So, as a lot of people mentioned, Caravan is WAY too easy. Put all the Js, Ks & 10s you have in your deck and spread the rest evenly amongst even numbered cards and you can't lose. The only reason this works though is because everyone you play against seems to be idiots. They never, ever play a face card on your side. At least this is my experience so far. Has anyone played someone who has actually used one of their face cards against you?

I dont know how to play Caravan :/
I got the note from the guy in the garage in Goodsprings at the very start, i read it 3 times, still dont got it...
Help ? ^^

lol, I lost my first three games or so of it... b/c I was so confused about what to do...

still don't know what the queen's do... but I use jack's against the opponent all the time and king's on my side. I win a lot more often now.

Jacks and Kings?

Best strategy is actually just loading up on 7's, 9's and 10's then discard everything at the beginning, before you lay anything down so your hand contains 3 7's, 39's and 3 10's. Then you can place each set of 3 in each pile and get 3 piles of 26.

Being easy is a problem... But never having an NPC actually place a bet is a bigger one :/

The note is confusing, and it's kind of hard to explain how the face cards work. My advice is to just play and experiment and don't be afraid of losing a few games. Once you get the idea you'll probably win every time.



I've never had a face card used against me; I doubt the AI will do it. Then again, the toughest opponent I've had so far has been No-bark, so that tells you something about the competence of my opponents
I agree it's a little too easy, but I've had some games where I really had to think to come out on top. I'm satisfied.

Simplest way? Arrange your deck like noted above. The game itself is pretty simple. You're playing your cards against the opponents cards above them. These are "caravans". Once your run adds up to 21-26 that pile is considered "bought". Once there is at least one bought run in each of the caravans being played against each other the game ends. The winner is determined by comparing the total of your caravan to one above it. Highest number between 21-26 wins. There can't be ties though and the game keeps going until a tie is resolved. Best 2 out of the three caravans wins.

You can only lay the cards down in ascending or descending order of their face value. Face cards are a special case so they don't count towards that. So you're only dealing with A-10. The exception is, you can put any A-10 down if it matches the suit of the card your laying it on. You can't lay the same card down no matter what though (i.e. no 10s 0n 10s, etc.)

I won't go into any face cards beside Js and Ks because you don't need them. Ks double the value of the card they are laid next to. Js remove the card they are laid next to from the run. The key with face cards is that you can also lay them down next to your opponents cards.

So, simple strategy:

1. At the start of the game you get eight cards. You have to lay down one A-10 card in each of your caravans before your free to do what you want. If you have 10s lay them down. Otherwise (using the deck I laid out above) go with 8s or As or 2s. In other words, because you have to build in order you want to get the highest or lowest cards down. This leaves you room to build in either direction.

2. If you got any 10s down drop Ks on them. If you have no Ks drop a 6 or lower on your 10s because you will get kings sooner or later and be able to double that 10 (giving you 26!)

3. On your non 10s, play any cards you have that are as close to the face value as possible (As, put a 2 or 4; 8s put a 6 or 4)

4. Keep building this way trying to get your caravans over 21 and as close to 26 as possible (using my deck the only options are 22, 24, or 26). Remember your Ks. Doubling 8s and 6s can be just as useful as doubling 10s to arrive at a number between 21-26. And remember you don't have to build in numerical order all the time. You can put any card of the same suit down on another card of the same suit so long as it isn't an exact match.

5. Now this is key! Defense. Just because your opponents won't play face cards against you doesn't mean you shouldn't against them. If one of their caravans is beating yours (only worry about it if it's between the magical 21-24) you have two options to screw them. Use a K on the highest card in their run which will push it over 26 or use a J on the highest card in their run to remove it and drop them below 21. Ks are good because if their run is over they have to waste turns and a J or Joker (which I've yet to see anyone use) to get back down. Js are good because they can played on cards that already have Ks on them. This wastes your opponent's K and usually drops their run really low forcing them to use turns to build up again.

