KARDS - The WWII Card Game News

There will be Four expansion tournaments over the year. With each release and expansion there will be a tournament where the most successful KARDS players from the Officer club (24) and the tournament leaderboard (8) from the months leading up to each tournament. The period before each tournament is two or three months.

The expansion tournaments feature cash and in-game prizes.

1st: 1500 USD

2nd: 1000 USD

3rd: 500USD

4th - 8th: 500 Diamonds

9th - 32nd: 100 Diamonds

In addition the top 3 players from each tournament will enter the World Championship along with the top 4 players from 2024 for a total of 16.

If a player qualifies twice for a tournament then the next in line will get the extra place.

Tournaments are covered with full live broadcast productions and available live on the KARDS Twitch channel and uploaded after the live broadcast to the KARDS YouTube channel.

The World Championship is an annual tournament where we crown the KARDS World Champion. Competitors qualify through ladder based in-game qualifiers that are open for anyone to enter. Through several tournament stages, competitors are whittled down to the top 4 who battle it out for the title of KARDS World Champion and the lion's share of the 12,000 USD prize pool.

For clarification here is an overview calendar.

[h3]🚨A new Skirmish event is live now until February 2nd🚨[/h3]

Skirmish is a special game mode, easily accessible from the main screen, where you play with a different set of rules. These rules vary between the Skirmishes - you’ll face something different at every new Skirmish event.

Get ready for a thrilling and completely unique battle experience with these Skirmish rules:

• Each player gets an identical deck with 8 copies each of the 0/4 infantry cycle.
  
  
• At the start of each turn, choose 1 of 3 randomly chosen from a pool of 16.
  
  
• Each player starts with an extra kredit slot.

In addition to the exciting and unique battle experience you’ll get with this Skirmish ruleset, you’ll also get a card pack as your first win reward in this Skirmish!

Access the Skirmish event from the game's main screen or from the battle screen to get a detailed overview of the game mode, rules and prize.

📅This Skirmish is available from Friday, January 31 (14:00 UTC) until Sunday, February 2nd at 18:00 UTC. Join this special event and win your Skirmish to claim victory and the spoils!

Please let us know what you think of the event in the comments below or on the KARDS Discord.

See you in the Skirmish this weekend!

The Lunar New Year is one of the biggest holidays in the World and we at KARDS will take part in these celebrations! KARDS are delighted to spread the cheer of the Lunar New Year with our players all around the globe. And where better to start than the Year of the Snake, a year that is known for wisdom and transformative energy! With the wood element it symbolizes growth, stability and creativity, the very same things as KARDS aims for!



FREE HOLIDAY GIFTS - EVERY DAY IN THE SHOP!

For eight days from January 28th to February 4th a new free holiday gift will be waiting for you every day in the game shop. A small token of appreciation for your dedication to KARDS. Each day at 11 UTC, a free special offer becomes available for 24 hours only—so make sure to claim it before it’s gone!

🎁Visit the in-game shop daily to claim your free gift.

⚠️Once a new gift arrives, the previous day’s gift will be gone.

Along with the gifts there will also be special Year of the Snake offers in the Kards shop with discounts.

May the Year of the Snake bless you with good luck at every turn.

Enjoy!

[h3]Welcome to the first KARDS update of 2025![/h3]

We're excited to bring you a substantial set of updates in this update, including card balance changes, in-game tournament improvements, bug fixes, and preparations for the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations.

Read on to discover everything included in the KARDS January 2025 update.

The update is available on PC and all mobile platforms and was deployed on January 23, 2025. However, please note that it may take up to 24 hours for the update to appear worldwide on iOS and Google Play Store.

[h2]CARD BALANCE CHANGES[/h2]

Overall, the cards meta is fairly healthy, with many different decks and strategies viable and the best decks only being slightly better than the rest. That being said, there is always room for some slight adjustments.

This time around, we will update a total of 11 cards. Four cards will receive some nerfs while the other seven cards will be buffed.

