Dev Blog - Balance Patch August 2025

Hello friends!

With the high summer sun sliding towards winter, us 1939 trolls are finally free to crawl back out of our caves to continue trolling serving the excellent KARDS community. Exciting things are happening in September, but we are not here to talk about them (well, a little bit, at the end). But our main topic is a balance patch that is dropping on the 28th of August. Usually we do a balance patch shortly after a big expansion drops to course correct any grievous offenses. This time around we have waited a bit longer than usual. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that Naval Warfare dropped very late (June 18th), meaning we had less time than usual to work on a balance patch before the company went on vacation. We still could have gotten one out if really needed, which leads to the second reason why we decided to do a patch after vacations. We judged it that nothing was super broken or outrageously unbalanced. Sure, not everything was honky dory (and opinions can vary on this point), but we deemed it not serious enough to do an emergency patch, allowing us to take our time to figure out the right balance approach. It must be stated that we could have communicated this decision more clearly to the player base at the time and we apologize for not doing so.

As with all balance patches, this one will see some cards become worse and others better. A few decks have been causing some grief, most notably Commandos, with decks like Intel, Soviet jaggro, Navy burn and German-US midrange all showing strong performances, to name a few. In the meantime, some strategies we hoped to see pan out did not do so, most notably the Japanese shuffle archetype and US Navy. With this in mind, let us take a look at what is changing in the upcoming balance patch. We will start with the nerfs, then the buffs and finally we will take a look at 3 of the cards returning from the reserve pool next month that are seeing some changes.

Nerfs

COMMANDO RAID

“I say comman-do, you say comman-dont” the old song goes (maybe). Commando Raid now has a cost of 6, proving that oiled, hard-bodied musclemen don’t come cheap, as my mother used to say. The extra cost may not look like much, but it means they either come down a turn later, or are less explosive, and either can spell their doom. Despite its popularity, the commando deck has worse performance than many other top decks, so even a slight change can upset the balance significantly.

No. 10 COMMANDO

Old: After you give an order, deal 1 damage to a random enemy.

New: After you give a British order, deal 1 damage to a random enemy.

But wait! There is more! We are not done spelling commandoom and are daring to touch the old relic itself, giving it the Crusader treatment (our second favorite treatment after the silent treatment). This change means even higher reliance on cards like Cup of Tea and Naval Power, but more importantly it means Protected Convoy only triggers once (as Plan and Production are neutral orders). Ally orders not counting weakens the unit considerably and means the archetype can really only thrive in very favorable conditions.

FW 189

The Navy burn has been performing reasonably well and is popular enough that players must take it into account when creating or tuning their decks. The 2. Marine Division is the real threat, but we deem it acceptable for now. However, the deck can highroll pretty hard if it happens to draw multiple FW189 units at the start, especially because they are not trivial to remove in the early stages. Well, that is changing now as we are lowering its defense by 1, meaning it is much more vulnerable to things like Kholm or Panzer 35.

RUSH

Rush, alongside its partner in crime 99th Kholm, quickly rushed to the top of the meta spearheading new aggressive Soviet strategies. Having usurped Germany as Jaggro's best buddy is quite the feat and while the decks play out similarly it still brings something fresh to a deck long in the tooth. Having said that, Rush is still pushed a bit too hard and needs reigning in. Some might have wanted to see harsher nerfs, but it should be pointed out that the deck is losing Type 94 TK Early, which also helps in toning it down. We still expect the deck to remain one of the top dogs, but on a slightly shorter leash now.

123s

The 123s as a 1/1 at a cost of 2 was too much so to address the problem the 2 has become 3 and 1 has become 2 and the other 1 a 3, so the 123s is now a 3, 2, 3 instead of 2, 1, 1. Easy as 123.

In all seriousness though, the 123s were slow out of the block, but have in recent weeks started to pop up in various decks. It has a particularly strong synergy with Blitz units like 2nd Michigan and Komet and this was something we explored the need for stopping. In the end we decided that a price hike from 2 kredits to 3 was enough for now. It slows down the strategy of trying to go for explosive turns out of hand significantly. As a 1/1 the 123s are almost never deployed before shenanigans ensue, bumping their stats to 2/3 doesn’t matter greatly in the greater scheme, as those stats are lost on the first convert, but it does mean that running the unit out ‘dry’ on turn 3 is less risky in some situations. We will continue to monitor this unit and may take further action down the road.

One last thing to note: we are changing the timing on when Convert happens slightly in the backend. For the most part this has no impact and will not be noticeable. Except for one very popular interaction that will no longer work - 123s Converting into Bergmann Battalions will no longer draw a card for their own Convert. Only 1 card will now be drawn, instead of 2 as before. This can be considered a slight extra nerf to the unit.

THUNDER DIVISION

Old: Guard. When you play an Intel card, your other units get +2+2.

New: Guard. Once per turn, when you play an Intel card, your other units get +2+2.

Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening. While often just a win-more unit, there certainly were times where a well-timed Thunder Division could create an unassailable board state. Lightning never strikes twice and we are taking that to heart by limiting the strikes to one per turn. This puts a cap on any explosive turns occasionally seen before, but the unit is still very strong.

