Khalid Youssef
3 points
Ability: After looking at treasure on a wild
island, you may trade any one treasure from
that island for a random treasure on any
other wild island. This ship must load the
traded treasure.
Well, this is an ability already bestowed on
several other characters in earlier
expansions, and I confess, I’ve hardly ever
seen anyone use it.
To be frank, it’s a weak ability with a
random outcome, but I guess Wizkids felt the
French should have the option of using a
crap ability same as everyone else! Of
course it could be useful under
certain circumstances - like at that
critical stage of the game when treasure is
suddenly getting thin on the ground, and you
know you only have 1 denomination gold
pieces left within easy reach.
But I don’t know many players who would
sacrifice 3 potential ‘fighting points’ for
this hit-or-miss ability. Poor.
My rating – 1 / 5. Pretty feeble.
Benoit de Marseilles
6 Points
Keyword: Marine
And… It’s another French marine. Oo-la-la!
But this time only (only? Ha!) 6 points
instead of the more usual 7.
So, that’s Michel Bordeaux redundant then -
because why would you play a 7 point French
marine, when you can play a 6 point French
marine instead?
Apart from that, why would you play a marine
at all? They’re still horribly overpriced
(points-wise) for what they do, which
ultimately, is provide you just one extra
short range shot, which can be used from an
island, and requires a double hit to kill.
Hmmm. Overall, I’m not convinced, and
marines certainly don’t see much service in
the group I play with.
Of course, unlike most crew types you can
stack marines, so you could use the
two French marines together, for a mere 13
points…
No, I don’t think so either.
Wolves have been introduced as a unique
treasure in order to make marines more
worthwhile, but overall, I still think a 3
point musketeer is a better bet if you are
worried about encountering wolves.
My rating – 2/5. I really like the idea of
marines, but unfortunately WK made them too
expensive. Like quite a few of the other
point allocations in Pirates CSG, it doesn’t
feel like this was fully thought through in
advance.
