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So I was looking at French gunships and I noticed these two ships, and how similar they are. They’re both five masters, both have decent speed, and are both focused on boarding and close action combat.
My question is which one is better- the Gaule has better cannons and her ability, but the Charlemagne is cheaper, has more cargo, and a flat boarding bonus.
This question stems from my doubts about the Gaule’s ability. I can see the value in a boarding bonus, but I’m not exactly sure how powerful boarding is as a whole, it’s not like ramming that removes a mast. The Gaule can board without ramming, but I’m not sure what that does or what benefits she’d provide.
I ranked the Gaule ahead and although I stand by that, it’s very close actually. Charlemagne is a little better as a hybrid (1 more cargo) while the Gaule is a little better as a gunship (1 more 2S vs 3S cannon). I like S-boarding better than boring boarding bonuses, but it’s risky. It slightly enhances the Gaule’s overall striking range (up to 4S with a helmsman and S-boarding ahead of the bowsprit), and can be used with a variety of crew (Nemo, etc) to capture or eliminate enemy cargo without getting pinned.
I’ll throw a curveball here and answer L’Aube.
L’Aube is 15 points, cheaper than Gaule and the same as Charlemagne. It’s slower, at L speed, but nothing a helmsman can’t fix. Crucially, L’Aube can be paired with Gentil de la Barbinais for an extra world-hater ability, making her guns 2-L against any non-French ship. It does only have 4 cargo spaces, but a much more useful effect and better guns than those two.
I also have to give my obligatory La Magnifique shoutout with its 6 cargo.
To be fair, L’Aube is definitely worse than the other two. Lower max speed, worse cannons overall (basically 3L’s), and quite boring/nothing distinctive. I don’t think Barbinais is any more effective on the Aube than on the other two, other than maybe the L range guns.
I also don’t think it really has a more useful ability. Sure it’s technically better, but the Aube would cost the same or less if she simply had 3L cannons in the first place with no ability. Needing the ability to boost the cannons just makes her more vulnerable to cancellers, including stuff like Fear and the “global” cancellation of Cursed Captain Jack. (unlikely yes, but still worse than just having better ranks)
Even with the bonus, the guns aren’t necessarily better. I think the Gaule has the best guns of the three, since rank matters more than range. It’s nice the Charlemagne has her 2’s stacked at the front for specialists and getting some hits if the other guns aren’t in range when moving towards an opponent.
I was thinking SCS Gaule my b. But I do think that rank-3 L-range guns are better than a mix of S-range 2’s and 3’s simply because L-range guns can beat a ship with a canceller. You basically need Lenoir on board the other two in order to cancel other cancellers. And I’ve never found any boarding bonus to be very good other than the Capture ones. Boarding from S away is the best of those but if you could move shoot then board from S away it would be much better.
I’d rank the four of them as OE Gaule > L’Aube > SCS Gaule> Charlemagne
Ben, what would you use the S boarding ability for? I’m not sure what the utility for it is, or if it’s important enough to warrant getting Le Gaule. Can it be used in conjunction to a normal board, so you can effectively board twice?
Don’t think you can double up on boards, but I might be wrong.
The main benefit is that you don’t get yourself pinned. Also, you can still shoot with every cannon while typically if you ram a ship you won’t be able to shoot every gun after. If you want to go full Gimmick and use Nemo or some other Capture ability it helps with that as well.
Ben, what would you use the S boarding ability for? I’m not sure what the utility for it is, or if it’s important enough to warrant getting Le Gaule. Can it be used in conjunction to a normal board, so you can effectively board twice?
Yes indeed. Check out the Pirate Code entry on page 18. You can board twice in a turn. Also: “-This ability may be used by or against a ship that is submerged.”
By itself it’s a decent ability that helps with overall striking range and boarding flexibility. You could S-board a ship on your way to ramming and boarding a different ship. The real value lies in combos – Nemo or other capture crew on a 10 master with S-boarding (and preferably sac) gets crazy effective. (ex: Zhanfu)
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