Army

Contributed by Kia Green

Setup

This game is for two players using a standard 52-card pack without jokers.

Separate the aces, kings, queens and jacks from the number cards to form two face-down piles. The pile with the numbers will be the fighting cards. The other pile will be the armies pile. Shuffle both of them.

Each player must then draw three army cards and five fighting cards without looking at them.

Alongside each pile will be a corresponding graveyard, one for fallen armies, and one for fighting cards.

Now look at your army cards. Choose which one you want to go first. Each of them has a different amount of stamina points, or SP. Place the one you want to use face up. The stamina points are as follows:

• Aces: 4 SP
  
• Kings: 3 SP
• Queens: 2 SP
• Jacks: 1 SP

Play

Look through your fighting cards. You may want to separate the black cards and the red cards. The red ones are attacks and the black ones are defenses. Then, each player must simultaneously choose one card to play. When both players are ready, these cards are placed face up on the table and compared. The higher numbered card wins the round.

If you play an attack card and win, your opponent's army card loses one SP. If both cards are equal, or both cards are defense cards, or a defense card wins, neither player loses SP.

After each round, whatever the result, you discard both cards into the fighting graveyard, which means you can only use each card once.

You always need to be holding at least five fighting cards. So whenever you put down a fighting card, you have to draw a new one from the fighting cards pile. When the fighting cards pile runs out, you take the fighting card graveyard and shuffle it to make a new pile.

Keep track of the number of SP your army card has left as follows.

• When your army card loses its first SP, if it is a Jack it goes to the graveyard. Otherwise you turn it sideways.
• When your army card loses its second SP, if it is a Queen it goes to the graveyard. Otherwise you turn it diagonally.
• When your army card loses its third SP, if it is a King it goes to the graveyard. If it is an Ace it still has one SP and you turn it face down, and goes to the graveyard if it loses its last SP.

When an army card has lost all its SP and goes to the army graveyard, you reveal your next army card in line, if any. When you run out of army cards, you lose.