#fnv caravan

[falloutnewvegastransedmygender]

Why does no one know how to play Caravan? Like it's not that hard.

First two cards determine if it is ascending or descending. First card played value (Ace is 1) to second card played value.

Can also play cards that are the same suit (matching symbols) as the second card currently in play in that row.

Kings 2x Value, multiplicative, ie. 2 Kings on a 6 is 24 total Value

Jacks removed a card and all face cards on it

Queens reverse order, Ascending to Descending or vice versa

Can play up to 3 Face Cards per Card

Each row opposes the opposite row

21-26 value range to hold the row, needs to be higher than opposing row

Need 2/3 rows at 21-26 to win, but all 3 rows must have at least one side at 21-26. [This is why sometimes you want to hold off on claiming a 21-26, because if you're opponent holds the other two that would be a win for them.]

Jokers are the only confusing bit. They remove all other cards [but not the card they were played on] with the same value. EXCEPT Aces, in which case they remove all of the same suit.

[asynchronouscommunication]

Image from comment section of hbomberguy's video on Fallout New Vegas on youtube focusing on Caravan. Having been slowly learning Caravan in one of my more recent play-through and the different play styles between characters was something I noticed but kudos to these commentators for really laying out the wider implications of what it /means/ that Caravan exists! Like yeah, full decks of cards would probably be hard to find but around the New Vegas area there's probably *tons* of decks of cards (heck you can probably find playing cards anywhere), so it makes a lot of sense for this. But yeah, even if the game is a pain in the ass to play it's a great way of looking at the world and even before reading this I have been thinking about what kind of play style my own OCs (mostly Kel if I'm being honest) would use. And also people creating things within the fallout universe is something I wish to see more of! I think it's why I like the song "Ghoul" by Cowboobs on youtube so much. It really feels like something someone would come up with in universe. Full transcription of comments under the read more because they were too big for alt text:

Initial comment from @modelmajorpita: To me caravan is proof of how much care and thought went into the setting of the game, even if most players hate it. 200 years after the bombs fell, there's going to be lots of scattered cards but few complete undamaged decks, and Caravan is played by building a deck out of random cards you find in the wasteland, with the card backs and designs not having to match. Caravan fits in the setting perfectly, it feels exactly like the sort of card game traders in a post-apocalyptic Nevada would play to kill time. Reply from @Mangaka718: reading this just now made me realize, the existence of Caravan is also proof that humanity is still creating new things and not simply scavenging the rubble of the past. In Brian David Gilbert's Unraveled about the music of Fallout, he makes a great point that one of the basic needs for human society is the existence of art, for a variety of reasons (that I won't bother going into detail about here, because if you haven't already watched that video then you should go do that, it's amazing). I'll be honest, I haven't played the other Fallout games enough to tell what music is "new" vs "old" (because I'm not a masochist in that way), but a new game certainly supports his point. Just another facet of the writers taking the setting properly into account, versus regurgitating pop culture references for clout. Reply from @DashingSteel: Caravan is honestly really fun and useful to play once you get the hang of it. One thing I noticed is that different NOC's have different skills, cards and tactics to the game. No-bark for example is quite find of using Jacks and Kings to remove cards from your caravans or over-encumber them, making you to either use a jack in the affected card or to just scrap the entire caravan, while this BASTARD trader from Arizona you can play with in the legion camp just straight up soeedruns building his own caravans and you have to bomb his ass like No-Bark did to you in order to buy yourself time to win. Caravan is a game that is really fun to play once you know to do it and build up your deck a bit.

[lesvegas]

Yo I’m pure dookie ass at caravan, would you be kind enough to give some tips?

Ok so these things? These three piles of cards?

These are your caravans. Imagine each pile represents a single pack Brahmin, and every card is a package of things to sell. As you add cards, you are adding merchandise to your caravan/Brahmin.

Those orange numbers above each caravan, reading 25-26-25? That represents the weight of the packages altogether. You can see the first one has Ace (1) + 8 + 4 + 7 + 5 which = 25 (don't worry about the queens yet). Basically, you add cards (merchandise) to have a weight value between 21 and 26. Why? Well anything below 21 isn't enough stuff to bother sending a caravan out to Reno or the Hub, and anything over 26 will overencumber your poor Brahmin.

It's basically playing Black Jack three times, while your opponent (your rival caravaneer) is doing the same. You can use face cards to sabotage them, or help yourself. Kings doubles the value (or weight) of a card; for example, those two kings up there? The first one brought that 4 to an 8, and the next king brought that 8 to a 16. Plus the 10 on top, you get 26. Jacks will just remove a card; put it on your opponents' to mess with them, or put it on one of your own if they overencumbered you.

I never bother with queens or jokers, but as far as I know queens can change suits and the order of cards (from ascending to descending, also remember that you normally need to put cards down in a certain order from low to high or vice versa, except for when cards share the same suit) and jokers... jokers can fuck with your opponents' entire deck, basically.

So how do you actually win? You just have to get your caravans to their ideal weight-value ratio (between 21 and 26) before your opponent. Easiest way to do this imo is to have a deck of 7s, 9s, 10s (7 + 9 + 10 = 26) with Jacks and Kings. If I'm low on cards, I'll throw in 6s, 5s, and 8s as well. During the Caravan Tournament mod, I got by on the default deck Ringo gave me, using 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, Jacks and Kings.

TL;DR use cards that easily add up to 26 (7s, 9s, 10s), jacks and kings, and play an amplified version of black jack 3 times in a row quicker than the person across from you.

[acequs]

Caravan is my second favourite trading card game of all time, and unlike with my favourite game in the real world, I can actually attend a tournament for this.

Catch the first stream this Wednesday (the 30th) at 7:30pm EST. Gonna start a new game, collect as many cards as fast as possible, teach anyone who doesn’t get the game how to play, and then crush the hell out of some NPCs who’s Caravan AI should be better than most.

https://www.twitch.tv/acequs

[razeislostagain]

I have finally started figuring out how to play Caravan and it’s consuming me

as for the couriers- poor Connolly had too much trouble focusing on the cards and never really sat down and learned how to play. God on the other hand, saw it as a challenge and a new gambling game and needs to get dragged away by the back of his collar

[punishedcrow]

balatro is literally just caravan from fallout new vegas mixed with magic the gathering but for cowards who are too afraid of getting into tcg