Ive read the manual a thousand times, ive got a full deck, & a bunch of cards ive brought or found...
I just don't get the game, and anything to do with it..
Ive herd some players are dumb, so its an easy way of making caps..
Could anyone help ? :sadvaultboy:

Erm, build towards 21.
If you place the first card on one of your stacks and it's a 9 then you decide whether to go up or down.
Meaning.
after 9 you can place 10, after 10 you get a total value of 19, you need 21, so you can place a joker on that stack and make it disappear and try again.
Now.
If you place 10 on top of that 9 you cannot place a lower card, meaning 8 to 2.
You can only go higher.
But if your first card is 9 you can place 5 on top of it.
This means your stack needs to go down.
9+5=14.
You can place a 4 on top of the 5 and get 18 and then a 3 on top of the 4 and get 21.
Once you get 21 the stack is complete.

So, if you place a base card of 5 and place a 6 on top of it then it can only go up in value.
If you place a base card of 8 and then place a 7 on top of it then it can only go down.
At least that's how I got it. :shrug:
I think I'm still a bit off though.

Base card 6, ladder card 4=6>4>3>2>1
Base card 6, ladder card 4=/=6>4>5
Base card 9, ladder card 2=9>2>1
Base card 9, ladder card 2=/=9>2>5

Opponent card stack 9>5>4>3=21
You can place 2 on top of 3 since it follows the ladder and make his stack become 23.

Joker use:
Base card 9, ladder card 6=9>6>5=20
Use joker=9>6>joker>5=15= joker removes 5.
Remove entire stack=Joker>9>6>5.

Just looked up the rules, I was wrong. Sorry.
I haven't played Caravan much, forgot the rules.
Here's the wikia for it: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Caravan_(game)

I just gave that a try, i dont think its too 21 ?
Thats blackjack isn't it ?
Because he had 24 total on one caravan and it wasn't red ?
Anyway, i gave that a try, didn't quite work..
Ill have a look for a guide or something, thanks for the help though..
Read the guide
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1135873-a-wasteland-guide-to-caravan/

I dont get this [censored].. Do you have to organise your deck or something ?
Because i keep getting [censored] cards all the time, i place 3 cards, then im not able to place any more, until i get a King or Queen or something..
??

It's 21-26 It has to be over 20 and under 27. Also, the "up, down" order doesn't matter if each of the cards in your caravan is the same suit.

Ah, sorry, I just looked up the rules, it needs to be 21 to 26.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Caravan_(game)

I don't know the full rules and conditions of caravan but to have a rough idea to win a small percentage of your games, all you need is just a bit. First you need to know how to navigate your deck, then try to score 21-26 on your caravans. Cards 2-10 are face value, picture cards have no point value but are there to change tactics. Q is for changing direction of your caravan, K doubles the value of a card. Assuming you place 5 on the first caravan and 6 on the 5, the direction is upwards only unless you place a Q then you can place cards below 6 only. So now you have 5 and 6 totaling 11. Adding a 7 brings you to 18 which is still short. You can double 7 with a K and it brings you to 25. All in all, it will be fun to figure it out the rest on your own. There is a way to win a good number of games by building your deck to a certain set of cards.

Either im [censored], or just cannot grasp card games..
Ive read the rules, its [censored], i STILL dont get it..
I place say a 6 of hearts, go to place a 9 of hearts on it, it wont let me ?
Has it got to go up in order, because the other guys caravans dont...
How do i even understand this mind boggling card game! ^^

I played it once, was completely lost and gave up.

Then I saw a guide that someone posted on here (don't have a link) and thought 'oh it seems to make more sense now' and decided to give it another shot.

So, I have it another try, got completely lost and haven't tried since

I'm usually quite good with card games, but I think I'm missing something with this one.

You might be trying to put it "on top" of the card, which you can only do with face cards. Press the down arrow and the card should turn green.

I tried to play it a few times, couldn't figure out what the hell I was supposed to do, and just gave up on it, it seems like earning caps isn't really too much of a problem even without playing Caravan anyway. Figured I'd just stick to the casinos for my gambling needs. Sure, they ban you if you win too much, but so far, I've only gotten banned from gambling in the Atomic Wrangler and the Tops, so I still have a way to go yet before I lose the oportunity to play in any of the casino's.

