Developer Update: Balance Changes and The Red Terror Season

The new season will start on Monday, August 3rd.

It seems like poor Dante can’t escape from either the Tyranids, or getting older! This next Season marks Combat Cards 7th Anniversary and the introduction of The Red Terror as our latest Warlord!

We’ve got some significant changes to some Tyranid bodyguards, and a hefty rebalance on some Warlords. You’re all here for the monthly balance changes, so I won’t dwell too long on all the amazing upcoming events to mark the anniversary, but do check out the Anniversary home page!

With that, let’s get stuck into this month’s changes!

Warlord Changes:

The Fires of Mars: Whenever a friendly card makes a Ranged attack, increase that attack by [30% -> 40%] of its Melee attack value. Whenever a friendly card makes a Melee attack, increase that attack by [30% -> 40%] of its Ranged attack value. Additionally, at the start of your turn, the enemy card with the highest cost takes damage equal to [10% -> 20%] of its base Wounds.

Thulia Ghuld is our latest Supreme Commander and while she definitely has the potential to be devastating, we may have under tuned her slightly. In early testing she was absolutely dominating at values a bit higher than this, and so we brought her down by a fair bit, which seemed correct from our testing. Obviously this was a bit too cautious as the current data shows, so we’re tuning her up to see if this is close enough to where she should be overall. 

She should pose a really interesting, and non-standard, deck composition for the faction, so we’re keen to see her thrive!

Phantom Visions: When defending, if a Necron card does not make an attack, reduce damage dealt to it by [50% -> 75%].

Stat Change: +30 Wounds, +15 Range, -22 Melee (Ranged only)
Upgrade Change: Level 3 Melee -> Wounds

Manifest Nightmare is a WL who’s needed a tune up for a while. Although considered oppressive when released, that was now a long time ago, and the game has changed a lot since then. Firstly we’re increasing the damage reduction amount. With the dual restriction of “when defending” and being attacked by an attack type a card doesn’t have, it’s only fair to increase the damage reduction significantly. Damage as a whole has gotten a lot more lethal, meaning that 50% really doesn’t feel that much in a lot of match ups.

Perhaps more meaningful is the rework to Manifest Nightmare themselves. They are dropping the Melee stat entirely, and becoming Ranged only. That obviously means that he now benefits from his own rule much more easily, which had been a complaint about playing him. While this isn’t reflective of the tabletop, conceding on this to improve overall gameplay makes the most sense. Also with the Upgrade change of Melee to Wounds at Level 3 this is an effect +40 Wounds increase to the Warlord across all levels. Should be much more resilient, as well as having a big buff to its now mono-Ranged attack.

The Dark Master: For each enemy card below [80%] base Wounds increase the attack of all friendly cards by [20% -> 25%]. Additionally for each enemy card below [50%] Wounds decrease the attack of all enemy cards by [20%->25%].

Stat Change: +10 Wounds, +10 Psychic, +10 Melee

Finally we come to Be’lakor. He’s definitely a powerful Warlord but Chaos has some of the stiffest competition out there being the most played faction overall currently, and with the most Warlords. The stat increases are meaningful, making Be’lakor even more of an overall threat and giving a bit of an early game boost, which is great timing given he’s just been added to the general release pool last month.

As for his special rule, the buff/debuff amount have both been increased, and while only at +5%, which is still meaningful if marginal, given that they can stack, his overall rule potential is up by +15% taking the cap up to a massive +/-75%. We’ll see how well this sets him onto the path to ascension. 

With those Warlord changes out the way lets take a look at the Tyranid faction changes.

Worth highlighting is that while the Norns are both undoubtedly one of the best models in the Tyranid range, they’ve landed a bit flat since release. Both are getting trait changes, with the Emissary getting both changed. We’re moving both into the BGH role (which the Assimilator already had) to represent their Singular Purpose, and so subbing out the Target Acquired which was not what you want on such a high cost card. The Assimilator getting Furious Charge makes it the more aggressive option, and the Emissary gets Shield to be more defensive. Both should now be in a much better position to duel it out with big enemy targets, which is exactly what they should be doing!

Bodyguard Changes:

And as always with the start of this Season the following cards are being added to the general pool:

Cards Added to the General Pool: