Caravan is an adversarial, two player card game. Each player has their own deck, consisting of 30 to 54 cards, with some amount of duplicate cards allowed. The players take turns playing a card, with the object of the game being to strategically “outbid” the other player.
The players attempt to build three stacks of cards, “Caravans” on the table, each opposing the Caravan built across from it by the other player. Two opposing Caravans make a “pair”. A Caravan is considered “sellable” when it has a value of at least 21 and at most 26. If both opposing Caravans are sellable, the one with the highest value is the one that sells. Neither is considered sellable in the event they both have the same value. The game is over when all three pairs of Caravans have a winner.
Player 1: 18 24 21
Player 2: 19 22 18
In the above example, the game is not over because the left pair doesn’t have a winner yet. Player 1 is currently winning the middle pair and the right pair. If Player 2 were to increase the value of their left Caravan to 21, Player 2 would cause Player 1 to win. This is because all three pairs would have a winner, meaning the game is over, and Player 1 has 2 out of 3 winning Caravans.
The value of a Caravan is determined by adding up the values of the cards within it. 2-10 are worth their numerical value, and Aces are worth 1. Numerical cards are played in a vertical column, and must follow the established direction of the previous cards. For example:
2♥
4♦
7♣
This is a valid Caravan, as the cards are going “up”. It’s value is currently 2+6+7 = 15.
Another example would be:
8♦
6♦
4♣
A♥
This is also valid, as the direction is “down”. It’s value is currently 8+6+4+1 = 19. A player can use cards of the same suit to disregard or change the direction of a Caravan.
An example would be:
8♣
4♦
7♦
This is a valid Caravan, and the direction started “down” but was then changed to “up” by playing two cards of the same suit. It’s value is currently 8+4+7 = 19.
Face cards have no intrinsic value, but are played “on” numerical cards in order to affect them in some way. All face cards can be played on any card that is currently part of any Caravan on the table, regardless of whose Caravan that is. They are played in a horizontal row to the right of whatever numerical card they are played on.
Jacks remove any card they are played on.
Queens reverse the direction of a Caravan.
Kings double the value of any card they are played on.
Jokers, when played on a 2-10, remove all cards from the table of that same value, except the very card they are played on. When played on an Ace, they remove all cards from the table of that Ace’s suit, except the card they are played on.
Consider the following Caravan:
2♠
9♠Q♥
7♦K♥
The initial direction of this Caravan was “up”, but was reversed by the Queen, making the 7 a legal card to play as the new direction is “down”. Additionally, the King has doubled the value of the 7 to 14, meaning the Caravan value is 2+9+7+7 = 25. If a Jack were played on the 9 in this example, the 9 would be removed along with any associated face cards.
The new Caravan would be:
2♠
7♦K♥
The new value is 2+7+7 = 16, and the new direction is “up”.