Dev Blog - April 2026 Balance Patch

Hello friends!

Spring is upon us and soon we will revel in a summer spoiler season. But before that we have to course correct a few cards that have been misbehaving. The meta has become somewhat stale and the same decks are just growing more popular with very little innovation taking place. So it is time to shake the ant farm one more time and see what treasures emerge before the summer expansion takes over.

Like in the last patch, some of the adjustments we are making are with the upcoming rotation changes in mind, where we will expand the number of cards in the permanent pool, i.e. cards that will never rotate out. A couple of cards in this patch are slated for inclusion in the permanent pool, but are in need of a slight facelift for that transition. More on that below.

As always, we will start by going over the nerfs - the cards we are making worse to give room for other things, before listing the buffs - the cards we want to see more of. Let’s get to it.

Nerfs

BUFFS

Buffs is an interesting, but controversial, card. On one hand, it promotes unique deck building choices and drives play of a nation otherwise bereft of strong decks in recent times, but on the other hand it can take over games unless very specific answers are drawn. For the longest time in the last few months the Buffs archetype saw a decent amount of play with good performance, but in the last couple of weeks has seen a sharp increase in its popularity, to the point an answer was demanded. 

The stat nerfs to Buffs are pretty harsh, but its ability remains the same, meaning the soul of the card is still intact. However, with the nerfed body, it now takes a lot more effort to bring it to a dominant state. Our hope is that the archetype is still playable, but a lot less oppressive. 

FRONTIER FORCE

Old: Fury. Deployment: Add a GARRISON unit to your support line.

New: Fury. Deployment: Add a GARRISON unit to your hand.

In the epic saga of Buffs, there was always a trusty sidekick lurking in the shadows. A sidekick so potent that it saw play as second fiddle in various other decks, mainly Ger-Brit midrange strategies. We are leaving its stats alone, so the option for imposing links to Chain Home or HMS Formidable are still very much on the table. But the Garrison unit now being added to hand rather than the battlefield gives the enemy a lot better opportunities to answer the Frontier Force before it can become a threat. The upside is that the Garrison in hand can be used to trigger for instance Forward Observers, but as the age-old saying goes - one Garrison in play is better than two in hand.

Sd Kfz 10 PAK 38

Old: Blitz. Gets +2 attack until end of turn if another card increases the attack of this unit.

New: Blitz. Gets +1 attack until end of turn if another card increases the attack of this unit.

This nerf may come a bit out of leftfield for some, but the Sd KFz 10 Pak 38 can become a lethal threat more quickly than the time it takes you to say its name four times in a row. While this strategy is still mostly under the radar, it has been growing in strength and popularity in recent weeks and we want to nip it in the bud before it goes out of hand. The nerfed version can still provide good value and it now has greater staying power, but its OTK days are gone.

THE BIG THREE

In a stunning turn of historical events it turns out the Big Three were not big enough and will now grow one bigger to five. The Big Three operates on a spectrum with “win more” on one end and “completely dead on an empty board” on the other, but in between there is this sweet spot where you grew your team to an unassailable position for the enemy to deal with. And now that the US has even more tools to do similar things, such as 15th Engineers, it is becoming frustratingly consistent. So to combat this we are making The Big Three bigger.

106th INFANTRY REGIMENT

The final nerf of the April patch hits the hotfix hotpants fox itself, the 106th Infantry Regiment. Since its inception it quickly became the most desirable belle of the ball in most Japan-based decks. It has many strengths, one of them being the ability to contest the frontline with no cost, meaning their powerful ability became more of a problem for the enemy. So the nerf may seem slight, and make no mistake, the 106th will still be a very strong card, but the 1 operation cost makes the card a lot worse at fighting over the frontline, especially in the early turns of the game when it matters most.

Buffs

LANCASTER Mk I

The ol’ Lancaster warhorse is seeing a slight facelift. The 7-4 ate 9 and now costs 8 kredits as a result. It may still feel slow and cumbersome, but a 7 attack blitz unit is nothing to sneeze at and if a British heavy bomber deck ever shows up the Lancaster now has a much higher chance of being included.

ACE OF SPADES

The Ace Of Spades has not turned out to be the ace in the hole many hoped for, the 7 kredits being demanded turning out to be too high of a stake. At 6 cost though the powerful abilities promised by the unit make it a much more appealing bet to make and can lead straight to a flush of dead enemy units and a full house of trophies.

M2A4

The ability of the M2A4 is a neat one that fits nicely with the rest of what the US was up to in Homefront, but its stats made it slightly awkward to use effectively. The 0 operation cost is a significant upgrade, even if it comes with a lower defense. Buffing this bad boy is now a lot more satisfying and we expect to see more rumble in the jungle with it.

CHAR B1 bis

Old: Mobilize, Heavy Armor 2. When this unit loses Mobilize, draw a card.

New: Shock, Heavy Armor 2. Deployment: Gains Blitz if this is the first unit you deploy this turn.

Now we come to the first of the two cards changing because of them becoming part of the permanent pool. Mobilize is not part of said pool, but we wanted to include this iconic tank, so changes are in order. It is now part of the “first unit deployed” theme of France. Strong stats plus the combination of Shock and Blitz makes this a powerful inclusion in mid-range or control decks, though only time will tell if we see it charging into the meta.

MOTTI TACTIC

Old: Destroy target unit and Salvage it.

New: Destroy target unit. Add a copy of it to your hand.

The clever Motti tactic served Finland well during World War II, but its performance in Kards has been rather lackluster. In addition, same as with Mobilize above, Salvage is not part of the permanent pool. The card retains its functionality for the most part, but getting a full fledged copy of the destroyed unit is significantly stronger than a salvaged copy, even with the additional cost.

That is all for now. Keep the feedback coming, it helps a lot. The balance patch is aimed to launch on April 22nd. It will include various fixes and improvements on top of the balance changes, so make sure to keep an eye out for the full patch notes when the update lands. Until then, see you on the battlefield, commander!