Tag: Crib Wars

Our House Rules for Crib Wars

Based on what I found out from Artificial Intelligence (AI) yesterday, I thought I’d share our house rules for Crib Wars. The only reason I’m including information from AI is because I couldn’t find specifics on how to manage pegging for the Blue Penalty Box anywhere else.

If you already know how to play basic cribbage, you can ignore most of what’s on the rules sheet (available on the web) because there’s only a short section for the Crib Wars rules. It describes the colored areas and what the players are supposed to do with them.

There’s no Muggers Alley on the Ebonwood board and we never play muggins. Below are my updated descriptions of the colored zones, which we discuss and demonstrate during the video.

Red Skips: There are 3 of these. The rule says if you land on the first red box you should slide to the next red box which gets you 20 holes further along the board. The red box just means the set of 3 holes highlighted with a red color. You get from the first one to the next one by just moving the peg 20 holes. You’ll land in the 2nd set of holes marked in red. This is a boon in the first Red Skip area. However, if you pay attention to the directional arrows in the path guiding you, it looks like they accelerate you toward two of the Blue Time Traps.

Blue Time Traps: There are 4 of these and there will be three blue lines, meaning the blue color covers all three holes and all three peg tracks (3 holes along the track and 3 holes across the track). If you land in a set of three holes highlighted in blue, you end up moving to a blue area of holes that actually set you behind several holes. You have to play your way out of them. Players note that you can end up in repetitious cycling back to the traps largely because of how often you can get one or two points at a time while scoring. In fact, some say that if their opponent gets close to a Blue Time Trap they may purposely lead with a five card (something you would rarely if ever do in a standard cribbage game). That could trap the opponent into playing a ten card or a 5 card, which might risk them moving only a couple of holes right back into the Blue Time Trap. The same thing could happen with falling into the Blue Penalty Boxes.

Blue Penalty Boxes: There are three of them. You fall into one of these by moving your peg into one of the single blue hole lines, meaning one blue track across the three peg tracks. This is a disaster because you immediately have to move back 20 holes and fold your hand and your crib while your opponent moves forward 20 holes and counts their hand and crib (if they have the crib). Asking AI is the only way I could find out how to learn how to peg moving back and forward 20 holes. The player who lands in the penalty box moves their front peg back 20 holes starting from the penalty box. You don’t move the rear peg. If your front peg lands behind the rear peg, it becomes the new rear peg. The player who doesn’t land in the penalty box moves their front peg forward 20 holes. The player who lands in the penalty box immediately folds their hand and crib.

Green Advances: There are two of them. If you land in a green hole, you take short cut path. The long one saves you from moving toward the Blue Time Trap in the left lower quadrant. You don’t avoid the potential other trap above. If you take the normal track instead you end up moving toward the lower left quadrant Blue Time Trap—but you have a chance at getting into the short Green Advance track before you get there which loops back away from it and you end up going in the direction of the upper Blue Time Trap.

You think you’re in the clear after that? You’re not because there is a sadistically placed Blue Penalty Box in the next to the last hole before the Finish Line!

A Conversation with AI about Backward Pegging in Crib Wars and Wicked Cribbage

I thought it might be interesting to see what AI has to say about backward pegging in Crib Wars and Wicked Cribbage. We haven’t found a set of Crib Wars that are specific on the 20-hole backward pegging because they don’t specify which peg you move back 20 holes. According to AI it’s the front peg you move back, starting the count at the penalty box hole.

In Wicked Cribbage you first move the rear peg back whatever number of holes the Twinkler or Lugger cards tells you and then you move the front peg back behind that—and it apparently doesn’t matter where you place that peg, just a few holes behind the front peg you moved back from the penalty box hole (the instructions are as follows: “Although it might sound logically easy to peg backward, it is quite tricky. Begin by using your back peg (no matter where it is) to count backward from your front peg. And (here’s the tricky part) do not forget to move your front peg behind your newly pegged back peg.”

The American Cribbage Congress (ACC) tournament expert does not have answers for questions about this because backwards pegging is not a thing in the ACC. The ACC representative says “Crazy questions are welcome!”

And these games are crazy. I usually try to ignore AI but here’s a summary of the question and answer sesssion today:

Crib Wars penalty box question: If you have to move backwards 20 holes in crib wars because you land in the penalty box, do you move the front or the back peg?

AI answer: In Crib Wars, when you move your peg back 20 holes for landing in the penalty box, you always move your front peg backwards, as pegging in cribbage involves advancing the rear peg to represent your score, and penalties just reverse that action, moving your leading peg back to show the score loss. You just count back 20 holes from your current position on the board, essentially putting your leading peg back where it was or further, then your rear peg stays put until you score again. 

