Research & Destroy
Hello friends!
The summer solstice is behind us, the year has started its inevitable slide towards winter and a new balance patch arrives to send a shiver down the collective spine of the Kards community. What a time to be alive!
We are making several important changes this month.
The Legions set brought many interesting new twists and takes and, on the whole, has had a positive impact on the game. But old foes like Soviet Arty and Research still hold a strong grasp on the meta, stifling innovation more than we’d like. Time to shake things up!
Let's start with changes to several of the research cards. Research was one of the main features of the Breakthrough set and has for the most part been a fun and interesting addition to the game. But they have not been without problems or controversy. Some of the research paths have turned out to be a bit underwhelming, while others are a tad on the stronger side.
The main issue has been the end paths for Britain and USA - Bletchley Park and Manhattan Project respectively. Both are really strong at closing out games, making it difficult for decks not aiming to win as fast as possible to compete without some active way of dealing with these cards, like a counter, discard or cost increase. We want to keep these cards strong, as it is not trivial to get to them, but give players other options to build against them than racing or negating them. Let’s take a look.
This change to Bletchley Park means that higher cost cards are retained, which makes Bletchley weaker against other high cost decks. This allows players to build and play more directly to counter the effectiveness of the card. Furthermore, it makes the option below Bletchley Park, Active Sonar, more strategically interesting, as against certain decks it can be more effective than going for Bletchley Park. On the whole, we feel this change will create a more interesting nuisance either when playing with or against British research.
The old Manhattan Project often led to immediate game over against many decks and was especially brutal in draft. The new version retains similar thematic touch (you still get two “bombs”), but the total cost is now 12 (same as for the other high end research paths in Germany and Britain). The important part of course is that dropping both the bombs does not automatically lead to game over against decks without means to to raise their HQ defense, and there is a chance that some board presence can be retained. On the other hand, having to only spend 6 kredits to drop one bomb also makes it easier to make other important plays alongside it. Taken together, the card is still a powerful tool, but requires greater skill to wield effectively.
Unlike its US and British counterparts, the end path for the German research has been a bit disappointing, both in terms of performance and fun factor. We are adjusting it to something that is simpler, more straightforward and packing a bigger punch, putting the pro in Uranprojekt.
On the flip side, Type XXI U-Boat was almost always just straight up better than the next research up. So to create a smoother research path for Germany, we are also taking a little bit of a sting out of the submarine.
On the whole, while research cards are less effective at ending games outright, they still offer plenty of power and are worth using. Being less effective at ending games on their own is in our opinion a good thing that will lead to more healthy and skill-based gameplay between control decks.
Next up, we have a couple of cards that we are neither nerfing or buffing, but changing for a different reason.
Same as with the change to 1st Rifles recently, we are changing Night Witches to remove it from allowing for an infinite deck, i.e. never dying to fatigue damage. We still want to keep it as a strong card, and after having tried various things out decided on this one. You are getting a lot of bang for the buck here, but be mindful of your hand size when you play this, as adding three bombers to hand can put a severe restraint on it if you are not planning to play them out soon.
Seaborne Invasion has been a problem card for awhile because its effectiveness can swing so wildly every time a new 3 cost US infantry is created. So we decided to reduce the random factor a little bit so players have a better idea of what to expect, but we don’t want to remove the random factor completely, as it is an interesting spin for many players. This new version should on the whole be on a similar power level as before, the crazy good or crazy bad rolls have just been removed.
Next up, we have a few nerfs, because what would a balance patch be without some nerfs thrown in?
Dowding System is an integral part of the Kards ecosystem to keep order heavy decks in check. Still, its effectiveness can be a bit too stifling for many decks, so we are adjusting it a bit. It is still very effective, but keeping up 3 kredits versus 2 is a real downside. It now also misses out on countering many important 3 kredit orders like Convoy Hx 175, Amphibious Assault and the first level of the research cards, though that is not always a good thing if you are trying to bait it out.
Despite the changes to Supply Chain last time around, Soviet Arty is still the King of the Hill. To diversify the meta a bit better, we are making a couple of changes to it. The first of those is Patriotic Firestorm. For decks full of cheap artillery, a single Firestorm could lead to massive blowouts. While still strong at 2 kredits, it is now slightly trickier to light the fire.
The second change is to reduce the staying power of the 10th Engineers Battalion. It can still provide plenty of firepower on the fly, but is much more vulnerable. Making it 1/1 actually brings it in line with other similar booster units, like Sd KFz 222 and Type 93.
We are adjusting slightly the ability on the 34th Infantry Regiment. This actually does not weaken this particular unit at all, but it does break its synergy with the 35th Mountain Rifles. Getting 5/5 unit on turn one was a bit too much high-roll and something that created more frustration than fun. This changed version can actually open up different synergies with cards like Betty and Supply Chain, so it will be interesting to see what develops on that front.
The main reason for nerfing Phoney War is due to our ongoing effort to reduce draw denial effects in the game. While Phoney War does not explicitly deny a draw, it does lead to a missed draw, which creates frustration. It is still a powerful effect that continues to fulfil the same role in the decks it is used in, just slightly less efficiently.
And as usual, we are also giving a few little used cards a bit of a facelift.
Buffing artillery is always slightly risky, but it is unlikely this change will have a big impact on the constructed scene. This change is mostly thought with draft in mind, where Japan needs a bit of love.
US based control decks are an endangered species, they are more common as allies in control decks, otherwise going for ramp themselves. A buffed Torpedo Attack may not create a lot of waves, but at least it offers a much better removal option for wannabe US control decks.
Speaking of ramp, it seems the quartermaster has been dipping into his own stores and gotten fatter. For 4 kredits, a 2/3 body was a bit on the weak side, let’s see what a beefier backside does for its survival rate.
Last but not least we have Western Allies, a true bro-mance that never was. Let’s see if this altered version, aimed at all combo meisters out there, can rekindle this budding romance that was meant to be.
That’s it for now. We decided not to make any changes to cards from the new set (Legions), as none of them are causing any big alarms at the moment. A few of the new cards are being heavily monitored, so we will see what happens next time around.
The balance patch will go live on Thursday June 24th, stay tuned for further details in the patch notes. See you on the battlefield, commander!
