Warhammer Combat Cards Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Win Epic Card Wars

The Warhammer 40,000 universe is incredibly rich in lore. Whether you’re a fan of the tabletop games, an avid wiki reader, or altogether new to the series, Warhammer Combat Cards is a great entry point into the series as well as a fun card game in its own right.

In Warhammer Combat Cards, you’ll defend (or conquer) the galaxy by joining one of Warhammer 40,000’s many distinct factions. Whether you decide to serve the emperor, lead a destructive WAAAGH!, or just want to smack other players upside the head, Warhammer Combat Cards is to scratch that itch. Aspiring scions of chaos, boyz (and girlz), or space marines can join the battlefield via the Google Play Store, App Store, or PC via Steam – no genetic modification required!

In this beginner’s guide to Warhammer Combat Cards, we’ll be going over the basics of how to play the game, how to make your own deck and buff your cards, and the different battlefields you can fight on.

Mastering The Basics

I’m going to sound like a broken record here by saying that just like in Stormbound or Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel, a solid grasp of a card game’s foundations is pivotal to its success. In this regard, Combat Cards is no different, and as there aren’t many tutorials in the game (side note – I think card games should have a handholding tutorial), let’s go over the basics here.

Quick Tips:

The objective of the game is to kill the enemy Warlord – the card with a gold border. Killing the opponent’s Warlord means you win regardless of how many cards they still had.
Players take turns putting cards in one of three lanes.
The turn player selects one of three attack types – ranged, psychic, or melee – and their units will attack with that type of attack. After the attacker’s turn, the defender’s cards counterattack. After counterattack resolution, the next player takes their turn.
Cards have different strengths. A card strong in melee combat may be weak in psychic combat.
The stronger a card is, the more expensive it becomes to put it in your deck.
The heavier a card is, the lower its initiative and thus the lower the chance that that player takes the first turn. As of writing (June 7, 2023), there is no way to view the initiative score of any individual card.
Cards have powerful abilities that can more than compensate for their low base stats. Use abilities to seize the battlefield and turn the tides in your favor.
Cards will always fight the opponent’s card in the same lane. If a lane has no opposing card, your cards will attack the next closest foe.
You can move cards to another lane by playing another card in that lane.
Warlords have high stats and great abilities that are always active. Warlords can only be deployed in the middle lane.
When picking an attack type, the battlefield scores will change to reflect this so you can see if you have an advantage over your foe.
Using an attack gives the two other attacks you didn’t use a damage buff that is consumed when selecting that attack type.
Some cards don’t have an attack value for one of their attacks, instead having a green or red background with an icon. These are buffs and debuffs respectively and will add or subtract from your or your opponent’s bonus damage gauges.

Objective

Your objective in Warhammer Combat Cards is simple – vanquish the enemy Warlord by bringing their wounds to zero.

warhammer combat cards lose — *Can’t win ‘em all.*

In theory, it’s an easy task, but in practice, it can be quite tough as you’ll not only have to lure the enemy commander out but also deal with their veritable army of bodyguards.

Game Flow

The game flow in Warhammer Combat Cards goes as follows:

The first player is decided by Initiative.
The first player must place one of their bodyguard cards or their Warlord on the field. Once they have done so, their turn is over.
The next player can then place their own bodyguard or Warlord on the field in a lane of their choosing.
The placement phase continues until both players have 3 cards on the field.
The first player chooses one of three attacks, and damage calculation and counterattacks are computed. When they are done, the next player can choose an attack.
If a bodyguard is destroyed, their player must replace them with a new card.
Once a player’s Warlord has been killed, they lose.

This may sound simple, but there’s a lot of strategy involved in these decisions.

Card Stats

All cards in Warhammer Combat Cards have up to 4 important stats:

Wounds – a fancy term for health.
Ranged damage – how much damage this card would do in ranged combat.
Psychic damage – how much damage this card would do in psychic combat.
Melee damage – how much damage this card would do in melee combat.

Apart from these, there are other important details on a card…

warhammer combat cards captain acheran 2

Card cost – how many deck points this card consumes. This means that if you slot in solely high-stat cards, you’ll be working with fewer bodyguards.
Faction – what faction a card belongs to. You can’t mix and match factions!

Initiative

Initiative is a hidden stat whose true values can only be inferred. While the developers have confirmed its existence and have stated that they eventually plan to add a card’s initiative score to its visible stats, the best we can do with it now is estimate.

Initiative’s one and only role in the game is to determine who takes the first move. While one could argue that because of counterattacks, the first move isn’t as important, it’s equally important to remember that the first player can set the tone of the battle by forcing their opponent to respond to their play instead of pursuing their game plan.