Here’s the breakdown:

  1. Penalty Trigger: You land on a penalty square (or your hand/crib score does).
  2. Opponent Advances: Your opponent moves their peg forward 20 holes.
  3. You Move Back: You move your peg back 20 holes.
  4. Which Peg? You move your front peg back those 20 spaces, as that represents your current score, and your rear peg stays put until you earn more points. 

Dec 17, 2025 to AI: Which peg do you move forwards 20 holes in crib wars if your opponent lands in the penalty box; the front or the rear peg which normally leaps over the front peg?

When your opponent lands in the penalty box in a two-player game of Crib Wars, you move your front peg forward 20 holes. 

The rules state: “If two people or teams are playing, the team that hit the penalty box goes back twenty holes, and your opponents go ahead twenty holes”. 

The normal process of pegging in cribbage involves moving the rearmost peg ahead of the front peg to indicate your new score. However, a specific rule for the 20-hole advance in Crib Wars is not explicitly tied to the standard “rear peg jumps over front peg” scoring mechanism, it is a bonus advance of 20 holes. Therefore, you use your front peg to mark your new forward position, consistent with how you would mark any other score in a continuous manner. 

  • You take your front peg and advance it 20 holes from its current position.
  • Your opponent moves their own peg(s) backward 20 holes

Landing Behind the Rear Peg: If a 20-hole backward move places the now moving peg (which is currently the front peg) at a position behind the stationary rear peg, it effectively becomes the new rear peg. The other peg, which was the previous rear peg, is now the front peg, representing the current score, which is a common scenario in standard cribbage scoring when points are added in sequence. 

The process for a two-player game is as follows:

  • The penalized player folds their hand and crib.
  • The penalized player uses their front peg to count backward 20 holes from their current position in the penalty box.
  • The opponent advances 20 holes (using their own pegs in the standard leapfrog manner) and continues counting their hand and crib normally. 

For games with three or more players, the penalized player sits out for three consecutive hands instead of moving back 20 holes.”

December 17, 2025 question: In crib wars if I land in the penalty box, where do I start counting the 20-hole penalty backwards with my front peg, from right behind the penalty box or starting behind the rear peg?

AI Answer: “In Crib Wars, when you land in the penalty box, you start counting the 20-hole penalty backward using your front peg, beginning from the hole you are currently on (the penalty box hole itself is the starting point for counting back the 20 spaces). 

Dec 17, 2025 to AI: Which peg do you move forwards 20 holes in crib wars if your opponent lands in the penalty box; the front or the rear peg which normally leaps over the front peg?

When your opponent lands in the penalty box in a two-player game of Crib Wars, you move your front peg forward 20 holes. 

The rules state: “If two people or teams are playing, the team that hit the penalty box goes back twenty holes, and your opponents go ahead twenty holes”. 

The normal process of pegging in cribbage involves moving the rearmost peg ahead of the front peg to indicate your new score. However, a specific rule for the 20-hole advance in Crib Wars is not explicitly tied to the standard “rear peg jumps over front peg” scoring mechanism, it is a bonus advance of 20 holes. Therefore, you use your front peg to mark your new forward position, consistent with how you would mark any other score in a continuous manner. 

  • You take your front peg and advance it 20 holes from its current position.
  • Your opponent moves their own peg(s) backward 20 holes

December 17, 2025: Question to AI In Wicked Cribbage, there’s a specific rule for pegging backwards because a special card specifies moving backwards and is this wrong? The rule is as follows: “Although it might sound logically easy to peg backward, it is quite tricky. Begin by using your back peg (no matter where it is) to count backward from your front peg. And (here s the tricky part) do not forget to move your front peg behind your newly pegged back peg.”

AI Answer: “The rule you are describing for pegging backwards in Wicked Cribbage is the correct procedure for standard cribbage pegging (known as “leapfrogging”), but applied in reverse. The core mechanic is consistent with standard pegging principles, just adapted for a backward movement. 

Is the Rule Wrong?

No, the rule is not wrong; it is an official variation specific to the Wicked Cribbage expansion. The Wicked Cribbage game introduces special “Twinkler” and “Lugger” cards, some of which explicitly cause a player to peg backwards. The rule you described is the intended method for executing that backward movement. 

