This is a 2 player version of the solitaire called Royal Assassin. Make sure you understand the solo version before reading this variation.

Cards

Best played with 2 full decks, can be played with one deck.

Setup

Each player setups up their noble families, similarly to the solo version. In contrast with it, the noble families they present will be their allies rather than their enemies.

During the setup players build up their own reserve pile (stack of cards facing up). The reserve pile is not shared.

Otherwise, the fresh deck and the discard pile are shared.

Rounds

Instead of playing one card at a time, each player draws 3 cards from their deck, and plays one card per turn. They play alternatively until they have no more cards in the hand. Then players draw 3 more cards, and so on.

In each turn the player can choose to:

Attack

To attack enemy’s families the player places a card in an enemy’s family pile. Same general rules as in the solitaire:

• Only attack cross-color
• Attacks trigger defenses from the reserve pile of the enemy
• Attacks also trigger new attacks from the attacking reserve pile

If both players’ piles can attack and defend in the same moment, these happen alternatively, starting with the defense. For example:

• Player A attacks K of clubs with a 5 of hearts (from their hand)
• Player B defends with a 3 of clubs (from their reserve pile)
• Player A attacks with a 2 of hearts (from their reserve pile)
• Player B has no more clubs in their reserve pile, they cannot defend
• Player A continues the attack from their reserve pile

Revealing cards: Note that attacking and defending can reveal cards in the reserve pile that can attack or defend a different family tree. Players should also alternate their turn to play these cards.

Coincidence: If a card is revealed in the reserve pile that can both defend one of their own and attack another, the player is free to choose what to do.

Royalty vs royalty: Pieces of royalty can kill other pieces of royalty, given that they are:

• The same value, or better
• There are no ongoing attacks (no number cards in front of it)
• The corresponding color

Defend

To defend one of their families, the player places a card in one of the piles. These families don’t need to be under attack to be defended (in contrast with the solitaire version). Also, a defense that exceeds an attack does not wipe away the ongoing attack. Only an exact sum of zero wipes away the pile. For example:

• Player B attacks a J of spades with a 2 of hearts (ongoing count: +2).
• Player A defends with a 5 of spades (ongoing count: -3).
• Player B attacks with a 5 of hearts (ongoing count: +2).
• Player A defends with a 2 of spades (ongoing count: 0).
• The attack pile is discarded, leaving the J of spades open.

(Note that the defense has been re-balanced giving a slight advantage to the defender).

Other actions

• Present royal figures as in the solitaire version
• If nothing else possible, discard to the reserve pile

Shared and not shared

Players share a discard pile and a deck to draw new cards from.

Players do not share a reserve deck (face-up pile to place unusable cards, and draw defenses/attackers from) nor Jokers.

Endgame

The player to completely wipe the other player wins.

Depleting the stockpile is not an endgame condition. If there are no more cards to draw from, the players must re-shuffle the discard pile and draw from it.