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Pirate Piece of the Day

Baochuan
 

Type - Ship
 

Piece Ratings: 5

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst.
3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.


Date Reviewed - 06.01.06
 

 

 WildWill

Pirates of the South China Seas - #300 Baochuan

Name:  Baochuan

Set: POSCS

Card #: 300

Rarity: LE

Type: Ship

Cost: 30 Points

Masts: 10

Cannons: 4S, 3S, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3S, 4S, 4S

Cargo: 10

Movement: 1L

Faction: Jade Rebels

Link: Admiral Zheng He

 

Ability: Junk, Treasure Ship -  This ship must begin the game with Admiral Zheng He aboard. Crew do not take up cargo space on this ship, though their combined point cost still may not exceed the ship's point cost. Once per turn, this ship may move S after loading or unloading cargo.

 

Pirates of the South China Seas - #300 Admiral Zheng He

Name: Admiral Zheng He

Set: POSCS

Card #: 300

Rarity: LE

Type: Crew

Cost: 6 Points

Link - Baochuan

 

Ability: Emperor's Commander (This crew may use its abilities only aboard the Baochuan. Once at the beginning of each of your turns, roll a D6. On a result of 6 any ship in your fleet may be given two actions that turn. Once per turn, if this ship is within S of an island, you may mark the island as explored without docking at it. The island becomes unexplored to regards to all other players.

 

Honestly, I have no idea how to actually review the playability of this piece.  Can she win tournaments by herself?  Doubtful, you still need other ships to run interference.  But throw a sac-captain aboard and dang, she’s one bad mother—(Shut your mouth!). 

 

No I really wanted to review these pieces to look at the collector’s pricing, so without further ado:

 

Wild’ Will’s Patented EBAY Auction Review 5-31-06

# Closed Auctions: 10

High Sale Amount: $39.99

Low Sale Amount: $26.45

Average Sale Amount: $35.08

Average EBAY Store Amount: $36.00

 

When you consider that if you spent the money to get this convention exclusive, it would cost you $50 in WizKids products, and the time, gas and admission to one of the conventions near you where it’s being sold, $35 doesn’t seem so much to pay for this particular exclusive.  But if you’re like old WildWill, you got in free to the convention because you work for Pojo, and you were gonna buy $50 worth of Pirates ANYWAY that day, well, it’s all gravy.  The exclusive is available at MANY more conventions this Summer, and undoubtedly the price WILL come down.  If you can get one because you’re going to a convention already, AWESOME.  But unless you’re a completist, or a die-hard Jade Rebel player, I wouldn’t bother.

 

Besides, the other 10 masted ship, Guichan, just came out.

 

My Ratings

Playability 5 of 5

Collectability 5 of 5

 

Next time – The other tough to find LE from this year, one sold for OVER $100 on Ebay!  Guess what it is?

 
Richard
Things to realise about the Baochuan…
Physically she's biggest ship in the game by far - although at 30 points, she's only 4 points dearer than HMS Dreadnought, a ship which is (IMHO) pretty useless.
Baochuan will cost you a lot of money to get hold of - you either have to spend loads at a convention in order to acquire her as a 'freebie', or you buy her off eBay. Either way, she's gonna cost you - but...
She is a truly awesome piece of styrene design and engineering - albeit a little odd looking in some ways - just a bit too angular… But that's just a matter of taste.
She is however, fiendishly difficult to put together - especially her hind quarters.
Take care and time, or you will risk breaking your precious new investment!
The whole deal is actually 36 points because you MUST use Admiral Zheng He with the Baochuan (according to the ability text for both pieces).
Baochuan has 10 whole guns, which at first makes you think: 'Wow!'. Then you consider that actually any 5-masted gunship with a double action (from a sac-captain or extra action) also has (in effect) 10 guns, and costs a lot less than 36 points, and you start to suspect that Baochuan may not be quite so great after all.
Then you realise that none of Baochuan's guns are better than average - and several are pure pants. Yes she has a lot of guns - but quite a few of them are likely to miss!
Thi means you HAVE to put Chang Pao aboard to give you the +1 against any non-Jade Rebellion ship - which brings you up to 40 points before you've even started adding other essential crew such as helmsmen, captains, re-rollers and so on. Basically, to get her up to full fighting strength, she's a 50 point package - a one ship fleet.
Other problems - even though she has the junk keyword (so her own masts don't block her line of fire), it can be pretty difficult to actually bring all her guns to bear on a single target. Her fore and aft guns are all short range, and her overall length just makes it very difficult to get them all in on a target.
She is undeniably excellent at intimidating opponents. Enjoy watching them run away very fast - to start with.
However, once they overcome their irrational fear and close with her, Baochuan can be surprisingly easily overcome if numbers can be brought to bear against her.
On the plus side…
If you equip her with a 'roll 5 or 6 for an extra action' character twinned to a re-roll character, you give her a 66% chance of a double move and shoot each turn. Of course this applies to any ship in the game - but with Baochuan, it means that she can (theoretically) get 20 shots off in one go! Usually pretty terminal!
Between the ship and the admiral, you also get an absolute bucketload of built-in abilities, including the very tasty 'explore at a distance' ability, the 'roll 6 for an extra action for any ship in your fleet ability' (which is NOT mutually exclusive with a 'roll 5 or 6 for an extra / repeat action' character, as they are smiliar but different abilities. This means you COULD actually get 3 actions for the Baochuan - 30 shots!!!).
She can also move S after loading / unloading treasure, crew take up no cargo space, she has the junk keyword… the list goes on and on.
But... You have to use her aggressively. Let her get cornered or outnumbered by 2 or 3 halfway decent enemy ships, and all of a sudden those magnificent 10 masts/guns are down to just a handful, and she's just a vulnerable great hulk.
Overall though, a must-have ship for any serious collector or player.
 
My rating: 4.5 for style, 3.5 for substance!
 
Redsled Baochuan

Redsled says: This is unquestionably THE biggest boat out there in terms of firepower and cargo. In a standard 40-point setup using Li Quin for the extra points you can outfit this with both a captain and an explorer and still have points leftover for events (Favor of the Gods) This boat is really only at a disadvantage against Mermaids; Reefs and the destructive unique treasures (volcano; missionaries; plague). In a 60 point game this boat can get totally out of hand with a sac captain and oarsmen/explorers/specialists out the wazoo. This ship is very difficult to take down with a single standard 40-point build unless you get extremely lucky with your 5/6 guys and have a sac captain.

Rating 5

Admiral Zheng He

Redsled says: No brainer here. If you’re sailing Baochuan you’re putting him on it (or you’ll be playing something else.) Boachuan cannot sail without Zheng He aboard. His other abilities are not that special in that they duplicate other named pieces. But it is his ability to get Baochuan out of dry-dock that make him a must have.

Rating with Baochuan 5

Rating without Baochuan 1
 


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