vague about a tie in the final battle. Based on the version of War you are playing, the final tiebreaker may be handled differently, but the last card can never result in a tie.
War is a card game of multiple battles until one player emerges as the winner. As a result, the game can never end in a tie.