Dear KARDS players, friends, and WWII enthusiasts,

We are incredibly excited to bring you the freshly updated KARDS roadmap.


The roadmap is a regularly updated, high-level overview of the milestones and important events for KARDS: The roadmap contains only the highest level of features.

The roadmap does not display regular game updates and improvements, seasonal in-game events, the Esports calendar with monthly and bi-monthly opportunities, and general KARDS refinements. Also not listed on the roadmap are balancing changes, even though they are a vital part of our ongoing work on KARDS.

Without further ado, let’s have a look at some of the exciting things we can look forward to in KARDS in the coming months!





July saw the release of the new Skirmish game mode. In these biweekly weekend events, you can play matches against other players with unique rules and exciting victory prizes - a new promo card for every event! Read more about Skirmishes in our announcement blog, New game mode: Skirmish.


Enjoy a new way of challenging other players with the Battle Code system without having to add them to your friends list. Battle Codes will have a variety of uses - in matches between two friends, matches between groups, ad-hoc tournaments, and facilitating open challenges to whoever is brave enough to accept them.


Some performance improvements inbound for your game in September - always cause for celebration!


The new UI aims to enhance your playing experience, making client navigation more streamlined and simplifying communication from us to you about any new and exciting things going on in KARDS and its community.


Big news about KARDS! Public Beta 2 will be live in Q4, and as we near the end of the year, the mobile version will be soft launched! Soon, you will be able to have KARDS at your fingertips whenever and wherever you want.


The grand finals of the World Championship will be held in Iceland again this coming December. Keep an eye on the KARDS newsfeed for more updates about this, especially regarding qualifications.


The first half of 2023 will see the full release of KARDS mobile as well as a large spring expansion. Get ready to enjoy some great new content in the new year!

This roadmap provides a broad overview of what we have planned for KARDS. We will also bring you many smaller features, improvements and events throughout this period.

The whole team is incredibly excited for what’s ahead and we would love to hear your feedback! Please tell us what you think on the KARDS Discord or in the comments below.

The second Skirmish event is live now until July 31st!

New Skirmish, new rules, new reward! Here’s everything you need to know.

Skirmish is a completely new game mode in KARDS where you play with alternate rules. These rules vary so every Skirmish event you’ll be facing something new and completely different. You can read more about Skirmishes in our announcement blog New game mode: Skirmish.


In this Skirmish, you will be able to choose your own deck to battle with, but there are some limitations. The deck you play with cannot contain any Order cards - only Units and Countermeasures are allowed.


The first time you win this Skirmish, you will receive a full set of the new unique card, Fieseler FI156. This Special Unit costs 3 Kredits to put into play and 1 Kredit to move or attack. It has 1 attack, 3 defense, and the effect that on the end of your turn, a random Countermeasure in your hand is activated. This new card will also be craftable with wildcards even after this event ends.



You can access the Skirmish event from the main screen of the game, where you can also get an overview of the gamemode, rules and prize.

👉 This Skirmish will be accessible between July 29th at 12:00 GMT until Sunday, July 31st at 18:00 GMT.

Make sure to join this special event - win your skirmish to claim victory and the spoils!

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

See you in the Skirmish this weekend!

Get ready for some more KARDS Open action as it returns this July with KARDS Open XIII!

SIGN UP NOW

Last KARDS Open saw an exciting series of games, that ended with an impressive performance from Chinese player 钟离梓 (TangTang), who defeated Chistyi 3-0 in the grand finals, winning the KARDS Open for the second time in a row.

Catch up with all the action on the VOD and learn from the best: https://youtu.be/vVyJzm7OI5Y

In the upcoming Open tournament, players will have two chances to make it into the top 16 through one of two Swiss Qualifiers held on July 30th and August 6th.

The KARDS Open is all about gathering together, meeting new people, having fun, and playing KARDS. To that end, we will be doing a random giveaway between all those that sign up and play in the KARDS Open XIII qualifiers, where three lucky players will receive 4 officer packs once the qualifiers are complete.

Read on for a detailed breakdown of the different tournament stages.


Starting Saturday, July 30th, with the Swiss Qualifiers, you will compete in a best of 3 free-for-all deck format. This means that you can bring any deck you want and play it as many times as you’d like. No deck submissions and no deck restrictions! If you make the Top 8 in this stage, you will advance to stage two.

The second chance Qualifier will be held on Saturday, August 6th. This Swiss bracket is open to any player who has not already made the Top 8 cuts. Make sure to maximize your chances of making the top 16 by playing in both qualifiers.


If you finish in the Top 8 from either of the stage one weekends, you will be qualified for the next stage. On Saturday, August 27th, you will compete in the single elimination best of 5 conquest. In this stage, you will submit four of your best decks from four different main nations. You will ban one deck from your opponent and play a best of 5.


