OFFICIAL GWENT THREAD (in-game version)

[Tigranes]

In my limited playing session yesterday I still found nobody selling cards (though I plan on explicitly looking for inkeeps soon), but I played and actually won a match. I'm not sure how exactly, but I won.

For starters, I had more cards somehow than I used to have - do you sometimes find some in chests or get them as quest rewards? It was nothing exciting, but a catapult here, a weather card there and a 4 str unit card can make a difference.
What decided the match early on was that the opponent spammed melee cards - even AFTER I had played the weather cards (was it fog or frost?) that disables the melee row. So I guess I won the first match thanks to weak AI.
In the second round, the AI passed early and had almost no cards on the table, but somehow it had like 20 attack (I'm guessing it was a leader ability?), which I couldn't match with what I had, so I folded.
Last round I played what little I had left and the AI insta-passed, obviously had no cards left. Then SOMETHING happened that again boosted it's attack value without ANY cards. I'd have lost if not for another mysterious happenstance which allowed me to draw a couple additional cards, with whom I managed to take a slight lead. Victory!
Now I only need to figure out why and how the heck I even won...

rezaf I'm just going to be honest, there are 3 or 4 things in this post that clearly shows you have no idea how the game works and you need to just start by reading the descriptions of cards and abilities, and by paying attention to what cards are being played by who during the game (literally every single thing that happens is shown). If attack power goes up, you always are shown how. If the AI has no cards on the table, it is literally impossible to have any attack value. Drawing additionals only happen through a limited selection of special abilities, including a spy.

 

[Aeschylus]

With a complete deck and all the leader abilities the factions (imo) go Nilfgaard > Northern Realms > Scoia'tel > Monsters. Scoia'tel might be better in player hands I suppose, but no spies or resurrects makes monsters kinda garbage, and way too easy to bait into playing most of their hand in one turn.

 

[hivemind]

Gwent standalone when.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Gwent, best minigame in TW series.

 

[abnaxus]

Anyone manage to finish the collection quest?

 

[Heresiarch]

Gwent is nice, but for serious card gamers, it's still too much on the "mini" size. It actually feels more like those F2P, P2W iOS/Android shit - limited card choices, no limit on unique cards, the decks with the most heroes card (almost) always win, in the end all the decks are more or less the same, etc.

I must say I felt disappointed when I realize that each session can be over within 5 minutes. However, as far as minigames within a game goes, Gwent serves well enough in depth, fun, and tie-in to the plot.

I completely forgot how Pazzak works but I do remember that while Pazzak has much more depth, it lacks in style because it's just literally about cards with numbers. Gwent cards have fluff which is great.

Of course, IMO Gwent still can't beat the king of minigames:

 

[Gerrard]

#bigplays

 

[hivemind]

That's a really hardcore first round.

 

[Aeschylus]

Anyone manage to finish the collection quest?

Yes. It's not particularly difficulty to do, as long as you find all the merchants that sell cards. I think there's 2 or 3 players/matches in the game that you can entirely miss and never go back to. There's more than enough merchants around to win all the random cards with plenty to spare.

 

[Tigranes]

Really? I bought cards and played cards with literally every single person that I found, and I still hadn't completed the quest, though I suspect I'm only missing a few. I definitely did all the related quests.

 

[Aeschylus]

Really? I bought cards and played cards with literally every single person that I found, and I still hadn't completed the quest, though I suspect I'm only missing a few. I definitely did all the related quests.

The ones I recall that you can miss and never go back to are:

Spoiler

the very first guy you play gives you a card when you beat him that you can't win elsewhere, the little tournament during Triss' side quest, and Lambert after ch 2.

 

[Killzig]

Really? I bought cards and played cards with literally every single person that I found, and I still hadn't completed the quest, though I suspect I'm only missing a few. I definitely did all the related quests.

The ones I recall that you can miss and never go back to are:

Spoiler

the very first guy you play gives you a card when you beat him that you can't win elsewhere, the little tournament during Triss' side quest, and Lambert after ch 2.

The innkeep that helps Triss in Novigrad is also missable. He disappears I think (depending on how you resolve that quest)...

