KARDS - The WWII Card Game: Complete Guide

A practical guide to KARDS covering the frontline rules, kredit economy, nation and ally choices, the current Oceania Storm / Ring of Fire meta, free-to-play progression, and the weekend Skirmish events.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the Ring of Fire mini-set (10 September 2026) and the 21 September 2026 bug-fix patch. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Finish the tutorial missions and nation challenges. They pay out gold, packs, and cards and teach frontline control, which is the part of KARDS that differs most from other card games.
• Pick one major nation and stick with it early. Collections are expensive; focusing wildcards and crafting on one nation gets you a competitive deck faster.
• The frontline is everything. Whoever controls the shared frontline can threaten the enemy support line and HQ. Losing it puts you on the back foot.
• Budget for operation costs. Moving and attacking cost kredits too, not just deploying. A board full of units you cannot afford to operate is wasted.
• Do your daily missions. They are the steady gold source for F2P players.
• Play the weekend Skirmish. The first win in each Skirmish event gives a free random card pack; you use your own deck.
• Don't spend Diamonds randomly. Battle Ready Decks and bundles are the best value if you buy anything.
• Read cards in full. Keywords like Guard, Smokescreen, and Blitz decide most trades.

The Board and Core Rules

KARDS is a 1v1 card game where you destroy the enemy Headquarters (HQ). The board has three zones:

Zone | Who uses it | Capacity

Your support line | Your HQ and your units | Your HQ plus up to four units

Frontline | Shared; controlled by whoever has units there | Up to five units

Enemy support line | Enemy HQ and units | Same as yours

• New units deploy into your support line.
• Moving a unit to the frontline is an operation. You can only move to the frontline if it's empty or you control it.
• Once a unit is on the frontline it generally cannot retreat unless a card allows it.
• Controlling the frontline lets your ground units attack into the enemy support line and HQ.

Kredits

• You gain one kredit slot per turn up to 12; card effects can push beyond that (to a hard cap of 24).
• Kredits refill each turn.
• Every unit has two numbers: deployment cost (to play it) and operation cost (to move or attack with it). Many strong turns come from cheap-operating units that attack every turn.

Unit types

Type | Role

Infantry | Cheap, flexible, often the backbone of frontline control

Tanks | Durable, hit hard, usually pricier to operate

Artillery | Attacks from the support line without needing to move forward

Fighters | Air units that contest the skies and can hit other aircraft

Bombers | Air units that strike deep; excellent against key targets

Aircraft ignore the frontline requirement for reaching targets, which is why air superiority decks can bypass a locked board.

Orders and countermeasures

Orders are one-shot effects (removal, buffs, draw). Countermeasures are face-down traps triggered by the opponent's actions. Always ask "what could they have?" before you commit a big attack into an unknown countermeasure.

Key keywords

Keyword | What it does (summary)

Blitz | Can act the turn it is deployed

Guard | Enemies must deal with it before attacking other targets behind it

Smokescreen | Cannot be targeted until it acts

Heavy Armor | Reduces incoming damage by the listed amount

Fury | Can attack twice per turn

Deploy | Effect triggers when the card is played

Forecast | Calls in a weather condition (Oceania Storm mechanic)

Always check the in-game keyword tooltip; wording is updated with patches.

Nations and Allies

Your deck is built around one of the five major powers and may include cards from one ally nation.

Major power | General identity

Germany | Aggressive tempo, Blitz tanks, efficient operations

Britain | Defensive tools, Guard units, value and card generation

Soviet Union | Board flooding, cheap infantry, big late-game threats

USA | Resource ramp, strong air power, big units

Japan | Aggressive infantry, Banzai-style trades, and aggressive tricks

Minor/ally nations include France, Italy, Poland, Finland, and ANZAC (added as an ally nation with the Oceania Storm expansion in June 2026). The ally is where many decks find their key removal or finishers, so choose it for a specific job rather than for raw power.

The Current Set: Oceania Storm and Ring of Fire

• Oceania Storm (June 2026) added 88 cards, introduced ANZAC, the Forecast keyword and weather/Storm cards, and a new annual card rotation system.
• Ring of Fire (10 September 2026) is the fall mini-set: 30 new cards, 20 for the main nations (4 each for Britain, Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the USA) and 10 for ally nations (ANZAC 6; France, Finland, Italy, and Poland 1 each). It joins the Oceania Storm pool and drops in Oceania Storm packs. There was no rotation with this release.

Notable Ring of Fire cards include 30. Infantry Regiment (German Blitz infantry that reduces operation cost after you operate a German unit) and The Rock of Gibraltar (develops a card in the enemy deck, then in yours).

September 2026 balance patch (with Ring of Fire)

The dev blog stated the meta was in a decent place, with the biggest focus on weather, specifically how consistently Storm effects acted as removal.