How to Peg Backwards in Wicked Cribbage

The rule ensures that when you peg backward, you maintain the standard cribbage practice of having a “placeholder” peg and a “moving” peg, making the score easy to verify: 

  • Start with your back peg: Identify the peg that is currently trailing.
  • Count backward: Move this back peg the required number of points backward from your front peg’s current position.
  • Leapfrog: Your new position is now behind what was previously your back peg (which is now your front peg, holding the previous score). 

This “leapfrog in reverse” ensures that the space between your two pegs continues to represent the points just scored (or in this case, lost/moved back), allowing for easy verification of the move by your opponent.”

December 17, 2025: Question to AI: Are the rules for pegging backwards in Crib Wars inconsistent with the rules for pegging backwards in Wicked Cribbage?

AI Answer: “Yes, the rules for pegging backwards in Crib Wars and Wicked Cribbage are inconsistent because they employ entirely different mechanics and triggers for moving pegs backward. 

Crib Wars Rules for Pegging Backwards

In Crib Wars, pegging backwards is a penalty associated with specific locations on a specialized, longer game board (363 holes instead of 121). The rules are a variation of the game “Snakes and Ladders”. 

  • Penalty Boxes (Blue): If a player lands exactly on a blue penalty box space via pegging or hand count, they are penalized. In a two-player game, the penalized player moves back 20 holes, and their opponent moves forward 20 holes.
  • Time Traps (Blue Paths): Landing on a blue time trap space forces a player to follow a designated backward path on the board, losing many spaces. The peg literally moves backward along the blue path and then rejoins the main track further back than where it entered. 

Wicked Cribbage Rules for Pegging Backwards

Wicked Cribbage uses a standard cribbage board and incorporates an extra deck of “Wicked” cards (Twinklers and Luggers) that introduce random, special abilities. 

  • Twinkler and Lugger Cards: Pegging backwards is one of many potential effects caused by drawing and playing a specific “Wicked” card. These cards are drawn when a player reaches exactly 15 or 31 during the play phase (Twinkler) or lands on a multiple of 5 during the show phase (Lugger). The effect (e.g., “cause someone to peg backwards”) is random and dictated by the specific card drawn. 

In summary, Crib Wars uses a board-based mechanic where landing on specific physical spaces triggers a forced backward movement, while Wicked Cribbage uses a card-based mechanic where a drawn action card dictates a backward movement as an effect.”

December 17, 2017) Further AI specific to Wicked Cribbage and Crib Wars:

The backward pegging methods in the game variations Wicked Cribbage and Crib Wars are generally not consistent with official American Cribbage Congress (ACC) rules. These variations introduce specific “house rules” for backward movement as core mechanics, which are not standard in ACC tournament play. 

The ACC rules mandate that all scoring is done by moving the back peg ahead of the front peg, always in a forward direction along the track. While ACC rules do contain specific penalties that involve moving a player’s peg backward (such as the 15-point penalty for a false claim of game), the general method of playing backwards as a standard scoring or movement option is unique to the game variations. 

Key Differences

  • Standard ACC Play: The only time a player’s peg moves backward is as a penalty for a serious infraction (e.g., false claim of game, where the pegs are moved back 15 holes from the out hole). The normal method of play is strictly forward movement.
  • Wicked Cribbage/Crib Wars: These games are designed as distinct variations and introduce non-standard mechanics that involve regular backward movement or penalties to move forward/backward in specific zones (like “Muggers Alley” or “Penalty Boxes”). In some “reverse cribbage” variations, the explicit goal is to avoid scoring points and force your opponent to move forward, which is the opposite of the standard game. 

In summary, the backward pegging methods as a general game mechanic are a feature of the specific game variations and are not an official part of the core ACC rules for traditional cribbage.

I’d say that’s enough.

The Big Crib War Hybrid with 10 Card Cribbage!

Well, we did manage to get through a hybrid of 10-card Cribbage and Crib Wars although I had a kerfuffle with pegging which led to extra points I shouldn’t have got. I probably made other mistakes (just let me know).

However, it probably didn’t make that much difference. As luck would have it (as it tends to do in cribbage and in life) I won mainly because Sena ended up going through the final Blue Time Trap twice!

 Here’s a recap of the rules for 10-card Cribbage: This one is fun. Deal 10 cards each and two to the dealer’s crib. Divide your remaining 8 cards into 4 separate hands. Use one for pegging and both for the show (means scoring your hands). Play to 121 (unless you’re playing Crib Wars and then you’re in for a marathon). You get big scores but they’re manageable.

We completed the game in an hour, very similar to our time in regular 6 card cribbage on the big Ebonwood Crib Wars board. I started to get a little punchy mid to late phase in the game because of the several hands you get in 10-card cribbage. It’s a lot to count.

