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“I Sold My Soul For Some Pieces O’ Eight”
A Review of the Unique Treasures Available in Pirates
Part 3 of 3
By
Cap’n William ‘WildWill’ Noetling

The Treasures of the Revolution (9 Rare)

Finally, we get some useful offensive weapons. Explosives and Neptune’s Trident can be potent additions to your treasure cache. However, there's liable to be a few dogs in the bunch, which treasures are better left alone? Check out the table down below!
 

Card #	Name	Effect	Commentary	Hi $	Lo $
103	Weapons	This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls for every crew on her.	WK is trying to make boarding more interesting. This treasure is supposed to help. I don’t see the attraction personally.	3	1
104	Fruit	If this ship loads Scurvy, it has no effect; remove it from the game. Fruit takes up 2 cargo spaces and cannot be unloaded.	The first treasure to specifically counter another treasure. Bad enough that it has no other use. Bad enough that she cannot be unloaded. But she takes up TWO cargo spots too. Other Unique treasures don’t take up any! Sure it’s useful, if, and only if your opponent brings a scurvy. But if not…pretty useless.	5	1
105	Sextant	This ship ignores terrain when given move actions (islands are not terrain).	Don’t like treasures that have the same effect as crew. Don’t really like this one either.	5	1
106	Natives	The ship that reveals Natives may not be given actions for a number of rounds equal to number of crew on her when Natives is revealed. Leave Natives face down on its island.	Kind of like a land mine, this treasure always stays face down. Not a very nice surprise for your opponent, and any time you can take turns away, it’s a good thing. Highly useful.	3	1
107	Cross of Coronado	You may load this treasure face down. If one of this ship's masts would be eliminated, you may reveal Cross of Coronado and remove it from the game instead.	A quick repair for one mast only. Not really very useful, but nice if you get it. Don’t really see it getting much play.	5	1
108	Castaway	Place any one crew with point cost 3 or less on this ship, using standard cargo capacity rules. That crew assumes this ship's nationality. Remove Castaway from the game.	Let’s you place ANY crew costing 3 or less from outside the game on this ship. As long as there’s a crew spot available. I can see how this might be really useful in the right situation and with the right crew. Especially if you have a named crew of another nationality that you like.	3	1
109	Missionary	Remove all crew on this ship from the game and then remove Missionary from the game.	Another of the “nasty surprise” variety of treasures. This one is right up there in nastiness with plague and scurvy. What does that say about the game designers? I dunno, but this one is well worth playing in a offensive battle.	5	1
110	Explosives	Load this treasure face down. You may reveal it when this ship rams or pins a ship. Roll a d6. On a result of 4–6, both ships sink. Remove Explosives from the game.	Ahh, explosives. I’ve already mentioned this treasure in one of my COTD reviews. Nasty little bit this one is. Can’t wait to sink a nasty big gun ship with this little bad boy.	5	1
111	Neptune's Trident	Give this ship a shoot action. A wave S wide and 3 L long leaves the ship in one direction. Up to 2 masts or cannons of every ship and fort in the path of the wave are eliminated. Eliminate one of this ship's masts for every affected ship and fort. Remove Neptune's Trident from the game.	This treasure shoots a tsunami! How cool is that? I’d love to play with it, just because I like this kind of thing. Sure it probably won’t affect game play all that much, but it sure is a fun piece to play with.	4	1

Fortunately I’ve got both Explosives and Neptune’s Trident already, and they’re going to see heavy use in my friendly home games. Fruit is one of the worst pieces, if not the worst piece in the game. A treasure that only exists to counter another treasure is just poor game design.
Hope you enjoyed my series on Pirate Booty. My next article will be looking at the new events from Revolution. Until then, may your seas be calm, and may the wind be at your back!