You playing Caravan?

[BooneoftheWasteland]

I don't get it. Or I thought I did but in my 8 card hand I can't play anything else other then face cards after my initial on the table 3 caravans.

It's always redded out, unplayable. It says the second card dictates the numeric flow, but half the time I can't place that second card. Bug?

[WastelandAssassin]

i doubt that there are bugs at that game

maybe you just didn't understand the rules......

look here, i think this should help you understand what you are facing

[Rastafariel]

Once I get a stopping point Ill play more caravan., now that one of the awesome helpful people on this site posted the key commands to play the game...

[BooneoftheWasteland]

Thanks, that clarification part in the wiki helps and helps to clarify how I'm playing and that I do have the gist of it and that I can't play a single card except face cards in my entire deck after the initial 3 card lay down. High card, low card, same suit, different suit, nothing and I will discard through the entire deck and can't place anything but face cards. Shame this would have been fun and addictive.

[WastelandAssassin]

this is because you don't understand what you can do

believe me, i thought the same, but i found out what i didn't know

when you select a card to play, you can change it using the arrow keys

and if all you see is the "discard" option, just cancel the move, and play another card instead

 

i've just learned it today, though i still don't really understand the game.... guess i should read the tutorial too..... :tongue:

[BooneoftheWasteland]

Hmm...well I do use the arrow keys to select within my 8 card hand and I can't use any cards on top of the 3 caravan initial cards other then face cards. So I continually discard to select a new card. If it's a numerical card I can't do nothing with it. So I go through every single card in my deck, I think it's like 30 cards, and can only use face cards, I can lay down nothing else. I do hope you're on to something that I haven't figured out, but nothing in the manual or the wiki link you kindly provided has shown me anything otherwise.

 

Also can't use any cards I bought, another bug mentioned in the wiki...

[WastelandAssassin]

i'm not sure i understand your problem.....

are you saying that you cannot place any of the cards in your hand?? because that is one serious problem, if nothing is working......

[CarlCorey]

Hmm...well I do use the arrow keys to select within my 8 card hand and I can't use any cards on top of the 3 caravan initial cards other then face cards.

Same here. I didn't understand the rules until I read the wiki article linked to in the earlier post so I thought it was just me but I just tried it again and there's no way it lets you play an ace or 2-10 other than as the first card in a pile. (Somehow I ended up winning the game even with the handicap though!) Are you guys on PC or console? I'm playing the PC version.

[joepez]

Think of it as complicated Blackjack. You need a caravan deck with a range of number cards. I use the random selection, because it doesn't seem to really matter. It appears when you do random the computer isn't going to load you up with a load of the same card (ex: 8 4's). Once you start the game you use the arrows to navigate between your hand and the playing field (the 3 spots to the left). You draw cards as you use them up, or you can discard. Use the keyboard commands for to select, cancel, discard, etc. You use all 4 arrows to navigate between your 3 caravan piles (left/right to select and up/down to place the card). You can also use the arrows to play certain cards on your opponent.

 

The basic rules are you can only start a caravan pile with a # card with the exception of an Ace. Likewise you can't play any other card until you've started all 3 caravans. Once you place a card your start card you have 2 basic moves after that. You can lay another card below the starter, or you can play a card next to the starter. Only Face (king, queen, etc) can be placed next to another card. Only # cards can be placed below another card. The goal is to build your caravan up to 21-26 total points. How you build that up depends upon the 1st card you played. After you place your 1st card you have to decide which "way" to build your pile. You can either Ascend or Descend, but you can't do both in a pile.

 

ex: If you place a 10, then the next card below the 10 has to be a 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or A. It has to be less than the 10 (remember you can't play a Q/K/J below a # card, only next to). Each card you place below adds up vertically for the total caravan score.

 

ex: Card 1 = 10; Card 2 = 9 so Total = 19 (10+9); Card 3 = 6 so Total = 25 (10+9+6). Since the max is 26, you can only place an A below the 6, else you'll bust the caravan.

 

Similarly you could start with an A (=1) and then add higher # cards (2,3,4, etc.) to the A and again sum up to a total between 21-26.

 

You need at least 2 caravans to be >=21 in order to win, or if you opponent busts a caravan. That's the basic strategy that you need.

 

From here it gets a lot more complex and confusing. If you and your opponent both have caravans >=21 than you need to get some higher, though I haven't figured out if all 3 need to be higher or some combination, or if it is a total across all 3 and so long as one you beats the other (think sudden death) then you win. Kinda confusing on that one.

 

The face cards all have various rules which also adds to the complexity. Ks appear to double the value of the card they are placed next to (though I think I've seen a few cases where it only adds a point or two). I have no idea what Qs do (protect maybe?). Jack's are some weird mix up card. If you play a Jack next to any card in a Caravan pile, it will cause that card to discard, and then whatever is "below" the card to reverse in order if possible. So in theory you could simply reverse the order and end up doing not much; put you could also even cause the majority of a pile to disappear. Jokers are some weird cards and according to the rules have all sorts of effects based on how they are played and against what cards (this is the point when I tossed the rules aside and said, yeah right).

 

Another interesting thing you can do with Jacks is play them on an opponent. So you can mess up their caravan. This can be a handy way to take that 26 down to nothing.

 

So far I've found if you treat it like a First Person to >=21 on 2 decks they WIN! game, to be the best way to think about the game. Ignore the face cards, and just play numbers. I've won quite a few times this way. You can experiment with face cards (other than the Ace which is basically a 1) to see that they do.

 

Needless to say this is an overly complex version of blackjack that someone thought was really cool.

[CarlCorey]

... Once you place a card your start card you have 2 basic moves after that. You can lay another card below the starter, or you can play a card next to the starter ....

 

Emphasis mine. Below! I had just assumed that having the card over the pile was sufficient and was mystified that it wasn't playable. Didn't realize you had to hit the down arrow too. I didn't grasp that there was a below/beside dichotomy and just assumed the game would put the cards in the right place.