KARDS - The WWII Card Game News

Greetings, everyone!

After a rejuvenating summer break, we're back in full stride, brimming with motivation to march ahead! It's been nearly two months since the launch of Brothers In Arms. Throughout this time, we've diligently analyzed the performance metrics of all the new cards. Now, it's time to make some subtle adjustments to cards that have raised concerns.

[h3]KI-45 DRAGON SLAYER VETERAN[/h3]



Throughout historical conflicts, the Ki-45 served as both a daytime and nighttime interceptor, as well as a formidable strike aircraft. In KARDS, the KI-45 DRAGON SLAYER has gained remarkable popularity due to its exceptional attributes. Virtually every deck with Japan as the main or allied nation includes a copy of this card. Its defense value of 5 has proven a bit too resilient to counteract. We've lowered the defense value to 4 so that the opponent has more possible solutions, while its attack strength remains at 6, a formidable and impossible-to-ignore threat.

[h3]ISLAND DEFENSE[/h3]



Old: Give your HQ +5 defense. Give +10 and draw a card instead if your HQ has 10 or less defense.
New: Draw a card if your HQ has 10 or less defense. Give your HQ +6 defense.

During World War II, the defensive strategies employed by the Japanese on the Pacific islands were not lacking. However, the effectiveness of ISLAND DEFENSE in KARDS appears to be somewhat excessive. Among the new cards in Brothers In Arms, this specific card stands out as a remarkably effective card against aggro decks. In most scenarios, the value of this card can be fully harnessed. Increasing the HQ's defense by +10 is usually sufficient to survive another turn, or perhaps more. For control decks, the extra card draw could be invaluable. Playing multiple copies of ISLAND DEFENSE in a turn or two essentially seals the fate of numerous games. While the new version essentially upholds the same function, increasing HQ defense and seeking the right card, it now provides a fixed defense of 6.

[h3]CASE YELLOW[/h3]



Old: Deal 1 damage. Your units get +1+0. The enemy discards a card. Draw a card.
New: Deal 1 damage. Your units get +1+0. The enemy discards a card.

Case Yellow or The Manstein Plan, the strategic blueprint of the German armed forces during the 1940 Battle of France was a resounding success. In KARDS, this card showed modest efficacy in the beginning. Yet, as the game's meta underwent transformation after the expansion, CASE YELLOW gradually emerged as a standout key card in discard decks. In keeping with its historical roots, this card is still capable of multiple tasks. Nevertheless, considering both the historical context and the present KARDS meta, it seems more appropriate to omit the card draw.

That is it. As mentioned in our dev blogs some time ago, the ongoing priority in balance adjustments centers on rectifying cards that are excessively powerful or pose issues, as opposed to implementing extensive changes. Expansions will bring forth fresh content.

We hope that you are enjoying Brothers In Arms. Our preparations for the winter expansion have already commenced.

These changes are expected to go live on 24 August, 2023.

Thank you, and until we meet again on the battlefield, commanders!

Attention, soldiers!

We are thrilled to announce the KARDS 2023 World Championship!

The KARDS World Championship is the biggest esports event of the year in KARDS. It’s open for anyone to join - read on for all the details!

[h2]Tournament Stages and Formats[/h2]
The KARDS World Championship is split into three main stages, conducted from September to December. To become the World Champion, you must be successful in each of these stages, starting with the open in-game qualifiers and ending with the final 4 participants, played out over two days in a LAN environment in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland and home of KARDS developers 1939 Games.

Winners of in-game seasons, KARDS Open tournaments and all Officer Club Championship (OCC) tournaments from September 2022 and throughout August 2023 are all pre-qualified to participate in Stage 2 (the top 128 player Knockout stage) of the World Championship. Also pre-qualified are the top 4 players from last year’s World Championship.

[h3]Stage 1: Open Qualifiers[/h3]
The open in-game qualifiers are held in two sections (A and B) in September and October and are open for anyone to enter. Join one (or both!) of the open qualifiers available through the KARDS client during weekends between September 2nd and October 8th to qualify for the second stage of the tournament. The top 55 players from each of the two qualifiers will advance to the Knockout Stage. The top 500 players in each of the open qualifiers also earn the exclusive KARDS 2023 World Championship cardback.

