KARDS - The WWII Card Game News

This patch is all about bug fixing and card balances!



For more in-depth details of the recent card changes, please read the latest update August Card Balance Update.

• DESERT RATS: Damage dealt has been reduced from 2 to 1.
  
• FROM THE PEOPLE: Cost has been increased from 2 to 3.
  
• SUDDEN STRIKE: Threshold for cards that can be destroyed by this card has been lowered from 3 Kredit costs to 2 Kredit costs.
  
• TACTICAL STRIKE: Playing this card doesn’t allow you to draw another card any longer.
  
• SKY BARONS: Playing this card now also allows you to draw a card.
  
• COMBINED ARMS: The bonus has been clarified. Instead of getting +1/+1 or +3/+3 (depending if you control infantry or/and air units), you get now +1/+1 for each type of non-tank unit you control.
  
• I-15 CHAIKA: Defense has been reduced from 3 to 2.
  
• TYPE 95 Ha-Go: The attack bonus against infantry has been replaced by 1 damage to the HQ when playing an order (this damage goes to the HQ of the player who issues the order).
  
• P-40 KITTYHAWK: Defense has been reduced from 4 to 3.
  

• The 37 mm ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN no longer increases the operation costs of spawned friendly units.
  
• When units attack, you need to pay according Kredit costs even when the attacking unit is destroyed by AIR DEFENSE.
  
• The destruction effect of cards is no longer triggered when they are being sent back to hand by SENDAI REGIMENT.
  
• The kredit cost matches the one shown on the popup of the card.
  
• A reduction in damage to the HQ no longer results in healing it.
  
• Countermeasure count now as "played from hand" in achievements when they get triggered instead of when they get activated / de-activated.
  
• Out-of-turn playing has been improved. Out-of-turn playing sometimes caused units to be invisible and other defects. We are still closely watching this issue, bug reports are highly welcome, as always!
  
• The position of Mulligan message has been changed so that they are no longer blocking the text on your cards.
  
• We have improved the client logging to allow us a better bug fixing.
  
• Card texts have been improved with typo and grammar fixes.
  

• The healing animation of the 42ND RIFLES no longer appears when the unit is being destroyed.
  
• The position of Order previews have been changes so that they don't overlap each other.
  
• A visual defect with LAST PUSH has been fixed.
  
• Time-exclusive, free promo cards have been added. More info about this in an upcoming blog shortly.
  

As always, please let us know what you think about this update and please report bugs either on Discord or directly via a bug report ticket.

Dear KARDS enthusiasts,

We here at 1939 Games hope that you are having a great summer! Our team is (mostly) back from summer vacations, full of energy and ideas, and ready to roll. Lot of interesting things are on the horizon for KARDS, even in the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled!

For now, however, we want to go over some changes to a few cards scheduled to go out in a patch later this week.


We are going to update some of the more popular removal cards and here is why.

First of all, this is not a spur of the moment decision - we've been contemplating this change for a while now.

There are several reasons for nerfing some of the more popular removal cards in the game.

• Overuse. Removal cards are ubiquitous in almost all decks and the best ones, like From the People and The Desert Rats are an auto-include. While removal orders are still a necessary part of the game, the power level on some of them is simply too high right now.
  
• Stalled games. The high popularity of removal cards results in many of the best decks being so order heavy that they have few or no units, especially at low cost, relying completely on orders to keep fast decks at bay until their few, expensive units come later to take the game over. This can lead to very boring "draw-go" style duels where players, with hands full of removal orders, can't or won't play units until very late in the game and often the first one to blink loses.
  
• Reduced strategical options. The strength of removal also keeps most aggressive decks too heavily in check, apart from decks that don't care about cheap spot removal, like Japanese burn decks or Soviet token spam decks. So we are nerfing many of the most-used removal cards in the game (including the 3 most popular ones - From the People, Sudden Strike and Tactical Strike).
  

Not all removal cards are being changed this time around, we want to see the effect of the changes in this round before making a decision on further changes.


Let's dive right into it and see what cards we are changing.


It almost feels like a sacrilege to change The Desert Rats, the card has stayed the same for so long. But its ability to cheaply kill small units or buy you a turn with the pinning is just too efficient. Same as with the Naval Power change awhile back, we want British removal to be more reliant on delaying tactics through pinning. While undoubtedly weaker now, it can still deal with popular cards like the 15th Cavalry Regiment and Katyusha.



The glory days of From the People, when it dealt 3 damage AND pinned for just 2 kredits are now long gone. Its power is such that any deck with the Soviets is effectively at 36 card size, as 4 copies of From the People were an auto-include. Increasing the cost to 3 does weaken the card quite a bit - it is not as reliable as early removal against aggressive decks, nor as cost efficient when dealing with higher cost units. With From the People weaker, keeping Bloody Sickle as it is made more sense so that the Soviet standard rarity removal is not too heavily gimped.



