During my playtests of Clash of Empires, I have noticed that the combat system has some major problems and needs a rework. Players have complained that combat is too predictable, and that high value combat cards are overpowered. I have also noticed that attacking is often not worthwhile since combat often ends up in a draw.

With the new combat system, players play 3 cards from their hand instead of one.  Each card has a suit and a number, and the winner will be the person who played the most suits. To prevent draws, tiebreakers will be used in the following priority.

• Most numbers in a row.
• Highest total value.

Going for the highest value card early is now a bad strategy, and players should spend more time buying low to mid value cards. Early game, it is best to buy some low value cards to add more suits to your deck since they are easy to get, and some mid level cards because they are good for tiebreakers. High level cards are only good late game to help with having the most numbers in a row and possibly the highest total value.

For the starting deck, a player starts off with 8 combat cards, 2 recruits, 2 attacks, and 8 influence. Each of the combat card has a value of 2, and has be of the same suit.  The influence, recruit, and attack cards also have the same suit, but have a value of 0. To start the game off, all the influence goes on the top of the deck and everything else is shuffled. This allows players to build up some influence on the board before actually fighting.