In the last article, we talked about personnel and their means to enhancing those that they work with, some better than others of course.  Now, we have other cards with the same means.  Yes, some of them only work for some affiliations/species but I'd be a fool if I didn't include them and I'm not a fool (hears snickering and muffled laughs in the audience....)
 

1) Artifacts

 We have four artifacts to choose from: Orb of Wisdom, Sword of Kahless, The Earring of Li Nalas and the Varon-T Disruptor.

 While the Orb is much more inclined for Bajorans because of the secondary use of the card (may play one card for free to this location if Orb icon personnel present with this Orb), anyone can take advantage of the Integrity +3 benefit.  Of course, with Orb Experience, you can give anyone with Integrity > 6 an Orb icon and other affiliations have Orb Icon personnel: Federation: The Emissary.  Cardassians: Borad.  Ferengi: Quark and Grand Nagus Zek.  Non-Aligned: Barry Waddle but the Bajorans have the most: Kira Nerys, Bariel, Bariel Antos and Vedek Dax, two of whom you don't even need to use your card play for or have in your opening hand. (Kira with Defend Homeworld, Bariel with Crossover and QIR/Chamber of Ministers.)  And we're not even getting into the whole HQ: Return Orbs to Bajor issue...  While the Bajorans are more likely to use it, anyone can get it via Starry Night, which can be said for any one of these artifacts, as well as via Secret Compartment.  The thing is, the Bajorans don't really need the Integrity boost as much as others.  The Bajorans were ranked 3rd in Integrity behind the Borg and the Federation.  A +3 Integrity isn't going to go as far with them as it would other affiliations like the Romulans, Cardassians and Non-Aligned personnel but most people use the card for the second function anyway.  Conclusion: The Bajorans can make the most advantage out of it but attribute-wise, they're one of the least likely affiliations to need it.

 Sword of Kahless is strictly a Klingon card.  All your Klingons with Honour present have +3 in all attributes, with Kahless getting not only +7 in Strength but he cannot be killed in personnel battle.  Not counting TwT, Sons of Mogh or Mirror Mirror cards, that's 26 personnel.  With an extra boost of +9 in attributes, you're certainly going to do much better with attribute-related cards and can do much better at holding off the invasion force of the Dominion.  Then, there's the second skill for Kahless.  Kahless has now become a Strength 15 powerhouse.  Send him over to a Borg ship or any other ship for that matter with Open Diplomatic Relations and let him wail away at a ship, knowing that he can't be killed in personnel battle.  There are flaws in this, of course, Intruder Alert being the main one but if you can catch them unprepared, it can make for a nasty surprise.  Keep in mind that you need to give him the means to attack someone or have someone accompany him (Sons of Mogh come to mind).  Keep that in mind when you use Kahless for your AMS selection.  The side benefit of Sword of Kahless can be found in two cards: Bat'leth Tournament and Council of Warriors.  You can earn 10 extra points at the Bat'leth tournaments.  Add AMS and you've got a 40-point mission.  Then you can use Council of Warriors to earn points from personnel battle and leading the charge is an immune Kahless.  A nice combination with this card is Croden's Key via Starry Night; that way you can board their ships and lay waste to their crews for points via Council of Warriors.  Combined with Q'apla, even the Jem'Hedar would be afraid of you ;-)  Conclusion: Perfect compliment to a Council of Warriors deck, best used with Starry Night.

 The Earring of Li Nalas is a Resistance-only card, which means with the exception of Kira, it's a Bajoran-only card.  Like the Sword above, it enhances all Resistance personnel's attributes +3 for a +9 increase which certainly has its uses: Defending against Dominion Smackdown, passing attribute-requiring dilemmas and missions with a minimum number of personnel and the like.  However, the first function makes things more interesting.  Doubling a 25 pt mission to 50 pts certainly goes far, especially for an affiliation with no Mission Specialists.  The first function can be used by any affiliation that can complete Rescue Prisoners, which is Fed and Bajoran via the card itself, Cardassians via either Forced Labor Camp as well as Espionage, Ferengi via the Forced Labor Camp and Romulans via Espionage.  Plus, the other benefit for Cardassians and Ferengi if done via the Forced Labor method, you can get extra card draws from your captive (if just Li Nalas) or captives if you seed more.  Conclusion: Attribute-wise, Bajoran is the way to go but if you want a 50-point, Fair Playable mission, you can also go with Cardassians and Ferengi. among others.

