What is the fun in playing Nilfgaard?

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I don't understand why do you play the Nilfguard faction. I saw some other threads of someone who said they immediately quit the game and don't GG when playing against Nilfguard. For me it's also the most cheesy faction. But i'm still curious what is the fun in it?
 
It's not about fun, it's about consistency, NG is the only viable option if you're not interested in how disgusting the game has become, so it's logical that people use it to climb quickly in rank. In addition to that it has its cheesy mechanics as mentioned several times.

Portal, Defenders and anything that will always be the same. That makes a control faction even easier to take advantage of.
 
Angel is spot on correct, but....

Remember in Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader promotes an officer while force choking to death his predecessor?
It was oppressive, yet still memorable, and morbidly humorous. That is the feeling you get when playing with Ardal specifically and NG in general and why I enjoy playing with them.

 

DRK3

Forum veteran
I can see why some players would think that about NG, but it hasnt always been like this:

Throughout Gwent's total run over these past +3 years, Nilfgaard has probably been the faction with the most archetypes. True that they havent always been properly fleshed out which led to some identity issues, but it also brought diversity and you could do genuinely fun and original NG decks.

But on the past 6 months or so, there's been only 1 NG deck that sees play at any moment, which is a disgrace to the faction's past.
 

Guest 4368268

Guest
Speaking for myself I don't use Nilfgaard because it's necessarily a thrill to play, but because if you try one of the few genuinely creative decks that the game has to offer atm you get punished, very harshly so. Also Nilfgaard has the reputation in HC of being the control faction but let's be honest, is it worse than Syndicate, NR with Falibor+Philippa and so forth and so forth? Not in my opinion.

I would much prefer to play NG handbuff or NG spies or speaking in HC terms Emhyr witchers. But all viable proactive options got killed off.
 
If I would want to reach pro rank in a certain month I'd play Enslave. 80% win consistently. This could be the reason for some players.
Otherwise, very boring. I wish that the game is more balanced and we see variety in the decks being played.
For one, I haven't seen anyone playing witchers this month in Gwent that is called "witcher's game" =)))
 
If NG isn't fun, than i don't know what is. NG does it all - control, point slam, engines, proactive, reactive, uninteractive, coll combos, interesting win conditions, great outplay potential...... On top of that NG has more than 10 competitively viable decks.
Other factions offer much less in this meta.
ST - 3 decks, 1 leader, 100% braindead playstyle
NR - 2 decks, 1 leader, the playstyle is kind of cool in R1, but R3 is very straightforward
SY - 1 deck, 1 leader, super cool faction with 0 options, your R1 is very limited because of how draw dependent SY is and R3 is usually very straightforward
MO and SK are good, unfortunately they are bit weaker then the rest
 
10 variations of Enslave do not count lol.

There is only 1 NG leader and playstyle competitively viable and to tell yourself otherwise is crazy.
Wrong! 2 leaders and bunch of decks with major differences.
Enslave 5 Midrange, Formation Midrange, Formation Spies/Poison, Enslave 5 Assimilate, Enslave 6 Reveal, Enslave 6 Tactics and Armor - I often run into these decks, they are all really good.
Some cards are auto-included in every NG deck, but the gameplan and win conditions are diferent.
 
Wrong! 2 leaders and bunch of decks with major differences.
Enslave 5 Midrange, Formation Midrange, Formation Spies/Poison, Enslave 5 Assimilate, Enslave 6 Reveal, Enslave 6 Tactics and Armor - I often run into these decks, they are all really good.
Some cards are auto-included in every NG deck, but the gameplan and win conditions are diferent.

In terms of what you FACE, how varied is it? I found it was VERY limited/boring/repetitive, which I think is what the previous poster meant. Individually, there is creativity. But in ranked there just isn't.
 
