Pojo's Pirates news, tips, strategies and more!

Pirates Home Page
Message Board
News
Pojo's Books

Card Game
Card of the Day
Pirates Cove - WildWill
Chaos Reaper
CCG Strategies
Top 10 Lists
Fan Customs
Contact Us
IntelliTXT

Magic
DBZ
Pokemon

Pirates
Yu Yu Hakusho
NeoPets
HeroClix
Harry Potter
Anime
Vs. System
Megaman

This Space
For Rent

Pirate Piece of the Day

Bloody Jewel
 
Name
 Bloody Jewel
 Type  Ship
 Point Value  6
 Collector's Number  008
 Rarity  Common

Piece Ratings: 4.00

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


Date Reviewed - 9.12.07

 
Cadet-Captain Mike Name: Bloody Jewel
Card: RV #008 (Common)
Points: 6
Faction: Pirates

Masts: 2 (rating: 2 / 5)
Cargo: 5 (rating: 3.5 / 5)
Moves: S+L (rating: 4 / 5)
Guns : 3L, 3S (rating: 2.3 / 5)
Hit %: 100 (S), 50 (L)
Ability: American ships get +1 to their cannon rolls against this ship.

Okay, now here's a ship I really like. I'm not alone in this; I usually play 4-player games, and almost every battle has at least one Bloody Jewel in someone's fleet. Sometimes two players each bring one.

What's the big deal? Just this: the Bloody Jewel is one of the best little gold ships in the game. She has all the speed she needs, big cargo holds, and a nice low price. Her ability doesn't hold her back, because gold ships aren't supposed to get shot at by anybody. You can add an Explorer if you want, for really fast turnaround time on gold cruises, or you can send her out with no crew. She really doesn't need help.

What's more, you can give her a Captain and use her as a combination gold ship and secondary fighter. She can sink or chase off enemy gold ships and still have plenty of cargo space free for treasure. That kind of flexibility for 6 points is close to unheard of. As a pure secondary fighter, you'd be better off with the Longshanks (same cost and speed, plus another 3S cannon).

But as a pure gold ship, the Bloody Jewel has few equals. Buy her and turn her loose.

Gold ship rating: 4.2 / 5
Gunship rating: 2.8 / 5
Boarding ship rating: 2.7 / 5
Overall value: 4.4 / 5
Ryoken Bloody Jewel 6pt Pirates
2 Mast
5 Cargo
Movement L+S
3L,3S

American ships get +1 to their cannon rolls against this ship.

The third ship of "Bloody Week" is much better than the first two. The Bloody Jewel is a staple treasure runner for the Pirate faction. 5 cargo with good speed for 6 points? Sign me up.

The Bloody Jewel was a nice little treasure runner right when it came out, and it has only gotten better with age due to the general slow down of ships (see the post by Cadet Captain Mike on the forum for a breakdown of this) and the fact that in the latest sets usable ships under 7 points are few and far between. Had the Bloody Jewel been in PaOE, it would probably be considered the best treasure runner in the set - but in Revolutions, it's no better than 4th. So how to rate it?

Well, its advantages as a treasure ship are obvious, cheap cost, nice speed, and big cargo space with only a minor drawback. Crew it up with some combination of Helmsman and Explorer and start bringing in the gold.
However, it can also be used to make a nice little combo ship if you wanted to go that route - add a Captain and a Helmsman and you have an L+S+S movement ship with a pair of decent cannons that can still clear all of the decent treasures from a wild island. You're gonna want to stay away from gunships, but enemy treasure runners will certainly think twice about approaching an area where the Bloody Jewel is working.

As for the ability being a drawback, I'd have to say, "not really." Any American gunship will be able to destroy the Jewel even without the +1 - we're talking about 2 masted ship here. I suppose that the +1 might allow an American goldship with crummy cannons to score some hits on the Jewel that otherwise wouldn't happen, but this is so situational that I'm not going to worry about it.

If you're running a pirate fleet and plan on gathering gold, give this one serious consideration if it's in your collection - and if it's not, get one, it's a common!

For its time it's a solid 3.75
Nowadays it would be a 4.5

Overall lets call it a 4

Copyright© 1998-2007 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.