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I was looking at Spanish Main auctions online as I try and fill in the gaps I still have in the OG set, and was reminded of some weird early effects that we’re in the game. As far as I know, no pack contained any crew with the same kind of abilities as these, but I might be wrong:
Master Gunner Rogelio Vazquez: All of this ship’s cannons have L range. 5 pts
Interesting ability. Not sure if it’s worth the 5 points. I know of at least one ship that has this same effect, but no crew. The first ship that comes to mind to try this on is actually the Black Swan. A pirate five master with all 3-S guns.
Joaquin Vega: When this ship hits an enemy ship, you choose which mast is eliminated. 4 pts
Now this is interesting. This seems like it could be extremely powerful, or useless, depending on the opposing fleet. My first thought would be placing him on a ship that can’t be hit by L guns (I assume Spain has a ship with that ability, though I don’t own one.) But you have to find yourself in the very specific situation of facing a fleet containing a warship with mixed ranges.
Thomas Gunn the Elder, et. al: This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against X ships. 3 pts
Back in the olden days you had no world haters. The nations had two crew that gave +1 to one of the other two nations’ ships. That’s 6 points and 2 cargo. These guys were almost immediately outclassed and have no purpose being played competitively, but god I love them for theme/story purposes. Thomas Gunn was one or the first crew I ever pulled. Never did manage to reunite him with his much better son, but my mind was absolutely blown when I realized his daughter was Calico Cat.
Lynch’s Noose: This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls. 2 pts.
The effect itself is very common for crew, what’s different is the point cost. By Crimson Coast, +1 boarders were worth 3 points. If you want an English crew, BC’s Roderick the Pure is worth 4. I’ve never found boarding all that important or worth upgrading (save for the people that let you board from S away. That’s very strong.) But at just 2 points, I can see Lynch’s Noose being a playable choice across the eras.
Ghost Crew: This ship’s crew cannot be eliminated unless she sinks. 6 pts.
This is like the opposite of Lynch’s Noose. It’s obvious when the original game was released Wizkids thought that boarding was going to be more important than it really was. By Crimson Coast, this ability had been downgraded all the way to 2 points, instead of 6. (And those crews have additional effects on top of it.) A neat idea, but a big swing and a miss. Sadly I don’t think I’ve ever used this crew aside from purely lore based fleets.
What other crew or ships have an ability that was only ever printed once?
What other crew or ships have an ability that was only ever printed once?
My podcast partner Godmason actually made that exact list. I made sure to archive the forum page, I have a picture as backup, and from the MT thread I extracted the link to his spreadsheet. 😀
Most of these are quite common, though you have a point in saying some of them are somewhat unique based on cost or seeing them alone (such as Crew Protect with nothing else on the crew).
Vazquez was repeated by the American Commander Albert Crenshaw. Vazquez would work well on the Santo Columba (2Sx4) and I like Crenshaw on the Enterprise (2Sx5) or even more so on the Concordia (3Sx5 with “undead” cannons).
Vega is unique. Gunn the Elder is extremely common; World Haters didn’t stop Wizkids from making a lot of faction-hater bonus crew, many at prices too high to justify using. (+1 against 1/10 factions for 3 points vs. +1 against 9/10 for 4 points)
+1 to boarding is worth no more than 2 points and is one of the best (or worst) examples of the reverse power creep. If everything was completely redone I think 1 point per +1 would work best. (meaning I think it would be better to have named crew that gave +2 to boards for 2 points, etc)
Where in CC is Crew Protect worth 2 points?
Master Gunner Rogelio Vazquez: All of this ship’s cannons have L range. 5 pts
Interesting ability. Not sure if it’s worth the 5 points. I know of at least one ship that has this same effect, but no crew. The first ship that comes to mind to try this on is actually the Black Swan. A pirate five master with all 3-S guns.
This one always felt like a total waste of points to me, even if the cost had been lowered somewhat. I can’t recall ever actually using it, at least not willingly. There are a few very specific situations where it could be made useful, but mental gymnastics aside, there is no situation where you’d use it that didn’t have some alternative solution that was less costly and/or was more versatile for other purposes too.
Thomas Gunn the Elder, et. al: This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against X ships. 3 pts
Back in the olden days you had no world haters. The nations had two crew that gave +1 to one of the other two nations’ ships. That’s 6 points and 2 cargo. These guys were almost immediately outclassed and have no purpose being played competitively, but god I love them for theme/story purposes.
The bonus against a specific nation ability made a lot more sense when there were only three nations, but since then they mostly only seemed to exist for flavor purposes, or maybe to artificially inflate the cost of some other ability attached to it. They’d be a lot more useful if you could swap between them after seeing the opposing fleet, or even if the ability cost came down enough to pull one in with a recruiter.
Where in CC is Crew Protect worth 2 points?
It’s 3, sorry. CC Hawkins costs 6 points and has the 3 Pt SAT ability plus crew protect. By BC crew protect has gone down to 2. Commander Stephen Decatur is 7 points, and has crew protect as well as the 5 point extra action ability.
The bonus against a specific nation ability made a lot more sense when there were only three nations, but since then they mostly only seemed to exist for flavor purposes, or maybe to artificially inflate the cost of some other ability attached to it. They’d be a lot more useful if you could swap between them after seeing the opposing fleet, or even if the ability cost came down enough to pull one in with a recruiter.
Now that’s interesting. It would definitely make those crew who only give +1 against a single nation like Gunn the Elder a bit more playable. It also kind of makes thematic sense for these guys to be recruited in specific situations rather than people you start the game with.
Another tidbit for ya.
Carbon Charlie was a crew from Spanish Main, English and cost 3 points. he lets you turn one treasure on your home island into a cannon for the ship he’s on. In order to use him though, the same ship needs to be docked at your home island.
This ability appeared later on Ships, but never again on a crew made by WK.
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