Battle Line

Based on the game by Reiner Knizia

These two armies are destined to go head to head, but some formations have the edge over others. Build up the best simplified Poker hands you can across the battlefield to claim the most flags.

Setup

Use 6 suits: Clubs♣, Spades♠, Hearts♥, Diamonds, Caps■, and Switches＋. From each suit, take cards 1–9. You should have 54 cards total.

You also need 9 small objects to serve as flags — coins, buttons, paper clips, or anything you have on hand.

Place the 9 flags in a line between the two players (it helps to have a nice wide play area). Shuffle all 54 cards and deal 7 cards to each player. Place the remaining deck face-down where both players can reach it.

Gameplay

Chose one person to go first however you would like. Turns alternate back and forth. On your turn:

1. Play one card from your hand face-up on your side of any flag. Each side of a flag can hold at most 3 cards.
2. Claim any flags you’ve won (see below).
3. Draw one card from the deck (if any remain).

Claiming flags

Once both sides of a flag have 3 cards, or you can logically prove your formation beats any possible formation your opponent could still build, you claim it. (You may use information from all cards visible on the table to make this proof.)

Winning

Claim any 5 flags or any 3 adjacent flags to win.

Note: This adaptation covers the base game without Tactics cards.