High scores over the long haul probably don’t affect what fairways and sand traps you fall into.

If you already know how to play basic cribbage, you can ignore most of what’s on the rules sheet (available on the web) because there’s only a short section for the Crib Wars rules. It describes the colored areas and what the players are supposed to do with them.

There’s no Muggers Alley on the Ebonwood board and we never play muggins. Below are my updated descriptions of the colored zones, which we discuss and demonstrate during the video.

Red Skips: There are 3 of these. The rule says if you land on the first red box you should slide to the next red box which gets you 20 holes further along the board. The red box just means the set of 3 holes highlighted with a red color. You get from the first one to the next one by just moving the peg 20 holes. You’ll land in the 2nd set of holes marked in red. This is a boon in the first Red Skip area. However, if you pay attention to the directional arrows in the path guiding you, it looks like they accelerate you toward two of the Blue Time Traps.

Blue Time Traps: There are 4 of these and there will be three blue lines, meaning the blue color covers all three holes and all three peg tracks (3 holes along the track and 3 holes across the track). If you land in a set of three holes highlighted in blue, you end up moving to a blue area of holes that actually set you behind several holes. You have to play your way out of them. Players note that you can end up in repetitious cycling back to the traps largely because of how often you can get one or two points at a time while scoring. In fact, some say that if their opponent gets close to a Blue Time Trap they may purposely lead with a five card (something you would rarely if ever do in a standard cribbage game). That could trap the opponent into playing a ten card or a 5 card, which might risk them moving only a couple of holes right back into the Blue Time Trap. The same thing could happen with falling into the Blue Penalty Boxes.

Blue Penalty Boxes: There are three of them. You fall into one of these by moving your peg into one of the single blue hole lines, meaning one blue track across the three peg tracks. This is a disaster because you immediately have to move back 20 holes and fold your hand and your crib while your opponent moves forward 20 holes and counts their hand and crib (if they have the crib). Asking AI is the only way I could find out how to learn how to peg moving back and forward 20 holes. The player who lands in the penalty box moves their front peg back 20 holes starting from the penalty box. You don’t move the rear peg. If your front peg lands behind the rear peg, it becomes the new rear peg. The player who doesn’t land in the penalty box moves their front peg forward 20 holes. The player who lands in the penalty box immediately folds their hand and crib.

Green Advances: There are two of them. If you land in a green hole, you take short cut path. The long one saves you from moving toward the Blue Time Trap in the left lower quadrant. You don’t avoid the potential other trap above. If you take the normal track instead you end up moving toward the lower left quadrant Blue Time Trap—but you have a chance at getting into the short Green Advance track before you get there which loops back away from it and you end up going in the direction of the upper Blue Time Trap.

You think you’re in the clear after that? You’re not because there is a sadistically placed Blue Penalty Box in the next to the last hole before the Finish Line!

Gearing up for 10-Card Cribbage Mashup with Big Board Crib Wars

We spent over 2 hours playing the hybrid 10-card cribbage and Crib Wars on our new Crib Wars board. Sena won!  I’m still a little punchy from the effort. Based on the results, we don’t think the higher scores we get will propel us through the game any faster.

Part of the reason is we spend any time we save from high scores shuffling cards, dealing them, and getting used to where the extra hands go but forgetting to count them, and needing to replenish our energy with hot chocolate.

This is a card from Wicked Cribbage

I got caught in two of the Blue Time Traps for a total of 6 trips. She got caught in a Penalty Box and two Blue Time Traps but managed to hit the Green Advance zone and I coughed in the dust she kicked up as she sped away to the finish line.

This is not over.

Big Board Crib Wars Video!

Date: December 12, 2025

We finally made a video of us playing Crib Wars on our new Ebonwood board! The video is almost an hour long, yet as near as I can tell from a web search, it’s the shortest YouTube video of a Crib Wars game. Except for a couple of bloopers by me, it went pretty well overall as an example of playing the game. We had a chance to demonstrate and explain the different zones in the game. There are at least 2 mistakes I made in the game (which I pointed out); one of them is stealing the deal on one round (which I forgot to mention). There are likely others; just let me know! A recap of the rules as we understand them from what’s available on the web can be found below:

Ebonwood is a company located in Appleton Wisconsin and they make a variety of wood objects including cribbage boards including a Cribbage Wars game. It’s rectangular and similar to what we got. However, it lacks directional arrows on the track in the lower left quadrant. There is no Muggins Alley. The rules for Cribbage Wars are on the Ebonwood web site. I don’t know if the board ships with rules. Ebonwood charges $210 for it.

