Hello everyone!

We are incredibly excited to share with you the official release date for KARDS mobile!


On June 6th in 1944 allied forces arrived on the beaches of Normandy to commence the liberation of France. This largest seaborne invasion in history became known as D-Day. On this historic day, KARDS will achieve one of its most significant milestones in its history, releasing KARDS mobile!

Developing the mobile version of KARDS has had its share of thrilling twists and turns. Don’t miss our upcoming podcast, where Community Manager Elín and host Chris are joined by Mobile Development Lead Tuomas to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the mobile development journey.

Following the mobile release, KARDS will be available on Android through the Google Play Store, on iOS through the Apple App Store, as well as existing PC platforms: Steam, Epic Games, Stove, and the native KARDS launcher.

Access your KARDS account from anywhere at any time!

You can use the same account to play KARDS on PC or mobile devices. To do this, you'll need to create a KARDS Account inside the game client on the platform you currently play on. After you've entered your email and set a password for your KARDS Account, you'll be able to use those credentials to log into your KARDS Account on both PC and mobile devices, progressing on the same player profile no matter which device you're connecting from. We'll communicate more details about the specifics of this process as we move closer to the mobile release date.

If you participated in our second mobile beta and created a KARDS Account during that time, then you already have a KARDS Account and will be able to log in to KARDS on your mobile device using those credentials. If you've since forgotten your password, don't worry - we'll have a simple automated process for you to reset your password.

You’ll also be able to play with other KARDS players regardless of which platform you, or they, are connecting from!

Make sure to mark this date in your calendar! We’ll have some special things for you around the mobile release that you don’t want to miss!

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 shines on two members of the KARDS community: AndYetItMoves and Jking7.

Community guide AndYetItMoves (AYIM) started playing KARDS in February 2020. AYIM was originally drawn to KARDS through a love of card games, having played many digital board games and strategy games before, with KARDS being his first CCG. AYIM enjoys helping new players which is reflected in his community contributions.

AYIM says that some of his favorite aspects of the game are the different unit types and the frontline mechanic. When asked about his favorite card, he says that it used to be the 2e RIMa, before its recent nerf. Now, his favorite card is the PETLYAKOV PE-2FT, nicknamed the IQ-test plane in the Chinese community for its ability to stop deployment effects from triggering. AYIM’s favorite meta deck is the popular USA/Germany Frontline deck, but in casual games he plays his own inventions. “Ger/Pol CA anyone?”

AYIM’s most notable contributions are his New Player’s Guide to KARDS (KARDS新手手册) and, from that, the Selected Builds for New Players (新手成型卡组选讲). These extensive guides provide a framework for new players who are getting to grips with the game, guiding them in the first steps and giving advice on various aspects of playing KARDS. AYIM keeps the guides regularly updated with consideration of balance updates and new content. Starting as a project to help answer the frequently asked questions of new KARDS players, this guide has grown significantly over time, with AYIM describing that it is now: “twice the length of my Bachelor thesis!”

AYIM also collaborates with streamer Mina to provide commentary and analysis of official KARDS tournaments as they are re-streamed to the Chinese player base on the Bilibili platform.

To access AYIM’s new player guides, join the Chinese KARDS community’s QQ group with the following QR code:



When asked about advice he would give to new KARDS players, AYIM suggests to “take it slowly, and have fun before everything else.” Many players in the KARDS community have played for years, having completed their collections a long time ago. Their mindset may not align with that of a new player, which may be frustrating for some. AYIM suggests that new players take their time, figure out their main interests and which playstyles they like, build up a collection of standard and limited wildcards and, most importantly, figure out if KARDS is the right game for them. Having fun should always come first!

Jking7 (Jking) has become a household name in KARDS, as the two-time KARDS World Champion, with a consistent and exceptional tournament track record, as well as regular appearances on the screens of KARDS community members. Jking started playing KARDS in May 2019, but it didn’t become one of his most regular games until March 2020.

As a history buff that had sunk countless hours into Hearthstone, KARDS quickly captured Jking’s attention and kept his interest with both its artistic design and some game design choices. Of particular interest were the frontline mechanic, operation cost, and mechanically different unit types, which he says “added a level of thought to the game and deckbuilding that was missing from the other CCG’s I’d tried.”

His favorite card of all time was one of the previous iterations of Night Witches that would perpetually create a copy of the card and put it into your deck, allowing for unique Soviet fatigue decks. His current favorite card is Commonwealth - a card that on its own is quite weak and requires a certain type of deck built around it that creates a dynamic where you and your opponent must balance several elements to try and wrest victory from the hands of each other. His favorite decks in general are control decks with no proactive win condition, best represented currently in KARDS by Soviet control or Germany/Italy control decks.

