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Is there any way to bring something “extra” along for a fog hop? “If this ship (sea monster) ends her turn in a fog bank, on her next turn she may use her move action to move out of any other fog bank in play.”
It definitely wouldn’t work with flotillas, and I assume not with towing a derelict either. I can think of maybe one possibility – if an oared ship (like a Galley) with no Oarsman had the Fog Hopper ability copied to it and was being towed by a regular Fog Hopper, I assume it would have to be given a separate move action to fog hop with a ship that was towing it? (forcing you to break the tow either way since I think they’d have to hop separately)
Also, if everything is “costed right” you may need to increase the suggested point limit of standard games from 40 to something else, as a fleet made of costed right ships might get you one or two ships in a fleet (without heavy crew combos) and max out your build total of 40.
I think it would balance out because of all the overpriced ships – I think there are probably more of those than the underpriced ships. For example, a ton of ships from Fire and Steel (and other “second half” of production sets) would suddenly drop into single digits for point cost. Something like USS Shark would go from 13 points of “bleh” to 5-6 points of intrigue.
Banshee’s Cry might go to 10 or more, but a bunch of ships of the same type (Crete Argentee, Repulsa, etc) would drop into single digits, which would compensate for the OP stuff getting more expensive.
From The Pirate Code:
-Abandoned Crew remain facedown until you use their abilities. While face up, they are treated exactly like their corresponding generic crew.
–They do not count against the point limit of a ship.
Normally crew do count against the point limit of a ship – are these different because they were not paid for in the build total?
If you didn’t have any copies of the Turtles UT, how much would you pay for a full-card Turtles with 10 Turtle coins instead of 1, vs. a regular Turtles UT with just the one turtle coin?
Aigle and Providence both look like good and useful warships. Only concern is tracking Aigle’s bonus – during a game I’d probably write or type which ships.
60 point Jade fleet
Grand Path + Shap’ng Tsai, Katsura-chan, helmsman
Virtuous Wind + Captain, helmsman, explorer
Noble Swan + Li Quin, Captain
Sea Tiger
Forts: Ramsgate, Fort Brompton
UT’s: Bad Maps, JadeI really like how unique Isabella and Badbeard are. Lots of intriguing abilities to have on a gold runner/hybrid.
In other words would I require an “extra action” crew over a “same action” crew.
As long as you have the Captain ability on that ship (“This ship may move and then shoot as part of a single move action.”), it works with either. SAT (Same Action Twice, same as the Born Leader keyword) allows you to repeat the first action given to the ship. With a Captain, you can move and shoot twice.
For the “this ship may be given the same action twice” ability, if I’m 6S away from an enemy ship (and my ship can move 3S) but I want to be able to move and shoot, could I chose to move and “shoot” twice (if I roll a 5 or a 6), “forgo” the option to shoot on my first action, then move and shoot on my second action or is that illegal?
In that situation, you would need a Captain. You can choose to only move with the first action, then shoot at the end of the second move action with Captain.
I don’t know if I’ll keep the improvement on the Wrench, or at least not make it that good. Re-wording to just a +1 to the roll might be better, especially as I’ve used the once per turn wording, like spying abilities an cancel crew. Given that, would a point increase from 14 to 16 – 17 be ideal, regardless of any changes to the ability?
Sounds like an improvement!
Once per turn you may roll a d6. On a result of 5-6 repair a mast on every friendly ship within S of this ship. If this ship is assigned a shipwright crew, the roll succeeds on a result of 3-6 instead.
Especially with that improvement, I think Wrench should be more expensive. It doesn’t take an action and can be made quite useful with an extra 2 point crew. I could see that being really useful in some larger games, especially on crowded battlefields or in conjunction with a cheerleader.
In a campaign game I’d probably be willing to spend 18-20+ points on this one. On the other hand, Peril Koi seems underwhelming. I’d consider swapping their point costs.
Would bringing her down to 25 points be more worth it, or further than that?
I think 22-23 would be fine.
I love the flavor text for Helix. Not the typical “now the ship has an iron hull” type thing we sometimes see on ships with that ability.
Holster is likely not quite worth her cost, but it does sound like a fun “command center” type vessel for a decent sized squadron in a large game. I’d probably go full gunship given her abilities. Preferably with a “shoot through ships” crew or equipment so she could snipe from within the middle of a pack that she’s increasing ranges for.