If you already know how to play basic cribbage, you can ignore most of what’s on the rules sheet (available on the web) because there’s only a short section for the Crib Wars rules. It describes the colored areas and what the players are supposed to do with them.

There’s no Muggers Alley on the Ebonwood board and we never play muggins. Below are my updated descriptions of the colored zones, which we discuss and demonstrate during the video.

Red Skips: There are 3 of these. The rule says if you land on the first red box you should slide to the next red box which gets you 20 holes further along the board. The red box just means the set of 3 holes highlighted with a red color. You get from the first one to the next one by just moving the peg 20 holes. You’ll land in the 2nd set of holes marked in red. This is a boon in the first Red Skip area. However, if you pay attention to the directional arrows in the path guiding you, it looks like they accelerate you toward two of the Blue Time Traps.

Blue Time Traps: There are 4 of these and there will be three blue lines, meaning the blue color covers all three holes and all three peg tracks (3 holes along the track and 3 holes across the track). If you land in a set of three holes highlighted in blue, you end up moving to a blue area of holes that actually set you behind several holes. You have to play your way out of them. Players note that you can end up in repetitious cycling back to the traps largely because of how often you can get one or two points at a time while scoring. In fact, some say that if their opponent gets close to a Blue Time Trap they may purposely lead with a five card (something you would rarely if ever do in a standard cribbage game). That could trap the opponent into playing a ten card or a 5 card, which might risk them moving only a couple of holes right back into the Blue Time Trap. The same thing could happen with falling into the Blue Penalty Boxes.

Blue Penalty Boxes: There are three of them. You fall into one of these by moving your peg into one of the single blue hole lines, meaning one blue track across the three peg tracks. This is a disaster because you immediately have to move back 20 holes and fold your hand and your crib while your opponent moves forward 20 holes and counts their hand and crib (if they have the crib). Asking AI is the only way I could find out how to learn how to peg moving back and forward 20 holes. The player who lands in the penalty box moves their front peg back 20 holes starting from the penalty box. You don’t move the rear peg. If your front peg lands behind the rear peg, it becomes the new rear peg. The player who doesn’t land in the penalty box moves their front peg forward 20 holes. The player who lands in the penalty box immediately folds their hand and crib.

Green Advances: There are two of them. If you land in a green hole, you take short cut path. The long one saves you from moving toward the Blue Time Trap in the left lower quadrant. You don’t avoid the potential other trap above. If you take the normal track instead you end up moving toward the lower left quadrant Blue Time Trap—but you have a chance at getting into the short Green Advance track before you get there which loops back away from it and you end up going in the direction of the upper Blue Time Trap.

You think you’re in the clear after that? You’re not because there is a sadistically placed Blue Penalty Box in the next to the last hole before the Finish Line!

Jim Finally Wins a Cribbage Game!

The Wicked Cribbage Lugger card gave us the idea of trying a hybrid game of 10-card cribbage and Crib Wars today. I can’t contain myself; I finally won!

The rules for 10-card cribbage are on the Lugger card from the Wicked Cribbage game although we’ve played it before. We finished the game in 1 hour and 15 minutes. This is despite the confusion from having 3 piles of cards in front of you when you’re the dealer (your regular 4-card hand, the other 4-card hand, and your crib).

It actually plays pretty well, and the scores are easier to count than the 9-card variant because there are only 4 cards to count at a time. I managed to skip all the Red Skip Zones, all the Blue Time Traps, and all the Blue Penalty Zones, but also missed out on the Green Advance Zones. Sena cycled through one of the Blue Time Traps three times.

Sena relies on strategy in card play for Crib Wars and it doesn’t always work. I think luck is the biggest factor, but that doesn’t mean I relax. Sorting through my cards to pick out the best two 4-card hands was tough. We both agree that picking out the two cards to throw to the dealer’s crib was the easy part. Counting holes on the board was a chore because they’re very small. The number of holes in a group can vary a lot. Standard cribbage board holes are always 5 in a group.

I’m still leery of trying to film us playing a game of Crib Wars. The time to play is still way too long for that, mostly because of all the water hazards and sand traps. By the way, why do I not see comparisons of Crib Wars to golf (which I don’t play)?

Some people say that Crib Wars reminds them of Chutes and Ladders. I had to look this up on the web (despite having played this as a kid), but in Chutes and Ladders, chutes slow you down and ladders speed you up. So, it isn’t just the board layout alone of Crib Wars that reminds people of Chutes and Ladders.

