Homefront – Early War Release Patch Notes

Hello, Commanders!

The Spring Release has arrived, bringing a fresh wave of content and quality-of-life upgrades to KARDS - The WW2 Card Game:

• Homefront – Early War mini-set: 24 new cards

• Card balance updates 

• No card rotation

• Classic tournaments

• “Iron Proven” tournament deck creation tool

• Skirmish game mode returns

• Draft pool update

• Bug fixes and general improvements

Read on for the full breakdown of everything included in this release.

Homefront – Early War Mini-Set

The Homefront – Early War mini-set introduces 24 brand new cards: 4 for each of the main nations, and 1 for each of the ally nations.

This is a reinforcement mini-set for Homefront, expanding the set’s early-war themes - when new fronts opened and the line was contested from day one - while adding new tools to support and sharpen existing Homefront strategies.

For the full details of the cards and themes in this release, check out our full release announcement:

Card Balance Updates

12 balance changes arrive with the Spring Release, helping shape the meta throughout the Spring season.

CROSSFIRE

99th KHOLM

PB2Y CORONADO

CYCLONE DIVISION

Ki-61-I-TEI

Old: Destruction: Deal 3 damage to the enemy HQ, give yours +3 defense.

New: Destruction: Deal 2 damage to the enemy HQ, give yours +2 defense.

MOSQUITO B Mk IV

FLAMMPANZER

152mm HOWITZER GUN

JUNGLE WARFARE

114th INFANTRY REGIMENT

BANZAI

Old: Destroy all ground units with 4 attack or less. End your turn.

New: Destroy all units with 4 attack or less. End your turn.

FRENCH 75

Old: If the enemy controls the frontline, this unit can only attack units there.

New: The first unit you deploy each turn gets +1+1.

No Card Rotation

In January’s 2026 roadmap update, we shared that we’re moving to a once-per-year rotation tied to expansions (sets).

Homefront – Early War is the first release under that updated approach. When it deploys on March 10, no cards will rotate into the Reserve pool - there’s no rotation with this release.

We plan to share more details on the updated rotation plan around late March.

Classic Tournaments

A new tournament type is deploying with the Spring Release: Classic Tournaments!

Classic Tournaments use cards currently in the Reserve pool, opening the door to creative builds, unexpected counters, and some truly classic matchups.

Entry fee: 200 Gold or 20 Diamonds.

Prize structure:

• 0 wins: 50 gold

• 1 win: 100 Gold and 1 Pack

• 2 wins: 150 Gold, 1 Officer Pack, and 5 diamonds

• 3 wins: 250 Gold, 2 Officer Packs, 10 diamonds, and 2 Trophies

Classic Tournaments run every Saturday. Gear up for the first deployment on Saturday, March 14!

Iron Proven Tournament Deck Creation Tool

We’re adding a new deck-building option that lets you create a deck directly from a recently victorious Iron Tournament deck.

In the Cards deck selection menu, press the “+” button to create a new deck. You’ll now see up to four options:

• New Deck

• Battle Ready

• Iron Proven

• Import Deck

Select Iron Proven, then choose your main nation. Your new Iron Tournament-proven deck will be created automatically.

As with imported decks, you’ll need to own all cards in the list to take the deck into battle. If you have enough wildcards, you can craft any missing cards directly from the deck creation interface.

Skirmish Game Mode

Skirmishes are returning with the Spring Release!

First introduced in 2022, Skirmishes are limited-time events featuring matches with special rulesets - usually running from Friday through Sunday.

Skirmishes can include rules such as:

• Bring your own deck, with special construction limits (e.g. only Standard and Limited rarities, or only air units and orders).

• Bring your own deck, but play under special battlefield rules (e.g. units gain random keywords when deployed, kredits accrue at a modified rate, or playing an order deploys a similar-cost unit of the same nation to your support line).

• Use a randomized pre-made deck, such as decks created by World Championship winners.

Skirmishes offer an alternate battlefield - fast, experimental, and built for variety. We’re planning the first refreshed Skirmish events soon, using rules from some of the most popular Skirmishes we’ve run before. Your feedback will help guide how Skirmishes evolve going forward.

Keep an eye on the latest news for details on the first upcoming Skirmish event!

Draft Pool Update

Alongside Homefront – Early War, the Draft pool has been updated - dialing back Britain’s power slightly, while giving Germany and Japan a bit more room to maneuver.

Below is the full list of changes. As a reminder: Reserve cards do not appear in Draft unless explicitly listed, and active-pool cards do appear in Draft unless explicitly listed.