[h3]Nerfed cards[/h3]

• SEA EMBARGO
  
• CALLIOPE
  
• COMPROMISE
  
• HAMMER HOME
  

[h3]Buffed cards[/h3]

• 57th RIFLES
  
• TURNING POINT
  
• 845th RIFLES
  
• 1st CAVALRY TROOP
  
• 5th REGIMENT
  
• 49th INFANTRY REGIMENT
  
• FIAT G.55
  

Check out the dev blog for all the juicy details!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/544810/view/525333037201752250

[h2]IN-GAME TOURNAMENT IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]

We’ve enhanced the rewards for the Blitz and Iron tournaments, making your efforts more rewarding than ever! These changes are part of our ongoing commitment to ensure tournaments remain fun, competitive, and packed with valuable prizes.

[h3]Blitz Tournaments[/h3]

The entry fee has been reduced to 100 Gold or 12 Diamonds (previously 150 Gold or 20 Diamonds). The gold payout has been adjusted accordingly, but the pack reward remains the same—effectively increasing the value of each win while reducing the sting of going winless.

Rewards have been adjusted as follows:

• 5th-8th place now awards 50 Gold, down from 75 Gold, still maintaining half the entry fee.
  
• 3rd-4th place continues to reward 1 pack, with the gold reward now at 75 Gold instead of 100 Gold, effectively increasing the payout from 66% to 75% of the entry fee.
  
• 2nd place still grants 1 card pack, now with 100 Gold (previously 150 Gold, the full entry fee in Gold).
  
• 1st place remains at 1 Officer pack with 100 Gold instead of 150 Gold. The victory still counts for 1 Trophy.

[h3]Iron Tournaments[/h3]

While the entry fee remains unchanged, the rewards have been significantly boosted—now offering Diamonds for the first time!

• 3rd-4th place now awards 200 Gold (unchanged) with a new additional reward of 1 card pack.
  
• 2nd place still grants 300 Gold plus 1 Officer pack, with a new additional reward of 10 Diamonds (replacing the previous Gold Special card).
  
• 1st place remains at 450 Gold plus 2 Officer packs, now with an extra 20 Diamonds (replacing the previous 2 Gold Special cards). The victory still counts for 3 Trophies.

The Boot Camp tournament remains unchanged for now.

We’re also preparing a special Lunar New Year tournament with virtually no entry fees and exciting rewards. Stay tuned for more details on the Lunar New Year celebrations in the coming days!

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]
[h4]AI[/h4]

• The displayed cost of the B-24D unit was incorrect. Fixed.
  
• ECHELON incorrectly triggered a bonus when the HQ was attacked. Fixed.
  
• KORSUN did not correctly reduce cost when revealing covert units. Fixed.
  
• Various improvements to the behavior of SUPPORT COLUMN.

[h4]Battle[/h4]

• The GREIF buff was not applied to a British unit after playing the KANGAROO TRANSPORT order. Fixed.
  
• MATILDA Mk IV did not receive the +2 attack buff from ROYAL WEST KENTS after becoming veteran. Fixed.
  
• The "Text not found" error message appeared when using the AIR CORPS FERRYING order on empty space. Fixed.

[h4]UI[/h4]

• The "RGD-33 GRENADE" item overlapped the last unit on the enemy's support line in fullscreen mode. Fixed.
  
• The Battle Ready decks' top panel displayed incorrectly after closing the settings menu. Fixed.
  
• HQ deck cards for Baguio, Kursk, Alam El Halfa, Villers-Bocage, and Arracourt were missing from the deck builder. Fixed.
  
• Some cards with the Shock keyword did not appear when searching "Shock" in the search field of the deck builder. Fixed.
  
• Dividing lines between abilities were missing when hovering over cards. Fixed.
  
• The Encyclopedia was missing text stating that "Fighters cannot gain Smokescreen." Fixed.
  
• In some instances, the crate image blocked text in the crate button. Fixed.
  