 The Varon-T doubles your strength.  Useful for anyone that wants to have personnel battles, namely the Dominion and the Klingons.  There isn't much to write about a straightforward card so...that's it ;-)

 All of these cards can be downloaded via either Secret Compartment or Starry Night.  The Earring and Orb of Wisdom can be Cargo Run'd by anyone, the others require the Bok'Nor from the Cardassians.  They can also all be discarded by Disruptor Overload but can also be rescued via Reclamation or Q's Planet and earn you 5 pts a piece from Kivas Fajo if he's present with them.  However, unless you plan on using their functions as a focus to your deck, I wouldn't stock them only for their attribute enhancements.
 

2. Equipment

 Equipment can be broken down into PADD's, Weapons, Kukalaka and Agonizer.  PADD's add Cunning of 2; Weapons can add from +1 to +3 in Strength, not to mention mortally wounding someone; Kukalaka can add from Integrity of +2 or +3 and the Agonizer adds +1 to Integrity and Cunning of Mirror Quadrant personnel and OS Klingons which is cumulative up to +3.  Equipment help pass certain dilemmas (Security Precautions, Founder Secret, Vole Infestation, Berserk Changeling, Executive Authorization and of course, Common Thief) as well as augment where you're lacking (Integrity for Cardassians, Strength for Ferengi, Cunning for Klingons)  not to mention being Cargo Run’d for card draws.  Of course, just like the artifacts, these equipment can be Disruptor Overloaded.  They also take up a card play, so your best bet is to download them into play.

 Last article discussed all the personnel that download equipment that can enhance stats so I won't bother doing so again, but rather talk about how to get equipment into play via other means.  Trading Latinum for whichever equipment suits your fancy at the moment is one way to get started but so is the complement in the form of Self-Sealing Stem Bolts if you have any Jake or any Nog present.  Via this method, combined with the Gold Pressed Latinum which can be acquired via many different means, you can use one Latinum to get the Stem Bolts and use the rest however way you see fit, whether for points via HQ: Ferengi Credit Exchange or card draws.  Secret Compartment can also work, if you don't want to download an Artifact.  Just use Cargo Bay to get an Acquisition personnel aboard your opponent's Nor or DS9 and probe away.  Two equipment per successful probe is pretty nice and you can pick which two equipment you'd like it to be.  There's also Ultimatum, which if you're using a Dominion Engineer in the AQ and can move them over to a Dominion mission, lets you download a Remote Supply Depot and two equipment of your choice with it.  You don't even have to be playing Dominion to do it, really.  Download the Depot, beam the equipment up and put it on a Neutral OP, keeping the Dominion personnel on the ship.  Then you can report whomever to the Neutral OP to pick up the equipment and go from there.  Also, you could always discard it if you can get your Dominion ship to blow up your opponent's ship for some extra bonus points.  Then of course, there's Visit Cochrane Memorial and the equipment that lets it download one or two cards and the equipment that you can download.  Even with It's Only a Game, all you need to do is use the Classic Communicator, Mr. Scott and OS personnel to let you download whomever you want.  A powerful mechanic, to be sure.  Conclusion: While best when used with personnel that can get such equipment into play without using your card play, there are other means to get at them if you want to use the card mechanisms to do so.
 

3. Events

 Dial Martok for Murder is only good if you're infiltrating.  It increases your Strength by 4 and lets you initiate battle against two personnel of your choice and best of all, you're not exposed.  Depending on the infiltrator, that could be the death of two personnel of your choice, especially if it's Martok Founder, who can special download this event into play.  The problem is that the strongest of the infiltrators are more likely to be discovered (Odo, Kira, Martok, Lovok) by the people they're designed to infiltrate.  Only the Feds are likely to be safe for use by this via Leyton Founder and Krajensky Founder.  They're not the most likely of choices to be used in decks nowadays, especially with the surge of popularity of OS decks plus their Strength of 8 and 5 makes them 12 Strength and Strength 9 respectively.  However, this is not to say that they can't be used by non-Dominion.  Any infiltrator can work so usage of people like Boone Impersonator, Jake Sisko and LaForge Impersonator can be used along with captives via Brainwash and E-Band Emissions.  Conclusion: Unless you're using an infiltrating deck or have Martok Founder infiltrating, you're probably better off not using this card.

 HQ: War Room enhances Officers, Leadership, Security and Resistance personnel's Cunning and Strength by 2 if they are of the affiliation matching the homeworld you play it on.  It plays for free at any HQ that lets you play them for free.  Conclusion: If you're using a HQ and you think you need more in either one of these areas, there's little reason why you shouldn't include it, especially if you're Klingon or Ferengi (lowest in Cunning and Strength respectively).

