Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.
3 is average.
5 is the highest rating.
Date Reviewed - 04.10.08
Cadet-Captain Mike
Name: El Picador (Spain)
Card: SM #SS-015 (Common)
Points: 5
Masts: 2
Cargo: 2
Moves: S+S
Guns : 3S,3S
Hit %: 100 (S), 0 (L)
Ability: No ability
From the beginnings of this game until the DJC
release, El Picador was the cheapest ship a Spanish
player could get in a pack. That made her a common
selection in fleet builds. She no longer holds that
title, but she's still an effective little gold
ship.
"Effective" does not mean "great," of course. Her
speed is just average, and her cargo is quite small.
But what do you want for five points, La Monarca?
Well, you can get La Monarca for only three more
points and have one of the game's best gold ships.
But the whole point of el-cheapo ships is that you
use them when you don't have enough points for
something good. She still compares favorably with
other 5-point ships of other factions.
Bottom line: if you're building a Spanish fleet and
you have five points left, you'll get full value
(and then some) from this ship.
Once in a while, a ship will come along that's
designed to be decent but cheap. This is one such
ship.
Her name means "The Bullfighter," which I feel is
highly inappropriate since there's nothing about her
that I feel encourages bigger things to come attack
her.
To keep her cost down, she has no ability. Not even
a negative ability like "English get +1 to cannons
rolls against this ship" like some other small boats
get.
Her best feature, aside from her cost of 5 measley
points, is her S+S speed. She only carries two gold
though so she'll need to make a lot of trips to
justify her cost. Her cannons are also very average,
two 3S.
If you have extra points to spend and no generic
crew you can assign, give El Picador a chance.
Valuewise, she's perfect. In terms of usefulness,
she's below-average.
I give El Picador a 2.5/5.
Vladsimpaler
Continuing PotSM Spanish week is an old friend, El
Picador
El Picador, 5 points, Spanish
Masts: 2
Cargo: 2
Speed: S+S
Cannons: 3S 3S
Abilities: n/a
Flavor Text: "The Bullfighter" was named after the
story of a famous matador who went to sea after
losing his leg in the arena. His spirit is said to
inhabit this ship, bringing much courage to her
crew.
If there's so much courage aboard, why is this ship
so, well...average? Think about it for a second...in
PotSM, many of the Spanish ships were slow,
lumbering monsters. Expensive, too. This ship was
sort of the support ship for them. When you put this
ship into context, it seems a lot better than it
normally would be.
El Picador is strictly an average ship. It's very
bland. However, it makes a very good support ship.
For 10 points, one could have a moving and shooting,
S+S+S moving support ship. Which is really good!
Actually, what makes this ship even better is that
it could be brought in via Contessa Anita Amore, a
0LR+5 character. Again, not bad. Only El Algeciras
has more bang for the buck. If you want, you could
pair this ship up with something like El Garante,
which gets +1 to its cannon rolls for each ship
within S.
Although this ship seems strictly average, I have to
give it slightly above average marks, because of the
amount of flexibility.
It receives a 3.5/5 from me. Although it may seem
average, there's definitely nothing average about
it.
