The KARDS Summer expansion "Covert Operations" is live!

Covert Operations, the KARDS Summer expansion, arrived on June 11, 2024, and heralds a thrilling new era on the battlefield.

Covert Operations revolves around the intricacy of covert operations and the (hidden) development of your military forces. This release delivers 87 brand new cards, two exciting new abilities, new game mechanics, card  balance changes, and selected cards returning from the reserve pool to active duty! This massive expansion introduces completely new tactical and strategic features to the battlefield and adds new depths of gameplay and deck building to KARDS. Behind-the-scenes improvements and bug fixes complete this large summer expansion.

New Keywords and Abilities

The new abilities “Covert” and “Develop” evolve the gameplay to previously unknown finesse.

• “Covert” deploys a unit face down and hidden to the opponent until it is attacked or attacks. While being covert, the unit is unaffected by regular orders, countermeasures, or  unit abilities.

• “Develop” allows you to choose 1 of 3 cards randomly selected from a specified pool of cards. This pool can vary from card to card.

New Game Mechanics

The new game mechanics work in conjunction with, but also beyond, the new Covert and Develop abilities and are carefully tuned to allow for the emergence of completely new tactics and potentially whole new deck types archetypes. These new mechanics include:

• Reveal

  Triggers when a previously covert unit gets revealed. Some cards have specific actions tied to this trigger.

• Retribution

   A spawn-only pool of "Retribution" cards that you can draw from via the new "Develop" ability and the new order "Outrage."

• Dynamic Turn Counting

  This mechanism adjusts certain card or unit stats—like attack/defense bonuses—based on the number of turns that have passed. It also enables the display of dynamic values on the card that change according to in-battle events (e.g., number of cards you draw from RESERVES).

• Unit Subtypes

  This feature allows for more precise actions and clearer event descriptions during battles. Some cards feature a unit subtype; for example: all Spitfire fighters belong to the "Fighter" type and carry the new subtype "Spitfire," which then can be referenced by specific other cards (e.g., REFIT).

Covert Operations - Nation overview

87 brand new collectible cards arrive with Covert Operations. Each of the five major nations receives 15 new cards: 3 Elite, 3 Special, 4 Limited, and 5 Standard rarity cards. Additionally, the four minor nations receive three new cards each: 1 Special, 1 Limited, and 1 Standard rarity card.

Read ahead and explore how each nation contributes to Covert Operations in their own specific way aligned to their historical role in WW2!

USA

Covert units are a major theme for the USA with this summer expansion. Furthermore, we see the completely new “Retribution” theme with 13 spawn-only cards that you can either develop or receive from other cards.

For those eager to engage in the thrilling Retribution-theme, we recommend the battle-ready deck “Angry Mob”: Generate Retribution to fuel your way to victory!

Britain

During WW2, Britain developed and heavily utilized Commando Units to sabotage, disrupt and infiltrate. We honour this by introducing a new commando unit to KARDS and adding more cards to lift the British Commando-theme into a prominent spotlight. In accordance with the prominent role of the Royal Air Force during WW2, Britain receives support for their air force. Furthermore, an intriguing new twist supports the second actions of a kind (e.g. second order given during a turn).

A new battle-ready British deck “Going Commando” is available if you want to quickly get into the clandestine world of Command operations to win the world!

Germany

With Covert Operations, Germany receives solid support for their countermeasures. We see several new cards supporting this theme, providing interesting fresh approaches. Additionally and in accordance with the historical development in WW2, we see support for rapid deployment into the frontline. The German theme this summer is completed with a bit of anti-covert support and some stand-alone boosts.

The new German battle-ready deck “Counter Argument” allows you to win through the power of countermeasures.

Japan

Japan receives a major boost to their strategic arsenal with Covert Operations. Several new cards revolve around sacrificing kredit slot(s) to gain boosts on other fronts in the hope that this exchange will pay off with a victory. This perfectly aligns with Japan's major strategies during WW2. Additionally, we get several thrilling covert cards with this release.

Are you ready to experience the thrilling high-risk, high-reward kredit loss aggro theme? Then you should check out the Japanese battle-ready deck “Go For Broke” !

Soviet Union

The major theme for the Soviet Union this summer release revolves around Covert units and supporting them in various ways. The namesake card for this release “Covert Operations” is therefore Soviet.

If you are thrilled by the covert ops theme, then you should try out  “Hide & Seek”, the new Soviet battle-ready deck !

Allied Nations

 The new cards for the allied nations Finland, France, Italy, and Poland have in common that they are control-natured, thus perfectly complementing the overall theme of the Covert Operations expansion.

Spawn-only cards

The following cards are not collectable and cannot be added to decks. They can only be spawned from other cards during a match. While spawn-only cards exist in the game since the early days (e.g. Light Infantry), the new Retribution theme contains more than a dozen unique spawn-only cards.

Balance Changes

Together with the introduction of new cards and game mechanics, we have adjusted the card balance of 13 existing cards.

 These balance changes take into account the significant number of new cards and new game mechanics arriving on the battlefield and further support the fine-tuning of the overall card balance in Covert Operations.

Reserve Pool Cards

Finally, 24 cards are returning to active duty from the reserve pool while 96 cards are retired into the reserve pool.

The continuous cycling of cards into and out of the reserve pool with each expansion supports the overall accessibility and longevity of KARDS for years to come.

For all the nitty-gritty technical details and to pick up all the delightful intricacies of this release, dive into the Covert Operations Release Patch Notes.

Enjoy Covert Operations and see you on the battlefields of KARDS!