Each qualifier is held on Saturday and Sunday over the course of three consecutive weekends (i.e. 6 sessions in each). Each player needs to successfully complete a minimum of 3 out of the 6 sessions to post a legal qualifier score. Each session lasts for 4 hours, during which participating players have to complete at least 9 games to successfully complete the qualification session. Note that only the first 9 games are counted towards your score - any additional games after the required games can be important for tiebreakers, so we do recommend playing a few extra games during the sessions to improve your chances in tiebreakers.

For each win a player receives 5 points for the qualification ladder, for each loss a player receives 1 point. A player’s final score is the combined total score from their best 3 sessions out of 6 in the qualifier in question.

[h3]Stage 2: Top 128 player Knockout Stage[/h3]
Players qualified through the in-game open qualifiers and pre-qualified players are randomly drawn into 16 groups of 8 players and will play a Round Robin group stage on Saturday, October 21st. The top 2 players in each group will progress into a 32 person Double Elimination bracket played on October 22nd. The top 6 players in that Double Elimination bracket play to find out who will become the 4 World Championship grand finalists during a live broadcast on October 29th. Both Round Robin and Double Elimination sections feature best-of-five series with one ban in conquest format (meaning that any deck that wins cannot be selected again for the remainder of that series).

[h3]Stage 3: The Grand Finals[/h3]
On December 2nd and 3rd, the four finalists will battle for the title of KARDS 2023 World Champion! The Grand Finals take place in Iceland, with both players and casters in a live studio setting. Players play a best-of-seven series in conquest format with one ban and a 3rd place matchup. This two-day event will be live streamed on the KARDS Twitch, YouTube and Huya channels, as well as Bilibili.

The full list of rules for the event is here: KARDS 2023 World Championship Rules.

[h2]World Championship Calendar[/h2]
For a comprehensive overview of the dates and details outlined above, check out the calendar below.



[h2]Prizes[/h2]
Participating in the World Championship at any stage is a fun and exciting experience - but of course, we also want to provide our brave participants with some extra goodies!

The rewards for the KARDS 2023 World Championship are:

• The top 500 players in each qualifying section (A and B) in the Open Qualifier for the World Championship will receive the exclusive KARDS 2023 World Championship cardback!
  
• Every player that participates in the top 128 player Knockout Stage will receive 300 diamonds to spend on anything they desire in the in-game shop!
  
• The four finalists get an all expenses paid trip to Iceland to play the Grand Finals in the bunker where they compete for a 12,000 USD prize pool!

[h2]Prepare Your Forces![/h2]
With the first set of qualifiers right around the corner in September, now is the time to start preparing your forces for battle. Start thinking about what types of decks you want to bring and what cards you need to get to be in fighting shape come September to take on the world's best players!

We will continue to publish more details on the KARDS 2023 World Championship in the coming weeks and months. Make sure to check back regularly for updates - join us on Discord and follow us on Twitch, Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter/X to make sure you don’t miss any of the action!

Hello everyone!

The KARDS community is filled with players of diverse backgrounds with varied viewpoints. Many of its members create contributions that enrich the community, providing, for example, entertainment or guidance to other community members. Through the relaunch of the KARDS Contributor Program, we aim to provide added support to contributors, as well as to highlight the various contributions of KCP members to the KARDS community.

This month, the community spotlight is on the KARDS Topdeckers team!

[h2]KARDS Topdeckers Team[/h2]
The Topdeckers team is composed of 4 members who work together to create the content they post on their YouTube channel every week. They primarily create full length videos ranging anywhere from 15 minutes and all the way up to 1-2 hours long. They also create shorts as well as host occasional streams with some of the content creators they partner with. You can find all their content in one handy place on the KARDS Topdeckers YouTube channel.

KARDS Topdeckers’ content is, as they describe, “made by the community for the community”. The content is driven by those who watch it which allows them to tailor their videos to the regular KARDS player. The bread and butter of the channel are player showcase matches where viewers can see their favorite KARDS Players go head-to-head in a casual and entertaining environment. The Topdeckers team releases new videos typically every Sunday, with the occasional “Midweek Madness” upload, which, as the name suggests, are secondary videos released during the week.

[h3]Innocent Bubbles[/h3]
A long-standing member of KARDS and its community, Innocent Bubbles (Bubbles) is the manager of the Topdeckers team as well as a producer. Bubbles started playing KARDS in mid-2019 when he found it on Steam while browsing for CCGs to play. The mechanics were something that initially interested him and he particularly enjoyed the old 2/3 statted 34th infantry a lot. Gradually, KARDS began to act more as a platform for Bubbles to express himself and so his favorite aspect of the game became the community, which allowed him to do the things he enjoys doing.

