Victory conditions:

Normal Ortus Regni victory conditions apply.

Two Turns, Two Towers rule:

  • An Earl cannot Attack or Treachery or Intrigue another Earl in the first two turns of the game.
  • Each Earl starts the game with 2 free Towers out.

Gameplay notes:

Before play begins Earls make their normal 24 card Earl decks. They also select 2 cards from their trays to place down in front of their Earldoms as Towers.

The black Viking timer markers will go out, as normal, for the first 2 turns which allows players to also easily keep track of when they are allowed to engage each other in Battle or use Treachery or Intrigue cards. When the 3rd black Viking timer marker goes out the "gates are open."

Overall, the "two turns, two Towers" rule both limits the danger of early elimination and also pulls Earls into a middle game situation more quickly; opening up gameplay space that is more often seen in multiplayer games than in duels.

Best of 3 or Best of 5 Tournament Sequence option:

In a "best of" sequence players can use the following condition. The winning Earl must play the next round with the same deck that they just won with. While the losing Earl can entirely rebuild their deck for the next round.

Tournament Rules and Multiplayer games:

The "two turns, two towers" rule can easily be applied to a game with any number of players, pulling multiplayer games into more developed states more quickly as well, while limiting early game eliminations.

Free Mulligan rule

All Earls may reject their 5 card starting hand and reshuffle and redraw their hand once. This occurs just before play begins, in turn order, with each Earl taking a Mulligan, or not.