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This is a thread idea I had a while back. The Hessian is a very good 1 masted ship, but doesn’t get much attention. There are better 1 masted gold runners but not many better 1 masted gunships or even hybrids.
Hessian
Collector’s Number: 096
Faction Affiliation: America
Rarity: R
Type: Ship
Point Value: 9
Cargo Space: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 2S
Number of Masts: 1
Ability: Once per turn, one crew or ship within S of this ship cannot use its ability that turn.Flavor text: The tiny Hessian is nearly a renegade. In fact, she appears on no official naval records, raising questions about just who authorizes her vicious attacks.
The combination of cancelling and 4 cargo makes her pretty good from the start. With a good gun she can even get a captain. I sometimes like running her as a defensive gold runner (just a helmsman), but the cancelling can be circumvented by ramming.
It gets more fun when you consider all the different crew combos. Captain and helmsman leaves her with 2 cargo spaces for a hybrid role. You could add a shipwright and oarsman for maximum durability and make her very tough to capture. Or, C+H with a musketeer and a 1 point equipment for some firepower.
The Americans managed to get both of the cheap Eternal crew in the game. Combine them with C+H and an oarsman, and you can have the tiniest little “god ship” ever – Eternal, cancelling, oarsman and more. With Ralph David you’d even have room for a shipwright as well!
I realize that her combos aren’t that practical in smaller games, but I do think the Hessian is one of the nastiest 1 masters in the game.
I really like the concept of Cancelers but I was unsure about a one masted ship. thanks for the insight.
I really like the concept of Cancelers but I was unsure about a one masted ship. thanks for the insight.
Of course! Cancellers are fantastic but of course on a 1 masted ship you have the usual ramming problem, where one easily successful ram can often ruin a 1 master’s chances of impacting a game. In the unique case of the Hessian, that’s where a shipwright and Eternal could come in handy.
HMS Rye isn’t nearly as good offensively as the Hessian because as a galley she can’t do damage by ramming and her cannon isn’t accurate, but the Rye is still quite nasty for a 1 master. My ideal setup for her (especially in campaign games) is helmsman, shipwright, oarsman. This allows her to move at a blazing speed of 4S, repair her lone mast (very vulnerable to ramming) at sea, and delay capture with the oarsman. (the latter is important because capturing a canceller and towing it around can be one way to flip a battle on its head if used optimally) Even without a mast, the Rye could row around at S+S as a non-captureable ship that cancels key enemy abilities in a firefight.
As an otherwise unremarkable SCS LE, the Rye is sort of an English secret weapon unlike their main canceller (Lawrence from BC), though not so secret anymore after extensive campaign game play.
Oh, and she makes for a solid English gold runner when empty too! (or nearly empty; oarsman still recommended)
The Rye is physically a galley, but lacks the Keyword. Would that technically make her not a galley and therefore able to ram other ships?
The Rye is physically a galley, but lacks the Keyword. Would that technically make her not a galley and therefore able to ram other ships?
That’s something I’ve never understood properly; I just play them as they look to avoid confusion and wondering which have the keyword and which don’t. The Code has some info on page 16.
“The Code”
Ships (particularly galleys, schooners, and turtle ships) have only the abilities printed on their deckplate cards.
–While certain ship types and certain keyword abilities are often associated together, they are independent concepts that cannot be interchanged even if they have similar names.
–A ship does not automatically gain the associated keyword based on its type, nor does the presence of a keyword automatically determine a ship’s type.I think that last point is definitive, but I’m not sure in which way. I could see it meaning that just because it looks like a Galley does not mean that it actually IS a Galley. On the flip side, it could be treated like a Galley, even without the keyword because it’s built like a Galley.
I read that as definitively stating if the Galley keyword is not present, the Galley rules don’t apply, regardless of the physical ship type. Additionally, I think the dictation of ship type (as it relates to gameplay) is solely dependent on the abilities assigned on the card. If a ship looks like a galley but has printed “schooner” (which I’m sure doesn’t actually exist, but could just be unaware) it operates as a schooner and ignores the galley abilities. Would seem to be an oversight on the product itself, and likely only leads to confusion for the player (especially new players). I think I agree with Ben, simply in an effort to avoid confusion, it would be more beneficial to the player to play it as it is visualized, even if that does seem in direct conflict with the code IMO. I think I’m torn on this…hahah!
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