Welcome to the World of Battalion!

Get ready to dive into the exciting world of Battalion, a thrilling combat style card game perfect for 3 – 6 players. Created by Upstate Art Concepts back in 2001, this game will keep you on your toes as you strategize and fight for victory. The goal? To have the most chips when the game comes to an end!

The Cards and How to Deal

Get the adrenaline pumping as you gather around with your friends or family to play Battalion. You’ll need two 52-card decks to start. Each player will begin with a hand of ten cards and ten chips. The remaining cards will form a draw pile, so get ready to draw some amazing cards! Flip the top card of the draw pile over to begin the discard pile.

Alright, let’s dive into this game. All you need to worry about are the suits of the cards – forget about the ranks, except when you have two of the same cards. Keep in mind that since this is a game with two decks, you might end up with a pair of identical cards. Normally, each card is worth 1 point, but if you have an exact pair, they’re worth 2 points each.

THE PLAY

The game is divided into three phases: acquisition, bidding, and combat.

ACQUISITION

During each player’s turn, starting from the player on the left of the dealer and continuing in that direction, you have the option to draw one card either from the top of the draw pile or the top of the discard pile. After that, you choose one card from your hand and get rid of it. This process of Acquisition happens three times in total. Once the dealer finishes their third round of Acquisition, the game moves on to the Bidding phase.

In the game of bidding, we start with the player on the left of the dealer. Each player takes turns bidding to determine who attacks first. The bid is the number of cards that the player will attack with if they go first. It’s important to note that a player must bid at least 4, but they can choose to pass if they don’t want to bid. If a player decides to bid, their bid must be higher than the previous bid. For example, if Player 1 bids 5, the next player must bid 6 or more.

When making a bid, a player doesn’t have to bid the exact number of cards in a suit that they actually have. They can choose to bid less to hide information, but they cannot bid more than the actual number of cards they have. It’s a double-edged sword, as players only get one chance to bid.

The player with the highest bid will go first in combat.

When it’s time to start the game, the person who made the highest bid gets to go first and attack. They have to play a certain number of cards that are either the same suit as their bid or more. These cards are placed face up in the middle of the table, and the attacker announces who they’re attacking. Each card is worth 1 attack point, except for pairs, which are worth 2 points each. The person being attacked is called the defender.

Next, it’s the defender’s turn to choose whether they want to defend or give up. If they choose to defend, they have to play cards that are of the same suit as the attacker’s cards. So, if the attacker played 6 cards of Spades, the defender has to play Spade cards to defend. If the defender can’t or doesn’t want to defend, they have the option to surrender. When surrendering, they don’t play any cards, and the attacker automatically wins the battle.

When it comes to settling a battle, figuring out who has the upper hand is crucial. There’s a simple way to do this: just count the number of cards played by the attacker and the defender. If the attacker played more cards, the defender will lose some chips. The amount they lose is exactly the difference between the number of cards played. On the other hand, if the defender played more cards, things get a little tricky. The attacker will lose double the amount of chips as the difference, and those chips will go straight to the defender. But what happens if they played the same number of cards? Well, that’s a draw. No chips are lost by either player, and they’ll have to figure out another way to settle the battle.

After all the cards have been played, they need to be discarded to the discard pile. Then, it’s time to replenish the players’ hands. The defender goes first, drawing cards until they have ten in their hand. Then, it’s the attacker’s turn to do the same. If there aren’t enough cards left in the draw pile, don’t worry. Just shuffle the cards from the discard pile and use them as a new draw pile. That way, the battle can continue without any interruptions.

When it’s my turn, I get to attack. But I can’t use the same suit as the person before me. So, if Player 1 attacks with Spades, Player 2 has to choose a different suit to attack with. Then, Player 3 can attack with Spades if they want.

The game keeps going until someone runs out of chips. Then it’s all over.

Winning the Game

The person with the most chips when the game is done is the winner.

The winner is the person with the most chips at the end of the game.