6. Win lots of caps!

Seriously, you can rake in near game-breaking levels of caps this way.

I actually tried that and it's far from 100%. Hell I even tried just using 10s, Ks and 6s. The problem is the amount of cards you have to discard. The vendor in the NCR Mojave Outpost (who seems to be the toughest player so far for whatever reason) will usually have you beat by then. The other problem is ties. There's not enough flexibility.

As for big betters? Vendors, man! They'll bet thousands if they have it and most start with over 1000. If they don't have the caps? This is where it can be abused. Just buy everything you want from them then win your money back a moment later.

So far the vendors that play Caravan that I've found are in Primm, Mojave Outpost, and Novac. Also the Ambassador in the NRC Embassy on the Strip will play you for high caps.

The amount of cards you need to discard is irrelevant. If you discard everything up-front before laying anything down, it doesn't use up any "turns."

As for finding big betters; my issue is that no NPC, no matter how rich, never bets a single cap.

Maybe I'm not understanding something then. When are you discarding "up front". Everytime you discard the opponent still puts a card down and you can't start the game with less than 30 cards. Can you clarify what you mean?

Also, that's just plain weird that no NPC bets. I haven't run into that at all. In my experience vendors bet most of the caps they have right off the bat. If you raise them they'll even throw in more. That's odd.

what exactly do joker's do? I've played a few myself... and it seemed like all they did was hurt me. lol

Start the game of caravan; first it asks for bets. Next screen. Choose your cards; just fill it with 7's, 9's and 10's. Next screen; once the game actually starts the NPC will place 1 card down on the table in one of his stacks. From here, you can select and discard every card in your hand and the NPC will not deal anything; it's like 1 turn until you actually place a card into a stack, so just keep discarding until you have three 7's, three 9's and three 10's. Once you've done this, place 10, 10, 10, 9, 9, 9, 7, 7, 7 and win.

My theory is that you can only play "real" games when you have enough cards in your inventory to build a 30-card deck. I had "friendly game syndrome" for a while, but I bought cards from vendors whenever I could and eventually my opponents started betting caps. Maybe it was just a coincidence; I don't know.

Jokers are "smart bombs" that eliminate a certain denomination.

Play it on a 3, it removes all other 3s from the table. (Yours and your opponent's.)

Play it on a 9, it removes all other 9s from the table.

And so forth.

The exception is aces. If you play a joker on an ace, it removes all other cards of the ace's suit from the table. (Again, yours and your opponent's.) So play a joker on the ace of hearts, and all hearts will be nuked.

Basically what you want to do is keep an eye on cards your opponent uses a lot of. If he has a 9 in every stack, play a joker on a 9 of your own and they'll all get wiped. Even if you don't have a 9 of your own, play it on one of his and all his other 9s will get wiped.

Even when I bought all 30 cards to start my deck because I never got my free deck from Ringo, I had the same problem. I am assuming it is just a bug.

You're friggin' kidding me!!! I didn't even try that because I assumed the NPC would just keep putting down cards every time you discarded just like once the game starts. Although, you can't do it exactly like you say because you only start with 8 cards, not 9.

But, man, that's ridiculously easy to abuse now. You could do the same thing with Ks, 10s, & 6s then.

As for the betting, the only thing I can think of, is that I'm in very good standing with all those vendor's factions. I did notice the Gun Runner I played last night wouldn't bet big, but he wasn't a vendor so I couldn't see how many caps he actually had. I'm neutral with the Gun Runners.

Ah, yeah, it must be a bug. How did you not get the deck from him? Did you kill him prior to talking to him about Caravan?

Sounds like a bug for shure... As I read through the thread I was already coming to that conclusion... The fact that you never got a deck from Ringo pretty much seals it... I've had no problem getting bets from players, never very big ones mind you (but the game does tell you that in one of the load screens) and I really enjoy winning a mix of caps and coins and ammo...