Bubbles’s favorite card is the Kuban Cossacks, which he loves for its simplicity, but also especially adores the card’s artwork. His current favorite deck is the “Femboy Heinz” introduced to him by Baron von Glower, 4th runner up in the latest OCC: Ultimate tournament. Bubbles fell in love with its high stakes gameplay: “The feeling of out pacing decks built to be fast is something incredible you just have to experience to understand.”

[h3]YaBoiRodri[/h3]
YaBoiRodri (Rodri) is the editor of the Topdeckers team. He started playing KARDS in early 2020, in the early stages of the COVID quarantine. A YouTube ad for the game caught his attention and he decided to give the game a go as it seemed new, relaxed, and could be played while attending online classes. He wasn’t the biggest CCG fan but found himself “amazed at how neatly KARDS ties gameplay with historical diversity and accuracy, whilst maintaining a fun and balanced environment.” Rodri expresses that he appreciates how supportive the KARDS community is - it was the first game he tried streaming on Twitch and he made a lot of friends that way.

Rodri’s favorite card is the G4M1 Betty. It’s a card that he expresses isn’t quite competitive enough and doesn’t see much play, but brings back fond memories from his early days in KARDS when he and his friends would joke around it, and he has a deck that synergizes with it which he still plays to this day. His favorite deck archetypes at the moment are decks such as Fast Heinz and Brit Air - staples which have helped him a lot over past seasons. With the Brothers in Arms expansion, he’s now been enjoying his US Frontline deck.

[h3]JQueen7[/h3]
JQueen7 (JQueen) is the graphic designer of the Topdeckers team, designing thumbnails and any other static visual assets you’ll see in their videos. She started playing KARDS in early 2021, when she was originally introduced to it by community members Jking7 and Berto Burrito. She was drawn to the visuals of the game as well as its community, which provided a good venue to interact with other people playing the game. Her favorite aspect of KARDS has been meeting new people and experiencing the wide range of content creators around it who constantly expand the community’s knowledge of the game. She loves the creativity of the community, especially when it comes to memes: “I have a soft spot in my heart for people who make personalized meme cards and put a ridiculous amount of effort into a silly little KARDS joke. I also love the memes with Jking’s face that I have seen coming from the Chinese community, those crack me up every time.”

JQueen’s favorite card is the Panzer 35t - a reliable little tank that she loves blitzing up to the frontline for free. Her favorite deck was the Japan/Germany Feigned Retreat Jaggro, which she’s still looking to find a suitable replacement for as her favorite deck since the Brothers in Arms expansion with Feigned Retreat rotating into the Reserved pool.

[h3]Red Sun[/h3]
A prominent community member that has been around almost since the dawn of KARDS, Red Sun is as a producer on the Topdeckers team. He started playing the game in early 2019, drawn to the game by a pre-roll commercial that played before a Mark Felton video. The artstyle immediately captured Red Sun’s attention, who describes the event as the “best (and probably only) YouTube ad I’ve ever clicked on!” Red Sun also expresses an appreciation for the KARDS community, where he’s connected with many great people. He says his favorite thing about the KARDS community is “The sparkling eyes of a (new) player who is now a freshly baked Field Marshal after you’ve helped them.”

Red Sun’s favorite card should come as no surprise to those who know him: “1st Signal Regiment, 24k gold-plated”. His favorite archetype at the moment are the Japan/US destruction effects.

[h2]Advice for New Players[/h2]
When asked about their advice for new players in KARDS, each of the Topdeckers team members had some valuable insights to share.

Bubbles: Enjoy yourself - I often see people worrying about the future of their favorite games and the length at which those games will exist. It’s only normal to worry about the things we care about, but I know I’d much rather look back at years of enjoyment than years of worrying about losing that source of enjoyment. Sit back, enjoy today and let the dev team worry about tomorrow.

Rodri: Watch others play. Everyone plays in a different way and there’s a lot to learn from every player. Much of my early days on KARDS were spent watching streams and discussing in voice channels. Who knows, you might also make some good friends :)

JQueen: Try to have fun and experiment with whatever you enjoy playing. It’s cool to take the game seriously but don’t let yourself fall into a toxic mentality because of it. If you want to optimize your experience, definitely check out community content, many pro players have videos that could help you understand the meta and guide you a bit in your first steps in KARDS. Not to shamelessly advertise but Topdeckers has some nice shorts about some deck archetypes, and Jking has a beginner’s guide that could come in handy as well hehe.

