Pojo's WizKids Pirates of the Spanish Main Constructable Strategy Game

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Pirate Piece of the Day

Jonah
Pirate - Crimson Coast

Always place this crew face up; it cannot be eliminated unless its ship sinks. Crew placed on this ship cost no points, but they always each take up one cargo space. When this ship is hit, roll a d6. On a result of 5 or 6, move the crew on this ship with the highest point cost to a wild island chosen by the player to your left.

Type - Crew
Collector's Number - 029-2

Piece Ratings: 2.50

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst.
3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.

Date Reviewed - 01.25.06

Bloody Jake
Pirates - Crimson Coast

This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls.

Type - Crew
Collector's Number - 030-1

Piece Ratings: 1.50

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst.
3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.

Date Reviewed - 01.25.06

WildWill	Pirates of the Crimson Coast #29B - Jonah Name: Jonah Set: POCC Card #s: 029B, 209 Rarity: Common, LE Type: Crew Cost: 0 Points Faction: Pirates Ability – “Always place this crew face up; it cannot be eliminated unless its ship sinks. Crew placed on this ship cost no points, but they always each take up one cargo space. When this ship is hit, roll a d6. On a result of 5 or 6, move the crew on this ship with the highest point cost to a wild island chosen by the player to your left. Flavor Text - Joe didn't know who she was when he stole her meager possessions, but he would never forget the Hag of Tortuga after she cursed him. Trouble now follows Joe—and anyone around him—like lightning follows thunder. Thus he is constantly on the move (before people kill him), and he has changed his name to escape his reputation. Using Jonah to load up a sac-captain ship was the flavor of the month in the overall meta-game for a little while. While I can’t say that particular technique is my game-play style, I can certainly why you might want to try it at least once. Until you get hit by Mermaids, or whacked by your opponent. Still, sometimes, only one turn is all you need. Commons don’t normally get a pricing commentary, but Jonah here; he’s got an LE counterpart so that makes him special. Unfortunately that LE was given out MANY MANY moons ago, and is long gone. There’s only ONE closed eBay auction for one (at under a buck if you can believe it) and no current auctions. And darn if I don’t need one. My Ratings: Playability (both versions) 3 of 5 Collectability (LE Version only) 4 of 5 Pirates of the Crimson Coast #30A – Bloody Jake Name: Bloody Jake Set: POCC Card #s: 030A Rarity: Common Type: Crew Cost: 3 Points Faction: Pirates Ability – “This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls.” Flavor Text - “Bloody Jake has no trouble taking orders from Havana Black. An accomplished master of torture with a variety of implements, he genuinely enjoys carrying out his captain's commands—especially when it involves administering punishment or "encouraging" captured seamen to join Havana's bloodthirsty crew.” I’m just not a big fan of paying three points for a +1. Doesn’t seem like a fair trade. If you can figure out a better use for him, go on then. My Ratings Playability 2 of 5 Collectability 2 of 5 Next time: The week finishes with a bang
ChaosReaper	Jonah/Bloody Kate- The Jonah is an... interesting crew. Its good to support other crew (due to it making them cost no points), and can save crew using an effect that works 33% of the time. But that's really it though. Bloody Kate really isn't worth it unless you like using boarding rolls. But ramming is un-popular, and it puts your ship in a tight position. There are other cards and ships all with the same effect and are not good in the same way. Jonah- 2.8/5 Bloody Kate- 1/5
Richard	JONAH Point Cost 0 Ability: Always place this crew face up; it cannot be eliminated unless its ship sinks. Crew placed on this ship cost no points, but they always each take up one cargo space. When this ship is hit, roll a d6. On a result of 5 or 6, move the crew on this ship with the highest point cost to a wild island chosen by the player to your left. Jonah. Hmm. Well, we’ve already done this one really, since Jonah (Pirate faction) is identical to Robinson (English faction) – see http://www.pojo.com/pirates/CotD/2005/Sept/28.shtml The ability text really isn’t very clear, and the words ‘crew placed on this ship cost no points’ have (unsurprisingly) been misunderstood by many to mean that you can use this character to stack a ship (with a big enough cargo hold) with as many high point crew members as it can carry, and they cost you nothing! This is after all, what it says on the card. The usual tactics of these miscreants (and I played with one for a long time before I realised he was inadvertently cheating) is then to redistribute these ‘free’ crew amongst the rest of their ships, whilst leaving Jonah alone on the original ship, kept back out of harm’s way whilst the rest of the fleet sets sail to wreak havoc, equipped with a fistful of free sac-captains, re-rollers, roll-again-for-another go types, and other assorted ne’er do wells. Unfortunately, close study of the FAQs which have now been clarified and redefined about three times on this topic, reveals that what this ability actually