Regicide

Overview

Typically a cooperative game, Regicide has an official solo variant: you alone against 12 royals, from Jacks to Kings.

Preparation

• Tavern Deck: Ace to 10 of each suit (40 cards), shuffled as your draw pile.
• Castle deck: the 12 Jacks, Queens and Kings, arranged in increasing difficulty — Jacks (Attack 10 / Life 20) first, then Queens (Attack 15 / Life 30), then Kings (Attack 20 / Life 40) last.
• In solo mode, you play with a hand of 8 cards and separate the 2 Jokers as a special resource (they do not enter the hand).

Table at the beginning of the game

Castle

Castle (Queens and Kings await)11 cards

Current enemy: Health 20, Attack 10

Tavern and hand

Tavern32 cards

You start with 8 cards in hand and the rest of the tavern is your draw pile. The 2 Jokers are sideways, outside the hand.

How to play

• Play a card, an Ace accompanied by another card (including another Ace), or 2 to 4 cards of the same number summing up to 10. Damage uses the sum of values ​​(Ace=1, Jack=10, Queen=15, King=20, numbers=own value).
• The suit of each card played activates a power: Clubs doubles damage; Spades reduces attack until this enemy falls; Diamonds draws cards from the tavern, without exceeding 8 in your hand; Hearts shuffles the discard and returns cards to the bottom of the tavern.
• Each power uses the full value of the roll; Spades accumulate protection. Solve Hearts before Diamonds.

How much each card is worth in attack

Values

1

7

10

15

20

Numbers are worth the number itself. These values are used both to deal damage and to pay the enemy's attack — and are different from the enemies' Life and Attack.

The power of each suit

Clubs ♣

Doubles the damage: 9 deals 18.

Spades ♠

Reduces attack by 9 until the enemy falls.

Diamonds ♦

Draw up to 9 cards, respecting the maximum hand of 8.

Hearts ♥

Up to 9 cards from the shuffled discard are returned to the bottom of the tavern.

• The enemy is immune to the powers of his own suit. The damage continues to apply.
• Played cards remain in combat until the enemy is defeated. Then go to the discard pile with him; if the damage was exactly equal to life, the enemy goes to the top of the tavern.
• If the enemy is not defeated, he attacks: discard cards from your hand adding at least his attack (already reduced by Spades, if used). If there are not enough cards, you lose.

Turn example

Enemy

Health 20 Attack 10

You play

5 + 5 = 10: valid combination. Clubs causes 20; Diamonds draw until the hand has 8 cards. The Knave falls with exact damage and goes to the top of the tavern.

Attack payment example

If the enemy survived

Attack 10

You discard

7 + 4 = 11, which covers the attack of 10. Discard only what is necessary: what is left in your hand is your life.

• Each Joker can be used once before playing or before paying damage: discard the hand and replace up to 8 cards, even against Diamonds. It does not cancel immunity or waive payment.

Victory and defeat

• You win by defeating the last King of the castle.
• You lose if you fail to pay off an enemy's attack.
• You also lose if you have an empty hand at the time of playing and without any Joker to renew it: there are no moves left.
• Winning without using any Joker is a Golden Victory; using 1, Silver Victory; using the 2, Bronze Victory.

Source: official manual — rules and solo variant.