Not Available in Draft

• SHERWOOD FORESTERS

• BLOCKADE

• ECHELON

• THE LAND GIRLS

• 25 POUNDER MK I

• SLASHERS

• GREIF

• CASE BLUE

• HENSCHEL HS 126

• JUNKERS JU 188 E

• JET PROTOTYPE

• HAPPY TIME

• RUN THE BATTLEFIELD

• TACTICAL RETREAT

• E13A JAKE

• CARRIER BATTLE

• 114TH INFANTRY REGIMENT

• KI-51 SONIA

• FOR THE EMPEROR

• DEFEAT IN DETAIL

• ENGAGE AT RANGE

• 144TH INFANTRY REGIMENT

• OUTMANEUVER

• J1N1 GEKKO

• HIMEJI REGIMENT

Available in Draft

• TIMELY SUPPLIES

• 15TH RECCE

• BLENHEIM MK I

• ENEMY CONTACT

• HEINKEL HE 115

• BF 110 C ZERSTÖRER

• PANTHER A

• HUMMEL

• 989. INFANTRY REGIMENT

• 81. INFANTRY REGIMENT

• 25. PANZERGRENADIER

• KOKURA'S SWORD

• RULE THE SKIES

• TYPE 94 TK EARLY

• 66TH INDEPENDENT

• 56TH RECON

• A5M4 CLAUDE

• SAKURA REGIMENT

Check out the dedicated Draft pool update announcement here: 

Bug Fixes

Battle

• The Intel ability of the LUBLIN R-XIII was not triggered after an activated countermeasure was triggered. Fixed.

• Fixed broken interaction between VOLUNTEER CORPS and 8th CAVALRY REGIMENT or Ki-100 GOSHIKISEN causing the HQ to become permanently immune.

• When a 120mm M1 GUN was added to the battlefield via SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT, the “Deals double damage to air units” ability was incorrectly active. Fixed.

• The M8 GREYHOUND unit ability was not correctly applied to a Covert unit in the support line after the Covert unit was revealed. Fixed.

• A Bond card (e.g. THE LAND GIRLS) cancelled by a countermeasure with the “Counter an enemy order” ability (e.g. HMS SCEPTRE) still triggered the Bond ability, potentially dealing damage to the HQ. Fixed.

• When a unit with the Fight ability was deployed (e.g. 40 ROYAL MARINE), the buff from a unit with the “Your other units have +x attack” (e.g. 1st LONDON BRIGADE) was applied after the Fight ability was resolved, instead of before. Fixed.

• When a unit with the “Remove an enemy unit” ability (e.g. SENDAI REGIMENT) removed an opponent’s SEAHAWK from play, if a unit with the Fight ability destroyed the unit that had removed the SEAHAWK (e.g. 113. SCHÜTZEN), the SEAHAWK’s unit ability incorrectly applied before it was returned to the battlefield, reducing the damage taken by the Fight ability unit. Fixed.

• When a SEAGULL was located on the battlefield, damage dealt to the HQ by an opponent’s PANTHER D was not correctly affected by the SEAGULL’s unit ability. Fixed.

• If WAVE AFTER WAVE was located in hand and an order was played, WAVE AFTER WAVE was not correctly highlighted. Fixed. 

• If a friendly ILYUSHIN IL-10 was taken control of using CONFUSION, if the ILYUSHIN IL-10 was destroyed while located on the opponent’s battlefield, the last destroyed friendly unit was added to the opponent’s support line, instead of the opponent’s last destroyed unit. Fixed.

• A 40 ROYAL MARINE without the Navy subtype was not correctly Salvaged (e.g. by OX AND BUCKS). Fixed.

• THE DEUCE unit ability was not correctly triggered after it was deployed. Fixed.

• After a veteran CYCLONE DIVISION was removed or suppressed, a Sherman unit added by the veteran CYCLONE DIVISION did not correctly have Blitz. Fixed.

• After a KURUME REGIMENT was destroyed by CODE OF BUSHIDO, the destruction action appeared twice in the battle history log. Fixed.

• In some cases, the Blitz ability given by PATTON was not correctly removed at the end of turn. Fixed.

Campaigns

• In the Theaters of War Soviet Campaign #3 “Klin”, the “Destroy 12 German units” objective was incorrectly counted as complete after only 7 or 8 units were destroyed. Fixed.

• In the Theaters of War German Campaign #4 “Tel El Eisa”, enemy units operation cost should be visually set to 0, but was not. Fixed.

Visual

• If a non-default player portrait was selected,  if the portrait was changed to the default “silhouette” portrait, the portrait would revert back to the previously selected portrait after relaunching the game. Fixed.

• Unit ability pop-ups were incorrectly shown over some other interfaces (e.g. Victory screen). Fixed.

• In the Missions interface, the “Battle Pass Active” text overlapped with the “Daily Missions” text in French, Russian, Polish and Japanese localizations. Fixed.

• In the 8-day new player rewards interface, in Japanese, the pop-up for the reward names for the 5th, 7th, and 8th rewards did not appear. Fixed.

• The orange exclamation mark on the Shop did not correctly disappear after claiming the free daily card. Fixed.

• On alternative card art title text, in Polish, the “Ł” letter was missing. Fixed.

Thank You For Your Feedback

Thank you to everyone submitting comments, feedback, and bug reports - these reports are invaluable as we continue improving KARDS.

We hope you enjoy everything that has arrived with the March release.

New to KARDS?

If you’re just joining the ranks, here are a few quick places to get battle-ready:

• Learn the basics and jump into your first match: How To Play KARDS

• Check out top featured and community decks: KARDS Decks

• Join the KARDS community on Discord: KARDS Discord