"Caravan" game

In this guide I will teach you how to play Caravan.

Description of the game from "Caravan" holodisk

BUILDING A DECK

Caravan decks are composed of at least 30 cards from one or more traditional playing card sets. The deck may have any number of cards of any type, although it cannot have duplicate cards from the same set. For example, a King of Spades with The Tops on the reverse and a King of Spades with Gomorrah on the reverse is acceptable, but more than one King of Spades from The Tops deck is not. Any duplicate cards purchased by the player are automatically filtered out of the selection process.

RULES

Caravan is played with two players building three opposing piles (or "caravans") of numbered cards. The goal is to outbid your opponent's caravan with the highest value of numbered cards without being too light (under 21) or overburdened (over 26).

The game begins with each player taking eight cards from their deck and placing either one numerical card or ace on each caravan. Players may not discard during this initial round.

Once both players have started their three caravans, each player may do ONE of the following on their turn:
1. Play one card and draw a new card from his or her deck to their hand.
2. Discard one card from their hand and draw a new card from his or her deck.
3. Disband one of their three caravans by removing all cards from that pile.

Caravans have a direction, either ascending or descending numerically, and a suit. The suit is determined with the first card placed on a caravan, the direction by the second. All subsequent cards must continue the numerical direction or match the suit of the previous card. Cards of the same numerical value cannot be played in sequence, regardless of suit. Face cards can be attached to numeric cards in any caravan and affects them in various ways.

CARD VALUES

Joker: Played against ace, 2-10. Effects change based on whether it's an ace or a numbered card (see below). Multiple jokers may be played on the same card.

Ace: Value of 1. Jokers played on aces remove all other non-face cards of the ace's suit from the table. E.g. a joker played on an Ace of Spades removes all spades (except face cards and that card, specifically) from the table.

2-10: Listed value. Jokers played on these cards remove all other cards of this value from the table. E.g. a joker played on a 4 of Hearts removes all 4s (other than that card, specifically) from the table.

Jack: Played against ace, 2-10. Removes that card, along with any face cards attached to it.

Queen: Played against ace, 2-10. Reverses the current direction of the hand and changes the current suit of the hand. Multiple queens may be played on the same card.

King: Played against ace, 2-10. Adds the value of that card again. E.g. a king played on a 9 adds 9 to that hand. Multiple kings may be played on the same card for multiplicative effects. E.g. 4+ king = 8. 4 + 2 kings = 16.

WINNING

A player's caravan is considered sold when the value of its cards is over 20 and under 27. The other player may still outbid by increasing the value of their opposing pile while staying within the 21-26 range. When each of the three competing caravans has sold, the game is over. In the event that one of the three caravan values are tied between players, the game continues until all three caravans have sold. The player with two or more sales wins the pot.

Winning build of the deck

Ace and 2-10s:

At first we should decide which numerical cards are we gonna use in our deck. The main thing of this game is to get your caravan built as fast as possible. For example 8-7-6 caravan might be build for 3 turns and in other hand we have 3-4-5-2-6-Ace caravan which was built for 6(!) turns. This is a colossal difference, so that we need cards that can build caravan fast, in our case these cards should worth more than 6. We take all 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 cards. Others are crap. Don't even try to use it.

Jacks, Queens, Kings and Jokers:

So let's talk about these now:
As we know from the description of the game, Queen and Jokers do absolutely nothing for us, don't put them into your deck. You'd better take Jacks (they throw out any card from caravans, with any bonuses on it, your personal chucker-outs) and Kings (these ones double any card you wish, yours or opponent's).

And we have this deck now:

• 20 numerical cards (from 6 to 10)
  
• 4 Kings
  
• 4 Jacks
  
• And if you want, you may put in Jokers, because you have 2 free spots. But I suggest to obtain Jacks and Kings from another casino sets and put 'em in instead.

Tactics

Beginning of the game:

At the beggining you should try to place big cards (bigger than your opponnent did). In most cases AI will place small cards, so don't worry. Anyway, try to not let your opponent build caravan bigger than 10.

Middle of the game:

At the middle of the game your opponent might build caravan with worth of 20 or more. In this case use your Jack to put off the biggest card or use King to overload opposite player's caravan. In 80% of cases AI will do nothing with overloaded caravan. Deal with it.

Ending:

Just try to block out any attempts of your opponent with Jacks and Kings, this is the only truth of Caravan game.
And if you followed my tactics, in this point you should win a lot of caps. Enjoy 'em :з
This way of getting money is the easiest in the game (after the Blackjack, of course). So use it to obtain achievements or just to get the money in the beggining of Courier's story.

Caravan players

And as the bonus, here is the list of players:

• Cliff Briscoe - Dino Bite gift shop, Novac (has different amount of caps).
  
• Dale Barton - The Fort (has different amount of caps).
  
• Amb. Dennis Crocker - NCR Embassy, Strip (has about 2000 caps).
  
• Isaac - Gun Runners (~150 caps).
  
• Private Jake Erwin/b] - NCR Embassy, Strip (~120 caps).
  
• Johnson Nash - Primm (has different amount of caps).
  
• Jules - North Vegas Square (~50 caps).
  
• Keith - Aerotech suite 200 (0-3 caps (You can farm achievement with him without risking)).
  
• Lacey - Mojave Outpost (has different amount of caps).
  
• Little Buster - Camp McCarran (~400 caps).
  
• Quartermaster Mayes - Camp Forlorn Hope (holds about 2000 caps).
  
• No-bark Noonan - Novac (holds about 1800 caps, I have no idea where he get 'em).
  
• Ringo - Goodsprings or Crimson Caravan Camp (~50 caps).

Conclusion

And now I wanna say that Caravan is the game where the main part is skill and strategy, not the luck. If you understand what does this game is made of, you will get a lot of cash easily and fast.
Feel free to ask questions, stay cool, guys ;)

If you want to thank me, please share, like and favorite this guide.

[Snek]

Wow! Finally a guide that isn't russian.

[Piugoth]

finaly some good shit

[the great impersonator]

Thank you, this is the only guide where everything is clearly described

[Ijol]

Спасибо.

[rmnsk]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=373647065
Руководство на русском.

[Ijol]

Why все на English?