• Hints in the tutorial sometimes overlapped. Fixed.
  
• Explanatory pop-ups were incorrectly shifted in the tutorials. Fixed.
  
• The Skull icon in Draft displayed sometimes an incorrect number of losses. Fixed.

[h4]Other[/h4]

• Several issues in the localized versions were fixed.
  
• Improvements to the server backend including optimized matchmaking.

Hello friends!

As is our custom, we will have a balance patch in the month following a big expansion. The intention with these patches is to address any major balance issues following the great upheaval that the big expansions are. This time around, we kinda sorted that already with the patch we did before the World Championship finals last December. The meta is fairly healthy, with many different decks and strategies viable and the best decks only being slightly better than the rest, allowing players to experiment more. That being said, there is always room for some slight adjustments and on the menu today we have 4 nerfs and 7 buffs, served up with some saucy banter. Let’s get to it.



First up is a slight nerf to Sea Embargo. Brit Air is one of the better decks hovering around and we want to lower its ceiling a bit. Sea Embargo is still playable after this, but offers less value, especially in the all important early turns.



The long distance member of the Sherman family, Calliope came out all tubes blazing with Blood & Iron. With a solid ability and body, it has been rocking it up in many different decks, a good indicator of a strong and versatile unit. But the fireworks are a bit too much, so we are making it slightly easier to deal with.



Several mill-style decks have been growing in popularity lately and do a good job of compromising many promising play styles. Many players would love to see this card disappear completely, but increasing the cost is hopefully an acceptable middle ground.



Hammer Home was a very ham-handed way to force Exile decks into existence. The good news is that it did succeed in this and Exile decks, while never very popular, have been very strong for the past year. The bad news is that it makes the deck rely on Hammer Home a bit too much, as it offers so much value. For this reason it is time for the deck to head home to roost.

[h2]Card Buffs[/h2]



The T-34 decks are fairly popular and there is a strong indication that players enjoy playing this style of deck. But the power level of these decks is slightly below what we would like, and this change aims to put more fight into the deck by allowing you to start chaining fighting machines a turn earlier.



In a similar vein, here is another buff aimed to turn the fortunes of T-34 decks around. This one requires a more dedicated T-34 deck, but played at the right moment, this can take a win out of nowhere. Let’s see if this points the deck in the right direction.



One of the things that makes T-34 decks struggle a bit is that they can be slow out of the gate against very aggressive decks. The 845th has always been a solid tool for the Soviets against aggro decks, but it has been falling behind the curve slightly the last couple of years and is in need of a bit of a facelift. This change can also benefit various other Soviet decks.



The Throp deck is an interesting deck that plays out differently than most others. We hoped the additions to the deck in Blood & Iron would propel the deck into the limelight, but so far it has not really materialized. The 1st Cavalry Troop was always intended to be a strong inclusion to the deck, so to emphasize that even further we are throwing them the Blitz Bone.



Speaking of decks that play out in a unique way, the SKD deck certainly fits the bill. It stormed out of the gates last summer, to the point where it was hit by several nerfs. The nerfs turned out to be a bit on the harsh side, so we are re-evaluing them a bit. We are not fully rolling back the nerf to the 5th Regiment, but increasing the ability to +2+1 is a significant buff all the same.



One of the themes of Blood & Iron was the 4-attack theme, with Italy in the thick of it. The 49th Infantry Regiment is borderline a strong candidate for that deck, but is lacking slightly. Now that it is sturdier, it will be interesting to see if it makes its way into more played decks.



We are also refactoring one of the older Italian cards to fit better into the 4-attack theme, and just make it stronger in general. Getting this iconic Fiat into a playable state would be quite the feat. Triggering the ability is now more a bonus than a must and the card is less punished by being suppressed.

That is it for the January balance changes. The patch will go live on January 23rd and will also include various bug fixes, so look out for the full patch notes. Next on the agenda is the Spring Release in March and we have many interesting goodies for you that we can’t wait to show you. Until then, see you on the battlefield, commander!