 Lower Decks enhance all universal personnel's stats by 2 and can be downloaded and protected by a Ready Room Door.  Conclusion: Great for decks that have a lot of universal personnel (AMS decks, Jem'Hedar Smackdown, Rinnak Pire for Hire decks to name a few) but otherwise, it's pretty useless.

 Yellow Alert nullifies all Red Alerts and adds 1 Cunning to all your personnel and can also be downloaded via Ready Room Door.  Conclusion: There are better counters (Deactivation, Kevin and It's Only a Game) that have this and Red Alert in binder land.
 

4) Incidents

 The Art of Diplomacy is the only incident that can enhance attributes with the download of a hand weapon to one of your personnel with 2 Treachery.  It has many other uses with it as well, like allowing your MQ, Maquis, Resistance and Orion Syndicate personnel who are using a hand weapon to use 2 Treachery like 1 Diplomacy as well as ignoring reductions from rifles.  Not only that but it may be used to kill one other personnel present.  Now this part I find especially interesting because it doesn't say it has to be your opponent's personnel.  You could take advantage of this as follows: Killing your own Brunt to get away with doing things that are Writable or killing Aamin Marritza.  But it's far more popular to kill your opponent's personnel.   Combine it with Protection Racket and Tantalus Field; your opponent might not like the prospect of having one person threatened with death, one killed with the field and another killed by this incident.  Conclusion: Nice to get a hand weapon but the rest of the card makes it much more deadly to your opponent.
 

5) Interrupts

 Interrupts aren't as popular with increasing attributes because people want their attributes to be increased for a lot longer but sometimes, you just need an extra boost and that's what these cards are used for.

 How would you like to deprive your opponent the chance of returning two personnel to their hand via a Regenerate or Res-Q or Ore Processing and earning about 38 in attributes to one of your AU personnel?  You can do it without using your card play with Devidian Foragers.  It allows you to look through any one discard pile and place two personnel out of play.  Add their attribute numbers to one of your AU icon personnel for this turn.  Conclusion: Granted, the attribute increase is only for a turn so you have limited time to use it but the placing out of play two personnel that you were lucky to have killed is something that can be very nice indeed, especially if your opponent was expecting to Ore Process that person back to their draw deck.

 Adding skills and attribute numbers, Eyes in the Dark can be of some benefit but you have to be rather lucky in your usage.  When encountering a dilemma if you have Empathy present, you can add the skills and attribute numbers of one personnel at random from your opponent's ship of your choice.  Problem is: Unless you know who's on that ship and get lucky with the random selection or have Elim with you and the ship you're targeting with this interrupt at this location, it's either a hit or a miss.  Conclusion: Not worth it.

 Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (a.k.a the fish) works best with two distinct decks: STA decks and Ooby Dooby decks for one particular reason.  Youth personnel are Cunning +4 and Strength +4.  If they're at the location where you play this, opponent's non-aligned personnel are Cunning and Strength -4.  With the STAs, the only reason you'd need them upped in Strength is for battle which would lead to a Smackdown deck with STAs being reported for free and using the Stolen Attack Ship or other ship with Invasive Beam-In capabilities to send in your attack force of Strength 14 soldiers.  Since the force invading would be Non-Aligned, you could even use Feds to bring the invasion force over.  Tack on Lower Decks for good measure and possibly Android Headlock and even the Dominion would have to give pause.  Even the Borg could use this if the Queen selects Youth to help dispel unwanted invaders of her Cube if so inclined.  Conclusion:  If you have Youth and you want them increased in Cunning and Strength, this is the card for you.  Now bring on the STA Smackdown ;-)

 Klingons don't like dying in battle and they react rather unsavorily to it, hence the card Klingon Rights of Vengeance. While it doesn't work on the Klingon player's ships (the card says Away Team battle so it doesn't work as well against ship Invasive Beam-In) on a planet, be wary of the wraith of Klingons if you kill one (no easy task in and of itself) for they get to re-attack you with double their Strength and their Bat'leth's get to mortally wound more people if they can't manage to kill you outright.  Conclusion: Don't battle the Dominion on your ship, take it down to a planet in order to lay the Klingon revenge trick on them.  Wipe them out.  All of them

// Editor's note: but I thought it was every Klingon's ambition to die in battle!

 The only card entirely in a different language for Star Trek, Q'apla allows you to add Integrity to Strength at the start of personnel battles to your Klingons with Honor.  Tacking on the average of 5.74 Integrity to the average 7 Strength of Klingons, you can add some serious damage to those attacking hordes.  Not to mention things like giving Worf Son of Mogh, who can special download the Interrupt, strength of 18, makes one wary to lay waste to Klingons anywhere and as an incidental: You earn a card draw with Fajo's Gallery when it's used.  Conclusion: If you see Worf, Son of Mogh, you might want to reconsider attacking those Klingons.
 