Initiative can be guessed by factoring in two stats (which have no absolute values): movement and body type. Movement is a measure of how quickly an individual character can both move and react and are not uniform to all cards within a faction.

warhammer combat cards body — *Big boy.*

Body type, on the other hand, is a bit more predictable. The bigger a unit is, the stronger it is, but the slower it moves. From slowest to fastest, the body types are:

Walker
Monster
Bulky
Infantry
Fast

Card Abilities

Cards shouldn’t be valued based on their numbers. Almost all (if not all) cards have access to a powerful ability that radically changes how they play.

warhammer combat cards flank — *Play me last for a nasty surprise.*

These abilities can vary from healing allies, buffing comrades, or even inflicting nasty status effects on their killers. By leveling up a card (more on that later), you’ll hone and strengthen their abilities, making even your canon fodder a force to be reckoned with.

Note that card abilities do not activate immediately during the initial placement phase; they’ll all trigger once both players are finished putting cards on the board.

Card Deployment and Lanes

There’s a lot more to just plopping down a card in one of Warhammer Combat Cards’ three columns. The first thing you need to be aware of is that cards will only fight cards on their lanes. The exception here is if there is no opponent for them to fight, in which case, they’ll attack the closest lane with an enemy card instead.

warhammer combat cards dogpile — *No left card means my left card will go straight for the enemy Warlord!*

The second thing you should know about is that you can change a card’s lanes during the replacement phase. Just drag your new card to the position of the old card, and the old card will scoot over to the next empty lane.

warhammer combat cards scoot — *Move over.*

Any player who has an empty lane will find themselves at a massive disadvantage. Plan your moves carefully and keep your guys on the field as long as possible so that you’ll be on the delivering end of a mid-lane beatdown!

Warlords and Warlord Abilities

Your Warlord isn’t an armchair general sitting on the backlines. When push comes to shove (or if enough guys die), you can deploy your Warlord onto the battlefield. A Warlord is denoted by its gold borders.

warhammer combat cards leader — *YA GROTZ*

Warlords are important for a couple of reasons: they must be deployed in the center row and their abilities are always active, even when they’re not on the field. Most Warlords also have higher stats than their minions, meaning that even when cornered, they’re a force to be reckoned with. Finally, your Warlord’s faction determines what faction your deck is. You can only slot in cards of the same faction as your Warlord.

warhammer combat cards helbrecht — *Sturdy, decent damage, and amazing abilities.*

But remember – if your Warlord dies, you lose!

Attacks

Once both players have a board of 3 cards, it’s time to fight.

warhammer combat cards fight — *Let’s get to it.*

Combat is done by selecting an attack type – either ranged, psychic, or melee. When you select an attack type, all cards on the field will change to the respective damage type and the number on their upper left will change to reflect their new scores. If you want a quick assessment of whether it’s advantageous or not to go with a particular attack, the game also totals the offensive prowess of both players’ boards.

warhammer combat cards attack — *What flavor of death will visit our foes today?*

The turn player picks an attack by double tapping one of the three attack types. Their units will then go first in combat, dealing damage to their opponents using that attack. This isn’t free though; after the turn player’s attack phase, any surviving enemies will counterattack if they can.

Buffs and Debuffs

One very important thing to remember in Warhammer Combat Cards is that sticking to one attack type is often not the best solution.

warhammer combat cards melee — *If you’re playing a Chaos deck though, melee go brrrr.*

Each time you attack with your cards, the two attack types you didn’t pick will gain a hefty attack boost. This not only incentivizes you to use different attacks but also makes you a little more unpredictable as you can play mind games with your opponent. After all, double damage on an attack type you’re not proficient with is still going to hurt!

Do note that while these attack boosts are significant, they’re also a one-off thing. Once you use a buffed attack, it resets to base strength.

Buffs aren’t only accumulated by skipping certain attack types. You may have noticed that some cards don’t have an attack value for some of their attacks, instead either having a green (buff) or red (debuff) color along with an attack icon.

Finally, note that for the purposes of in-game effects, a card skipping its turn to buff or debuff Readies itself.

warhammer combat cards buff — *Fill it up and blindside your opponent.*

Using a buff increases the bonus damage gauge of the attack it matches (ie, a psychic attack that has a green melee icon fills up your melee damage bonus gauge) while a debuff reduces your opponent’s bonus gauge of the type indicated. Note that debuffs can push attack damage into the negatives!

Deckbuilding 101

Just like Stormbound, fewer cards in a deck means that each one of them needs to count. And while the space marine deck given to us by default is decent, you may be craving for a different flavor of deck. Let’s walk through familiarizing yourself with the factions, building your deck, buffing your cards, and getting new cards while we’re at it.

