The Eternal God Ship
Originally published to Miniature Trading on March 9th, 2015
This is more of a thought experiment than an actual fleet.
Some time ago Woelf mentioned the use of USS Concordia as potentially “one of those eternal god-ship setups”. I have recently acquired both the Concordia and her linked crew. Only now do I realize just how powerful this complex combo can become.
This combo is centered around making the Concordia invincible* by combining 3 essential crew abilities with the ship’s ability.
*If only that were possible we would have figured it out by now!
Key #1: Ralph David
For just 1 point we can have a ship that keeps coming back every time your opponent sinks it. He is Hostile to Pirates, but that isn’t a big deal and rather just knocks his point cost down.
Key #2: Oarsman
This crew is the key to this entire setup. I started out playing Pirates with the original rules, before they changed the keyword for oarsmen. I actually disagree with the new ruling; however it is the new ruling that makes this setup so ridiculous.
| quote: |
| This ship is not derelict when all of its masts are eliminated; its base move becomes S, but it can’t ram other ships. This crew takes up no cargo space. |
Since the ship isn’t considered derelict when it’s been dismasted, there is no way for your opponent to start towing it and capture it. The Concordia will just sit in the water until your opponent sinks it, upon which Ralph David’s Eternal brings the ship back from the grave at your home island. Not only that, but since the ship isn’t considered derelict, the Concordia can blaze away with all of her guns! (If derelict, she cannot shoot.) Your opponent can either leave the ship to row around and keep shooting as they run away, or sink it only to see it quickly come back into play since it doesn’t need to repair more than one mast (just to move faster) to have all 5 cannons working again!
Key #3: The Concordia’s ability
As discussed previously, the Concordia can fire at will with all 5 guns no matter how many masts are missing, even if she’s got no masts at all! I love the thought of sailing her out with just one mast after she goes back to her home island just because you can start shooting again almost immediately. If the home islands were close together in a game, this would be one of the best ships to run a blockade with since it keeps shooting and coming back again and again.
Key #4: Montana Mays
With Mays aboard, your crew can’t be killed. Mays protects Ralph David and the oarsman from elimination, not to mention giving you the standard captain ability.
The helmsman is there to boost the speed of the Concordia to L+S. I also added a shipwright to make the ship more stationary if you didn’t want your opponent to sink her and therefore have to sail the Concordia all the way out to battle again. DNT is there to cancel any opposing cancellers, which is the best way to take down this ship.
Cargo:
The Concordia starts with 4 cargo spaces. Mays links it to 5, but then he takes up his own space to move it back down to 4. The oarsman doesn’t take up space. This leaves 4 remaining crew members, all of whom take up one space each to fill up the Concordia’s cargo hold.
Alternative setups:
(Ship #2)
-Swap out the canceller DNT for the F&S rerolling version. This allows you to roll twice on all of your cannons, which is great for a ship like the Concordia and her average 3S guns.
(Ship #3)
-Swap out Mays and DNT for the OE version of Mays and Jonathan Haraden. This setup still has the link in place so the cargo is still legal. Here we have the SAT with reroll, which lets the Concordia move L+S+L+S while ripping off 10 shots total. This is also a good setup to use if you’re blockading an enemy home island because you can repair two masts in one turn with the shipwright, allowing you to stay near their HI as you blast away.
(Ship #4)
-Swap out DNT and the shipwright for 7 points and 2 cargo spaces worth of crew. Use Crenshaw to boost all the guns to 3L (quite an improvement overall), or Richard/Brent Rice to make them 2S. The remaining points could be used to boost the offensive firepower even more, perhaps with a firepot specialist, cannoneer, musketeer, or some kind of shot equipment (with Richard you could afford Exploding Shot). You can throw Nolan in for the free reroll, and since he links he essentially doesn’t take up a cargo space.
How to beat this fleet:
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: cancellers. Cancelling ships, cancelling crew, stinkpot specialists and stinkpot shot are all you need to take down any ship like this.
What do you think of The Eternal God Ship setups?
| Section: Ship #1 (7 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Diamond Nelson Turner | PofBC | 216 | Crew | PR |
| 1 | x | Helmsman | PofR | 133 | Crew | C |
| 1 | x | Montana Mays | F&S | 030 | Crew | R |
| 1 | x | Oarsman | PofR | 138 | Crew | C |
| 1 | x | Ralph David | RotF | 060 | Crew | C |
| 1 | x | Shipwright | PofR | 135 | Crew | C |
| 1 | x | USS Concordia | F&S | 006 | Ship | R |
| Section: Ship #2 (1 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Diamond Nelson Turner | F&S | 093B | Crew | C |
| Section: Ship #3 (2 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Captain Montana Mays | PatOE | 096 | Crew | R |
| 1 | x | Jonathan Haraden | PofR | 091 | Crew | R |
| Section: Ship #4 (4 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Chief PO Charles Richard | PofDJC | 046B | Crew | C |
| 1 | x | Commander Albert Crenshaw | PofR | 095 | Crew | C |
| 1 | x | Fire Shot | F&S | 057A | Equipment | U |
| 1 | x | Wayne Nolan | PofBC | 096 | Crew | C |
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