Hello friends!
Battle of Britain is about to begin and we want to launch it with some extra fireworks. A balance patch fits the bill, alongside Battle of Britain giving a good mix of new and old to shake things up.
Overall, the meta has been fairly stable over the last month or two. Brit Air and Alpine remain top dogs and a new hound, Katy OTK, is causing some chewing damage. As a response, control decks, especially German and British based, have been on the rise. On the side we have several more decks putting up good numbers, such as US aggro, Commandos and Jap Resistance. All these decks, and more, are performing well, but none to the point of breaking the format. Still, shaking the antfarm a bit is always good to encourage players to experiment some more.
We have also collaborated with the community to get suggestions on a few elites that see little or no play to receive some facelift. There is one elite buff for each main nation, all based on suggestions from the community. Thank you for your feedback!
With all this in mind, let’s take a look at the changes coming your way next Thursday, November 18th. As usual, we will start going through the cards we are nerfing, then a couple of sections of card buffs, first for cards that see little play and then cards we want to change for strategic reasons.
[h2]Cards We Are Nerfing[/h2]
Being able to infuriate anyone will inevitably cause issues at some point, my mom used to tell me. Well, for 5. Panzergrenadier, that point has arrived. Instead of limiting the Fury giving capabilities of the unit, we instead opted to make it into something that encouraged people to play as many Pincer units as possible. Who knows? Maybe down the road more goodies will arrive to make this deck a real contender.
The Alpine deck has truly reached the summit of the meta in recent weeks and when it curves out it can be a steep hill to climb back into the game for the opponent. While we like the new ability of the Obice, we do acknowledge that dealing with a huge artillery unit to boot is a bit too much to ask for many decks. So we are keeping the ability the same, but the Obice no longer has the Alpine keyword.
The US aggro/midrange deck centered around cards, such as 32nd Infantry Regiment, M4 Sherman and 507th PIR, has been gaining momentum lately and they all use the super effective Catalina as backup. The bomber does a little too much for its stats, so we are scaling the defense back a bit to make it easier to deal with.
The love/hate relationship people have with this unit proves that all’s fair in love and war, but the Flower Power of the 2nd California is turning the dream of playing Kards into a nightmare for many. As a company, we of course want people to make war rather than love, or we would be out of business, so the flower boy is being pruned a bit. While it still packs a punch, it now has a harder time dominating the battlefield than before.
Scorched Earth staked its claim as the poster child of non-interactive decks a long time ago. These decks have tended to fly under the radar a bit, but their recent resurgence have cast the spotlight on Scorched Earth at last. The main issue with the old version was when a unit was hit multiple times by one, effectively taking it out of the battle. So we are changing the card so that stacking no longer is an issue. This new version may also lead to Scorched Earth seeing its number bolstered in other archetypes.
[h2]Cards That Nobody Loves[/h2]
One drops are always tricky to balance, they tend to be either really good or horribly bad. The 28th is still hunting for a home and we are providing it with some solid ammunition in its quest.
The Skytrain saw few takers when it flew around distributing candy and kredits. Now that it is distributing small Americans hungry for a fight, things may change. Some of them may even be carrying candy to boot.
The fabled Foreign Legion has turned out to be foreigners to most decks, which is a shame for such an iconic unit. They have agreed to go on a diet to be cheaper to maintain, so you can now operate them more easily. Is this a lean, mean fighting machine in the making? Or are they resistant to change?
Here is another iconic unit that rarely sees play except when rolling out of some factories in the Urals. This change should strike fear into anyone facing them on the battlefield, as history dictates it should. And with their fancy new cost they still have a healthy relationship with their Ural overlords.
Wellington? More like Not-Well-ington, right? Ok, ok. The old Wellington suffered from too narrow of a scope of a single turn, the new one has broadened its horizon to the whole battle. And it has Blitz. Beware of Blitz.
The new Panzerzug is now finally ready to deliver real pain to where it belongs - your face! While this may not be everyone’s cup of tea and not find a home in every deck, do not be surprised to see it disrupt some tea parties down the road every now and then.
It is likely that the illusionary Japan air deck needs more pieces than just a Rule the Skies overhaul to become reality, but this is a good step in the right direction and certainly makes this card more of a contender.
[h2]Cards Receiving Some Love[/h2]
Straight up traditional tokens have been taking the backseat for awhile now and we want to give them a bit of a handout and see if they can be revived.
This change is not going to shake up the top tier meta much, but at lower levels and in draft, a 2/7 Churchill is a tough beast to fight through, especially when paired with something like Naval Support.
The Coastal Gun is right on the fringe of being a decent finisher in lower-tier British mid-range/control decks (and even some higher-tier deck lists). The newer version deals slightly less damage, but it is both more resilient and works better with any kinds of buffs, like the aforementioned Naval Support.
The ATS can provide constant card advantage for very specific decks, like burn or bomber/artillery based decks. While these decks are not very viable at the moment, a cheaper ATS can help enable them.
Root Out The Enemy sees a decent amount of play, but its current iteration suffers from being a bit too situational. The new version is on the whole a lot stronger, so expect to see even more of it in the future. Note that one change we are making alongside this is to allow units with 0-attack to attack.
Target Acquired can be a solid option in certain decks, that either can attack easily (bomber/artillery decks or small unit decks) or have a problem dealing with large units. It will not fit into every deck, but can be a good choice in some.
[h2]Zero-attack units[/h2]
Please note that, as mentioned above, we also allow units with 0-attack to attack now.
That is all, these changes will hit the live server alongside the Battle of Britain cards on November 18th. Keep your eye out for the full patch notes at that time. Please continue giving us your feedback, it is very valuable to us. Thanks and see you on the battlefield, commander!