Sena and I talked about what cribbage game variant we like best so far as a hybrid with Crib Wars. She kind of likes 9-card but settled on 7-card. I tend to agree with her because, while I think 6-card cribbage might tend to make the game seem too slow after a while, the 7-card might better rather than trying to manage too many cards, even though you can get some pretty high scores in 7-card.

Overall, we both like Crib Wars. It’s fun and absorbing and we’ll probably keep playing. At between $25-30, the price is right.

Sena Wins Hybrid 9 Card Cribbage and Crib Wars Today!

Here we go again! Hybrid competitions are the rule around here lately and the news flash today is that Sena won the hybrid 9 card cribbage and crib wars game today, which took an hour and a half to play.

9 card cribbage & Crib Wars and Sena wins again!
Sena is modest!

Just as an aside, I used the word “hybrid” because yesterday I just found out about the hybrid Chess Boxing sport in which opponents box for 3 minutes alternating with 3 minutes of blitz chess (fast paced chess game you have to finish in 10 minutes). Figure that one out; I would think that repeated blows to the head would do something not so good for your chess playing skills, but whatever.

So, the assumption here with hybrid 9-card cribbage and crib wars is that the higher than usual cribbage hand and crib scores you get help speed you past the crib wars obstacles like the Blue Time Traps and the Blue Penalty Boxes. However, by the same token you’d probably miss out on the Green Advance zones too—but would that even matter?

Briefly, the rules of 9 card cribbage are that each player is dealt 9 cards, both toss 3 cards to the dealer’s crib, and then you sweat the scoring of both. We tried scoring by hand first, and if we got stuck, we used the scoring program I found on a Reddit thread. We didn’t do too badly and sometimes we didn’t need the scorer. We got scores as high as 38, 28, and 26. If nothing else, the 9-card cribbage variant helps your ability to hand count your scores, something I think computer cribbage apps might not be helpful for.

Anyway, I thought the 9-card game might take even longer than the 3-hour game we had yesterday with the 7-card cribbage and crib wars game. But for some reason it didn’t, even with the running back and forth to run the scoring program. I suspect that’s largely from practice effect although we’ve played crib wars only 3 times (played 6-card, 7-card, and now 9-card variants).

While we did speed past the crib wars board hazards, we also missed the reward zones (Green Advance) as well. It felt more like a long regular cribbage game. And it could turn out the opposite way although you’d probably get out of the hazard zones more quickly. But I think that would tend to make crib wars less fun, because it’s a hybrid game. It’s both a board game and a cribbage game. Some people classify cribbage itself as a board game, but that’s a misnomer because the board is just for keeping score.

You have to use a different strategy in crib wars than you’d use in a straight-up cribbage game. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I’ve lost all 3 crib wars games so far. Nah, Sena is just good.

Mashup of 7 Card Cribbage and Cribbage Wars with 46 Point Hand for Sena!

I just had to get this post out this morning after a 3-hour game of Crib Wars playing 7-card cribbage because Sena won with the highest hand point total of 46! Some say this is analogous to getting a 29 hand in 6-card cribbage. See below for details on the rules, about which opinions differ due to the high point totals players can get.

While the game took 3 hours to finish, it didn’t feel that long because we got pretty absorbed in it.

Recall we just recently learned the 7-card cribbage variant rules and I planned to try it during a Crib Wars game, which we are also just learning. I wondered if it would shorten the game, which it obviously didn’t. We travel farther along the board, but we also take longer to count the often-complicated scores—like 46. There are 8 three-card runs for 24 points; 3 pairs for 6 points; and 8 fifteens for 2 for 16 points.

We didn’t film this game because it took 3 hours to finish. We started at 8:00 a.m. and finished at 11:00 a.m. when Sena got the 46-point hand count. This has been reported to be the highest count in 7-card cribbage according to the web site Masters Traditional Games.

There are other ways to play this game mainly by changing how many cards are dealt to the crib. Some say you should toss 2 cards to the crib as usual, which differs from what Masters Traditional Games says, which is to toss one right after the deal and then 2 more by each player after looking at the hands dealt. This means you get a 5-card crib instead of a 4-card crib. When you end up with a 6-card hand (plus the starter) and a 5-card crib (plus the starter), scoring gets higher and takes longer to count, at least for us.

Now Sena wants to play a mashup of 9-card cribbage and Crib Wars!

Sena Wins Our First Crib Wars Game Today!

Hey, we played our first Crib Wars game today and, wouldn’t you know it, Sena won! We played six card cribbage. We ignored Muggers Alley.

