4Game

Context:

About 4 months ago, as new year was closing in, I came up with an idea of creating Gwent in real life, so that I could play with friends (who weren't into Gwent). As someone who had created board games in the past, this idea excited me and so I got down to it. Borrowing assets from https://gwent.one/ and https://gwentcard.online/, I managed to create a template to create my version of cards. My main aim was to simplify the gameplay, so no additional tokens or such can be used. It was challenging but I think I ran its course and in the end managed to achieve it.

It was a long and arduous journey, giving up on it entirely at one point because I wasn't satisfied with the results. But I did make a comeback and managed to make 145 cards, 6 devotion decks, 21 neutral cards and also a starter deck. I managed to print out 3 faction decks (Northern Realms, Scoia'tael and Nilfgaard) and gave it a spin with my friends. While they liked it, they didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. It didn't take long for me to realize that the decks I had built were reliant on knowing Gwent basics and deck strategy. So, I set out and created a starter deck. The idea was to not have a core strategy that it relied on too heavily, but to use the most bare mechanics to build a fun deck. I printed out 2 decks and gave it a try. It was a success! The games were far more enjoyable and unpredictable. We shall talk about the decks in detail in some time.

All in all, before we get down to it, I would like to thank everyone in this subreddit for helping me with their ideas and input and also showing interest in my project. This would not have happened without you guys. Now, let's get down to it.

Making the cards:

I have included the link here to a onedrive folder for all the 8 ppts. You should be able to download and customize them to your hearts content. If you wish for printable images, please let me know.

There are many ways to create the cards. If you are fortunate enough to have the money, I suggest trying to use making playing cards website to have them make it for you. Else, you can do what I did. Essentially, buy a pack of cards first and take the measurements of the card. Create the cards such that they are smaller than the playing card and then leave a margin around the image so when cutting you don't need precision cuts. Then print them out, cut them up and stick them onto the playing cards. I was able to create 1 deck (25 cards) for less than $2 (but I am from India and your mileage may vary). They won't look as pretty but it doesn't look bad.

The decks themselves:

6 factions + neutral. I managed to build one devotion deck for each faction, but didn't have any rules for devotion as such.

Let's talk about rules of the game

1. Most of the rules remain the same. 3 rounds, 10 cards starting hand, draw 3 cards at the start of each turn and toss winner gets tactical advantage.
2. The deck building is changed slightly. There are 3 types of cards now, gold, silver, and bronze, just like in beta. I choose to have 5 golds, 6 silver, and rest as bronze. But you can change this the way you like.
3. Ability is nothing but deploy. Since order doesn't work, I just changed the name. Gave the special cards keyword 'effect' for consistency.
4. Summon works like in digital game. Ability is not triggered.
5. When playing cards from deck, you pick the card out and shuffle the rest. This does disrupt the stuff like looking at top cards, so ideal you would want to separate them out before shuffling.

I think that is all. If I am missing anything, do let me know.

Faction deck and it's strategy:

I would like to give a quick explanation of each faction and the archetype I decided to build on.

Scoia'tael – At first I tried to make a movement deck, but reddit user Pearpain (shout-out to him), suggested I focus on special instead. Taking his advice, focused on it and managed to make a rather balanced deck. The idea is to use special cards to keep your units alive while killing your opponent's units. Cards like Hamadryad and Abandoned girl use special cards, and with Dryad's caress you can summon Transformed abandoned girl as many times as you can. Barnabas let's you replay cards from R1 while the dwarves add value by thinning and acting as carryover.

Skellige – The first faction I worked on. Decided to work on discard archetype and it felt like the right decision in the end. With access to your graveyard and ability to draw your good cards, the deck should play consistently well. I haven't gotten a chance to test it out, so can't say how strong or weak it is. Cery's and Haljmar play for big points while the leader may need some fine tuning.

Northern Realms – The strategy is simple, swarm your side or the board with unit and wreck havoc on opponent's side with cards like ballista and bombardment. The deck thins like crazy in my testing, to a point where I was left with nothing in R3. I have changed that a bit and now should work as planned. Blood baron is perhaps the best card, can give a huge lead or payoff towards the end. Roche and Ves synergies well to let you play your best cards in 1 turn.

Nilfgaard – OP on testing, avoid at all cost. No seriously. Spies and reveal was the idea and it worked to well. Able to deal with any threat and at the same time get enough points to stay ahead. I did fine tune it, so it shouldn't be too strong now. Spies are your friends. Swarming your opponent's board and giving opening for Mangonel to strike terror. Cynthia and Canterella do their job in disrupting opponent's play while Leo Bonhart and Vattier can help deal with dangerous cards.

Monsters – Another deck I haven't tested. Go tall and make your opponent pluck his hair with the points you are generating. Then proceed to destroy them and your opponent's units at the same time. Can be strong against NG but didn't test.

Syndicate – Remember when I said I tried to avoid using tokens, well I failed. What can't be bought with coins? The idea is to balance earning and expenditure, just like in real life. I, again, didn't test this, so you might want to check if the deck is balanced enough.

Starter deck – If you are playing with a friend who never played Gwent, start here. It is dead simple and after a few rounds, they should get an idea how to play.

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And that is all folks. Hope you like my little project and find some fun off these.