Here at Warcradle Studios we love miniatures games, board games, roleplay games and, of course, card games! So when we saw an opportunity to develop an expandable card game set in World War Two, we leapt at the chance.

We first began to work with Jeremy and Tom, the original developers of Fog & Friction, a couple of years ago. Not only did we enjoy working with the two of them, but we also really enjoyed the game they had created. Even in those early days, Fog and Friction had an intuitive set of rules that offered real tactical depth without being too complex. We worked together finalising the designs, and here we are ready to bring it to your friendly local gaming store.

I asked Jeremy and Tom to put things into their own words rather than using my own and here is what they said:

“Our original desire when designing F&F, was to create a World War Two card game (we like the genre and there aren’t many of them on the market) that focused on the use of combined arms and the unpredictable nature of warfare. We wanted it to explore some of the challenges a real world commander would face; limited resources, an imbalance of forces, and the unknown strength or composition of the enemy. Players would also have to consider their overall strategy, weighing up where best to attack, defend or even capitulate, as players would be constantly fighting across two fronts simultaneously.

Importantly for us too, we wanted an element of bluff and ‘poker face’, where the game would become a battle of wits as each player tries to read their opponent and anticipate what they will or can do. It should have a fundamentally simple system with regards to the rules and maths required to play, but with enough nuance, expandability and depth to allow more seasoned players to really get stuck in and explore different possibilities, decks and strategies.

With that as our underpinning framework, we worked through many iterations of the rules and the design of the cards in order to meet our artistic and gameplay goals. Many playtests later and here we are with the base game published thanks to the good folks at Warcradle Studios! We just hope everyone else enjoys it as much as we do.”

Fog & Friction is a highly strategic card game that does a great job of simulating the unpredictability of war. You are never sure what forces your opponent has and where they will be deployed, but they are of course, in the same situation. The result is a fast paced, yet surprisingly deep game with an exciting historical theme. Various types of units are deployed to the battlefields and will interact with the enemy in very different ways, meaning that every move needs to be carefully thought out.

The core box also contains an expansion allowing players to customise their decks and therefore allowing a greater level of replay value. The great thing about Fog and Friction is that it gives us a great base to bring out further expansions and even entirely new theatres in the future.

Keep your eyes peeled for Fog & Friction in your local gaming store and online as it will be released very soon. We have all had a lot of fun developing the game and hope you will enjoy it as much as we have.

Chris