Spiderweb by Strateg

A card game essentially depicts a battle between different armies, each with its own insignia. Court cards represent commanders and military leaders—kings and queens. Following the news today teaches us that war is no longer a battle fought with swords and on horseback. The current Ukrainian-Russian conflict is a battle between swarms of drones and their remote operators. And this is precisely the situation depicted in the deck’s graphic design by the Ukrainian company STRATEG. The 77 x 53 mm deck of playing cards contains 36 cards—as is customary in Eastern Europe.

Although the court cards are depicted in historical costumes, perhaps of a Renaissance style, the figures play the role of drone operators—they wear virtual reality goggles and hold a drone and its controller. The artwork for the characters is very nicely executed, though the differences between the individual suits are not very pronounced. A minor detail - the six-fingered (?) hand of the Jack of Diamonds - suggests that the AI-generated artwork does not fully grasp human anatomy.

The shape of the traditional French suit symbols has been updated and replaced with drone silhouettes. The suits on the pip cards are always organized in the same way—according to their own, not entirely traditional, system. Only the corner indices (placed in just two corners for right-handed players) have retained the original shape of the suits without the drone silhouette.