I have noticed certain ability combinations with certain crew of certain nationalities can be extremely advantageous, even if they require “all nationalities” crew enablers.
Definitely. I think that’s one of the last “less-explored frontiers” of this game too. There are probably some brilliant international setups and creative ideas that have barely (if ever) been tried.
If I have an opponent playing as Spain with a ship carrying Joaquin Vega, and I’m playing England with a ship carrying a crew that allows use of all nationalities crew and my own Joaquin Vega, is that a legal setup or can there be only one Joaquin Vega in the whole game?
That is legal. The No-Duplicates rule only applies to each player’s individual fleet, not all game pieces in play between all players.
From The Pirate Code: “A player cannot have two or more of the same character, ship, sea creature, event token, or fort in their fleet at the same time unless it is captured from an opposing player.”
For crew abilities that state “one cargo may also be removed when this ship hits an enemy ship”, does this apply only to cargo like treasure, unique treasure etc, or does it also apply to crew since they take up cargo space? I’m only asking since there are crew that specifically have abilities that say “eliminate one crew when this ship is hit”.
From page 3: “-All crew, equipment, and treasures (including unique treasures) are considered cargo, even if they take up no space.”
The “Cargo Wrecking” ability can be particularly devastating because it can potentially wipe out everything a ship is carrying in one volley if you get enough hits.
Very cool vessels here. I like how Raider can be quick but requires more than just an auto-include Captain to get the bonus. She’s likely to be quite an investment, likely at least 28+ points for C+H+Marine. Good hybrid potential too.
Specter could be an effective hybrid as well. Maybe not the best comparison, but almost makes me think of a mini-Guichuan: similar in cost, cargo, cannons and Ghost Ship. Would be interesting to slide into an enemy formation “unnoticed” and then become “visible” to guarantee first shot advantage. She also makes me think about the recent podcast about the online game. Would be neat to see a version someday where that “invisibility” could be translated effectively – where the controlling player can see a translucent version of the ship at all times of course, but the ship legitimately disappears from the other player’s screen and they have no idea where it is until it becomes visible again. 🙂
This may be a dumb question but stacked oarsman start to occupy cargo spaces after the first oarsman even if their designation is “this crew takes up no cargo space” right?
Correct, due to the No-Stacking rule.
Very cool. Definitely spices up the Mercs quite a bit from what Wizkids gave them. Evan Van Turner could definitely prove useful on some of the original submarines too, being able to shoot as a Marine while submerged.
How about “The Teacher – Someone who spends their time teaching new players and mostly plays very basic games with less experienced players.”
Great idea! I’ll add it to the first post. I definitely had a run with that, mostly in 2015-2016 teaching a bunch of family members and friends in college.
I’m really big on the combat aspect of PCSG and have done a lot of research on Bens top 10 gunship ranking and the corresponding battle reports.
I love when people read my battle reports, so thank you! 🙂
I’ve used the HMS Endeavor (a relatively recent acquisition) loaded with Affiliated (all nationalities) crew Brother Virgil with DJC Davy Jones. In addition I had Hermione Gold (Captain Helmsman) and three oarsmen.
Only two oarsmen will fit in that setup as-is, because adding a third would put the ship over the point limit (22 for crew vs 21 for the ship) and the cargo limit (only the first oarsman takes up no space).
For example Derrick the Red is a fun near-world hater AND sac ability crew to load onto any other English ship of mine (allowed by Lady Kamaile) and have jones use via endeavors oarsmen when she’s in particularly tough situations.
Derrik is great, but keep in mind that copiers can only copy one ability at a time – you’d have to choose either World Hater or Sac.
Spain and America have no crew that offer all nationality crew use (again, as far as I’ve researched). Surly this could affect the rank of their premier gunships.
That is true, they don’t have crew like that. However, I think it’s kind of shortsighted to knock a faction’s gunship choices simply because they find it hard or impossible to use a very specific (and expensive, with Limit) named crew from a different faction – one that dramatically reduces the existing faction’s named crew you can put on the gunship in question because of the point cost and cargo occupancy.
without too much risk being involved due to lack of other modifiers.
