Masts: 5
Cargo: 3
Moves: L
Guns : 3S, 3S, 3S, 3S, 3S
Hit %: 250 (S), 0 (L)
Link : Blackheart
Ability: Eternal. If this ship succeeds at a
boarding party, choose two of the following:
eliminate a crew, take a treasure, or eliminate a
mast.
We'll kick off Rise of the Fiends Pirates Week with
the Pirates' new five-master, the Fool's Hope. She's
a scary-looking ship, almost entirely black except
for the dice on her masts. Her cannons are pretty
scary, mostly because she has so many of them, and I
consider her ability to be the nastiest boarding
ability in the game. The Eternal keyword means
you'll never really lose her. What's not to like?
Her price tag is the biggest problem. The Black
Swan, with identical cannons, costs only 13 points,
and is also faster and can carry more crew. Or, if
you have to spend 19 points on a Pirate ship, you
might do better with the Deliverance (CC), with more
cargo, much better speed, and some L cannons. The
Fool's Hope can carry only 3 crew, which badly
limits the mayhem she can inflict. And her ability
comes into play only by ramming and boarding, which
means getting pinned. If you ram something big and
can't finish it off in one turn, you'll be tied up
for another turn or two, and you don't want to tie
up a ship this expensive.
She's also a little slower than I'd like; add the
Helmsman and you have only two cargo spaces left.
Gentleman Jocard, who adds a cargo space, might find
himself very welcome on this ship.
The Fool's Hope is a good ship, but overpriced. If
you get her, you'll want to ram and board as often
as possible, and stay away from ships like Le
Bonaparte (DJC), which she can't shoot.
Ability: Eternal. If this ship
succeeds at a boarding party, choose two of the
following: eliminate a crew, take a treasure, or
eliminate a mast.
Flavor Text: The crew of the Fool’s Hope love
the fact that ships seem almost relieved to see
them instead of the Cursed—until they learn that
Blackheart is aboard.
To start off this week, we're
rating the flagship of the pack, Fool's Hope.
It's another typical big, bad fighter -- but
this time it also has a boarding ability. What's
the optimal use for this ship? Let's find out.
I'm
appalled at how many 3-rank cannons I can miss
in a row. It's really quite astonishing. This
ship's cannons need to be upgraded (Captain
Barbossa, for instance) if it wants to be a true
fighter. It also needs a helmsman to have any
chance at speed in this game. That's 28 points
right there -- just on one ship -- and it only
has the one cargo left.
The
Eternal ability is definitely a helpful one. The
infinite life? Yeah, I'd play that card anytime.
But for 19 points? Maybe not... the boarding
ability is helpful, especially when you ram and
board, in which case you can eliminate two
masts. But all 28 points are necessary to make
this a good fighter, and that's a lot to pay for
anything.
Overall,
this is a helpful ship, but its stats are all
just too sub-average to get a top review. I'll
give it an average review, because it can be
helpful, but most of the time it's just a good 8
or so points too expensive.