Having been a member of the KARDS community for a long time, Jking has seen the community develop and grow throughout the years. He expresses that he’s always loved how connected the community feels, and that KARDS developers engage with and listen to community feedback.

Jking has created live broadcasts on his Twitch channel, but the main content Jking focuses on creating these days are videos on his YouTube channel. These include top-level gameplay, sharing his thoughts on different cards and patches, tournament analysis and guides, which he hopes to do more of in the future. He also makes the occasional content just for fun - such as trying out viewer submitted decks, or playing KARDS blindfolded.

With his extensive tournament knowledge and experience, Jking created his own new competitive KARDS format, which he hosted and cast last year, called the King’s Cup tournament.

Jking has also cast several official KARDS tournaments, providing his expert analysis of the gameplay of some of the top tournament players in KARDS.

Jking releases at least one new video per week. His ability to create and release new content can fluctuate, but he is never far from the screens of KARDS community members: “if you don't see anything new from me on my channel you can definitely expect to see me on a cast or in a tournament”.

https://youtu.be/jsXop8yABpE

https://youtu.be/Pa0S-eock5k

Jking recommends that new players try and immerse themselves in the community. This can be through talking in stream chats, making friends in the official KARDS Discord, or by watching videos - all of these will help get new players into the game. New players can use these resources to improve their gameplay, get advice on how to build their collection, find fun decks to play or players to play against. As Jking says, “Everyone enjoys KARDS differently but everyone will enjoy it more if they have people to share those experiences with.”

We hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know these contributors better and encourage you to check out their content! 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 April 23rd!

Here’s everything you need to know.

Skirmish is a special game mode in KARDS where you play with alternate rules. These rules vary; you’ll face something different at every Skirmish event. Read more about Skirmishes in our announcement blog New game mode: Skirmish.

For this Skirmish, we welcome the pauper ruleset! This means that only Standard and Limited rarity cards can be used in your Skirmish deck.

The prize for your first victory in this Skirmish is a random card pack!

Access the Skirmish event from the game's main screen to get an overview of the game mode, rules and prize.

This Skirmish is accessible from April 21st at 12:00 GMT until Sunday, April 23rd at 18:00 GMT.

Join this special event - 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!

Earlier this year, we announced several details surrounding our plans for KARDS content going forward. Here’s a brief summary of the main points in Director of Game Design Keli’s dev blog:

• Two major releases each year. Large summer and winter expansions, each containing new features and around 80 new cards, with smaller content releases in spring and fall.
  
• Card rotation with major releases. Equal number of cards are moved to the Reserve pool as cards that arrive with the release.
  
• Hand-picked rotation. Cards entering the Reserve pool will be hand-picked, with new expansion cards being safe from rotation for at least 1.5 years.
  
• Keep using Reserve cards. Play in AI training matches, challenge matches with friends, and an upcoming PvP gamemode.
  
• Reserve cards reintroduced. Cards may return to the game with future expansions.
  
• Card set simplification. While all cards belong to their own original sets, you'll only be able to buy two types of card packs at any given time: packs from the latest expansion (currently Legions), and Core packs, which contain all other cards.
  
• Shop changes. World at War bundles retired from the Shop, Theaters of War temporarily removed and reintroduced at a later date without card rewards.
  
• Crate system rework. More things will contribute to filling up the crate, which fills up more frequently but with reduced rewards each time, providing overall similar gains.
  
• Duplicate protection. Card packs and rewards will not give duplicates if possible.

You can find more details in Keli’s dev blog The Cycle of KARDS and our followup blog FAQ: The Cycle of KARDS.

At the end of April, we commence the first phase of the new content cycle. At that time, the following happens:

• All cards, apart from the latest expansion, Legions, become part of the new Core set.
  
• Theaters of War campaigns and World at War bundles are removed from the shop. Theaters of War will return at a later date in a reworked state, without the card rewards.
  
• Five very infrequently used cards move into the Reserve pool.

For this first rotation, only 5 very infrequently used cards enter the Reserve pool. This first rotation is primarily intended to test the Reserve pool system before the first major rotation happens this summer, when the summer expansion is released.

The cards to be rotated into the Reserve pool at the end of April are:

• AT ALL COST
  
• SUPPRESSION
  
• F4F-3 WILDCAT
  
• QF 40mm Mk III
  
• SHIBATA REGIMENT

These cards are present on average in 0.79% of all decks of players playing in 2023 and were played on average in only 0.78% of matches in March this year.