Quick Tips:

Do the campaign. Seriously. You not only get new cards and account experience but also familiarize yourself with different factions and playstyles.
Find a faction and deck you like. This way you’ll have an easier time budgeting your limited and expensive upgrade materials.
Plan your deck carefully – do you want to go tall with high-wound cards, or swarm with low-cost, low-wound cards?
The higher your rank (account level) the more cards you can put in your decks. The number on each seal indicates the rank you need to open that slot.
Use allies to compensate for weaknesses in your deck or open up new strategies. Note that this only works in Casual mode!
You can get cards in various ways, but mostly via the shop. You get 2 free cards every 12 hours by watching an ad.
Skulls are the most reliable way to gain resources via Kill Packs. Win or lose, you gain 1 skull per enemy card you killed in combat. Opening Kill Packs takes a few hours and you can only hold so many, but they’re completely free.
Join a clan with a matching dedication as soon as you can (rank 6) – this nets you bonus cards from that faction which are invaluable when setting up your deck.

Do The Campaign

Again with the campaign? Yes. Do this first to get free cards, account experience, and game knowledge.

warhammer combat cards training mode — *Sweat for the sweatlords!*

Warhammer Combat Cards’ campaign takes place via the training menu, where you can choose between three factions – Space Marines, Aeldari, or Chaos – and use some loaner decks to familiarize yourself with their playstyles. You also get free cards from that faction, so it’s a win-win!

Familiarize Yourself with The Factions

The world of Warhammer 40,000 has a lot of factions, and in Warhammer Combat Cards, each of them has their own general playstyle. Note that some factions have sub-factions within them, so there are no hard rules when it comes to how a particular faction will play!

Space Marines are perhaps the most iconic of Warhammer’s factions. This is very versatile and balanced and is easy for new players to pick up and use. On the flip side, they’re not particularly outstanding in any one field.
The Servants of the Emperor are as varied as they are plentiful. As this faction comprises all other imperial forces other than the Space Marines, they have a massive pool of warriors and vehicles to call on, allowing them to adapt to any situation.
The Aeldari is a precise and powerful faction specializing in all-out offense. While they are highly flexible, they’re not particularly sturdy.
The T’au war machine is comprised of high-power battlesuits specializing in ranged assaults, supported by cheaper drones and infantry.
The brutal Orks excel at smashing everything in their way with powerful melee and ranged attacks. Ork decks tend to work better if you focus on building a deck around their Warlord’s abilities.

warhammer combat cards ork — *They may not be sophisticated, but they will kick your ass.*

Tyranids are adaptable bio-mechanical warriors that can both use horde or high-wound cards. Their Warlords tend to hang back and gather steam, so watch out for a snowball counterattack!
The rabble of the Chaos faction is impossible to organize, so always build a Chaos deck around its Warlords and their powerful abilities.
No machine fears death, and the hardy Necrons exemplify this. While they can do decent melee and ranged damage, Necrons tend towards turtling, using their high-wounds and defensive abilities to ensure that they are the last ones standing.

Card Costs and Deck Slots

Remember what I said about card costs? Here they are again to bite you in the ass.

warhammer combat cards deck — *Some of you are too chunky to fit in my trunk.*

The higher a card’s individual strength, the more deck points it eats. This means that deckbuilding is often a delicate balancing act of finding the right mix of cheap utility cards and expensive heavy hitters.

Allies

Factions in Warhammer Combat Cards rarely stand alone. Each sub-faction has its own friendships, grudges, and debts to honor, and in gameplay mechanics, that translates to the allies system.

warhammer combat cards ally — *They’re not marines, but they’ll do.*

The ally system lets you hybridize your deck by allowing you to add cards of another faction friendly to your own. This is a great tool as it not only helps you compensate for your deck’s weaknesses but also allows you to segue into another strategy – but note that this only works in Casual mode!

Strengthening Your Cards

Once you find a faction and deck you like, it’s time to get to the nitty-gritty: enhancing your cards.

warhammer combat cards card upgrade — *A bit faster, a bit stronger, a bit better.*

To upgrade a card, you need to have duplicates of it, as well as some coins. Once you’ve amassed enough of these, just go to your cards screen, tap the card in question, then tap upgrade.

Upgrading a card brings many benefits. Not only does upgrading raise a card’s base stats, but also unlocks and upgrades its abilities without increasing its deck cost. On the other hand, upgrade costs scale quickly, which is why I urge you to find a fun deck to play ASAP. This system also means that you will have a harder time upgrading your rare cards.

Getting More Cards And Coins

The upgrade system demands that you quickly learn where to get new cards and coins. Here’s a checklist of where to find the stuff:

Before anything else, make sure to watch an ad via the quest menu. This gives you a respectable amount of both cards and coins. And while you’re at it, do your dailies to pump up your rank.

warhammer combat cards daily rewards — *And all it took was 30 seconds.*

The most straightforward way to get more cards is to buy them directly at the shop. Shop cards reset daily, and are expensive, but are a reliable way to pull dupes of most common cards. Sometimes there are rarer cards here, and those cost Plasma, the game’s premium currency.

warhammer combat cards card shop — *And no, there’s no reset button.*

You can watch an ad in the shop to get 2 random cards. This has a 12-hour cooldown.
You can also buy booster packs at the shop, although this will cost Plasma.
If all else fails, you can always grind skulls.