I spent a fair amount of time in two of the Blue Time Traps. She got caught in a couple of cycles around the last Blue Time Trap, but scored big coming out of it. I had red pegs and she had the green. I think we spent about 2 hours playing.

Playing the low cards usually was the big reason why we got caught in the time traps. And despite Sena landing in the Blue Penalty Box at the beginning, she ended up winning! The Red Skip areas helped us both make better progress than we would have otherwise. The Green Advance zone helped Sena. I had to take the main track route and ended up in the Blue Time Trap in the left lower quadrant.

Maybe next time we’ll see if 7-card cribbage makes the game go faster.

Sena Wins Crib Wars!
Sena is modest!

Crib Wars and Wicked Cribbage: Calvinball Cribbage Alley!

We just got two new cribbage games: Crib Wars and Wicked Cribbage. We’ve been looking over the rules for both. We haven’t played either yet. I’ll talk about Crib Wars here.

Crib Wars is the most challenging to tackle, mainly because the rules and the board are open to interpretation.

Crib Wars came with a 363-hole board and a set of rules. It was made in China and I have no idea what “skdp” means but it’s stamped on the board at the top. I haven’t seen this on any other similar-looking Crib Wars boards. The first 121 holes is the regular number of holes you’d play in the usual game of cribbage. There is a Muggers Alley in which you can play the Muggins Rule against your opponent. In general, if your opponent miscounts a score, you can call Muggins and take the points they missed. Does that mean we have to play Muggins Rule in that part of the board? I’m not sure how to get around this since you can’t just omit any other part of the game—can you? Judges are not involved. What if you and your opponent don’t agree? Do you play Rock Paper Scissors (you can do that in Wicked Cribbage, by the way, just not for Muggins Rule!). If I can say the quiet part out loud here, Sena and I tried to play Muggins rule once, messed it up and haven’t played since.

The American Cribbage Congress (ACC) rulebook has rules for Muggins Rule:

“Rule 10. Muggins 10.1. When in Effect a. Muggins is the only optional rule (see definition in rule 1.6). b. Officials in charge of tournaments, Grass Roots, or other forms of organized play must announce in their flyers and prior to beginning of play that muggins is in effect. c. When muggins is in effect, pegging out (reaching the game hole) is mandatory. d. When muggins is in effect, it cannot be optional between two players. It is played by all players. 10.2. Situations That Apply Except for the situations listed in rule 10.3, muggins is applied to the underpegging of the full value of any points during the play or scoring of the points in the hand or crib.

10.3. Situations That Do Not Apply a. The omission or underpegging of a penalty. b. The omission or underpegging of a muggins score. c. The dealer’s failure to peg two points for turning a Jack as a starter card. d. Points lost by a player by pegging backward.

10.4. Calling Muggins a. The caller shall state, “Muggins for X points.” During the play of the cards, the score(s) not pegged or underpegged shall be identified. Muggins may not be pegged until both players agree. If the opponent does not agree, judges shall be summoned. If the judges determine that the play was not a muggins, the opponent will be awarded the points taken as a penalty. If the true amount of underpegging is determined to be other than the amount originally claimed, the caller is entitled only to the lesser of the claimed or true amounts. In no case shall the amount of points awarded for muggins exceed the actual number of holes that could have been pegged had the scoring been correctly done. The muggins points shall be scored after the judges render a decision. b. For points missed during the play of the cards, a muggins call must be made: (1) After the player finishes underpegging the score or, if no score is pegged, after the player forfeits the score (see rule 7.2).

(2) Before the scoring player pegs a subsequent score or the pone’s hand is pegged. c. For points missed in a hand or crib: (1) The dealer must call muggins after the pone finishes pegging the score or states there is no score and before the pone’s hand is mixed with other cards or the total count of the dealer’s hand is announced. (2) The pone must call muggins after the dealer completes pegging the hand (or crib) score or states there is no score and before the pone mixes the hand (or crib) with other cards. d. The zero-count hand or crib: once a player claims no count in a hand or crib, muggins may be called immediately. After the player’s opponent says the word “muggins,” the player may not correct his or her count.”—American Cribbage Congress Cribbage Tournament Rules 2025 edition, Rule 10 Muggins Sec 10.1-10.4, pp 44-46   https://www.cribbage.org/NewSite/rules/rulebook_2025.pdf

There are other versions of the boards:

Michaud Toys makes a game called Cribbage Rumble. They called it Cribbage Wars about 7 months ago in a Facebook post. It looks different mainly because the design of the track and other markings are on an elongated board typical for most cribbage boards. That’s to make it easier for two players to see because they usually sit opposite each other with the board in between them. Despite the distortion, the design is very similar to the Crib Wars board that typically is made on a rectangular board. There is no Muggers Alley. The Crib Wars game we got was shipped with a one-page sheet with description and rules. I don’t know if Michaud Toys includes the rules. For U.S. customers, it costs $89.95 plus a 35% tariff and an extra $25 UPS brokerage fee paid before delivery.