Going forward, when the first major rotations kick in, you can expect a similar amount of cards to be rotated out and into the game - so if 80 new cards come into the game, you can expect about 80 cards to move into the Reserve pool at the same time. We also aim to communicate about cards moving into the Reserve pool with at least 4-6 weeks notice.

There are many reasons why we are introducing a rotation at this point in time. With a plan of up to 200 new cards entering the game each year, this could lead to a number of issues, such as:

• Power creep. When introducing new and exciting cards and mechanics through expansions, without a rotation, we risk a power creep issue, making it less appealing to play anything other than a narrow range of the top cards. We want to support a variety of decks and strategies and create an environment where cards in a new expansion don’t always have to be more powerful than previous content, which in turn could continuously make older cards less relevant and lead to balance issues.
  
• Deck building difficulties. With an ever-expanding pool of cards, deck building would become increasingly difficult. Recalling all the different cards and possibilities can take a lot of mental energy and building new decks can become tedious with too many cards.
  
• Inaccessibility for newer players. As the amount of cards in the game grows, newer players have more and more of a difficult time getting into the game. Collecting all available cards will be challenging and wrapping your head around all the available cards will become increasingly daunting for newer players.
  
• Balancing difficulties. Balancing the game becomes more challenging as the card pool expands. With a card rotation, we are able to more effectively balance the game, providing a consistently fun and engaging experience for our players.

You can read more details in Keli’s dev blog.

For this first phase, since only five very infrequently used cards are rotated into the Reserve pool, we have not planned for a specific compensation. However, we are planning a one-time larger compensation when the first full rotation cycle happens with the summer expansion, the details of which will be revealed closer to the summer expansion release. Going forward from there, the reworked crate mechanic will serve in part as a compensation mechanic, as we plan on cards moving into the Reserve pool contributing to filling up your crate.

To collect feedback from various sources about the new content cycle and card set structure, we’ve set up the Content Cycle Feedback channel in the official KARDS Discord server. Please join us in Discord and let us know what you think - your feedback means a lot to us!

A new Skirmish event is live now until April 9th!

Here’s everything you need to know.

Skirmish is a special game mode in KARDS where you play with alternate rules. These rules vary; you’ll face something different at every Skirmish event. Read more about Skirmishes in our announcement blog New game mode: Skirmish.

In this Skirmish, you choose your own deck to battle with. Tanks and Infantry units have Blitz. When a unit is deployed, it gets an attack bonus equal to its operation cost, then the operation cost is set to 0.

The prize for your first victory in this Skirmish is a random card pack!

Access the Skirmish event from the game's main screen to get an overview of the game mode, rules and prize.

This Skirmish is accessible from April 7th at 12:00 GMT until Sunday, April 9th at 18:00 GMT.

Join this special event - 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!

This April update contains some bug fixes and other improvements, mostly related to the new user interface. Some of the highlights are:

• The collection overview has returned! Go to your card collection to find the collection overview button on the top bar.
  
• Fixed a bug with rewards at the end of a game always requiring two clicks.
  
• Fixed a bug where the card collection would sometimes show up on the board in battle.
  
• Fixed a bug where you would get a "please delete deck" error for no apparent reason.
  
• Fixed bug where sometimes you would see wrong icons in help bubbles.
  
• Fixed bug where you would get stuck in the Campaign menu after buying a campaign.
  
• Fixed a bug where draft admissions were sometimes not updated until after restart.
  
• Fixed Elite cards not showing up in collection until restart.
  
• Fixed Campaign rewards not showing up until restart.
  
• Fixed issue with target arrow sometimes showing wrong info.
  
• Fixed issue with Friends list sometimes getting messed up.
  
• Fixed a few blinking issues in the menu.

Several other small fixes and improvements have also been made.

We thank you all for reporting on bugs and giving us your feedback! We continue to monitor all your reports, fix any issues that crop up and make adjustments to the new UI based on player feedback. We welcome your feedback in the comments below or on the KARDS Discord.

Dear KARDS players, friends, and WWII enthusiasts,

We are thrilled to bring you an 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 opportunities, and general KARDS refinements. Also not listed on the roadmap are balance changes, even though they are a key part of our ongoing work on KARDS.

Let’s have a look at some of the exciting things we can look forward to in KARDS in the coming months!




