There are a few fun and tactical dart games for those that are tired of playing X01 darts or cricket. Tic tac toe darts and hare and hound darts are two great examples but one of the best (and simplest) strategy darts games is warfare darts.
Warfare darts split the dartboard into segments that represent “soldiers”. The aim of warfare darts is to eliminate all enemy soldiers by hitting the relevant number on the dartboard, a player will win the game when all enemy soldiers have been eliminated and the player has conquered the battlefield (dartboard).
If warfare darts sounds like the type of game you’d enjoy then read on, all be covering all the rules, scoring, and advanced variations to help all players enter a battlefield on the dartboard.
Table of Contents
Number of Players
2 or more players
Warfare darts are a game that requires two players or two teams of multiple players.
Warfare darts are perfect for beginners who want to have a fun time while practicing their skills. This game is perfect for beginners because it doesn’t require any special tricks or advanced skills and it’s suitable for kids as well as adults.
Because this game uses the entire board, it’s the perfect game to teach you how to hit a variety of different target numbers.
Warfare Darts Rules and Scoring
Warfare Darts is a beautiful game because the rules are simple, and the scoring system is even simpler. It’s hard to imagine a game less complicated than Warfare Darts. You just need a dartboard, a few darts, a pen and paper, and a friend to play with. Then, you’re ready to go.
Warfare Darts Rules
For Warfare darts, split the board into two halves. This is usually either a top half and bottom half, or left half and a right half. Each player or team has ten numbers that each represent different soldiers.
The object of the game is to eliminate all of your opponent’s soldiers by hitting them. The first player or team who eliminates each of their opponent’s soldiers by hitting the proper numbered space wins the game. Players need to be careful not to hit their own troops.
There are no official rules for who goes first, but it’s common practice to decide this by having players throw darts at the board. The player who gets the closest to Bullseye gets to go first.
Warfare Darts is a fast-paced dart game that can be shorter or longer based on the skill level of the players.
Warfare Darts Scoring
One of the best things about Warfare darts is that there’s no running total and you don’t need to keep score.
The only thing you need to do, instead of keeping score, is to keep track of which numbers/soldiers have already been eliminated. The best way to do this is to write down all the numbers on a piece of paper or scoreboard and cross them off as the game progresses.
How to Play Warfare Darts
Warfare darts might be one of the simplest games out there, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t certain strategies that you can use to gain an advantage over your friends and competitors. The simplest strategy is also the objective: eliminate all your opponent’s soldiers without killing any of your own.
One of the basic strategic principles of this game is to initially focus on hitting soldiers in the middle of your enemy’s battlespace. It’s suggested that you start on the inside of your opponent’s area and work your way outside. This is considered to be a strategy that reduces your risk of “friendly fire” i.e. hitting your own soldiers.
There’s a good chance that your opponent will attempt the same strategy and you will end up in a situation where you are both trying to hit the outer numbers that are close to each other.
In this case, conventional wisdom says you should aim for the outer edge of the spaces you are trying to hit. This lowers your chances of losing your own troops due to friendly fire.
The only truly reliable strategy is to make accurate and consistent throws every time. It also helps to be familiar with your strengths and weaknesses as a darts player. If you can make accurate and consistent throws while knowing which spots you tend to hit or miss, you can be a very skilled Warfare darts player.
Warfare Darts Example Game
Player 1 and player 2 decide that they want to play a game of Warfare Darts. They divide up the board, with player 1 taking the top half of the board (numbers 11, 14, 9, 12, 5, 20, 1, 18, 4, and 13) and Player 2 takes the bottom half (numbers 6, 10, 15, 2, 17, 3, 19, 7, 16, and 8).
Player 2 goes first and he strikes numbers 11 and 14, removing those soldiers from player 1’s side. Player 2 misses his last shot however and hits one of his own troops, number 10. Player 1 misses all three shots and takes out his own guys (numbers 6, 15, and 2).
The two players keep going back and forth trying to hit the other player’s numbers until eventually, player 2 has eliminated all of player 1’s soldiers, winning the game.
Warfare Darts Advanced Rules
If you’re a more skilled player but would still like to play warfare darts (because it’s a fun game), there are some rules you can use to make the game more challenging.
The first is to split the numbers less evenly. Rather than splitting the soldiers into sections of the board, you can alternate numbers instead. As an example, player 1 will have numbers 12, 20, 18… while player 2 will have 5, 1, 4 which are the numbers on either side. This will significantly increase the chances of hitting your own numbers if you are not accurate.
Secondly, you can randomly pick numbers to represent each player’s soldiers. This is a good way to create an unfair handicap as they could end up with some of their favorite numbers – or some that they struggle to hit!
Finally, you can make it so that only the treble or double beds count as soldiers. This will make it more challenging for experienced players and increase the length of each game.
Summary
Darts is a game of concentration and accuracy and if you want to get better at darts you need to practice! Everyone once to change practice up though and enjoy a fun game from time to time and few games do this better than warfare darts.
By turning the dartboard into a battlefield, you add a unique concept to the game players both experienced and new can enjoy.
If you like warfare darts, you might also want to try out some other dart games like:
Baseball darts
Shanghai darts
Killer darts
