Gwent - The Witcher Card Game

SmoothMalts · 26-10-2018 10:22pm #1

Gwent is a TCG from the studio of the Witcher, set in that universe. Haven't seen a thread up yet so I though I'd make one.

The basic premise of Gwent is that players compete for a point advantage by playing units and spells on a battlefield consisting of two friendly and two enemy rows. Unlike in Hearthstone or Magic, there is no player character that must be destroyed in order to win - everything relies on the structure and synergy of the cards on the board to gain yourself points while diminishing your opponent's.

However, the game has had a bit of a troubled history. It was released to open beta in May 2017. Later that year, the team released the 'midwinter update' which rubbed many players the wrong way with certain RNG mechanics and dodgy card effects. After some more controversies, they then annoucned the ambitious 'Gwent Homecoming.' This was to be a complete overhaul of the game, coming in 6 months, with full release only a few weeks later. If you haven't played Gwent in a while, this update has completely changed the game, as promised. Noteable differences are:

A complete graphical overhaul
Most cards have new effects
Several new card tags and abilities
Cards that can be placed and manually activated later
Reduction of number of rows from three to two
Which row you place your unit on actually matters in many cases
A new progression system
Big changes to deck building
Other, more minor things.

Anyway, has anyone been playing? What are your thoughts on Homecoming or just the game in general? Has anyone found any OP decks yet, or is the game an absolute masterpiece with no balance issues whatsoever (lol)? Would love to hear it.

YouSavedMyLife · 27-10-2018 12:16am

There was a thread sometime ago for it. There doesn't seemed to be many people playing here on boards. I love it and am enjoying homecoming aside from a few issues i have with it. Bought Thronebreaker today, makes for a nice relaxed story based game for when your not in the mood for being competitive. I love the engine they are using for world traversal in it, has my mind racing with all the different genre of games they could make using it set in the Witcher universe.

As for decks, i haven't played anything other than Skellige at the moment. Discard Bears is super strong but i honestly don't enjoy playing discard at the moment or even in the past with older versions of Gwent. There is one card that destroys that deck though, Lemmy something which i have in all my decks :pac::pac:

But mainly playing Selfwounding/Healing Queensguard with Boats and Protectors as i find it alot of fun and decent, with artifact removal tech and graveyard hate for the discard bear players.

SmoothMalts · 27-10-2018 3:07am

Wish I could afford Thronebreaker - it looks great, story and all. Really not something I would have ever thought would be anything more than mediocre, so they've surpassed all my expectations.

Enjoying Homecoming as well (as you might suspect from the time of my posting this.) Going for a consume/deathwish deck with Arachas Queen, finding it actually pretty effective. The provisions system limits it a bit, but I guess that's what it's for.

Actually haven't played against any bear decks yet; my nemesis has been charge-based Northern Realms with insane boost chains whenever anyone deos anything, and just there Usurper un-royally fecked me over. I actually think that he's a crap card from a design point of view since he just breaks some decks, kappa

YouSavedMyLife · 27-10-2018 8:25am

Agree with you about Usurper being crap. He's anti fun and removes one of the more interesting added with homecoming. He really should be reworked.

Charge based NR is indeed strong if you don't have locks or removal as they will out pace you in points easily in a long round. Geralt:Yrden might be an answer in this case, or add some locks to your deck, would have to look over the cards as I still don't know what everything does.

Again not sure about monster card changes but I think they might be the best faction to deal with bears because they have graveyard consume with ghouls

Robert ninja · 28-10-2018 7:58pm

I think he's supposed to be anti-fun and I actually kind of like that :pac: He's just there to shut down any builds that rely too heavily on big leader swing/opening/ending.

I've only played a few hours but so far I like the new system. The card draws per round and 10 card limit so far have made me invest in rounds where I'd normally have just passed straight away. There's less card hoarding. I might hate this later when I actually get decent at the strategy but for now it's fun.

I have like a bazillion scrap from the beta days. I don't know if they'll do promotions anymore on kegs and powder... at least not on using then. For sure they'll have sales but with the introduction of premium kegs as reward drops I don't know if we'll get those "premium keg weekends" or the time when powder only cost 50% to use (not buy). This made me and most of the players hoard their kegs and powder big time until a promotion dropped since it was seen as wasteful to use them any other time.