The new user interface went live in March. The new user interface is an important part of developing the mobile version of the game, providing a consistent experience regardless of which device you’re playing on. It’s also an opportunity for us to improve many elements in the user interface that we always wanted to improve, and which player feedback throughout the years has suggested could use improvement. You can read more about the new user interface in our dev blog: The New User Interface is Here.

In April, the first phase of the new content cycle will go live! In this first phase, we streamline existing content, with all cards becoming part of the Core set of cards aside from the most recent expansion, Legions. Five very infrequently used cards move into the Reserve pool at the same time, primarily to test this new pipeline and verify that all is working as intended before the first full cycle hits with the new expansion this summer. World at War bundles and Theaters of War are removed from the Shop, with a revamped Theaters of War returning at a later date. Check out more details about the upcoming content cycle and the plans surrounding this in Lead Game Designer Keli’s dev blog: The Cycle of KARDS.

The Shop will receive a big update in May! We’re going to be reworking some elements of how offers are presented and which offers are available at any given time. Stay tuned for more details on this!

The release of KARDS mobile is just around the corner! After two beta tests and tons of hard work developing the mobile version of the game, KARDS mobile will become available this summer on both the Google Play and Apple App Stores. Get ready to enjoy KARDS from anywhere with your mobile device!

A new major expansion is coming to KARDS this summer! Similar in size to the Legions and Breakthrough expansions, you can expect somewhere around 80 new cards and potentially some new mechanics with this summer expansion. Get ready to enjoy a load of new content in KARDS this summer!

The summer expansion isn’t the only big new content release this year - a second large expansion will be dropping this winter! Get ready to enjoy even more new content in KARDS towards the end of the year!

The KARDS 2023 World Championship will be held again this year, with the qualification period starting in the latter half of the year and the Grand Finals planned for the first weekend in December. Keep an eye out for more news and updates regarding this in the upcoming months!

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! Join us on the KARDS Discord and let us know what you think!

A new Skirmish event is live now until March 26th!

Here’s everything you need to know.

Skirmish is a special game mode in KARDS where you play with alternate rules. These rules vary; you’ll face something different at every Skirmish event. Read more about Skirmishes in our announcement blog New game mode: Skirmish.

In this Skirmish, you choose your own deck to battle with. You start with an extra Kredit slot and, at the start of your turn, choose CARELESS TALK, IN THE NAVY or INTERCEPTION to add to your hand and set its cost to 0.

The prize for your first victory in this Skirmish is a random card pack!

Access the Skirmish event from the game's main screen to get an overview of the game mode, rules and prize.

This Skirmish is accessible from March 24th at 12:00 GMT until Sunday, March 26th at 18:00 GMT.

Join this special event - 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 KARDS players!

We are thrilled to bring you the third episode of the official 1939 Games podcast - The Frontline: A KARDS Podcast! Join us and get an exclusive insight on the exciting future of KARDS in a discussion with the developers.

The KARDS Podcast is a monthly podcast featuring different KARDS developers in every episode. This is where you’ll hear about all the latest things in KARDS and get a closer look at the team behind KARDS, as we explore developers’ varied work and contributions to the constant development of the game. The podcast is conveniently available on Spotify, Apple and Google Podcasts, as well as on the KARDS YouTube channel.

In this third episode, KARDS Community Manager Elín and host Christo welcome Senior UI/UX Designer Juha and UI/UX Designer Frikki to discuss the recently released new user interface. Join us as we go over the user interface changes, the thought process behind them, and discuss the design process.

Tune in to The Frontline podcast on the following platforms:

YouTube
Anchor
Spotify
Google Podcasts
Apple Podcasts

Let us know what you think of this third podcast episode and if there are any particular questions or topics you’d like us to cover in the future!

Hello everyone!


After months of designing, testing, tweaking, and fine-tuning, the new KARDS user interface is now live for all players. Read on for more details about the new user interface.

We’ve also prepared a short video overview of what you can expect with the new user interface:

https://youtu.be/KxxZzNwxeT0

We’d love to hear your feedback on the new UI! Please head into the NUI Feedback channel on the official KARDS Discord server to leave any thoughts, comments or suggestions you have on the new UI.

From our own insight, community feedback, and the ambition to run KARDS for many years to come, we’ve seen that the KARDS user interface could be improved. In developing the mobile version of the game, we saw an opportunity to overhaul the user interface, to streamline it and improve the overall user experience. The new user interface will be available on both the PC and mobile version of the game, so players will have a consistent experience regardless of which device they are playing on. Here, you can find an overview of all the changes you can now experience in your game.

The KARDS home screen is changing fundamentally with the new UI. The KARDS Home Screen has a new look, allowing for increased flexibility and for us to communicate better about all the exciting things going on in and around KARDS.