• Nerfs: METEOR (cost up, defense down), 38th INDEPENDENT (attack down), COASTWATCHERS (cost up to 3 to slow weather decks), RAAF WALRUS (attack down by 1), Z SPECIAL UNIT (damage down), THUNDERSTORM and CYCLONE (changed away from removal; Cyclone now draws), TROPICAL STORM (both effects now random).
• Buffs: STIRLING Mk III (attack up), 102. GRENADIER, DETAILED RECON, 1081st SMOLENSK, P-40 WARHAWK, JUNGLE FEVER, and SCORCHING SUN (reworked to be a stronger air-deck finisher).
• Post-patch, 6 of the 9 Storm options remain removal-oriented (down from 8).

Expect Meteor-cycling lists to be weaker and a wider spread of viable decks.

Battle Ready Decks

Five prebuilt Ring of Fire decks arrived in the shop on 11 September 2026, at 200 or 350 Diamonds each, or 1,200 Diamonds for the full bundle for a limited time. Example: "Put It In Neutral" (Britain with France) builds around generating neutral orders with THE HOLY BOYS, ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT, UNIVERSAL CARRIER, and ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. If you want to spend money, these are a solid way to get a complete archetype at once.

Deckbuilding Rules of Thumb

• 40-card decks. Rarity sets the copy limit (more copies for common rarities, a single copy for Elite cards).
• Curve matters more than in most CCGs because operation costs eat your kredits. Include enough 1 and 2 cost units to contest the frontline early.
• Pack removal for air. A deck that cannot answer bombers will lose to air decks. Fighters, anti-air units, and targeted orders all count.
• Have a plan for Guard walls. Artillery, bombers, and damage orders get around blockers.
• Count your finishers. Direct HQ damage from orders and bombers closes games when the frontline stalls.

Game Modes

Mode | Notes

Ranked | Climb from Private upward toward Field Marshal; higher ranks earn monthly Officer's Club rewards

Casual / Friends | Test decks with no rank pressure

Draft | Build a deck from picks for entry-fee rewards

Skirmish | Weekend event with a special ruleset; first win gives a free random card pack

Skirmish Tournament | Entry of 50 Gold or 5 Diamonds; bracket rewards (1st place: 50 Gold plus a random pack)

Single-player | Missions and campaign content for rewards and practice

Recent Skirmish rulesets: "10 unique powerful cards added to each deck" (25–27 September 2026), and "extra kredit slot plus a choice of 37 mm ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN, JET PROTOTYPE, or DIRECT HIT each turn" (11–13 September). The 18–20 September Skirmish Tournament allowed only Standard and Limited rarity cards, making it very budget-friendly.

Free-to-Play Economy

• Gold: Earned from dailies, wins, achievements, and rank rewards. Buy packs or enter Draft/tournaments.
• Diamonds: Premium currency (also rewarded in small amounts). Best spent on bundles and Battle Ready Decks.
• Wildcards: Turn into any card of that rarity. Save Limited and above for key cards.
• Scrapping: Extra copies can be broken down into crafting currency; never scrap cards you might need for another nation until you're sure.

KARDS markets itself as fully free with all cards earnable through play. Budget Standard/Limited aggro decks are the most efficient route to climbing.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Flooding the support line. Four units plus HQ is the cap; a full support line means you can't deploy anything new.
• Overcommitting to the frontline into a board wipe. Hold one or two units back when the opponent has kredits open.
• Ignoring operation costs. Plan your whole turn's kredits before deploying.
• Attacking into Smokescreen or Guard math. Resolve the Guard first, and don't waste removal on units that can't hurt you yet.
• Crafting across all nations. Focus.
• Skipping the free Skirmish pack. One win per event is a free pack.

Advanced Tips

• Tempo over value early. Controlling the frontline on turns 2 to 4 often decides the game.
• Count lethal every turn, including bombers and direct-damage orders. HQ damage adds up faster than it looks.
• Bait countermeasures with a cheap attack before your key play.
• Track weather. Forecast cards change conditions for both players; plan around the next weather state.
• Use the ally as your tech slot. In a meta full of air, pick allies with strong anti-air or removal.
• Watch the dev blogs. 1939 Games explains every balance change and its reasoning, which tells you which archetypes will rise next.

FAQ

Is KARDS pay-to-win? No. All cards are earnable through play, and budget decks can climb. Spending speeds up collection.

Which nation is best for beginners? Germany and the Soviet Union are straightforward and aggressive. Britain rewards patient, defensive play.

What is the frontline? The shared middle row. Controlling it lets your ground units reach the enemy support line and HQ.

Did Ring of Fire rotate any cards? No. The mini-set added 30 cards with no rotation. Rotation is annual, introduced alongside Oceania Storm.

How do Skirmish events work? Weekend modes (usually Friday 12:00 UTC to Sunday 18:00 UTC) with a special ruleset. Your first win earns a random card pack.

Is KARDS on mobile? Yes. It launched on iOS and Android in 2023 with crossplay against PC.

Sources

• KARDS Steam news hub
• Ring of Fire Is Live - Overview and Patch Notes (Steam, 10 Sep 2026)
• Dev Blog - September Balance Patch (Steam, 4 Sep 2026)
• Ring of Fire: Battle-Ready Decks (Steam, 11 Sep 2026)
• Skirmish Tournament announcement (Steam, 18 Sep 2026)
• KARDS on Wikipedia
• KARDS on Steam