Pirates of the Revolution – Diego Cesar Olano #044

Name: Diego Cesar Olano

Set: POR

Card #s: 044

Type: Crew

Cost: 7 Points

Rarity: Rare

Faction: Spanish

Ability: “Marine. This crew gets +1 to its gun rolls against Pirate ships, forts, and crew.”

Flavor Text:  Haunted by the abuse he suffered when captured by pirates on his first tour of duty, Olano has vowed to hunt down every pirate on sea or land and exact his revenge.

Today I thought we’d take a look at the crew members I suggested go on the El Garante, to make her a formidable gunship.  First off is our very first review of a Marine!  Marines, as in real life, are hardy individuals who are crack shots.  Semper Fi Indeeed!  The Marine keyword indicates the following:

A crew with this keyword may be dropped off on any island (except on an opponent’s home island). Whether on a ship or an island, it may be given its own shoot action each turn, just like a ship; it has a short-range, 2-rank gun. Opposing players may target this crew with shoot actions only if it is on an island, but it must be hit twice in the same turn in order to be eliminated—a single hit has no effect. Unlike other abilities, the Marine ability does stack. For example, if two crew with Marine are assigned to the same ship, they may both use it on the same turn.

So marines are nasty as all get out, and hard to kill.  But are they worth the points?  We’re talking about a HUGE 7 points per Marine, and since the uniqueness rule applies, you can only have one per faction in each fleet right now (and the Pirates and Americans don’t have a marine yet).  Worthy of your fleet build?  Heck yes.  Any time you have a moveable 2 rank gun, no matter what the range, you’ve got it made.  Throw him on a smaller ship that just transports him around, and let him be a sniper.  Put him on a larger ship like the aforementioned El Garante and you’re adding a sixth gun, that can’t be eliminated, unless the entire ship is.  Plus on top of that, he gets +1 to his rolls against ANY Pirate faction piece.  So basically, unless you roll a 1, you hit Pirates.  Yee Haw.

Personally I don’t have any Marines quite yet, but as soon as I pull one, I’m making a new fleet of whatever faction that is.

Price wise, Diego is really inexpensive at the moment.  I would suspect that when more marines hit the market (and I’m kind of assuming more marines will be available in Barbary Coast, because, well you know the U.S. Marine’s official song that starts, “From the Halls of Montezuma, to the Shores of Tripoli”?  Well the shores of Tripoli are ON THE BARBARY COAST!  And in fact that’s where the U.S. Marines made their first world-wide impact.)  Diego will go up in value.  Currently he can be had for a couple bucks or less.  Strangely, of the three Marines included in the Revolution set, two are rares (Lt. Nigel Hardwicke, the British Marine is also a rare), but the French Marine, Michel Bordeaux is a common.  I guess the French really are easy?

My Ratings

Playability 4 of 5

Pirates of the Spanish Main – Master Gunner Rogelio Vazquez #SS-03

Name: Master Gunner Rogelio Vazquez

Set: POR

Card #s: 044

Type: Crew

Cost: 5 Points

Rarity: Common

Faction: Spanish

Ability: “All of this ship's cannons have L range. “

Flavor Text: “Vazquez can hit a wine glass with a cannonball at 500 yards. He secretly desires to own a weapon made by the master himself, Charles Southwyn, so he searches through every treasure haul, looking for items made by the English legend.”