Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.
3 is average.
5 is the highest rating.
Date Reviewed - 06.02.09
Cadet-Captain Mike
Name: Pandora's Box (England)
Card: DJ #213 (Limited Edition)
Points: 10
Masts: 1
Cargo: 4
Moves: L
Guns : 4S
Hit %: 33 (S), 0 (L)
Ability: Turtle Ship. If this ship wins a boarding
party, she may take as much treasure from the other
ship as she wants, up to her available cargo space.
WK had a bad habit of giving abilities to ships that
couldn't use them.
One example is the home-island robber ability, which
requires speed to pull off, being given to ships
that can move only S or L. Another example is ships
like the Pandora's Box.
If you can catch a loaded enemy gold ship, board
her, and make off with up to 4 gold, that's good,
right? Well, first you have to reduce that to
3 gold, because without a Helmsman, you'll never
catch anything. Then consider a one-masted ship's
chances of winning a boarding action against most
gold ships, which tend to have more than one mast.
You could spend another 3 points for the Lynch's
Noose crew for a +1 boarding bonus, but what does
that give you? A 15-point ship that has a 50/50
chance of beating a 2-master when boarding, with
only 2 cargo free for gold.
Alternately, you could just use her for gold, but
she still needs the Helmsman, and England has better
gold ships by far. With one 4-rank cannon, don't
waste a thought on fighting with her. This leaves
the Pandora's Box with one clearly-defined role:
looking good in your collection, unpunched and
unused. Her name refers to a Greek myth about a box
that brought endless trouble when its owner opened
it, and that's a good description of this
sub-average ship.
Abilities: Turtle Ship, L-range cannons can not hit
this ship
Flavor Text: The Proud Tortoise is festooned with
the aphorisms of Kong Tzu, leading her crew not only
to great deeds in battle, but also to remind them of
their place in the grand scheme of the universe.
Huzza, this is my first review. This is a neat
little inexpensive ship that one could use in any
fleet. It’s speed is nice and can come in handy if
used for a small treasure ship. The turtle ship
ability allows you a leeway when being shot at due
having to be shot twice before an attempt at a mast
removal could be done. The ability of not being able
to be shot by L-range cannons is a great boon to
have since it will force the opponent to come close
to use the S-range cannons. Beware of being rammed
though, since that attack ability overrides that of
having to have the two protective shells removed
before the mast can be taken down. With its limited
cargo space, one has to choose carefully on which
crew to use. If you are going to use it as a small
fighter to harass the one or two mast ships, then
use the cheap combo of a generic captain and
helmsman for upgraded speed and the ability to fire
after moving into range. The 2L cannon is great
since it allows a decent chance of being able to
score a hit. As stated before, you can use this
turtle ship as a small gold ship. The options for
this tactic is either you wait two turns (one for
parking at an uncharted island, the other for
exploring it before taking gold from it) to fill the
hull with two coins, bring just an explore and
having to fill the hull with one coin, or use a
ship/crew with super explorer ability before hand
and pick up two coins without using two turns for a
docking and exploring. In concluding this review,
this is a very neat little ship to have in any fleet
(mixed or pure).
Rating: 4/5
