The idea: a siege with two roles
Schotten Totten 2 keeps the heart of Reiner Knizia's first game: play one card per turn to build, in front of an objective, a formation stronger than the one facing it. But the symmetry is gone. One player is the Attacker, the other the Defender, and they are not chasing the same win. The border stones give way to seven Wall tiles laid side by side, which form the castle.
The Attacker wins by damaging 4 Wall tiles, or by damaging the same one twice. The Defender wins by holding out to the end of the deck: once the last card has been drawn, the Attacker takes one final turn, and if they have not won by then, the castle stands (rulebook, p.2 and p.13).
If you already know the first game, keep the Schotten Totten rules close by: the formation ladder is the same; everything around it changes.
The components
The box holds a deck of 60 Siege cards in 5 colours, valued from 0 to 11. Alongside them come the 7 Wall tiles, each with an undamaged side and a damaged side, the Defender's 3 Oil Cauldron tokens, 11 tactic cards for the variant, two player aids, and two standees that show who attacks and who defends (rulebook, p.3–4).
Printed along the bottom of each tile are the number of cards to play in front of it and the formations it accepts. That is the big novelty compared with the first game.
Setup
The players sit facing each other and choose who attacks. The Defender takes the three Cauldrons. Lay out the seven tiles in the order shown in the rulebook, undamaged side up, with the formation markings facing the Attacker. Shuffle the Siege cards, then each player draws a hand of 6 (rulebook, p.5).
A turn
The Attacker goes first, then players alternate. Every turn follows the same order (rulebook, p.6–8):
- Start-of-turn action, optional. The Attacker may retreat: they discard all of their cards in front of the tiles of their choice. The Defender may throw an Oil Cauldron: this discards the Attacker's card closest to the wall in front of a tile of their choice, and the token goes back in the box. One Cauldron per turn at most, three over the whole game.
- Play a card from your hand, on your side, in front of a tile. Its value does not matter for placing it; what counts is the number of cards the tile asks for, which you can never exceed. Cards overlap in the order they are played and are never rearranged: that order is what decides which card a Cauldron hits.
- Draw a card. Once the last card has been drawn, nobody draws any more: the Attacker plays one final turn, then the game ends.
The Chicken versus Chef rule applies as a card is played: a 0 played against the 11 of the same colour, or an 11 against the 0 of the same colour, discards both cards. The number of cards a tile asks for still cannot be exceeded, not even for a moment before the discard (rulebook, p.7).
Declaring control
Only the Attacker declares control (the first game's "claim"), at any time during their turn, in front of one or more tiles where their formation is complete. If the Defender also has a complete formation there, the two are compared. If not, the Attacker must prove, using only the cards already played or discarded, that no card could let the Defender do better. They do not have to account for the 0s and 11s that might knock cards out (rulebook, p.8). The principle is the one from the first game, and how to claim a stone in Schotten Totten walks through that kind of proof.
When the Attacker succeeds, the tile flips to its damaged side and every card in front of it, on both sides, goes to the discard. If the tile was already damaged, or if it is the fourth one to fall, the Attacker has won (rulebook, p.10).
What each tile accepts
Formations rank as in the first game, from strongest to weakest: colour run, same strength, colour, run, then sum. The difference is the tile's condition. A formation the tile does not count is just a sum, and it loses to any formation of the type the tile asks for, however weak. This table follows the legend of tile conditions on page 9 of the publisher's rulebook (French edition).
| Marking under the tile | Formations that count |
|---|---|
| blank spaces (2, 3 or 4) | all of them |
| spaces marked + | sum only, highest wins |
| spaces marked − | sum only, lowest wins |
| spaces marked = | same strength, then sum |
| spaces showing the five colours | colour, then sum |
| spaces marked with a staircase | run, then sum |
Between two formations of the same rank, the bigger sum wins (the smaller one on a tile marked −); on equal sums, the formation completed first. The rulebook shows two extremes. In front of the undamaged gate, two consecutive cards of one colour totalling 21 cannot be beaten. In front of the damaged gate, a run of four cards is worth nothing more than its total, and the lowest total wins (rulebook, p.11).
The tactical variant
Shuffle the 11 tactic cards to form a second deck; each player starts with 7 cards in hand. Every time you draw, you pick which deck to draw from. You may never be more than one tactic card ahead of your opponent (rulebook, p.14).
Four are elite troops, played like Siege cards: two Jokers, the Spy, which is a 10 in the colour of your choice, and the Shield, a joker limited to 1, 2 or 3. Their colour is chosen when the Attacker declares control, and so is their value, except for the Spy (always 10). The other seven are actions played away from the wall: Redeployment, Recruitment, Desertion, Treason, Explosion, Support and Exchange (rulebook, p.15–16). To compare them with the first game's, see the Schotten Totten tactics cards.
Which one to pick?
The first game is a symmetrical duel, the second a siege in which each side plays its own game. To weigh the two, read our comparison Schotten Totten 1 or 2. This site does not offer Schotten Totten 2 online yet: the free game against the AI is the original Schotten Totten.
The short version
- The two sides play different games: the Attacker wins by damaging 4 Wall tiles or the same one twice, the Defender by holding out until the deck runs out.
- Only the Attacker declares control, at any point in their turn, and only where their formation is complete.
- Each tile sets its own number of cards and the formations it accepts; a formation it does not accept is worth no more than its sum.
- A 0 played against the 11 of the same colour, or the other way round, discards both cards.
- The Defender has three Oil Cauldrons, one per turn at most; the Attacker can retreat from any tiles they choose.
Frequently asked questions
How many tactic cards are in Schotten Totten 2?
Eleven, according to the component list in the rulebook: two Jokers, the Spy, the Shield and seven action cards. They are only used in the tactical variant, where each player starts with 7 cards in hand instead of 6.
Can the Defender claim a tile?
No. Only the Attacker declares control (the first game's claim). The Defender wins another way: by stopping the Attacker from winning until the deck is empty and the Attacker has taken their last turn.
What happens when a Wall tile is damaged?
It flips to its damaged side and every card played on either side of it is discarded. New formations can then be built there, under the condition printed on the damaged side. If the Attacker wins at that tile again, they win the game.
Should you play two games?
The rulebook recommends it: play twice, swapping roles. If each player wins once, the tiebreak is the most cards left in the deck for two Attacker wins, or the most undamaged tiles and unused Cauldrons combined for two Defender wins. If that is still a tie, play again.