Regicide | 1 to 4 Player Card Game

Game storyline

• In Regicide, corrupted monarchies control a castle of enemies.
• As “heroes,” your team must break their power by defeating the jacks, queens, and kings stacked in the castle—framed as “Reicide” (killing the monarchs).

How the game is played (gameplay overview)

Table setup

• Castle (enemy stack): built from Jacks (top), Queens (middle), Kings (bottom).
• Tavern (draw pile): shuffled remaining cards.

Turn structure (co-op, 1–4 players)

• On your turn, you attack by playing cards from your hand.
• If the enemy survives, it strikes back using its attack power.
• To block, you discard cards until the discarded total value is at least the enemy’s attack.
• If you fail to block all damage, the team is defeated.
• If you have zero cards, you’re not automatically dead—you must still block the incoming damage (per the video, survival depends on blocking, not on having cards).

Gameplay highlights / core mechanics

Enemy defeat → adventurer phase shift

• Each enemy (face card) has:
  • Health points: how much damage it can take before being defeated
  • Attack power: how much damage you must block when it retaliates
• When you defeat a face card:
  • It stops being an enemy and becomes an adventurer card
  • Example: a defeated jack becomes a numeric card matching its attack value

The enemy gets stronger over time

• You fight enemies from the top of the castle pile downward.
• As you progress, enemies increase in difficulty (from their stats and/or how the fights develop).

Suit powers (key strategy drivers)

Suit powers are applied before damage is dealt.

Player cards

• Diamonds (Bards): hand refills
  • Playing a diamond makes the team draw cards equal to the diamond’s value, one at a time clockwise
  • Players at their hand limit are skipped
• Hearts (Clerics): recover from discard
  • Playing a heart:
    • Shuffles the discard pile
    • Places a number of cards equal to its value face-down under the tavern deck (later drawable)
  • Also: if the tavern runs empty, no one can draw until it’s refilled
• Spades (Paladins): reduce enemy attack
  • Playing a spade reduces the enemy’s attack by that card’s value for the rest of the fight
• Clubs (Warriors): double your attack
  • Playing a club doubles the attack value contributed by the card

Enemy suit interaction (immunity mechanic)

• Enemies also have suits and can use their suit’s trait against you:
  • The enemy blocks/counters the power of its own suit
  • Example: playing a diamond card versus a king of diamonds means you won’t draw cards (base damage still applies)

“Special rules” that change how you should play

Yielding (when you can’t survive)

• If you can’t attack and still survive the enemy strike, you may yield:
  • You skip playing a card
  • The enemy still deals its full attack
• Limitation: not all players can yield simultaneously.
  • A player may not yield if all teammates already yielded on their previous turn.

Precision attack: deal exactly 0 (exact-kill payoff)

• Normally, defeated enemies go to the discard pile.
• If you reduce an enemy to exactly zero:
  • The enemy card goes to the top of the tavern deck face-down
  • This can give you a powerful card sooner

Animal companions (Aces) + combo-like enhancement

• Aces are “animal companions”:
  • By themselves they’re weak (value 1)
  • They pair with any other card to enhance it:
    • Adds +1 attack
    • Both suits apply to the combined total
• Important order of suit effects (per the video):
  • Hearts → Diamonds → Spades → Clubs
  • “The good news”: tavern refills before you draw
  • “The bad news”: other powers are applied before damage gets doubled

Combining same-rank cards (damage combos)

• You can combine cards of the same rank into one attack as long as the combined total is 10 or less.
  • Example: two 4s → 8 (allowed)
  • Three 4s → 12 (not allowed)
• Suit powers apply to the combined total.
• Comparison to animal companions:
  • Animal companions can only pair with one other card
  • Rank combos can combine multiple cards (within the 10 limit)

Joker rules (player-count dependent)

• Built around emergency recovery / special suppression.

Setup differences

• Solo: jokers start face up on the table (not in tavern)
• 2 players: jokers are set aside and not used
• 3–4 players: jokers are shuffled into the tavern

Joker effects

• Solo joker: one-time “emergency reset”
  • You may flip one, discard your hand, and draw back up to 8
  • Can be done at the start of your turn or right before taking damage
  • Works even against diamond enemies (immunity doesn’t prevent it)
• 3–4 player joker:
  • If drawn, it enters your hand and can be played like a card
  • Joker has 0 attack, but it turns off the enemy’s immunity for the rest of the fight
  • Playing it ends your turn immediately (no damage either way)
  • After playing a joker, you can choose who goes next

Extra perk vs spades enemies (turn-order mechanic)

• If there are spades already on the table (in the context of spade enemy interaction), they reduce the enemy’s attack before you pick the next player.

Win/lose condition

• Lose: if any player cannot block the full enemy attack, the team is killed and the whole team loses.
• Win: defeat the castle’s final king (the last enemy in sequence).

Gamers / sources featured

• Badgers from Mars (game designers; provided the official deck and is credited in the video)
• The video creator (no specific name given in the subtitles)