Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.
3 is average.
5 is the highest rating.
Date Reviewed - 04.14.09
Cadet-Captain Mike
Name: He'e (USA)
Card: SS #001 (Rare)
Points: 18
Masts: 5
Cargo: 1
Moves: S
Guns : 4S,3S,3S,3S,4S
Hit %: 217 (S), 0 (L)
Ability: Sea Monster. When you give this sea
creature a shoot action, you can choose to make only
one cannon roll. If you do and the shot hits,
eliminate two masts from the target and then place
the ship next to this sea creature; this sea
creature can immediately initiate a boarding party,
but neither is considered to be rammed.
The USA's second sea monster suffers from awful
speed and uninspiring "cannons," and has a brand-new
ability What is it good for?
The ability allows you to give up your five attacks
for one attack that does double damage, followed by
an S move and a boarding action. Or, to look at it
another way, you can give up your S-move to ram and
board in favor of one attack that does double
damage, followed by an S move and a board. Why would
you want to do this? Giving up the full shoot action
to gain a board might be worth it if you're trying
to pillage a small gold ship in a hurry. You have
room for one treasure if you win your boarding
action, which is small, but it's a nice change from
the last sea monsters we saw (in the OE release),
which had no cargo at all. But the ability seems to
limit you more than you gain from it. When I use sea
monsters, it's ramming and boarding all the way,
shooting only if the enemy is careless enough to
leave a target within range.
With a sea monster, crew is obviously not an issue.
But if you hope to get this seagoing slowpoke into
the action before our sun runs out of fuel, you must
follow it around with a cheap, fast ship with Jerky
Johnson on board for an extra L move. Say you use
the Chesapeake (7 pts) with Jerky (4 pts); that runs
He'e's total working cost to 29 points, and there's
no way you can justify that outrageous price tag, no
matter what you do.
It was nice of WK to give the Americans another sea
monster. But this one is the pits, mostly due to her
lack of speed. The other red, white & sea-blue
critter, Champ, is kind of average by most
standards, but he's twice as fast as He'e, costs a
bit less, is better armed, and has a more useful
ability. As a big fan of the USA, it pains me to say
this, but the English squid Lusca has lost the title
of "worst sea monster in the game" to this curious
conglomeration of cephalopodic crud.