The power of Sudden Strike was not just that it was a cheap removal against aggressive decks, but even more that it gave you a tempo boost by allowing you to spend 2 kredits to deal with something the enemy spent 3 kredits to play. Sudden Strike can still cleanly deal with early aggressors, but it no longer gives the tempo advantage and many important units are now out of reach, such as 42nd Rifles and 84th Infantry Regiment to name a couple.


Tactical Strike was not used much until we added a draw card clause to it, then it became on of the most played cards in the game, highlighting the power of cantrips (drawing a card as an extra effect). We're reverting this change now, but because we want to still highlight the cantrip theme of Germany, we are adding that draw clause to another card, see below.


Sky Barons on the other hand does not see much play, as it is much narrower than the similarly costed Tactical Strike. It will be interesting to see how things will stand a few weeks from now. We feel this change is like hitting two birds with one stone, because one of our fears with nerfing removal is that it strengthens air units, so beefing a card specifically aimed at those units seems prudent.


That's it for the removal cards, there are a few other changes to mention:



The current version of Combined Arms does not showcase the combined arms theme the way we want for Germany and now that we have reduced the number of unit types it is much simpler to just give a bonus per unit type. This reads much cleaner and allows for more interesting scaling and deck construction than before. Expect more of the same in the future.



The Chaika is a mainstay of the Soviet self-sacrifice deck. While that deck as a whole is not an issue, the Chaika is a bit too efficient at the frontend against aggressive decks.



The reason for this change is two-fold. The first one is that the current Type 95 is simply very underwhelming and rarely used beyond just the starter decks. Secondly, and more importantly, the new ability is aimed at further curbing the order-centric metagame we're seeing right now. While a single card will of course only go so far, it adds to the arsenal of options available when adjusting decks for an order heavy environment.



Similar to the change above for the Chaika, the change to the Kittyhawk continues in making sure that long-range units do not dominate the game too much. The Kittyhawk is super efficient in what it does and even at the reduced stats it stills offers excellent value for its cost.



That's it for now, as you can see, some big changes coming in the next
patch.

Our hope is they contribute to an improved and more diverse metagame, one more focused on units. The upcoming patch will also include a fair number of bug fixes.

We will publish the full patch notes together with the patch later this week.

Season 5 has started on August 1, 00:00:01 UTC, and with that we now know the winners of Season 4!



Congratulation to ROY1380 for scoring the first place of Season 4!
Runner-ups are Fendor, marduk, Cybernetic, and moyang!


Besides the top players (who will receive physical rewards), everyone else is a winner too!
All the rewards for Season 4 have been automatically delivered to your account. Simply log into KARDS and collect the juicy prizes!

As explained in detail here, the seasonal rewards increase with every 5 ranks. You have received a Gold card (the more ranks, the better the rarity) and 1-2 card packs.

• Then, for each Field Marshall you got a National Pack.
  
• Reaching the Officer Club gave additional rewards.
  
• The Top-5 players have received a free ticket to the KARDS Gamescom player gathering

With the new season, we also have adjusted your ranks to keep everything fresh and challenging:

• For each nation, you will drop one rank.
  
• You will retain any stars you already had at your previous highest rank (e.g. you were a Major with 3 stars for Germany then in the new season you will be a Captain with 3 stars).
  
• Your Field Marshal ranks will get adjusted to Major at 4 stars.
  

We believe that this is a good balance between preserving your progress and keep the reward scheme fair towards new players.

See you in Season 5!!

The race for the top place in KARDS Season 4 is in full swing! Only a few days left until end of the Season on July 31st - everything is possible.

As a reminder, the top five positions of the Officer Club will get shiny physical rewards, for example:

• Physical KARDS booster card packs
  
• Unique KARDS flasks
  
• Airborne Cricket Clicker
  
• Ration booklet
  

The winner of the season gets an individual, special plaque (brushed metal) with its twin being on display at the KARDS office.


For Season 4, ending on July 31 at 23:59:59 GMT, we have a bonus reward for the top-5 positions of the Officer Club:

• One free ticket to the KARDS Gamescom 2019 player event

The rewards for Season 4 will be deployed to your account on August 1st. The rewards are based on the total amount of ranks your have gained - the more ranks you have, the better! If you have reached the Officer Club (Field Marshal in at least three nations), you get some more and better rewards!


With the end of the season, we are resetting the ranks as usual. One rank down for each nation - except that Field Marshals will drop down to Major 4 Star.


Good luck with the race on the final days and have fun!

Exciting news! The first-ever KARDS player gathering is going to happen during Gamescom 2019 in Cologne, Germany, and everyone is invited to join! The whole KARDS development team will there as well.

Here are some of the highlights and things you can expect

• Live battle-the-devs fun
  
• Unique KARDS T-Shirt
  
• Physical KARDS collector cards
  
• Open bar with free drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages)
  

We are looking forward to seeing you at the event and to have a ton of fun.

Get your reservation on Eventbrite now!