The FAQ and Tournament Rules for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game have been updated! Head to our support page now, or read on for details from Warhammer: Invasion’ s Lead Developer, Lukas Litzsinger.

Warhammer: Invasion FAQ v1.5 (pdf, 2.2 MB)
Warhammer: Invasion FAQ v1.5, print-friendly (pdf, 952 MB)
Warhammer: Invasion Tournament Rules (pdf, 680 MB)

Above you will find new FAQ and Tournament Rules documents for Warhammer: Invasion. We have updated the Tournament Rules document with the legal card pool for the Gen Con Championships this August. Note that upcoming July releases are not a part of the legal card pool for Gen Con. This decision was made to ensure that all players participating in this tournament have ample time to acquire all legal cards, and to assimilate them into their Gen Con preparation. This will ensure a level and fair playing field.

In the FAQ update you will discover updated timing structure rules, clarifications on indirect damage, answers about how Judgement of Loec works, and more. However, the biggest change is the addition of the first card ever to the Banned List.

A Necessary Measure

Banning cards is the last and most potent weapon to effect positive change in the competitive environment in an LCG’s toolbox. However, it should not be taken lightly, and ideally would not be required at all. We apologize for having to take such a measure, but it is for the good of the game that we do so.

Visit the Haunted City is the card that is being banned for tournament play. There has been much discussion concerning this card of late, but the sheer popularity and success of Empire decks running Visit the Haunted City during regionals speaks for itself.

However, just because a card or deck is powerful, does not mean it deserves to be banned. So let us lay out the defining factors that led to this ban of Visit the Haunted City:

• Visit the Haunted City’s ability to move support cards in addition to moving units. Moving your opponent’s units from zone to zone is an extremely powerful ability. Being able to move your opponent’s support cards as well with Visit the Haunted City warped the game, and created a card that could dictate the terms under which your opponent played. This is a design problem that should have been corrected.
• Light of Morrslieb accelerating Visit the Haunted City. With the ability to play 2 developments per turn from your hand, it was easy for someone to drop Visit the Haunted City, a cheap unit, and then throw down 2 developments before their opponent could respond. Multiple copies of Visit the Haunted City in play made it worse and were practically impossible to recover from.
• Visit the Haunted City undermined the core mechanics of the game. The foundation of Warhammer: Invasion is the three-zone system. It is one thing to manipulate your own zones, it is quite another to manipulate your opponent’s (which is why Wilhelm of the Osterknacht is restricted). Any effect that directly moves cards between an opponent's zone should be rare, costly, and generally non-repeatable. By being able to repeatably move your opponent’s units and support cards around, up to three times a turn and at almost any time, Visit the Haunted City removed a large part of the strategic nature of the game. Deciding where to play your cards is one of the most important decisions a player can make over the course of the game, and this decision became practically meaningless when faced with one or more copies of Visit the Haunted City on the other side of the table. It was not enjoyable to play against, and mirror matches were almost exclusively decided by the luck of the draw.

All of the reasons above led to a meta-defining and negative play experience created by Visit the Haunted City. Even decks built specifically to control this card were far from sure things, which implies an unhealthy and unbalanced play environment. Something had to be done, and due to the nature of the card and all of the reasons listed above we strongly believe that banning it is the right move. Adding it to the restricted list would not be enough to end the negative play experience it creates, and any errata would neuter the card to such an extent that it would either no longer be playable or resemble the printed card.

Once again, we apologize for releasing Visit the Haunted City in such an unbalanced state. We believe that by banning this card we are strengthening the competitive environment and allowing for other deck builds to flourish. We will continue to strive to make Warhammer: Invasion a better game, and to deliver our players a fun, exciting, and balanced experience. Without you there would be no game, and we appreciate your support.

-Lukas Litzsinger
Invasion Lead Developer