If you’ve made it to the Top 4 on August 27th, you’ve made it to stage three! These final games are played and broadcast LIVE on August 28th.

For all questions about participating in the Open and all things related to KARDS tournaments, please join our KARDS competitive Discord: https://discord.gg/288DQexmng


Swiss Qualifiers

• Compete in one or both qualifier Swiss bracket weekends.
  
  
• Top 8 from each weekend bracket moves on to Top - Cuts weekend
  
  
• Closed deck lists with no deck restrictions! Play whatever you want, whenever you want!

Best of Three Matchups

• Compete in one or both qualifier Swiss bracket weekends.
  
  
• Top 8 from each weekend bracket moves on to Top - Cuts weekend
  
  
• Closed deck lists with no deck restrictions! Play whatever you want, whenever you want!

Top Cuts

• Bring three decks from three different main nations
  
  
• A fourth deck must be submitted, which will only be used if you make it to top 4
  
  
• Top 16 Conquest format best of 3 with open deck lists and one ban
  
  
• Top 4 conquest format best of 5 with open deck lists and one ban
  
  
• Top 16 Bracket August 27th @ 1300 GMT
  
  
• DECK LIST SUBMISSION DEADLINE: August 27th @ 1200 GMT
  
  
• Top 4 Bracket & Live Stream August 28th @ 1400 GMT

Prizes

The KARDS Open has a prize pool of $1500 that is split the following way:

• 1st: $600 USD
  
  
• 2nd: $450 USD
  
  
• 3rd: $250 USD
  
  
• 4th: $200 USD
  
  
• 5th-16th: 1000 Gold

Sign ups are open now! https://www.start.gg/tournament/kards-open-xiii/details

The first Skirmish event is live now until July 17th!

Here’s everything you need to know.

Skirmish is a completely new game mode in KARDS where you play with alternate rules. These rules vary so every Skirmish event you’ll be facing something new and completely different. You can read more about Skirmishes in our announcement blog New game mode: Skirmish.

In this Skirmish, you will be able to choose your own deck to battle with. At the start of each player’s turn 1 damage is dealt to each of their units.

The first time you win a Skirmish you will receive a full set of the new unique card, Supply Shortage. This standard card costs 2 Kredits to play and deals 1 damage to enemy units at the start of the owner’s turn. This new card will also be craftable with wildcards even after this event ends.



You can access the Skirmish event from the main screen to get an overview of the game mode, rules and prize in-game.

The Skirmish will be accessible between July 15th at 12:00 GMT until Sunday, July 17th at 18:00 GMT.

Make sure to join this special event - win your skirmish to claim victory and the spoils!

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

See you in the Skirmish this weekend!

Hello friends,

We have some exciting news to share with you today. A new special game mode is coming to KARDS: Skirmishes!

Skirmishes are matches played against other players with a special set of rules. For example, a skirmish may entail every unit on the battlefield taking damage every turn, kredits may accrue at an altered rate, or you may be locked in to playing with specific decks.

Initially, a new skirmish will launch every other week, with the first skirmish starting on Friday July 15th at 12:00 GMT and ending the following Sunday July 17th at 18:00 GMT. Skirmishes are free to access for any player, so get ready to join up!

Winning a skirmish rewards you with a full set of a new unique promo card. But don’t worry if you cannot get these cards during the skirmish, they will be craftable with wildcards even after the skirmish event in question has ended.

Each skirmish will pose different challenges and reward you with unique prizes.

Make sure you don’t miss out - win your skirmish to claim victory and the spoils!

That just about wraps it up for now - please let us know what you think.

See you in the skirmishes!

This July patch includes preparation for the new game mode Skirmishes and several bug fixes.

• Introducing a new game mode: Skirmishes. Please read more about Skirmishes, what they are and how they work in our latest blog New game mode Skirmish.
  
  
• Improvements to the new player tutorials and nation unlocking campaigns.

• The visual indicator that the attacking unit will be killed by the attack was shown when it actually survived as uff effects before the attack were not taken into consideration. This impacted the F6F HELLCAT and 33RD LIVORNO REGIMENT. Fixed.

• Several translation bugs have been fixed. Thank you for reporting them!

• Several bugs with the user interface in the unlocking campaigns have been fixed.

As usual, we welcome all feedback in the comments below and on KARDS Discord.

Following the recent game update on June 22 and updating KARDS to Unreal Engine 5, we have received reports of issues with the graphic performance.

Our investigation revealed that the graphic settings in KARDS were automatically set to the highest value for everyone. This was a fault in the update and resulted in degraded graphics performance in some cases (GPUs running too hot, visual defects in the game, animation stuttering etc.). We also identified an issue with the fullscreen mode not actually covering the entire screen.