• On the far left, you’ll find the Home button. Simply click on the KARDS logo to take you back to the home screen from almost any other part of the UI.
  
• Next is the button to your profile - indicated by your current rank and player name.
  
• Then, the resource overview - the amount of gold, diamonds and wildcards you have.
  
• Finally, on the far right, you have the Friends and Settings buttons.

• PLAY navigates to Battle, Training, Campaigns, or any other game mode. More on this below.
  
• CARDS gets you to your decks, deck builder and card collection. More on this below.
  
• SHOP takes you to the shop.

The content carousel is a rotating banner on the home screen that keeps you updated on all the latest things in KARDS. This can be information about a recent expansion, decklists, guides, dev blogs, news, store offers, tournament info, etc.

The buttons on the right side will vary depending on the content we want to highlight or feature at any given time. They will mostly be reserved for shortcuts to specific events or game modes, such as Skirmishes.

On the bottom of the new UI you will find your national progress - the UI will by default show you the last main nation you progressed in, but you can also switch to a different nation. Your missions are accessible in a separate button next to the progress line.

The Play button determines how you enter any given game mode.



Under the Play options, you’ll be able to select any of the game modes available at the time:

• Battle (PvP) - with a toggle between Ranked or Casual
  
• Training (PvE)
  
• Draft
  
• Campaigns - starter campaigns or Theaters of War
  
• Battle Code
  
• Skirmish - when available

After picking a game mode to enter, you’ll be prompted to select a deck from your library to play with. Scroll up and down to browse your list of decks. Decks will be ordered by usage (last played, last created, etc.).

On the right hand side, you’ll see the selected deck and interact with it through the buttons provided. Customize the deck (swap card-back, board items or emotes), or hit the star button to favorite the deck, so it’ll always show up at the top of the deck list.

Below the selected deck you’ll be able to toggle between ranked or casual mode, and, finally, hit the play button to head into the game!

The CARDS button on the main menu allows you to explore your decks and collection of cards.

• Click the PACKS button on the Top Bar to open your unopened packs.
  
• Click the COLLECTION button on the Top Bar to access your card collection.
  
• Browse through your library of decks by scrolling up and down.
  
• Click the empty deck slot to create a new deck.
  
• Click any of your existing decks to bring up details about the deck and edit it.
  
• On the right hand side, use the buttons provided to delete the selected deck, mark it as a favorite, customize the deck elements, copy the deck code to your clipboard or edit the deck.

The layout of the deck builder has changed quite significantly. These changes are done with consideration of a lot of community feedback we’ve received throughout the years. The goal with the new deck builder is to improve accessibility, provide an improved deck overview, have a consistent and clear UI for the upcoming mobile version of the game, as well as introducing various improvements for power users (especially on desktop). The new deck builder is split into three main areas:

• The Top Bar, with a search bar, a “show all” button to include unowned cards, a wildcard overview, and a button to access filters.
  
• The Card Collection, filtered by the nations in the deck. Scroll up and down to view all the cards. Right-click a card for more details and the ability to create a card with wildcards.
  
• The Deck Overview is visible in its own panel on the right side. On the top of the deck overview, you can access details about your deck composition and change the name of the deck. Within the deck itself, using the edit button next to the top two cards, you can change the card-back and edit your HQ/battlefield. On the bottom you have an overview of the number of cards from each nation in the deck, the overall number of cards in the deck, as well as the “Done” button for when you’re finished editing.

The changes we’ve introduced so far to the user interface are quite significant, but we still have a few additional things ahead in the interface!

Still up ahead you can expect some changes to the battle scene and the shop. We’ll be overhauling the keyword and ability icon system to, among other things, give players clearer visual feedback on what is happening on the board and to function better on mobile devices. We’ll also be improving the battle history to enhance its readability. Finally, the Kredit overview UI is receiving improvements as well. We’ll communicate more details about the upcoming changes as we get closer to their releases.

We’d also like to note that, as we move forward, we may still tweak and fine tune some elements of the new user interface.

We’d love to hear what you think about the new user interface! Please join us in the New Interface Facility in the official KARDS Discord server and let us know any thoughts, suggestions or other feedback you have on the new user interface in the NUI Feedback channel.

SUBMIT YOUR FEEDBACK

You can also report any bugs you run into with the new UI in the NUI Bug Reports channel, get assistance with the new UI in the NUI Help channel, and engage in general discussions with other players about the new UI in the NUI Discussion channel.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new UI!