In some variants, that player immediately loses. Most descriptions of War are unclear about what happens if a player runs out of cards during a war. This repeats until one player's face-up card is higher than their opponent's. If the face-up cards are again equal then the battle repeats with another set of face-down/up cards. The owner of the higher face-up card wins the war and adds all the cards on the table to the bottom of their deck. Both players place the next card from their pile face down and then another card face-up. If the two cards played are of equal value, then there is a 'war'. In unison, each player reveals the top card of their deck-this is a 'battle'-and the player with the higher card takes both of the cards played and moves them to their stack.
The deck is divided evenly among the players, giving each a down stack. The objective of the game is to win all of the cards.
There are many variations, as well as related games such as the German 32-card Tod und Leben ('Life and Death'). War (also known as Battle in the United Kingdom) is a simple card game, typically played by two players using a standard playing card deck - and often played by children. A 'war' in the game of War: having dealt matching 7s, both players play a stack of three face-down cards on top of their card, followed by a face-up card.