 

[Eyestabber]

My take on Gwent decks so far:

North: best deck for winning through sheer card number advantage. IMO, the best deck overall.
Black Ones: Some OP archers and lots of heroes. Seems like the best deck for "brute force" strategies. Sadly, black spies are too stronk (9 points, wtf). Can't play that card w/o following with a frostbite.
Monster: one-trick-pony (muster). Get countered, lose. Don't get countered, win. Lame.
Scoia'tel: terrible deck. Shitty mix between monster and north, featuring the weaknesses of both and none of their strenghts. This deck really could use some buffing, IMO.

Well, except that the armorer in Oxenfurt faceraped my deck over and over with his Squirrel deck. Guy was throwing a hero card every single fucking turn + shitton of medics and scorch and shite. Motherfucker, I'll be back for you!!!

Gwent is the best minigame of the whole series, hands down.

 

[Excidium II]

I disagree about monsters, it's just p. difficult to build a deck since it only works if you have specific cards like a billion vampires or the three crones. They have p. good Leader cards like one to sacrifice two cards in your hand to summon one from your deck, really good with all their summon extra crap cards.

Scoiatael is also not that bad, just need a decent deck.

North is less reliant on deck building but Foltests suck in comparison to other leaders from what I've seen

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Nilfgaard is very strong once you have a somewhat complete deck. has spies with higher values, yes, but more of them than Northern Realms. I used north almost always because you will have more cards for it quicker, but at the Gwent tourney I switched to Nilfgaard when playing another guy with a strong northern Realms deck to make winning easier. Nilfgaard has more resurrecters too. But yes, north+Nilfgaard decks are the best. Never installed the neutral deck DLC, so I dunno about that one.

 

[Excidium II]

Nilfgaard is very strong once you have a somewhat complete deck. has spies with higher values, yes, but more of them than Northern Realms. I used north almost always because you will have more cards for it quicker, but at the Gwent tourney I switched to Nilfgaard when playing another guy with a strong northern Realms deck to make winning easier. Nilfgaard has more resurrecters too. But yes, north+Nilfgaard decks are the best. Never installed the neutral deck DLC, so I dunno about that one.

The Neutral Deck DLC is just alternate art for neutral cards like Zoltan

 

[hivemind]

Honestly it doesn't matter that much if Nilfgaard spies have high numbers because you don't usually care to win the turn when you play your spies.

 

[PlanHex]

Nilfgaard is very strong once you have a somewhat complete deck. has spies with higher values, yes, but more of them than Northern Realms.

No, there's 3 in each. 9/7/4 for Nifgaard and 5/4/1 for Northern Realms.

Thaler is the best because he's basically the same as the Elf card but you can use special cards on him, which is a hoot when both you and the opponent have a bunch of decoys/healers.
It's just a shame that there's no reason to play the game once you finally complete your deck.

 

[Eyestabber]

It's just a shame that there's no reason to play the game once you finally complete your deck.

Ever heard of...FUN?

 

[PlanHex]

It's just a shame that there's no reason to play the game once you finally complete your deck.

Ever heard of...FUN?

It's not really that fun when you just auto-demolish everyone. Well, unless you cripple yourself by playing monsters or scoiatel.

 

[Aeschylus]

It's just a shame that there's no reason to play the game once you finally complete your deck.

Ever heard of...FUN?

You're basically unbeatable with a complete Nilfgaard or Northern Realms deck, so it's not really all that fun. The AI just isn't smart enough to compete. Well, maybe it's still a bit fun . And the attack values of spies don't really matter, since you're not really trying to win the first round so much as just end up with more potential cards than your opponent.

 

[Eyestabber]

I like to spam melee spies and then frostbite them (considering the enemuy is also going melee, ofc). Who said I can't play spies AND win? :D

 

[polo]

The fact that scoiatel have just 2 types of cards (no siege) is just unfair. Nilfgaard and North are fun to play cause u can do some moves, monsters is just full power, like throw a card and see how 10 more join from your deck.
Since i've won some decent cards i havent lost a single game, so it got kind of boring. Been switching decks just for fun, and even with my monsters deck which is shite, i still win easily most of the time.

 

[Lhynn]

High stakes gwent tournament is the only really challenging place i found. I still beat it on my first try.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

So, when is the official Gwent android app released? Are they already working on it?