No matter how hard I try the only thing the game will allow me to do is discard everything then I auto-lose. All the other controls are always "grayed out" and so far no amount of button mashing will allow me to even play a single card. It'a always "discard everything, then auto lose". Hell, the few times it's allowed me to play a card at all it seems like a fluke.
Wiki, no help. Youtube, no help. The show how to "win" but not the gritty details on how to "play".
It's not the rules or strategy that's the problem right now. It's the interface for playing the game itself. Not very intuitive and very confusing. If i could select a particular card and place it in a particular caravan that would be a major victory in itself. Right now the interface just has this thing with forcing me to discard everything without ever giveing an option to play a single card, or even telling me why I can't do something.
I play a lot of caravan, but not with the pc, so I will have to guess by what you are saying. Let me know if I am close or give a little more info on what happens and where exactly you stick.
I take it you get past the betting and are looking at your hand?
If so, you have one card selected. The card on top of your dealt hand. You can either play that card, move to the next card or (What I think you are doing) get rid of that card.
What I think you need to do is use the move left or move right buttons (whatever moves your character left or right (like straiffing) through your dealt hand. Then use the select button like opening a box on which ever card you want to play.
At first you can only lay down the three foundation cards. These must be number cards. I usually pick the 3 most extreme cards, for instance a ten, ace and another ten.
If you only have face cards, you have to discard one till you get the three base caravan stacks made.
Hope that helps.
I think you are not cycling through your hand and picking the card you want to play. If your first card in your hand is a face card, all your deal buttons will be grey.
/good luck