After an attack, the defender decides how to distribute all successful hits among the defending Royals. You may only attempt an assassination against a player with one or more Royals in play, but to make the attempt, you do not have to have any Royals in play yourself. You may not attempt to assassinate your own Royals. The owner of the Royal must commit one card. Once these two cards are committed, the defender asks all players to drop their committed cards, face up on the table.
Face cards have no value during an assassination attempt.
A block card will successfully cancel an attack card if the block card's value is equal to or greater than the attack card's value. For each hit taken from an assassination attempt or attack, the defending player must lose at least one victory point from Royals. If the hits are the result of an assassination attempt, the defender must account for the hits on the Royal that was the target of the attempt. If the hits are the result of an attack, the hits may be distributed amongst the defender's Royals as the defender sees fit. During an attack or assassination, red cards are always considered attack cards and black cards are always considered defense cards, no matter who plays them or in what situation.