Help with caravanning

No, not the thing that make you the most hated holiday maker on the motorway. :)

Can someone explain, in laymen's terms, how Caravan in Fallout NV works? I thought I understood the rules but I can only ever put cards on blank spaces or if they are jokers. No matter what cards I have I can't put anything on any pile and no one is THAT unlucky. I even tried following a similar pattern to the other player but that hasn't worked either.

Can anyone lay it out really simply or point me to somewhere that has a Caravan for Dummies FAQ? I think you're trying to get a better score than your opponent and each pile has to add up to between 20 and 26 and that the first card determines a suit and the second determines whether each card needs to be higher or lower than the previous one, but I don't even get to put down a second card every time I play. And why can my opponent sometimes put down a card on my pile? I know the face cards make certain differences but at least once or twice no card in the pile is a face card.

Help?

I thought you were talking about some sort of new sexual practice I wasn't yet familar with when I read the title.

To answer your proper question, I don't know. I never won a hand.

Did this not too long ago as an achievement on Xbox. Think I followed a guide on you tube as I remember it being a bit complicated at the time but soon go the hang of it once it was shown to me and written out eaxactly how to beat it.

If not then a site I use is trueachievements .com. Good site that links to your x box and traces your achievements, for those you don't have you can click on the achievement and it'll tell you how to achieve it.

http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/9745/what-are-the-rules-of-caravan

Someone has answered with a decent looking explanation. I never got to grips with it.

For those with work restrictions.

"The basics:
2 players play the game. You can use any cards you want, as long as (a) you have at least 30 cards in your deck and (b) no two identical cards (EG, 2 of clubs) come from the same casino. (In real life, if you wanted to play, they couldn't be the same deck/brand. Unless you frequent casinos enough to have a collection. :)

The game combines elements of blackjack, war, double-solitaire (that is, two player head-to-head solitaire) and even Uno.

Each player is initially dealt 8 cards. Your first three plays to the board must set up your initial caravans -- you have three to set up. Give them each a numbered (ace through 10) card.

Each of those caravans has a suit and a direction. The suit is the suit of the last numbered card dropped on the pile. The direction is either up or down from your starting point. An important thing to note (and I had to lose about a dozen hands before I learned this) is that the direction does not have to be sequential -- you do not, for example, have to follow a 10 with a 9, or a 5 with a 6. You can have the following sequence (which adds to 26): 10, 9, 7.

To play a numbered card on one of your caravans, it must either be going in the appropriate direction, or it must be of the same suit as the last numbered card. However, under no circumstances can you play the same number twice in a row, no matter what suit they are.

You're targeting a range of between 21 and 26 (inclusive) for each your three piles.

Gameplay
During the first three moves, when setting up your caravans, you do not draw replacement cards for those you lay out. Thus, when those turns are complete, you will have five cards in your hand.

Players take turns playing one card each. If you cannot or do not wish to play, you can discard a card from your hand. In any event, once a card is played or discarded, you draw a replacement from your deck. If desired, instead of playing or discarding a card, you can discard an entire caravan.

Play continues until "End game," below.

Cards and Their Effects
Ace: Always a value of 1. Consider a number card except when a Joker is involved.
2 - 10: Face value.
Jack: Removes the target card and all face cards attached to it from the board. Typically played offensively against the other player.
Queen: Reverses the direction of the caravan. Can be used offensively and defensively.
Offensive example: reversing a descending caravan to ascending when the opponent is near enough the target (and at a high enough last number) that the direction switch prevents him from landing within the range. Rare, but very effective when you can pull it off.
Defensive example: You've been ascending or descending and either can't go farther (at a ten or an ace), or you need to reverse direction in order to land in the target range.
King: Doubles the value of the target card. Again, can be used both offensively and defensively.
Offensive example: Double the value of a high-value card in your opponent's caravan when he's at the high end of the target range. Boom, now he's overloaded.
Defensive example: Double your own card (typically effective early-game) to get a leg up on the competition.
Joker: This one has different impacts depending on the card you play it against. Often ends up doing "collateral" damage -- that is, damage to you as well as your opponent. Use them wisely.
Against an ace, removes all non-face cards of the same suit as the ace from the table, except the ace on which it's played.
Against numbered cards, removes all cards of that value from the table, except the card against which it's played.
End game:
The game is over when all three Caravans are successfully sold. When a caravan is between 21 and 26 (inclusive), it is considered sold. However, you can continue to pile weight on a sold caravan, and your opponent can continue to outbid you. Whichever player has the highest bid (without going over) on two out of the three Caravans wins. Ultimately, the goal is to get two out of three caravans as high as possible (preferably 26) before the opponent does, and to prevent the opponent from outbidding you by using offensive maneuvers against him."

ok, thanks to both of you. I'll try those sites. Youtube would probably be best because it looks like the kind of thing that will make more sense if I see it done properly. I'm probably not going to bust my gut trying to get the trophies but it would be nice to understand how it works. :) Kind of like the card games in FF8 and 9.

EDIT - Wow, thanks Ian.

Good guide Ian,

I will save that for when I go back to NV. Taking it slightly OT I hated the whole gambling aspect of caravan, the caps seemed to go up and down depending on how much you had so you couldn't bet really low to learn how to play. Some wasteland hobo wanting to play for 2000 caps. If you shot him and looted him he didn't have that kind of DeNiro on him. Very annoying.

Same here, Astro. The bet was determined by the other player and always seemed to be around half the money I had, major git if I'd just sold off all my extra stuff!