4 Warlords

Card game played with traditional deck of cards, with some small elements of poker.

The deck is divided in two: Red Cards & Black Cards. One player takes all the black cards, while the other takes all red cards. They will each play with their own deck throughout the whole game - never mixing them. Players will separate the face cards (J, Q, K) and keep them in their hands at all times. The rest are shuffled.

Both players will pick 3 cards from their own shuffled deck. Immediately after, they will choose to play either Queen or King as their "Warlord" for that round. They will place 1 Queen or 1 King face down and reveal them at the same time. If a player has chosen a Queen, they can (but are not obligated to) discard 1 card from their hand and take 1 new one from their deck. If they have chosen a King, they can do this up to 3 times. The face card is kept in front of them.

Now it's time for battle. Each player selects a card from their hand and places it face down in front of them. They then reveal the card at the same time and lay it in front of them. This is done until the three cards have been played. The player with the highest ranking 'combo' wins the battle. Combos are valued similarly to poker, but only with 3 cards. Below is the ranking order:

1. 3 of a kind
2. Straight (3 numbers in consecutive order)
3. Flush (same suit)
4. 2 of a kind
5. Card (highest number)

The winning player will take the defeated player's warlord and put it aside as a trophy. Game ends when one of the players runs out of warlords.

Players can use their Jacks to surrender in a battle. Jacks can be played instead of a number card (with the same behavior - keeping it hidden until both players reveal their card). If a player surrenders with a Jack, he/she will lose all the number cards he/she has already laid down (not the ones in his/her hand), plus the Jack that triggered the surrender. But he/she will save their warlord.

If there is a draw during battle (or two players play a Jack), nothing happens. Players take their corresponding cards and continue to the next round.

Players must shuffle all their number cards after every round (except for the ones they have lost, of course).