All the reviews I've read are clearly by reviewers who do have some familiarity with some previous version of Gwent. I've never played any Gwent, neither the standalone nor the Witcher 3 in-game version.

Is previous experience a silent requirement? Does Thronebreaker have a complete newb tutorial that does a decent job of explaining the basic mechanics or is it more of a "you know the basics, here's where we deviate from previous Gwent outings" kind of thing?

The first thing you need to understand is that Thronebreaker and GWENT multiplayer are completely different versions of the game you get in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt game. Secondly, Thronebreaker is woefully inadequate at explaining the card game to you. You need to get on Google and look up some guides.

Thanks. If it cannot stand on it's own I guess I'll give it a pass then. I don't mind the odd wiki checkup to sort out stats or abilities but if the basics aren't explained... meh.

pff ..
the basics are explained. there were a lot of complaints that the first half of the first map (around 2 hours of the fast game) is a tutorial

I really, really hated Gwent in Witcher 3 (and I was one of the people who actually bothered to become Dice Poker champion in 'The Witcher', despite it seemingly being completely random).

So: is there any way to just avoid any of this card stuff?

I love the idea of more of the Witcher world, but I've got NO desire to play cards.

It definitely stands on its own. In fact itś quite different to original gwent and its fairly well explained. It s the core gameplay, its a pity but I dont see how you could avoid it other than lower the difficulty to the max.
Actually theres the story mode but im not sure wether thats how the easy mode is called or that it fully gets rid of the card game.

I would disagree with that. I tried GWENT a while ago but I only played the tutorial and 1 battle and was completely overwhelmed and confused. Other than that I have never played any card game (nor any game of the witcher series) but I am having no problems with Thronebreaker, playing in normal difficulty.

It would be nice if there was a more lengthy explanation for each card in the game, but I'm sure there's a wiki or guide for it somewhere. The fact that I didn't need to actually look for such a wiki/guide, however, tells you that I'm not having issues. There's one exception: For one optional puzzle I looked for a solution online - turns out I simply had to use a particular card on the enemy's side, but I didn't realise that was an option. However, as noted, this was an optional puzzle.


Edit: I only disagreed with the second part. The part about GWENT online and thronebreaker being completely different is absolutely true. I am halfway through Act 2 so far and it's quite rare to even have any form 3 round battle of any kind.

I never said it can't be played in Thronebreaker, I said Thronebreaker was woefully inadequate at explaining the rules, which is absolutely true, no matter what you say or think.

That's where I disagree, at least as far as I got so far, act 3. Maybe it's because I did all the puzzles.

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you. Even if there isn't any consensus it's nice to get some different perspectives.

As someone who stopped playing Hearhstone when I realized I was having more fun with the singleplayer content, this does very much look like my kind of thing. I think I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and add my own experience to this thread in case it proves useful to somebody else.

So I finally found time to get into it and I can say that the tutorial section does a pretty good job of explaining the ui and basic mechanics. I guess that should't come as a suprise as it is a different game to the other manifestations.

I do, however, feel a bit overwhelmed. While I'm still trying to get to grips with my cards and the basics of how to win a full match, the game tries to mix things up on multiple fronts from the get-go - special challenges with custom rules, varying enemy tactics, varying enemy cards. And of course it does because otherwise it would be dull for the veterans. For noobs, well, keeping more variables constant from battle to battle would have been helpful. I suspect that it's just a matter of getting over an initial hump but for now, there's a lot of frustration mixed with the fun.

For anybody else in the same position: It's by no means impenetrable as an entry title but enjoyment of learning by trial and a lot of error is a must.