means, is that with Jonah (or Robinson) aboard, you can put crew members aboard whose total points cost exceed the points cost of the vessel concerned (although not the cargo limit) – thereby trumping the basic rule that the points cost of crew aboard a vessel may not exceed the points cost of the vessel itself. This seems to me a pretty useless ability, although there may be some extreme situation where it might just about come in useful. I’ve never seen it used though. My rating: 1/5 -------- BLOODY JAKE Point Cost 3 Ability: This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls After last week’s Crew-fer-Two 'terrain-ignorer' archetype, here we have another waste of 3 points - the '+1 to boarding rolls' archetype. This is an ability widely and indiscriminately distributed across all factions, to create lots of boring characters who help to make up the overall required card count for each expansion. Sorry, it's cynical I know, but inevitably Wizkids need to pack each expansion with a certain amount of unusable cannon fodder - let's face it, without a proportion of bad cards, there couldn't be the good cards we all love, could there? So - why do I dislike this card? Because Pirates is basically a shooting game, not a hand-to-hand combat game. The '+1 to boarding ability' is an inadequate afterthought. Inadequate, because the act of boarding is largely dependent on a random roll of a D6 for each player (give or take a mast or two either way). A +1 is generally neither here nor there. Other things being equal, if I roll a 1 and my opponent rolls a 6, my +1 isn't going to help much. And there are a range of positions between those extremes where it still isn't going to help much. Of course, it might make the difference, but the likelihood is that it won't. In which case you've wasted 3 points and a valuable cargo space toting around a crew that may or may not get used, and which probably won't make a difference even if he does get used! Now what they should have done (yes, easy to say with hindsight, but it's not too late) is make the boarding roll bonus a +2 or even +3, effectively creating a crew type of 'hand to hand specialist', likely to yield a genuine critical advantage if it comes to boarding. Now that would be worth paying serious points for. The problem with and his Jake and his ilk, is that they simply do not yield a sufficently critical advantage to justify spending points on. My rating - 1/5.
Aethereal	Wednesday - Jonah The only cost this guy has is that he takes up a cargo space, as he costs no points. He also cannot be eliminated unless the ship sinks, and he makes your crew on that ship cost no points. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Then we get to the drawback of a 33% chance to lose your most expensive crew member every single time you get hit. That hurts Jonah a lot. Also, loading up a ship with crew isn't exactly the best idea, as it'll just get Mermaids'd right out of the game. Jonah has a great cost and a great ability, but two very bad drawbacks that totally offset his strengths. Rating: 2.5/5 ------- Wednesday - Bloody Jake 3 points + the cargo slot gives me +1 to my boarding rolls, and...wait, that's it? I only get a bonus to my boarding rolls for a whole 3 points? I can think of MANY better ways to spend 3 points than that. Sorry for the very brief word on this guy, but he's completely not worth it. If you really want the +1 to your boarding, play something that gives you another bonus at the very least. Rating: 2/5
Sean	Name Jonah Type Crew Rank N/A Point Value 0 Collector's Number 029_2 Rarity Common Tournament Status Active Always place this crew face up; it cannot be eliminated unless its ship sinks. Crew placed on this ship cost no points, but they always each take up one cargo space. When this ship is hit, roll a d6. On a result of 5 or 6, move the crew on this ship with the highest point cost to a wild island chosen by the player to your left. Ok, now time for my review. This guy is seriously tempting to use. Having just tested him I can tell you that, on an expensive ship, he can be alot of fun. His downside is small if you don't really NEED your most expensive crew on board. By the end of the game I had crew all over the place. I lost three of my five crew members, which severly crippled my tactics. Jonah is a good way to add in a few "extra crew" to sacrific to Havana Black, but chances are that Havana Black will be one of the 1st castaways. Overall I give this guy a 4/5. Mostly for the fun factor, but partly because I could see this guy being seriously broken. Black Swan with a couple of marines and Havana Black comes to mind. Name Bloody Jake Type Crew Rank N/A Point Value 3 Collector's Number 030_1 Rarity Common Tournament Status Active This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls. I don't know about you guys, But I love ramming and boarding. I've won tournaments with a ram rush and a successful boarding action can be icing on top of the cake. On his own Bloody Jake isn't that terrific, but place him on a ship that already adds +1 to boarding rolls (like the Adventure) and he lives up to his name. I also like using him with La Morte de Yarborough, because if you are lucky, you can do a double wammy. Bloody Jake is also useful for protecting your ship from boarders. Due to my love of close combat, I give Bloody Jake a rating of 3.5/5.