Masts: 4 (rating: 4 / 5)
Cargo: 4 (rating: 3 / 5)
Moves: L (rating: 2 / 5)
Guns : 3S, 3L, 3L, 3S (rating: 4 / 5)
Hit %: 200 (S), 100 (L)
Keyword: Schooner.
Ability: This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls.
There seems to be a rule that four-masted schooners
are decent ships if they're American or French, and
mediocre otherwise. There are exceptions, like the
original Neptune's Hoard or La Santa Isabel, but way
too many of these fine-looking ships fall flat on
their stats. This is one of them.
The Bloody Spear has enough cargo space to run gold,
but she's a bit slow and pricey for that. Her
cannons are good enough to fight with, but not good
enough to take on a real gunship. Cargo, masts, and
special ability say she ought to ram and board a
lot, but here again, her speed is a handicap.
If I wanted to use her (which I don't), I'd give her
a Captain and a Helmsman, and try to prey on enemy
gold ships and secondary fighters.
I'd use a mix of boarding and gunfire, and I'd
always try to use the schooner turn to pin the enemy
without suffering a ram. If the enemy had no big
gunship, or if it was distracted by my own gunship,
the Bloody Spear could do some real damage.
But if I'm spending 18 points for this ship and its
crew, I may not have enough points for a gunship of
my own. If this schooner is the best thing I've got,
I'm in trouble. At 10-11 points, the Bloody Spear
would be a good value. As it is, she's okay, but
overpriced.
Bloody Spear 13pt Pirates
4 Mast
4 Cargo
Movement L
3S,3L,3L,3S
Schooner. This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls.
The Bloody Spear is an okay ship, strictly middle of
the road overall. It is too slow with too small a
hold to be a treasure runner, and too expensive to
be a secondary gunship/combo ship, so you're left
with looking at the Bloody spear as your primary
gunship.
How does it fare in that role? Well, the cannons are
adequate, all rank 3 with two of them being L range.
The speed is the biggest weakness, even with a
Helmsman and the Schooner ability, you're going to
have a hard time running down treasure runners or
some the faster large gunships out there, but it
isn't a deal breaker. The cargo space is enough to
add the standard gunship crew (Capt/Helms) and have
2 spaces left for something else - maybe a Musketeer
or Cannoneer to boost the firepower. You could leave
the cargo space open to carry treasure if the
opportunity arises or if you steal it during a
boarding action. Of course, extra action/reroll crew
are always nice on a gunship, but that goes the same
for most ships.
Tactics - For once the flavor text of the ship and
its name match up with its stats and abilities.
Using a 4 masted schooner as a gunship basically
means you want to be firing almost directly forward
or backward, so... The Bloody spear would ideally be
used to ram (or reverse pin - bow to bow) an enemy,
then, firing head on with it's ideal cannon
arrangement it should be able to score a few hits,
plus possibly eliminate a mast on the ram - then
have a big advantage on the boarding roll, adding
its +1 ability. In the right situation this ship can
cripple a fully crewed 5 masted gunship, assuming
you can avoid being blasted before you get a chance
to ram. It might be hard to get the drop on the
enemy with an "L" movement ship, and the Bloody
Spear needs to fire first as it is smaller than many
popular gunships and lacks a defensive ability - if
they shoot first, you're toast.
Overall, the Bloody Spear is usable, but there are
too many better options out there to get very
excited about it. It would be better as a secondary
ship in a high point game where it would draw less
attention and have an easier time using the shoot,
ram and board move. It would be a very strong pull
in a sealed or random draft game, but those aren't
very common.
