Call of Duty Historical Table Top Card Game - Call of Duty TCG

TCGplayer Staff
4/20/2008

Recently, Upper Deck Entertainment, creators of Yu-Gi-Oh, the VS System, and the World of Warcraft TCG have announced that they will soon be creating a new card game based on the popular video game series Call of Duty. The game, as planned, is going to be the first in a number of areas. It will be the first major World War II card game the first dedicated card game to be based off of a first person shooter franchise, the first card game to be both turnless and roundless, and perhaps most interestingly the first card game to run off a real time engine.

The Call of Duty Real Time Card Game will be based off the first three installments of the Call of Duty video game, focusing on the World War II aspects of the game, and leaving out the modern warfare elements of CoD 4 for now, to possibly be addressed in later expansions. The game will be both character driven and location driven, with hints in Upper Deck's official press release showing that movement around the battlefield will most likely play a key role in gameplay. Players will be able to mix, match, and customize their own elite squad of front line soldiers, snipers, demolitions experts, and much much more. They will then use �move� cards to move them around the battlefield to strategic positions, �fire� cards to attack the enemy and �cover� cards to protect themselves.

The basic mode of gameplay in CoDRTCG will be a race to kill as many of the opponent's soldiers as possible (a basic death match mode) but Upper Deck has revealed that this is not the only method of play available. They will be releasing sever different sets of play rules to cover other types of play modes in the video game. Two that have been revealed thus far are �Capture the Flag� and �Intelligence Operative�. In addition, �Mission Cards� exist but Upper Deck has not yet revealed what they do. The word circulating in the fan communities is that they will most likely change the way the game will be played right from the start (say to change the game from death match to capture the flag). However, the official website at www.CODcardgame.com hints at the fact that mission cards may in fact be needed for any type of gameplay whatsoever. The site says �combine any map with any mission to change up your gameplay experience� which not only hints at the fact that missions drastically change the way the game is played, but that the maps available also differ greatly and effect gameplay much like they would in a collectible miniatures game.

Deck construction rules have not yet been revealed in full however the official website says �You can include in your deck any three of the eight [soldier] classes and any one of the eight nations� and since purchased Squad Decks come pre-assembled with 60 cards one can assume that these are the bare minimums of deck construction. The 8 nations available to the player at game release will be: Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, and the United States. As for soldier types, Upper Deck has revealed Commandos, Snipers, Medics, Artillerymen (radiomen), and Paratroopers but Upper Deck has assured us that there are many more than that.

Perhaps most interesting about the upcoming Call of Duty Real Time Card Game is that the game does away with turns and rounds and instead runs completely off a real time system. The system is an attempt to recreate the frantic feeling first person shooters have of constantly being forced to think on your feet, and Call of Duty is especially known for this. Upper Deck has revealed that players will be able to play one card every 3 seconds (assisted by an in game timer) until any player plays a �Pause� card. Pause cards are big events that change the course of the entire game by �resolving powerful effects on the battlefield.� We don't have any examples of pause card mechanics, however Upper Deck has released the titles of a few different pause cards including Bayonet Charge, Rifle Grenade, Anti-Personnel Mine, and Lt. General George S. Patton.

Another thing unique to the Call of Duty Real Time Card Game is spoils of war. Each deck will include one spoils of war card with a unique code on it. According to the official website, the codes will allow players to access �special items� although what exactly these items are is as of yet unknown. Considering there is no CoD MMO to mirror loot items or equipment, and the CoD videogames that have been released thus far do not have any area to enter these item codes, most fans believe that these �items� can only be something physical and tangible (like a t-shirt or something) but all of this is mostly wild speculation. Upper Deck has also announced that there will be a very special spoil of war for fans who manage to collect codes from all of the 8 original Squad Decks.

The Call of Duty Real Time Card Game will be packaged and released exclusively in Squad Decks only. Each Squad Deck will include a pre-constructed 60 card deck, 8 soldier cards, 2 mission cards, a double sided game map, and a rules sheet. Upon release of the game, 8 Squad Decks will be available, one for each nation. The Squad Decks are ready for play right out of the box, but Upper Deck encourages players to mix and match troops from different decks to customize the perfect army. Later expansions and future Squad Decks should also be compatible. Upper Deck has announced that the game will not be released in booster packs of any sort, however new Squad Decks featuring new cards in later expansions is a definite possibility.

There is a lot of Buzz surrounding the Call of Duty Real Time Card Game, and players are only getting more excited as we get closer and closer to release. The game will be demoed at the New York Comic Con, the GAMA Trade Show, the San Diego Comic Con, and Gen Con Indy. Also, TCGplayer will stay on top of all of the latest CoD information and bring it straight to you. Until them, you can learn more about the game at www.CODcardgame.com.