Six years. Hundreds of cards. Millions of battles.

What started as a bold, digital reimagining of Games Workshop’s classic ‘Combat Cards’ has evolved into something far more: a living, breathing battlefield shaped by updates, chaos, and the passion of you, its players!.

Whether you’ve been with us since the first cries from the battlefield, or just dropped onto the front lines in Year 6, this is your war too.

So to celebrate, we’re taking a look back at how far we’ve come, not just as a game, but as a team, and as a community. Let’s dive into six years of decks, development, and domination.

Combat Cards Chronicles

Over six years of Warhammer Combat Cards, we’ve introduced a wide range of features. We’re revisiting some of the biggest additions to the game, with the team sharing their thoughts, design goals, and a few behind-the-scenes stories. Whether you’re a day-one veteran or a recent recruit, join us as the team reflect on the systems that have defined your battles, and ours.

Harry (Experienced Designer): I wasn’t here for launch as a dev, but was as a player! I remember being excited to see a new game that combined two of my favourite things; card games and Warhammer

Greg (Live Ops Manager): As a 40k Hobbyist, I was able to join the beta testing program, I was so passionate/invested that I constantly sent feedback documents to the team! 🙂

Harry: I had just joined the team in the second half of this year! Lockdown, new job and exciting start into the industry all meant that the game, and the studio quickly came to feel like home!

Harry: One of my big first jobs was to bring in a new trait and a new warlord every month! It was a really exciting position to be and meant that I was both thrown in at the deep end and making a difference from day one! The tactical variety and new gameplay this brought definitely evolved the game into a more complex and engaging game which was great to see!

Harry: It was great to finally get Clan functionality in the game given it had been promised since release, Dedications being the big thing that started our continued efforts to give players more control over their collections. There’s still much more to add to Clans and something we hope to revisit soon! Getting Votann in the game was a unique challenge with a very quick turnaround. It was great to be able to be one of the first games in the world to show off the new faction, and hopefully the newly expanded range will help grow it even further!

Greg: “And then one day, I got in” In my first week at the studio this became all system GO! Being able to release in line with GW enabled everyone to ride the hype train and we haven’t looked back since. We pride ourselves on being able to match the cadence/release schedule of GW.

Harry: It was good to be able to get another new full game mode into the game. In its first iteration it was very much just a free play zone, with players able to experiment with a popular format at 400pts. It also came at the same time as the Supreme Commanders and Lords of War allowing us to start building a more consistent home for these big cards. It was an interesting one that started with our desire to get Primarchs into the game in a way that made them both usable and appropriate to the tabletop and lore. From that point we needed to find a way to expand that level of power to all factions, where we then decided to springboard off the existing Supreme Commander keyword to make a clear template and give access to all factions.

Greg: I’ve always been a fan of BIG apoc games on the tabletop and was surprised we weren’t able to play with the big toys in WCC! (especially when one of the internal pillars was to collect and build the impossible digital hobby collection). Over time I’d like to be able to experience all tabletop forms of 40k in WCC. E.g. Primary and Secondary Objectives, Stategems, Detachments, Kill team, Crusade, Boarding Actions and Combat Patrol (hopefully becomes like spearhead in Sigmar). Battlefleet Gothic, Space Hulk and other specialist games 🙂

Harry: The main goal and purpose of Wildcards was to unlock player agency when leveling their collection. Wild Cards meant that players were able make proactive choices around leveling as well as unlocking a new currency and payout to card drops. It’s been a really positive change, and a theme we’ve been continuing to expand since.

Harry: This is another big step towards giving players more agency over their collection, but rather than just on card levelling, on how the cards take shape themselves. Being able to directly upgrade from a choice of stat increases allow each player to flex their own builds and creativity.

As well as this, the functionality unlocked with Enhancements opens the door to many future updates where players are able to make more active choices. We’re looking forward to see where this development takes up in future!

Greg: I would like to think the epic switch trait will help the majority of players. When looking at the data it can take players on average 4 years to get an epic to level 9 and 2 years to level 7, especially with an ever growing card pool. This combined with wildcards and enhancements makes for the most adjacency users have ever had to make their collection their own (differ from other players) and able to level up the cards they want!

Community Highlights

You’ve delivered some truly unforgettable moments over the years. In-game and out-of-game. We’ve collected some of our favourite memes and tactical oddities.

We’ve also gathered some of the funniest comments we’ve received from players over the years. Here are a few gems:

To the Discord tacticians, bug hunters, and feedback veterans: we see you. You’ve helped shape Combat Cards in ways most players will never know, whether by posting gnarly deck builds, reporting bugs, or just keeping things light when the matchups get rough.

Community Minis

Across six years of Warhammer Combat Cards, one constant has stood above all, the passion of our community. From the cards you collect to the armies you build in real life, your creativity knows no bounds.

To celebrate this milestone, we’re showcasing some of the incredible painted miniatures shared by our players, commanders who bring the 41st Millennium to life not just on-screen, but on the tabletop.

To Year Seven and Beyond

Six years is a long time in the 41st Millennium, and for us, it’s been a journey built card by card, update by update, and player by player.

Warhammer Combat Cards may have changed pace over the years, but it’s still here because of you, the players who log in, build decks, chase wins, and care enough to share their thoughts with us.

As we mark this anniversary, we’re proud of how far the game has come and grateful to everyone who’s been part of it. Whether you’ve joined us recently or stuck it out since Year 1, thank you.

Year 7 holds new challenges, new cards, and perhaps a few surprises. We hope you’ll be there with us.