On June 23 at 18:00 UTC, we updated the KARDS game client with a bug fix for the above mentioned issues.


Please let us know if you still experience graphic issues even after this latest update.

This June patch improves some fundamental systems in KARDS to ensure that we are ready for the future including mobile.

While this patch doesn’t change any cards, the general look & feel, or the behavior of the client in general, it is important that we keep updating core systems so that we can KARDS keep running and improving for years to come.

• KARDS has been updated to use Unreal Engine 5.

Update on June 24, 2022

Following the recent reports of issues with the graphic performance, our investigation revealed that the graphic settings in KARDS were automatically set to the highest value for everyone. This was a fault in the update and resulted in degraded graphics performance in some cases (GPUs running too hot, visual defects in the game, animation stuttering etc.). We also identified an issue with the fullscreen mode not actually covering the entire screen.

On June 23 at 18:00 UTC, we updated the KARDS game client with a bug fix for the above mentioned issues.

Update on June 22, 2022

We have received several reports of issues:

• Inability to use use fullscreen and/or window mode
  
• Irregularly high GPU usage

We are looking into these issues with high priority and will provide an update as soon as we have further information on this.

As usual, we welcome all feedback in the comments below and on KARDS Discord.

Following the announcement of this month’s card balance changes a few days ago (details of the balance update), we have deployed these changes on June 9th.

We also thank all of our engaged players and the KARDS community in general for reporting bugs and discussing the game balance.

If you want to get involved, please join us on Discord!


A total of 10 cards have been updated, one was toned down in power, two got adjusted for strategic reasons, and seven received an upgrade to their power.

Please read the following dev blog for all the details and background info: Consistency




Old: Costs 1 less to deploy for each order you’ve given this battle.

New: If in your hand, this unit costs 2 less each time you give an order.



Old: Reduce cost by 1 each time a friendly card damages your HQ.
New: If in your hand, this unit costs 2 less each time your HQ takes friendly damage.



Old: Costs 2 kredits to deploy if an enemy countermeasure triggered this battle.
New: If in your hand, this unit costs 2 less each time an enemy countermeasure triggers.



Old: Costs 1 more to deploy if you have lost a unit this battle.
New: If in your hand, this unit costs 1 more each time you lose a unit.








Old: Deployment: Give a friendly tank +1+1 for each unit type in the same line.
New: Deployment: Give a friendly tank +1+1 for each other unit type in the same line.



Old: Deal 2 damage to a unit. If this destroys it, gain 1 extra kredit slot.
New: Deal 2 damage to a unit. If this destroys it, all players gain 1 extra kredit slot.





Old: Target unit with Mobilize gets Fury this turn. At end of turn, fully repair the unit.
New: Choose one - Give a friendly unit Mobilize OR add a FRAPPE to your hand.



Old: Destruction: Pin all enemy ground units.
New: Deployment: Pin target enemy unit and its adjacent units.



Old: Draw a random Soviet infantry from your deck. It costs 3 less this turn.
New: Draw a random Soviet infantry. It gets +1+1 and Blitz when deployed.

As always, if you have recently created one of these cards with wildcards, you get the option to recycle them back into a wildcard if you don't like the above changes.

We also welcome more feedback in the comments below and on KARDS Discord.

Hello everyone!

It’s time for a new balance patch.

In all games, players always have to learn something new when they start playing. KARDS, as a free-to-play World War II-themed CCG, is very easy for players to understand due to its close connection with the history. However, there are still some ambiguous cards, mainly because of the length limit of card texts. We also need to keep a reasonable balance between being attractive and being complicated. Through this patch, we hope to reduce the amount of such cards, before they become too many. As usual, some nerfs and buffs are also included.

To be specific, we are focusing on cost reduction this time. This ability provides interesting strategies, by making cards much more flexible. For example, the cost of 34th Guards is reduced if your HQ takes damage from a friendly card. The cost of Wellington is reduced if you give an order. Nevertheless, they also function a bit differently. The cost of 34th Guards is reset, if the card is returned to hand, while Wellington is not. In addition, it is not explicit for players that the cost reduction also works while the card is in the deck. After a lot of debate, we have decided to simplify these cards. Meanwhile, their stats are also adjusted according to their respective performances. What is more, the costs of all such units will always be reset if they are sent to hand or deck.

Let’s take a look at these cards and other balance cards.




Old: Costs 1 less to deploy for each order you’ve given this battle.

New: If in your hand, this unit costs 2 less each time you give an order.

This bomber has been performing very well since its previous change. The attack and the defense are swapped so that it fits the role of a powerful bomber better. Reducing its cost will not be as easy as it was. The increased operation cost will also keep this unit checked.



