Apr 20, 2021
KARDS - The WW2 Card Game - Thomas
Hello friends!
We have a balance patch coming this week for you guys. Better late than never, some of you may say, but we decided to delay the patch a bit because of many high profile tournaments going on that we didn’t want to upset those with balance changes a few days prior. We did do a booboo though by not announcing this delay to you guys in a timely manner, we are sorry for this booboo and will try to make sure to avoid said booboo in the future, as booboos are bad.
We are adding an important feature with this patch - you can now choose to recycle changed cards, as long as you crafted that card previously. So if you have spent your hard earned wildcards on crafting something that we then change into something you no longer like, you can choose to recycle the card and get your wildcard back. You will get several weeks to decide whether to recycle a card or not, the exact timeframe is something we will tweak going forward based on user feedback and data. Recycling a card will for now give a generic wildcard of that rarity (we may re-evaluate this later).
With that out of the way, it is time to look at a few cards we hate with a vengeance and a few cards we want to shower with love (in layman terms, some nerfs and buffs).
Cards receiving hate
Supply Chain
I helped my brother restock his store the other day and I sprained my back. Moral of the story: moving supplies is hard and there is no such thing as a free lunch-slash-supply chain. On a more serious note - with more powerful discard options in recent sets, players have discovered the power of the Supply Chain, especially in the omnipresent Soviet Artillery deck. A nerf is needed and a free Supply Chain was deemed the most heinous offender in the deck.
Counter Offensive
This is another card many find offensive, especially because how hard it is to counter a huge unit early on. Thus, by reducing the defense counters the most offensive part of the card, while retaining the offensive nature it provides. A counter argument is that offense is often the best defense, but that is neither here nor there.
Panther A
What would a 1939 balance patch be without 1939 doing something crazy? Not a 1939 patch, that’s what, so welcome to this month’s craziness. Panther A is a very popular card and a lynchpin of the German draw denial/discard decks. Performance wise, these decks are solid, but not overpowered. However, the draw denial part can easily lock people completely out of a game and creates huge frustration to play against. Because of this, we have decided to scale back the power of draw denial a bit. Having that part be conditional on moving into the frontline gives the opponent an opportunity to deal with the Panther A before it triggers its powerful ability, but do note that if the unit withdraws from the frontline and then moves into it again, the ability will trigger a second time. Let us know what you think about nerfing draw denial in general (more changes are likely down the road) and this change in particular.
Cards receiving love because we want to see more of them
Lightning Strike
Lightning Strike offers a tasty amount of damage for its cost, but because of the uncertainty of it ever triggering, it sees little play. Making the damage even tastier will hopefully delight the palate of players enough for them to dish out some strikes.
Avro Anson
The Avro can be a powerful tool in a dedicated Spitfire deck, but with a cost of 3, it can be a bit tricky to trigger. We are reducing the cost to make triggering it a bit easier, but because we don’t want it to become a tool in small air or naval support style decks, we are also increasing the operation cost to 2.
Aichi D3A-2
This is a fairly innocuous change mainly aimed to make the card a bit cleaner to read. But it does give Japan a couple of more Aichi units to trigger the +2 attack clause and if more Aichi variants come in the future, this card has the potential to become quite dangerous.
Panzer 38(t)
The Panzer 38(t) once cost 2 kredits and was in every German deck, ever. After we raised the cost to 3, the tank has fallen a bit out of fashion, especially at higher levels. But we want it to be a solid tool in the German tank tool kit, so we are raising the defense to 3, making it much stronger against early threats.
2e Brigade
The 2e Brigade has very much been a 2eh Brigade so far, except occasionally in draft. In our ongoing effort to make mobilize a more interesting option for France, we are improving this marquee mobilize unit. A defensive mobilize deck may not be in the cards at the moment, but this change moves us closer to that reality.
Cards receiving love because of meta
Imperial Strength
One thing we are doing in this patch is to strengthen the anti-countermeasure cards in the game, the current ones see very little play. Upping the damage of Imperial Strength may look like a minor tweak, but there is a huge difference between 1 and 2 face damage, making Imperial Strength much more appealing in many decks, especially decks that can buff the damage even more.