Of course, I never bothered looking up any guides on the matter, I just read the information the game gives you, didn't get it, and didn't try to look further.

Always shoot for 26. If you stop at 21 your opponent will beat you senseless most of the time.

Try to think of it as loading a merchant caravan up. You want to load as much as you can (26) without being too heavy so you win the contract. You can only load a caravan in three ways:

1) Start with a low card and add higher numbers till you get to 26.

2) Start with a high number and load smaller numbers till you get there.

3) Load a caravan in either direction, but only with the same suit.

You load caravans with number cards. Aces count as ones.

The face cards do different things:

When you put a king on a number card you double its value. eg. Put a king on a 5 and it becomes worth 10. Simple as that.

Queens will change the direction of your caravan, so if you've backed yourself into a corner by reaching the 10 card on an ascending caravan, put a queen on and you can add lower numbers. It also lets you change suit for same-suit caravans. You can do this at any time, not just at the limit.

Playing a jack on a card takes the card off the table, along with any other cards like kings or queens stuck to it.

Play a joker on a card and all cards with that number on the whole table are removed from the game. That's your stacks AND your opponent's! If you do it to an ace, it removes all the number cards from the ace's suit. Very nasty.

You can play face cards on your opponent's piles, not just your own. This way you can sabotage your opponen's caravans!

LOL, same here.

I'm glad Dinesy brought this topic up because I just started playing Caravan again today since its release. I'm getting the hang of it on my own, but I too haven't figured out why I can't put a card under the ones I want. I won my first game today, but I lost four to that girl in Nipton. She got 26's every time and I blew my caps. I felt like I could've won if the game would've allowed me to put the card I wanted under certain cards. I too can't seem to grasp card games. I'm really not interested. I still don't get how to play Roulette in the casinos. I haven't one a game yet.

Edit: Thanks Nessh. I think it's the Queen, Jack, and Joker cards that's been confusing for me.

I learned the basic through this video ... hope it helps!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsecAmej0ps

I really enjoy Caravan, so I'm going to post a mini-guide in the tips and strategies section. Look for it there.

Here, I hope this helps....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhdHfM6UljA But about placing cards, only face cards can be directly aside a number card.

I'll second this.

Wow!
That actually makes sense to me. I might can actually stand a chance of winning a hand at this stupid game now.
Thanks for that explanation. You rock!

I never understood it before either. However, I printed out the Wasteland Caravan Guide that Dinesy linked to above. I've played five or six games of Caravan and only lost one so far. That guide is very easy to understand. I've won over a thousand caps playing Caravan so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayb48b-4L5g
- also covers the basics

It's inbetween 21 and 26 to build towards but you don't need 26 to win just nearest to that number wins under 21 is not good over 26 is also no good.

Caravan is actually broken at the moment, though. It's way too easy to win because the AI never tries to sabotage your caravans. Once you get the basics down, it's impossible to lose because of this oversight.

It's basically just free money every time you find a player.

Can't agree more. I'm millionaire just because i like playing caravan and it's impossible to lose when you learn it.

Has some bethesda staff mentioned something about the caravan AI issue? I think it's easy for them to correct it but i'm not sure if there's enough topics or replies on this matter to call their attention.

The AI must sabotage the player's game and the difficult must arise along with the bets.

Okay let me make this simple!

make you're deck out of ONLY 7s, 9s, 10s, in equal numbers if you still need more cards to make a full deck then buy more 7s, 9s, 10s, or just add fillers like kings queens and such.
At the start discard every card in you're hand that's not one of the three above ( 7s, 9s, 10s,) until you have two 7s, 9s, 10s.

Play down 10 as the first in at least the first two rows, then 9s on top of those, and lastly 7s on top of those.... Bingo 26 in two rows third one does not matter, as you now dominate at the max number in two of three rows.....

YOU WIN!

I heard achivement hunters figured this trick out two but i have not checked that yet..

Have a nice day.

This is a surefire way to win, although you can also start with a 7 then add a 9 and 10 on top.

I prefer playing with the deck I get at the start, without adding alot of cards to it, makes it at least a bit challenging. :]