Ebonwood is a company located in Appleton Wisconsin and they make a variety of wood objects including cribbage boards including a Cribbage Wars game. It’s rectangular and similar to what we got. However, it lacks directional arrows on the track in the lower left quadrant. There is no Muggers Alley. The rules for Cribbage Wars are on the Ebonwood web site. I don’t know if the board ships with rules. Ebonwood charges $210 for it.

If you already know how to play basic cribbage, you can ignore most of what’s on the rules sheet because there’s only a short section for the Crib Wars rules. It describes the colored areas and what the players are supposed to do with them. There are only a couple of YouTube videos demonstrating how to play the game and I’ve not been able to sit through them because they’re both over an hour and half long. There’s a shorter separate video of an explanation of just the rules as they pertain to the colored areas. It’s mostly helpful, although I think there’s room for interpretation.

I have just a few comments and questions so far about our Crib Wars board:

Red Skips: There are 3 of these. The rule says if you land on the first red box you should “slide” to the next red box which gets you 20 holes further along the board. The red box just means the set of 3 holes highlighted with a red color. You get from the first one to the next one by just moving it 20 holes. You’ll land in the 2nd set of holes marked in red. This is a boon in the first Red Skip area. However, if you pay attention to the directional arrows (two skinny green arrows in the middle of the track) guiding you, it looks like they accelerate you toward two of the Blue Time Traps.

Blue Time Traps: There are 4 of these and there will be three blue lines, meaning the blue color covers all three holes and all three peg tracks (3 holes along the track and 3 holes across the track). If you land in a set of three holes highlighted in blue, you end up moving to a blue area of holes that actually set you behind several holes. You have to play your way out of them. Players note that you can end up in repetitious cycling back to the traps largely because of how often you can get one or two points at a time while scoring. In fact, some say that if their opponent gets close to a Blue Time Trap they may purposely lead with a five card (something you would rarely if ever do in a standard cribbage game). That could trap the opponent into playing a ten card or a 5 card, which might risk them moving only a couple of holes right back into the Blue Time Trap. The same thing could happen with falling into the Blue Penalty Boxes.

Blue Penalty Boxes: There are three of them. This one is also open to interpretation. You fall into one of these by moving your peg into one of the single blue hole lines, meaning one blue track across the three peg tracks. This is a disaster because you immediately have to fold your hand and your crib while your opponent plays through, so to speak. And the one who pegs into the Blue Penalty Box has to move back 20 holes while the opponent pegs forward by 20 holes. But the other thing is that the person who incurs the penalty also has to “sit in the box.” There are 3 holes next to the track and this is where you put your peg. At first, I didn’t understand the need for a box to sit in if you’re also supposed to move backwards 20 holes. After I thought about it, it made sense that while you’re sitting out the hand, you have to wait for your opponent to play their hand and crib first and move forward. After that is done is when the respective 20-point loss and gain are taken. Anyway, that’s why you sit in the box.

Green Advances: There are two of them. I think they’re tricky. If you land in a green hole, you take a short cut path. The long one ends in what looks to me like an arrow pointing at the hole you should go to next on the main track. That puts you on the track which allows you to avoid the lower left quadrant Blue Time Trap. You don’t avoid the potential other trap above. If you take the normal track instead you end up moving toward the lower left quadrant Blue Time Trap—but you have a chance at getting into the short Green Advance track before you get there which loops back away from it and you end up going in the direction of the upper Blue Time Trap. Fun, huh?

You think you’re in the clear after that? You’re not because there is a sadistically placed Blue Penalty Box in the next to the last hole before the Finish Line!

Now I see why there are so few YouTube videos. Incidentally, Crib Wars came with a small yellow packet with Chinese lettering on it and the name Osmanthus printed on it. I found out that Osmanthus is a flower and it can have a variety of meanings including love, prosperity, optimism, luck, or good fortune. Sena cut the packet open because she thought it might contain flower seeds (she’s a gardener) but it just contained a square piece of white felt.

I wonder about trying to play a mashup of 7-card cribbage on the Crib Wars board. That might be the ultimate Calvinball cribbage game.