6) Objectives

 For Cardassia! plays on Legates (for free with Honor).  All your Cardassians present have Integrity and Strength +2 and it's non-nullifiable except for killing that Legate, so it makes for a better protection from Firestorm than relying on Kukalaka.  If that Legate helps complete HQ: Secure Homeworld on Cardassia, you can discard it for either two Cardassians with Honour or place this Legate and two others with Honour from that Away Team out of play for 15 pts.  This makes Cardassia a 50 point mission right there and if you use Legate Damar, you can get it into play for free.  It’s an enhancement as well as a potential download of two Cardassians with Honor or 15 free points at the expense of the Legate and two others' lives.  Getting it into play for free is a bit more problematic as you have either Legate Damar or Tekeny Ghemor to choose from but outside of them, there’s Turrel (helpful for Cardassian treaties), and Parn (the universal Cardassian equivalent of the Romulan Galathon, only with Diplomacy rather than Greed and the whole VIP instead of Officer deal).  But since Legate Damar can special download it anyway, you’ll probably just use him for it.  While the second function of the second function (geez, sounds so lawyerish ;-) requires there to be Cardassians with Honor to be discarded with the Legate, the first function lets you download 1 of 10 conceivable Cardassians with Honor who vary in their usefulness.  You could go with Gloria Rejal for space decks, Macet or Natima Lang for Diplomacy-based decks and even Aamin Marritza just to kill off for 5 pts but the download of 2 personnel of your choice is never a bad thing to consider.  Conclusion: If you can pull of the secondary benefits, makes it all the better.  If not, you still got an essentially free enhancement from Legate Damar.

 Prepare Assault Teams lets you download a hand weapon of your choice, let your Security personnel act as leaders in battle and lets you break up Away Teams as you wish.  It’s a Hidden Agenda but it can’t be seeded which makes this card far more likely to be binder material, but for the Ferengi especially, it can be very useful.  Morta can special download the card.  Now, that in and of itself isn’t all that helpful but if you combine it with Ferengi Infestation, it gets to be a whole lot more interesting.  Try this sometime just to really scare an Empok Nor player: Seed Ferengi Infestation there.  When they encounter it, download the following personnel:  Morta, Maihar’du, Leck, Kazago, Berik and Tol.  Then have Morta download Prepare Assault Teams and Maihar’du can special download Bodyguards to have you arrange your personnel as you see fit and no one has Strength less than 10 if you download the Ferengi Disruptor Rifle or, now that it’s available, you could download the Ferengi Whip to stun any one personnel you encounter (handy for that unexpected Lore arrival although Leck could also kill him outright) and you’re still at Strength of 9 or above.  After the battle, you could  (if you’re really sneaky) commandeer Empok yourself  (you have Computer Skill there) and steal Mining Survey yourself ;-)  If you check carefully, you’ll notice that you have all the skills to pass the mission requirements yourself in that mass of people.  All you do is add dilemmas that you can pass without incident and poof, your Ferengi have just stolen a mission which is pretty hard to do for the Espionage-less Ferengi ;-)  Granted, that’s a bit extreme (not to mention very Tent-taxing if you’re not Ferengi) but it certainly wouldn’t be expected.  But even with just two people, having a twosome that has 22 in Strength between them isn’t bad at all and can cause havoc.  Conclusion: Unless you’re using Morta, I don’t see a real use for this card.

 Visit Cochrane Memorial has the capability to download most anything into play that you wish, with the proper probes of course.  Attribute-wise, you can shore up what you’re lacking but really, you should use your downloads for personnel that can special download such equipment instead.  That way, you get your base amount of attributes, skills, cannon fodder as well as equipment.  While It’s Only a Game makes it more problematic to take advantage of this mechanism, the Original Series personnel have it easy.  All it takes is Mr. Scott, Crew Reassignment possibly and a Classic Communicator.  Use the communicator to give a person the skill of Engineer for a turn, then use a different person for each time you wish to probe, always using the Communicator to become an Engineer.  Conclusion: While capable of being a powerful attribute enhancer, its real power is in deck manipulation if done properly.
 

7) Conclusion

 Yea, it’s shorter than his last article!  I hope you learned or at least got something out of the article and look forward to the next article which is about what the heck we’re going to use Attributes for in the first place.  As always, if you have comments, critiques, etc.  my e-mail is theninjascot@yahoo.com so feel free to e-mail me there.

Until next month, ciao

Michael