I haven't bought thronebreaker and I've kind of lost interest in doing so at this point. I might pick it up later but the promotional trailers and information didn't really sell me on it. I was way more hype when it was first announced.

SmoothMalts · 29-10-2018 12:27am

Robert ninja wrote: »

I have like a bazillion scrap from the beta days. I don't know if they'll do promotions anymore on kegs and powder... at least not on using then. For sure they'll have sales but with the introduction of premium kegs as reward drops I don't know if we'll get those "premium keg weekends" or the time when powder only cost 50% to use (not buy). This made me and most of the players hoard their kegs and powder big time until a promotion dropped since it was seen as wasteful to use them any other time.

Yeah, I have about 50,000 scrap from my brief stint in beta. Didn't even play that much. Combine that with the amount of kegs and ore you get from the new rewards system, and I really don't see myself spending any money on the game for a year at least, and that's if I craft religiously. Really quite impressed with it in that regard, especially because that's why I never got into Hearthstone. Hope it proves a viable business model though.

SmoothMalts · 29-10-2018 12:34am

YouSavedMyLife wrote: »

Again not sure about monster card changes but I think they might be the best faction to deal with bears because they have graveyard consume with ghouls

Is there some reason ghouls have such a high provision cost? I can appreciate them if you have some meatier cards in the graveyard, but I usually don't, since consume cards generally have a lower base strength.

Robert ninja · 31-10-2018 2:45am

Artifacts are quickly becoming the meta cancer than needs fixing it seems. A pro player made a video recently on it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlfgIPaac50

tldr: artifacts exist in their own realm and you either build decks to use/counter them or you don't. rng higher than ever /tldr

I haven't felt this too much since I've barely played enough but I can still kinda see the smoke in the horizon even now. I think removing 2 rows was also unnecessary and their reason for it was just to make the cards look bigger

. Which is funny because they have a lot more unnecessary window dressing surrounding the board than ever and even turned the leader cards into 3D models. I think it's very impressive right now but perhaps solely due to novely. Long term, 6 levels of distance between cards might've made it a lot more tactical.

The good news I think this is totally fixable. However they'll need to cut their losses and ditch a lot of hard work... not something they'll do in a hurry. So who knows how long it'll stay like this if they're stubborn about it.

noodler · 21-01-2019 11:23am

Is there no thronebreaker thread?

Just finished it. 50 odd hours.

Thought it was excellent.

ZiabR · 21-01-2019 12:21pm

noodler wrote: »

Is there no thronebreaker thread?

Just finished it. 50 odd hours.

Thought it was excellent.

Amazing game. One of the only games, within a game that I sunk massive hours into playing. Thronebreaker is fantastic.

skerry · 29-01-2019 1:12pm

ZiabR wrote: »

Amazing game. One of the only games, within a game that I sunk massive hours into playing. Thronebreaker is fantastic.

Was looking for a Thronebreaker thread also and just came across this now. It's 20 on PS4 at the moment. Highly recommended so?

I loved Gwent in the main game but haven't played stand alone Gwent. Is the battle system in TB very similar to Gwent?

I had read a few threads where people were not digging TB but I'm guessing they were just non-gwent loving weirdos as most reviews are positive.

YouSavedMyLife · 29-01-2019 1:56pm

skerry wrote: »

Was looking for a Thronebreaker thread also and just came across this now. It's 20 on PS4 at the moment. Highly recommended so?

I loved Gwent in the main game but haven't played stand alone Gwent. Is the battle system in TB very similar to Gwent?

I had read a few threads where people were not digging TB but I'm guessing they were just non-gwent loving weirdos as most reviews are positive.

I love and play the current standalone Gwent game alot at the moment. TB is more complex than Gwent, and faaaaaaar more complex than Witcher 3 Gwent. If im being honest im not a fan of the gameplay aspect of TB, maybe playing Gwent for so long against other people i can't go back to versus A.I.

But i am still playing through TB and im loving the characters, storyline and lands im exploring. I'd love for CDPR to use the same engine they used in TB and apply it to some ARPG like Diablo, or SRPG like Baldurs Gate.

Gwent - The Witcher Card Game

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