Regicide Review

Regicide is a challenging cooperative card game for 1-4 players. To win, players must work together by playing cards to defeat 12 tough enemies. In essence you are running the gauntlet to defeat the final King and commit Regicide! It’s a limited communication game, much like The Crew: Mission Deep Sea and The Quest for Planet Nine. Regicide comes in a tiny package that fits right into your pocket – it’s the size of a deck of cards so it’s perfect for travel!

How To Play Regicide

The setup is very fast, making this an easy game to get to the table. Simply shuffle the 12 enemies to create the Castle deck, and the rest to create the Tavern deck. Then deal cards according to player count. Gameplay begins by flipping the first enemy Juggernaut (Jack).

First you must defeat the Juggernauts, then the Queens, then the Kings. The Juggernauts have 10 attack power and 20 health, so you must play cards that add up to 20 total to defeat each one. The enemies get tougher and meaner as you go. The Queens have 15 attack and 30 health, whereas the Kings have 20 attack and a whopping 40 health! Once you have played a card, you must discard card value equal to the enemy attack value. For example, if the enemy attack value is 10, you could discard a 3 and a 7, or a 10 etc. If you’re not careful, this can diminish your hand so that you cannot play a card and discard next turn.

If you ever get into this sticky situation, you can yield. This means you don’t play an attack, and only take a hit (discard according to enemy attack value). But this is not an ideal move, as it puts more pressure on your teammates. If you ever run out of cards or cannot discard enough at the end of your turn, the game ends in defeat. Gameplay consists of players taking it in turns to play and discard cards, all without communicating which cards are in their hands. This continues until players defeat the final King and are victorious, or more likely, sent home with their tails between their legs!

The true cleverness of this game is in the suit powers. Each one has its own special ability. But to add a further layer of difficulty, each enemy is immune to the power of its own suit. Spades act as shields, so playing an 8 of Spades would reduce the enemy health by 8 but also its attack power (unless it’s a Spade enemy!). This means you discard fewer cards at the end of your turn, making Spades a crucial suit for managing your hand. Clubs deal double damage, and Hearts allow you to put cards back into your Tavern from the discard pile. Finally, Diamonds enable you and your teammates to draw from the Tavern. Playing a Diamond is the only way to replenish your hand, so it can be devastating to allow your hand to get too low only for a Diamond enemy to appear!

There are some other small rules to bear in mind, which add to the strategy of Regicide. For example, you can combo some suit powers by using Animal Companions (Aces). You can also do this by playing multiples of cards, such as three 3s, up to a value of no higher than 10. If you defeat an enemy by playing a card that matches its remaining health exactly, that enemy goes on top of the Tavern deck instead of in the discard pile. This means you will draw it next turn, which can be very powerful for wiping out mean enemies! Finally, when you defeat an enemy, it will be your turn again when you draw the next enemy. This means you need to be careful with managing your hand. Don’t defeat an enemy if you won’t be able to discard enough cards next turn!