In terms of what you FACE, how varied is it? I found it was VERY limited/boring/repetitive, which I think is what the previous poster meant. Individually, there is creativity. But in ranked there just isn't.
I face these decks quite frequently:
Enslave 5 Midrange, Formation Midrange, Formation Spies/Poison, Enslave 5 Assimilate, Enslave 6 Reveal, Enslave 6 Tactics.
One of them is always more popular than the rest (for few days, not the entire season), but in past 2 weeks i've seen all of them multiple times. Formation is as popular as Enslave.

These deck are kind of off-meta surprise pick, that i face like once per week:
Armor, All-in Assimilate, Cahir, Lock, Soldiers.

I played against these decks in casual, they are not viable in ranked, but still fun to play:
Mill, All-in Spyes, old Hyper-Thin.
 
I face these decks quite frequently:
Enslave 5 Midrange, Formation Midrange, Formation Spies/Poison, Enslave 5 Assimilate, Enslave 6 Reveal, Enslave 6 Tactics.
One of them is always more popular than the rest (for few days, not the entire season), but in past 2 weeks i've seen all of them multiple times. Formation is as popular as Enslave.

These deck are kind of off-meta surprise pick, that i face like once per week:
Armor, All-in Assimilate, Cahir, Lock, Soldiers.

I played against these decks in casual, they are not viable in ranked, but still fun to play:
Mill, All-in Spyes, old Hyper-Thin.

Fair enough, if you find the variety is there. But a lot of those decks still rely heavily on the same cards - Damien, Stefan, Bribery, Defender, Helge then the bronzes are all almost identical too. A slight variety in the way leaders play, but all in all it's the same style of play deck after deck. I've built decks and not struggled against, say, spies. But I'm not a pro so having to play 95% of the time against META's means I just lose.
 

Payus

Forum regular
[ . . . ]

It's like that in any competitive game, people gravitate to what's effective, but they forget it's a game. Its not a case of efficiency but a case of having fun.

[...]
 
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DRK3

Forum veteran
Do you want to know what i play in NG nowadays?

Emhyr Cows and Living Armor. Its kinda refreshing seeing such a memey deck doing so well. And even if you lose, at least you have the satisfaction you probably confused your opponent.

I also have a more straightforward Emhyr locks deck, but its not enough to stop the 40 engines NR dishes out, its only good versus tall units, with 4/5 tall removal chances.
 

Payus

Forum regular
Do you want to know what i play in NG nowadays?

Emhyr Cows and Living Armor. Its kinda refreshing seeing such a memey deck doing so well. And even if you lose, at least you have the satisfaction you probably confused your opponent.

I also have a more straightforward Emhyr locks deck, but its not enough to stop the 40 engines NR dishes out, its only good versus tall units, with 4/5 tall removal chances.
You are the exception which confirms the rule I'm afraid.
I am not insulting anyone in particular when I say nilfgaard players don't seem the bravest. I mean the faction itself is a faction of treason, manipulation and maquiavelic stratagem. You need to embody it, I guess.
 
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There is no fun left in nilfgaard thanks to cdpr amazing decisions, butchering the old spy, soldier and alchemy back at the beginning of homecoming to push that garbage new rng reveal that didn't last long at all, now you have only total control with enslave and create 2.0 with assimilate, they took the most variagated faction and turned into the mess that is now.
 
This is the most abusive and unbalanced deck of cards I've seen. Damien de la Tour's card has a very abusive ability. That card should be banned in the game, because it is only about restoring the leader's ability to play all the card skills you have in your hand or on the board. Plsease, balance the deck of Nilfgaard cards.

Discourage a lot, play such an unbalanced game.
 
I'm one of those weirdos still playing Double Cross/Anna assimilate because the fun comes from playing your opponent's deck/faction against them.

For the record I don't use or like Damien.
 
I never minded double cross, it is fun to play against. It is not oppressive, can lead to fun situations. Yesterday I was playing greatswords with priests runing Morkvark HOT and Yrden, so you can imagine how much i was sweating my oponent using my tools vs me. In the end double cross is like a worst on demand bribery.
 
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