Name: Concord (USA)
Card: BC #090 (Common)
Points: 13
Masts: 3
Cargo: 3
Moves: S+S
Guns : 2S,2S,2S
Hit %: 201 (S), 0 (L)
Ability: Schooner. This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls.

When the Concord came out again in the Barbary Coast release, she'd somehow changed from a four-masted square-rigger into a three-masted schooner. In fact, everything changed except the name.

The "new" Concord's role is ramming and boarding. Her accurate but short-range cannons are fine for this role. She needs a Helmsman to be totally effective. You could add a Captain to make full use of those cannons, but then you've got only one free cargo space for stolen gold.
You can either live with that and turn for home after one successful board, or use a Cargo Master crew to gain a cargo space, or skip the Captain and ram the enemy at an angle, so your schooner-mounted guns can all bear on the enemy if he stays and fights.

Alternately, you can use her as a fighter; her guns are accurate enough to do the job. You might prefer the Mohican, which has a 2L cannon and costs two points less. But the Mohican isn't in as good shape if you decide to board an enemy fighter and kill a crew.

Any way you look at it, the Concord is meant for aggression. She's a good mid-sized ship with potential for both battle and boarding. It's a shame she costs as much as she does -- the similar Cursed ship Grim Reaper is faster, has more cargo, and costs one point less. We American admirals are used to our ships being a little overpriced. But we don't like it.

Goldship rating: 3.0 / 5
Gun Ship rating: 3.1 / 5
Boarding rating: 3.3 / 5
Value for points: 2.9 / 5

Name: Concord

Masts: 3

Cargo: 3

Speed: S+S

Firepower: Three 2S cannons

Cost: 13 points

Ability: Schooner. This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls.

Today we had a nice little American schooner from BC. Unlike yesterday’s Concord, I find this one a little more interesting. Now her ability isn’t going to get you all excited and make you start drooling. But it can make her quite flexible. Boarding isn’t the best activity to be doing if you want to win the game, but it can be fun. Here’s how I would use her:-

Load her with crew, first stick on Montana Mays from FS. He will give you crew protection and the captain keyword. A helmsman for a little extra speed and a grapple shot. Then Wayne Nolan, he’s linked to a crew, costs nothing and gives you that all important reroll in case your grapple shot fails. You will not only lose the grapple but also cause damage to your own ship. If that were to happen you could find yourself in a rather sticky situation. In fact you would be in the most stickiest situation since sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun. Trust me it’s a good idea to have a reroll.

If you really wanted to go the whole hog and spend the maximum point value of the ship, drop the helmsman for Commander Albert Crenshaw. Now you can grapple and board from L away so you don’t get pinned by the ram. You have three S range guns shooting out to L range. So now this ship can deal with ships that can’t be hit by L range guns. Also ships with the ability, can’t be shot at within S. This in turn can provide excellent support for any main gunship. The down side is the reduced speed with no helmsman and the high cost involved. Also all cargo spaces are taken, so no grabbing a goodie if you did win a boarding.

The more cheaper option if you didn’t want to blow the full thirteen points in crew for this ship. Is to put on a captain, helmsman and the grapple shot. Along with an oarsman as a shield if you did lose a boarding. If extra cargo space is needed then don’t forget the USA have the only generic cargo master. This will give Concord a fourth cargo space and also all other American ships in your fleet, worth five points.

However, a fourth cargo space on this ship is only worth it if you can manage to snare yourself a gold runner. This ship just isn’t quite fast enough for that. If you had helmsman, giving a move of S+S+S and an L range forward cannon in which to shoot the grapple you could pull it off easily, but you don’t. Those S range cannons could still work, but it is a shame that there’re all S. Furthermore the USS Jackson form FN, can offer about the same. She’s only got rank three guns, but there are four of them and she can board from S away. So no need for a grapple, also she has a forth cargo space and costs one point more.

The breakdown of points.

Masts – 1.5 points

Cargo­ – 1.5 points.

Speed – 2.8 points.

Cannons – 2 points

Ability –  5+ Points –.     

Total  12.8  points.

Gunship rating 3.5/5

Gold ship rating 2.5/5

Fleet support rating 3.5/5

Value rating 3/5