Old: Reduce cost by 1 each time a friendly card damages your HQ.

New: If in your hand, this unit costs 2 less each time your HQ takes friendly damage.

This big boy got a lot of likes for a short while when the ability was introduced. However, it did not really shatter the battlefield and slowly faded into part of a meme deck. With this new version, the cost can be reduced faster, but it will only work while in your hand. As compensation, the operation cost is also reduced. We expect a slightly better performance for this card.



Old: Costs 2 kredits to deploy if an enemy countermeasure triggered this battle.

New: If in your hand, this unit costs 2 less each time an enemy countermeasure triggers.

This fighter was designed to be a good counter card against countermeasures. The role will remain the same. The basic stats are adjusted a bit in hope that it can find a place in a Soviet control or air deck. The cost can be reduced to 0 if you trigger two or more countermeasures with this unit in your hand.



Old: Costs 1 more to deploy if you have lost a unit this battle.

New: If in your hand, this unit costs 1 more each time you lose a unit.

This unit has a fixed spot in any control deck with Italy as the ally. The new ability looks a bit similar to its earlier version, where the cost can be increased to 10 or even higher. However, it only triggers if the card is in your hand. Aa a Guard unit in a control deck, this unit is often played as early as possible once in hand, without seeing many friendly units being destroyed. As such, this unit is actually expected to be played at the cost of 3 in most cases. Its defense is reduced to 6, based on its overwhelming performance.




This parachute unit has been the most popular and powerful card since it was released, also the most troublesome one. The Pincer effect can turn any friendly unit into a very efficient removal. We would like to keep its efficiency and amplify its weakness. The defense is reduced to 2 so that breaking the pincer effect is much easier. It also makes more sense for a parachute unit to have a low defense, as airborne operations are always very risky.



Old: Deployment: Give a friendly tank +1+1 for each unit type in the same line.

New: Deployment: Give a friendly tank +1+1 for each other unit type in the same line.

As mentioned in our previous balance blog, we are closely monitoring the combined arms deck. In general, it is a very fun deck, with various types of units but focusing on tanks. However, the ladder is a bit swamped with this deck, especially for middle and lower ranks. We hope this deck will remain strong and popular, while it does require a small break. Different versions of this card and other related cards were tested. In the end, this new version is deemed to be the most suitable break for the deck. The new equation will not count the tank itself. In other words, this fighter won’t give any buff to a tank in the frontline, if you only have tanks at that line.



Old: Deal 2 damage to a unit. If this destroys it, gain 1 extra kredit slot.

New: Deal 2 damage to a unit. If this destroys it, all players gain 1 extra kredit slot.

This card was the least used card and ascended as the most used one since its change in March. Improving ramp and control decks was its initial intention. Midrange aggro decks also became better, such as Brit Air deck and US frontline deck. Many versions were tested with the same initial intention. Increasing the cost would surely work as a nerf, but ramp and control deck will likely suffer more. Dealing 2 damage with only 1 cost is very efficient. However, the ability is a double edge sword, which is much less harmful for ramp and control decks.





Old: Target unit with Mobilize gets Fury this turn. At end of turn, fully repair the unit.

New: Choose one - Give a friendly unit Mobilize OR add a FRAPPE to your hand.

The version of this card was tested some time ago. When 2E RIMA was introduced, the current version was expected to be seen in more battles. Nevertheless, it is simply not happening, based on our internal statistics for this card. As such, we would like to proceed with this entirely new direction, which gives more versatility for Mobilize decks, instead of only low cost Mobilize units and Potez.



Old: Destruction: Pin all enemy ground units.

New: Deployment: Pin target enemy unit and its adjacent units.

We have been pondering on how to improve Pin decks and Japan control decks for a long time. This version of D4Y SUISEI could be the solution. The positions of units will matter more, with the advent of more cards affecting adjacent cards. So will the number of units in the support line. For example, you probably want to move more units into the frontline if possible, instead of fulfilling the whole support line.



Old: Draw a random Soviet infantry from your deck. It costs 3 less this turn.

New: Draw a random Soviet infantry. It gets +1+1 and Blitz when deployed.

ZHUKOV is a very powerful order. However, it is mostly used in the combo with 4TH KUBAN COSSACKS, with the unit being the only infantry in the deck. Otherwise, it is much less reliable, not even in the T34 deck with the purpose of drawing 214TH AMUR. This new version is expected to be more diverse, as players can include different infantry units into the deck and get to choose when to deploy the drawn infantry to maximize its value.

That is all, these changes will be live soon. Please continue giving us your feedback, which is very valuable to us. We are checking your feedback, as always.

Thanks and see you on the battlefield, commanders!