Such as other international crew? You could make a similar case about some of the other best named crew, such as a faction’s access to 058 Captain Jack Sparrow, SS Bianco’s Haulers, or even more common things like Sac or Parley which can transform a ship’s “peak”.
It’d be a heck of a project, one I’ve already kind of looked in to. But I feel like DJC Davy Jones’ ability, all things considered, could potentially radically alter not just gunship rankings but general game winning tactics as well.
Perhaps, but keep in mind that you’re going down a rabbit hole full of theory and hypotheticals. Part of the reason I keep the rankings threads relatively simple is because you can go crazy with the “what ifs”. Maybe Endeavour is the best gunship in the game at 100 points with Davy Jones aboard, but Bonaparte has more relative strength at 60. But hey, not if you use X combo! A lot of this relies on what DJ can copy, which forces you to either more aggressively protect parts of your own fleet from being eliminated, or even delaying sinking an opponent because you need an ability they have in order to dominate. Countertheories are endless. The variables are essentially infinite.
Not trying to throw you off the idea, but I would expect a little pushback from another angle as well – game sizes and types. DJ is usually best on the biggest and most expensive ships. That would lead to those ships being ranked higher. However, a lot of times the best gunships in most “normal” games (40-60 point non-deathmatch) are more budget friendly, such as HMS Oxford, Soleil Royal, Grinder, etc. DJ skews massively towards the big gunship, big build total, and big multiplayer game stuff.
I’ll admit I haven’t used DJ much on non-Cursed ships and non-10 masters. I’m just not sure that the endless hypotheticals of how he can optimize a chunk of specific ships is worth the time investment of the project.
I’ll end with this interesting thought. If Le Bonaparte has a 3 point all nationalities crew alongside DJC Davy Jones, and IF the Jarvis is present in game in an opponents fleet for Jones to mooch its special ability off of… then excluding in range cancellers, you’ve got yourself and actual invulnerable ship…
Not against flotillas with S range cannons and Extended Range. Which the English have two of. 😀 The other problem there is that the French don’t have a 3 point crew like that, though they do have Jordan Dumas but he’s 5. So the ship’s entire cost is taken up by those 2 crew, leaving no point cap space for captain, helmsman, canceller, etc. One canceller would be enough to shut down one of the defensive abilities and then the ship could be shot at normally. See how it’s just a game of endless counters? It’s part of why I like to play so much – anything that can go wrong often will go wrong, so I try not to get overly hyped about specific setups.
I know I’ve said it before, but I think Repeating Guns is overpriced. Rarely will all the cannons hit, and even if they do, there is a diminishing return on the second volley, which could end as soon as it begins. Fun to see Dories on a non-10 master. I think Narada could be 22 points.
Regarding the “crew of any nationality may use their abilities on this ship” ability, does that apply across each PCSG faction or just the nation factions. Considering when some of the pieces with this ability were made I’d figure it’d apply to everything, even though factions like the Cursed aren’t technically a “nation” like say Spain or France (though they do function like a nation).
It applies to all the factions. All the factions in this game are nationalities for the purposes of the rules.
Ability: Give this ship a shoot action. Every ship within S of this ship is moved L+L away. Up to two masts are eliminated from every affected ship. This ship cannot be given actions for turns equal to the number of affected ships.
I can almost guarantee The Cursed will launch Morg on their next turn in CG4. 🙂
There is a market theory called the long tail, which refers to the fact that demand for a product (especially a collectible) never reaches zero.
Reminds me of how Pirates prices have risen the past 5+ years. I hope Wizkids/NECA has seen the higher eBay sale prices, especially this decade.
I don’t want to spend days building and painting an army or a fleet to play.
Agreed, I want to play, not paint!
with Pirates you and your buddy can each buy a pack and play a game. compare that to MTG, where in order to play sealed with 2 people, you have to buy at least 6 packs each. That’s about $30 per person. and even then, you’ll need lands that they assume you already have. To me, it’s a no-brainer.
I’m curious about other forms of packaging and release type. What you get in one pack doesn’t really allow for building a 40 point fleet, let alone one that makes much sense. I could see starter packs in the $10-$20 range, maybe with some guarantee of useful generic crew while still having a collectible aspect as well.