Skulls

Skulls are one of the fastest and most consistent ways to earn more cards and coins if you don’t want to go shopping, and they’re important enough to merit their own section.

Every kill you score in battle nets you one skull, and after you accumulate 10 skulls, you get a Kill Pack. Its contents may be humble but don’t underestimate the importance of buffing your common cards. And yes, you still get skulls even if you lose. If you’re losing, it may be a good idea to kill as many of your opponent’s bodyguards as possible, so you accumulate points towards booster packs. You also only earn skulls in multiplayer modes.

On the downside, skull packs take a while to open, and you can only hold so many.

Clans

Clans are unlocked at rank 6.

warhammer combat cards clan — *It’s been a while since I made an “apes strong together” reference, hasn’t it?*

While it’s nice to have someone to watch your back, the real benefit here is your clan’s dedication. Each clan can pledge themselves to one of the factions, and as a member of that clan, you’ll get bonus cards from that faction, allowing you to railroad your growth and help you get your deck set up faster!

The Battlepass

The battlepass is a reliable way to scoop up some free resources.

warhammer combat cards battle pass — *Yes, this is a battlepass.*

There are both paid and free versions of the battlepass. You earn points for your battlepass by earning skulls, which you were likely doing anyway for the free cards.

Seeking New Battlefronts

Now that your cards are all roided up, it’s time to find someone or something to smack with them. Here are the different battlefronts you can participate in.

Quick Tips:

Casual mode is great for messing around, earning skulls for Kill Packs, and completing quests. You also have access to the ally system here.
Campaigns are limited events where you pick one of two sides and fight increasingly difficult AI opponents. Earn victory points to climb the leaderboards and claim your prizes at the end of the campaign.
Ranked mode pits you against other players in a bid to climb the ranking ladder. Win and you go up the ranks, lose and you go down.

Casual Mode

Casual mode is fantastic for when you’re new to the game.

In this mode, you’ll be fighting against other (sort of) players. It’s a little hard to explain. What you do need to know is that Casual mode is the perfect place to mess around and experiment with new decks as there are no ladder rankings at stake. And as Casual is a multiplayer mode, you do earn quest progress and skulls for Kill Packs here.

Casual mode also allows the ally system, which I discussed earlier. Don’t be surprised if Ranked mode suddenly asks you to change your deck!

Campaigns

Tired of getting your ass handed to you by other players? How about let’s let the AI do it instead in a campaign? These battles are only open for a limited time, and each of them is a slice of Warhammer 40,000 history.

warhammer combat cards campaign — *Just like Horus Heresy!*

In a campaign, you’ll pick one of two sides in a momentous battle, and your AI opponent will be playing for the other team. The more you win, the harder the AI becomes, but the more prizes you earn. Each victory earns you victory points, and at the end of the campaign, all players who participated will be ranked and rewarded based on how many victory points they got.

There are some safety nets here: any victory points you earn, you keep until the end. Also, if you lose, the AI gets fewer “points” to spend on its deck, thus making it easier.

warhammer combat cards modifiers — *We still gotta make this canon, right?*

Campaigns feature some other unique mechanics. First of these is the modifier system, which you can check by tapping the info button on a campaign. These modifiers will often dictate the best type of deck to build for either side as they can both penalize and incentivize the use of certain cards and strategies.

Second, and more importantly, campaigns can’t be played indefinitely as they require energy. Entering a campaign battle costs you 1 energy – and this energy is spent whether you win or lose. Energy regenerates over time, and no, you can’t swipe your credit card to get more of it.

Ranked

Ranked mode is where the meat of the game is found.

In ranked mode, show no mercy as you’ll get none in return. The more you win, the higher your ranking, but each loss will set your score back a bit. Each season runs for 30 days, and at the end of that period, you’ll gain lavish rewards based on how you fared. Remember – failure is only a loss if you learned nothing!

To The Victor, The Spoils!

Preparation and study are only half the battle. Now that you’re equipped with the basics, the next step is to actually go out and fight on your own. Only you can determine what course to take, and as you win, lose, and learn, your experiences will hone you into a seasoned veteran of the stars. But remember the most important rule of all card games – always keep in mind that the most important thing is to have fun.

warhammer combat cards end — *Enjoy the sweet taste of victory whenever you can. Things are only going to get harder from here on.*

That concludes my beginner’s guide to Warhammer Combat Cards, and now that you’re armed with a solid understanding of the game and how to get stronger, victory has become closer to an achievable reality. If you have any comments, suggestions, or tips of your own, make yourself heard in the comment box below!