The Royal Writ

The Royal Writ (2025) is a medieval card-battle game where you score points to whittle down your royal enemies and lay siege to their fortresses. You place card-based troops on a grid and advance them on your enemy, scoring points based on each card's power and its synergies. It stands out not only for finding the best card combinations, but placing them in lanes that position them to maximise your attack.

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You control the army of a dictatorial king intent on abolishing his enemies, as he traverses the countryside to destroy their forts. Play involves placing cards on the right of the grid each turn, then attacking, causing all cards to move forward one space. Cards contribute to your score by multiplying or adding points to it, and you beat the round by scoring more total points than the opponent has.

If cards reach the end of their lane, they are permanently lost, but the further along they get, the more points they score, creating a delicate balance of point-scoring and card preservation. As you progress, you unlock new cards with extra abilities and enhance existing cards with special powers. In this way, you aim to cleverly combine different effects to maximise damage and win. The terrain also affects cards, modifying how they add to your score, so thinking carefully about where each card works best is also key.

The result is a tactical game where card placement is as important as card combination. Using the geography of battle and terrain of the world to enhance sequences, combinations, and synergies is joyfully strategic.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked The Royal Writ 5 months ago. It was re-examined by Ollie Robertson and updated 4 months ago.