Utility Miniset New Cards

 24 JUN 2021

The Utility Mini-set (UM1) includes more than extra copies of familiar cards. This set also includes new very rare cards exclusive for this release.

Dog Fight: Starship Edition Utility Mini-set


Very Common Cards

Intervene type: Recover 2

Recover 2 is a card similar to the staple Reroute. This one, however, has a few nifty differences.

First, the basic effect has no energy cost. You get to move the bottom 2 cards from your discard pile to your action deck, but by definition this means you don't get to choose which cards are being moved. And instead of shuffling these 2 cards into your deck you'll simply place them on the bottom of it.

Also, unlike Reroute which specifically excludes ENVIRONMENT and GEAR type cards (the purple and green cards, respectively) Recover 2 grabs whatever is at the bottom of the discard pile regardless of what type of cards they may be.

One especially useful (but optional - the card states "you may") aspect of this card is you can move those cards straight to your hand instead of placing them on the bottom of your action deck. This can be done for the low cost of 2 energy.


 

Intervene type: Redirect Power

Redirect Power is a new card providing a quick injection of energy on your ship.

This card will likely favor larger decks over slim decks, as it requires you to ditch the top 3 cards of your action deck. But for an immediate gain of 5 energy it could be worth it.


 

Rare Cards

Intervene type: Power Transfer: Intervene

Power Transfer: Intervene works in the style of Power Transfer: Engines, in that the cards you can activate (flip face up) for the turn are limited only to one kind: Normal INTERVENE cards.

But the effects is awesome. For the additional limitation of discarding a card from hand to the discard pile you can duplicate the effect of another INTERVENE type card.

Notice the wording of this effect is "play that card's effect a second time", so it doesn't stack (no tripling or quadrupling of another card's effect).

Basic cards like Repair or Extra Counters suddenly become much more useful with this buff.

Also notice this card's effect is not mandatory, as it states "you may". But you can use it for more than one card during the turn.


 

Intervene type: Charged Plating

Charged Plating is one of those cards designed to enhance an existing card. In this case it aids Hardened Armor.

Hardened Armor is usable only by heavy ships (those whose original Hull is 25 or higher). Hardened Armor only reduces combat damage (damage inflicted specifically by an attack) and reduces it only by 1 point. Charged Plating adds another 3 to this value, for a whopping -4 or each attack against you.

But there is a recurring cost. To keep this card in play your ship will have to pay 1 energy each Discard Phase. You don't have to keep paying it, you can allow Charged Plating to expire if you don't want to spend the energy.

If for whatever reason Hardened Armor is no longer equipped to your ship, Charged Plating expires (it goes to the discard pile).


 

Very Rare Cards

Equip type: Active Defensive Armor

Active Defensive Armor is another defensive buff reducing combat damage only.

Unlike another armor card (Reactive Armor: Electromagnetic), Active Defensive Armor doesn't "transfer" counters from the ship to this card (see this post for more game keywords.) For this card, you'll simply add 5 armor counters to it from the general counter pool.

Also, like Reactive Armor: Electromagnetic, this card's effect is optional ("you may"). But it also stipulates you may pay one (and only 1) armor counter to reduce combat damage by 5 from any attack hitting your ship. But this armor can be used only once per ATTACK card shooting at you. If an ATTACK card allows multiple shots, you can mitigate only one of them.

Don't forget the Mobility cost: your ship's Mobility is reduced by 1 while you have this card equipped. If you reach the Discard Phase and it possesses no more armor counters, your Active Defensive Armor expires and goes to the discard pile - which also removes the -1 to Mobility debuff, effectively gaining Mobility when losing this card.


 

Intervene type: Enhanced Power Systems

Enhanced Power Systems is another card designed to enhance a standard card - Power Generator in this case.

This card works best in a Skeleton Complement setting (see ship complement rules).

Basically, with Enhanced Power Systems equipped, when you transfer energy to another card equipped to your ship you can transfer an extra energy. This is a fantastic buff for cards like Reactive Armor: Electromagnetic. Other cards are on the drawing board for this energy transferring mechanism.


 Those are the new cards included in the Utility Mini-set. This set will have a total of 70 cards. As mentioned over on BGG the release date is Wednesday, June 30.

Stay tuned for a complete card list soon.


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