Buffs

22nd MARINES

22nd Marines is the lifeblood of the US Navy archetype - the deck stands or falls depending on its power level. The initial power level turned out to be too low, we are addressing this by making it 1 cheaper (and adjust the stats accordingly). This makes it more relevant early on and you can start playing multiple cards faster, which is very important for the deck. Time will tell if this buff is enough to put the deck on the map. It is highly unlikely to become a tier 1 deck, but still has a shot at relevance.

A6M2 ZERO

On the binary scale of popularity Zero is closer to 0 than 1. We want this iconic unit to have more than zero impact so we are lowering the cost by 1, hoping this moves the popularity needle of Zero from 0 closer to 1. With the theme of the fall release being air, this felt the right time to pull the trigger on this change. It can fit into several different decks, especially midrange ones, and hopefully some new ones as well in the future.

SABAE REGIMENT

Old: Once per turn, when you shuffle, distribute damage between random enemies equal to friendly units.

New: Once per turn, when you shuffle, distribute damage between random enemies equal to units on the battlefield.

One of the themes of the Naval Warfare expansion was the shuffle theme, mainly found in Japan. We were a bit conservative with the theme as we worried about its power level. In hindsight we should have been less worried, so now we are re-shuffling our stance for the archetype. The Sabae Regiment is intended as the lynchpin of the archetype and is thus seeing significant facelift. In addition to an increased attack, it now also counts all units on the battlefield, not just your own. This makes it much stronger against aggressive decks, which the shuffle archetype struggles with currently.

110e RÉGIMENT MOTORISÉ

The second shuffle buff, this time lowering cost by 1. This makes it easier for the deck to explode out and allows it to apply pressure earlier against slower decks. We’ve been shuffling the France mechanics about lately, what with resistance and mobilize shuffling their mortal coils, so we want to make sure France has some strong new decks to lean on to compensate. 

3rd CARPATHIAN

Old: Guard. Deployment: Convert a friendly unit into T-34 76 PL

New: Guard. Deployment: Convert a friendly unit into 24th UŁAN.

The stats of this guard were always a bit awkward, so we are normalizing them. More importantly, we are changing what unit it Converts into. The key element for this unit is to give a unit with Blitz. While the T-34 76 PL does fit the bill, it comes with an additional cost of 2 to operate, which puts it out of range of being on time most of the time. The new Convert has 0 operation cost, giving you a much more dynamic play and greater threat level.

24th UŁAN

Old: Blitz. Destroy at the end of your turn unless a unit was destroyed this turn.

New: Blitz. Is dealt 1 damage at the end of your turn unless a unit was destroyed.

Speaking of the 24th Ułan, it is seeing a change of its own. Statwise, this unit has always been impressive, but the downside is so heavy that it was not worth the risk of running. The downside is now much less severe, so minor in fact that we have to shave off a point of defense to not make the unit too strong. It is now perfect to fight for battlefield control with, whether on its own or coming from the 3rd Carpathians.

Reserve Reworks

Three of the cards returning from the Reserve Pool are seeing changes. These changes will go out alongside the balance patch, though the cards themselves will remain reserved until the fall release next month.

OXFORD

Old: When a ground unit is deployed, its attack becomes equal to its defense.

New: When you deploy or add a Guard unit, give it +1+3.

The abysmal playrate of the old Oxford schooled us on the limitation regarding mutually beneficial buffs. But we feel we have learnt our lesson and the new Oxford will be universally loved. If that fails we may have to go back to the drawing board and re-educate ourselves.

The guard archetype has never really taken off at higher tiers, but we like to throw it a bone every now and then. One of these days it will graduate into the big leagues, we are sure.

COUNTER STRIKE

We have negotiated improved tariffs with the US government, allowing us to offer this excellent discount of 33% on Counter Strike. Timing is essential when deciding when to send in the eagles, so choose carefully when it is best to protect your precious. The potential impact of the card depends heavily on how the meta develops, it never saw much play at 3k, lets see if it is a more enticing option at 2k.

F4F-4 WILDCAT

Old: Your HQ has Smokescreen while F4F WILDCAT is on the battlefield.

New: Blitz. Add a BREWSTER F2A beside this unit when it moves into the frontline.

As you can see by looking at the art, this airplane is coming in directly from left field, same as its new ability. We wanted to give the fledgling Brewster deck a few more tools to play with, and the old Wildcat now steps into that roll with aplomb. Its own ability was always rather clunky both technically and playwise and we wanted it to have a bit more proactive roll. While not super-impressive stat wise, air units with Blitz always pose a threat and the frontline ability is just the cherry on top.

That’s it for this latest installment of a balance patch. The balance patch, alongside the new cards coming next month and the card rotation, means you will see a significant shakeup in the KARDS meta over the course of the next month or so. The balance patch will land on August 28th, keep an eye out for the full patch notes, many bug fixes are going out as well. Stay tuned for more details on the Air Supremacy release as well. Until then, see you on the battlefield, commander!