Red Sun: Don’t be afraid to ask for advice, there’s literally no shame in doing so! Most community members I know will not hesitate answering your questions, provide advice with deck building or just help you with picking the right cards during your draft run!

[h2]Topdeckers’ Content[/h2]
Make sure to check out some of Topdeckers varied content on the KARDS Topdeckers YouTube Channel!

[h3]Showcase Match: TB273 vs. Jking7[/h3]

https://youtu.be/nL0bhg7zcwM

[h3]Deck Review: Bubbles Tries Out New Pincer-Heinz Deck[/h3]

https://youtu.be/yCdkpqRqQ0s

[h3]Short: #KARDS Rotation? What Is It and How Does It Work?[/h3]

https://youtube.com/shorts/QkM93KZWKoU


[h3]Stream: Bubbles Plays the New Expansion + Giveaways[/h3]

https://www.youtube.com/live/Zw9cZCu-g7I


We hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know the KARDS Topdeckers team better! Make sure you stay tuned for next month, where we bring you another community spotlight featuring different KARDS contributors. Join us on the official KARDS Discord server and let us know if there’s anything you’d like to see us cover in these articles in the future!

A new Skirmish event is live now until August 13th!

Here’s everything you need to know.

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

For this Skirmish, we have the following thrilling rules ready for you:

• Choose your own deck to battle with.
  
• Each player starts with an extra kredit slot.
  
• Gain a kredit on destroying an enemy unit.
  
• At the start of your turn, choose BLOHM & VOSS BV 138 or FIESELER FI 156 to add to your hand and set its cost to 0.

These rules, especially the kredit rules and the cards added each turn, guarantee for some fun and exciting battles with completely different strategies. Additionally to all that fun, you get for the first win of this Skirmish a 2-hour medkit XP booster!

For your reference, below are the two aforementioned cards that you can choose to add to your hand at each turn.



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

This Skirmish is available from Friday, August 11th (12:00 GMT) until Sunday, August 13th at 18:00 GMT. 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!

Hello everyone!

We are excited to announce the Skirmish Decklist Event on the official KARDS Discord!

[h2]What Is It?[/h2]
The Skirmish Decklist event is a special, community-driven event where avid deck builders can get the chance to see their deck featured in-game in an upcoming Skirmish and win some prizes! You can also vote for your favorite decklists that you’d like to see featured in-game.

Build your deck and submit it in the #skirmish-decklist-event channel on the official KARDS Discord server to join the fun! The decklist contest is open for submissions and voting until Tuesday, August 8th at 11:00 GMT.

[h2]How Do I Join?[/h2]
To submit your deck list and join the decklist event, please do the following:

• Join the official KARDS Discord here!
  
• Create your deck in-game. When it’s ready, copy the deck into your clipboard.
  
• Navigate to the #skirmish-decklist-event channel.
  
• Create a new post to submit your decklist. Paste your deck into your post and make sure to include a short description of your deck and how to play it.
  
• Submit your post and your decklist is submitted!

You can submit as many decklists as you want - just make sure to include a description with each decklist. A decklist must be valid and include a description for the entry to be considered a valid submission. A good description of the deck helps your fellow players to understand the deck and how to play it, which could also help with the community voting of your deck. Please note that each player is considered only once for the possibility of receiving prizes - entering multiple decklists will not increase your chances of winning one of the prizes.

[h2]Voting and Prizes[/h2]
To vote on a decklist, click on the post you want to vote on and add a thumbsup reaction. Note that only the thumbsup emote will be counted as a vote.

Prizes for this event are as follows:

• The 5 submissions with the highest number of thumbsup reactions receive 3 standard Brothers in Arms packs and 100 diamonds!
  
• 10 submissions will be selected at random to receive 2 standard Brothers in Arms packs!

Additionally, some of the decks submitted will be selected by 1939 Games to be featured in an upcoming Skirmish event!

The KARDS Skirmish Decklist Event is open for submissions and voting until August 8th at 11:00 GMT! Join now, submit the decks you want to see featured in a Skirmish and vote for what you’d like to play!