1st Rifles
Now this card is a bit of an imposter here, because this is not intended to be a nerf or a buff, but rather a rework. We want to move away from cards that can fill the deck endlessly, essentially avoiding ever taking fatigue damage. Fatigue damage is an important aspect of making sure games are not prolonged too much, so anything that avoids that is something we want to fix in the long run. At the same time, we want to keep the strength level of 1st Rifles the same as before, so this is what we ended up with. It will of course play out quite differently from before, but should over all be at a similar power level.
Mig 3
This is the other anti-countermeasure card we are buffing, threatening a big 2 cost fighter if an enemy countermeasure triggered at any point in the game at any point in the game. While we are not foreseeing this becoming a staple in every Soviet deck, we want it to be a stronger tool for players to adapt if the meta requires.
Order 227
This card and the next one are both intended to give alternative options for the damage matters decks. Now that these decks are no longer dominated by Counter Offensive (though CO is still a potent threat), we want to explore other options for players because we want the damage matters decks to continue living despite the CO change.
34th Guards
Same goes here as with the card above - we are taking a little used damage matters card and adjusting it to something a bit more interesting. Nothing can go wrong with a cost 6 6 6 unit, right? Note that the cost is reduced even if the card is in your deck.
Type 89 Chi-Ro
The final change is creating another anti-heal card for Japan. Kagoshima serves an important role here, but we wanted to give players the option of going even further if the meta requires. I think I speak for all of us when I say that punishing a player for all those Honeys in play gives a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Do be careful though that the Chi-Ro will also punish your own health gains.
That’s it for this patch. The update will go live next Wednesday (April 21st), make sure you check the full patch notes for all the changes in the patch (including some bug fixes). The recycle feature will also go live in the update, so any cards in this patch that you have crafted will be eligible for being recycled back to wildcards. Also, keep an eye out for spoilers from the new set coming next month!
As always, continue to give us your excellent feedback on our social platforms, it helps us immensely. Thanks and see you on the battlefield!
A note from the Creative Director
Dear Kards players,
Just wanted to add a few words on the change of the PANTHER A and thereby the Discard/Draw Denial deck archetype.
We decided to go this way after a careful consideration and taking various viewpoints into account. It is our honest opinion at 1939 Games that it was a mistake on our own behalf to let draw denial become as prominent as it is in the game and that it is simply not in line with what we want the game experience to be like in Kards, regardless of its power level.
We decided to keep discard in the game early on as we feel it can be a fun mechanic if kept under control, but mostly because it is very thematic in a WWII game (sinking the resources of the enemy with U-boats before they reach the battlefield etc). With "regular discard" even if your hand gets completely emptied, there is always hope. You can always get lucky and get back into the game if you draw the right card. This is not the case when you get "choked" with draw denial as it is currently, especially when the denial cards are stacked together.
This change is not done specifically with the power level of the card, high level meta, competitive gameplay or veteran players in mind. We are doing this much more for newer and more casual players and mid tier gameplay. And to improve the profile and overall game experience in Kards. We also want to emphasize that this is not done as a result of us listening to some select, few “loud voices” from the community. We are doing this after analysing a lot of feedback from various sources and from our own experience of playing against and with these decks in various different positions in the ladder for some time now.
Some suggestions have been made to change other cards that play a role in these decks or use other methods to achieve the same goal, but we feel it is much better to change directly the source cards in question that have the direct denial ability, starting with the Panther A and then we will very likely be reworking Wolfpack at a later stage as well. The third card that has direct draw denial is Admiral Hipper, but that card is of Elite rarity and if it can't be stacked with the others, much less of an issue, so we might leave that as is. We know this is frustrating for some of you who like and have invested in the deck archetype, but we are confident this is for the greater long-term good of Kards. Hopefully the recycle feature that comes at the same time will soften the blow slightly for some players that have invested in these cards.
We know some of you may disagree with this decision but we really hope you understand our motivations at least. And finally, we are quite certain many of you will welcome these changes as well.
That’s it for now,
Gudmundur
Founder/Creative Director
1939 Games
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