Masts: 3
Cargo: 2
Moves: S+S
Guns : 3S,2S,3S
Hit %: 167 (S), 0 (L)
Ability: This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls.
This ship gets +1 to her cannons rolls against sea
creatures.
The Aquilon has a combination of abilities that's
new to Pirates (and shared by the American Congress
and the Pirate Rusty Harpoon). It's a lot more
useful than the old combination of +1 on boarding or
+2 if against a sea monster, because why would
anyone ever board a sea monster? Now you can
actually do some harm to those submersible pests,
and to titans and sea dragons as well.
If your enemy doesn't bring a sea creature to the
battle, you've still got an adequate secondary
fighter. She needs a Captain, and ought to get a
Helmsman if you can afford one. A crowning touch
would be Pierre Arronax, who lets you shoot
submerged things, instead of the Helmsman.
This highlights the Aquilon's biggest drawback, her
small cargo space.
With no more than two crew, your options are
limited.
I'd like this ship a lot better if she had one more
cargo, and one more cannon wouldn't hurt if you're
fighting sea critters. But 11 points isn't bad for a
ship that can harass gold ships and scare away sea
monsters. The Aquilon is far from the best fighter
you can buy, but if you're expecting a kraken or a
crab, she gives the French some much-needed muscle.
One of the quirks of Rise of the Fiends is a
variation of the anti-monster abilities introduced
in the Davy Jones’ Curse set. In addition to +1 on
her boarding rolls, the Aquilon gets +1 to her
cannons against any and all sea monsters. If your
opponent uses a lot of sea monsters, great!
Otherwise, she still makes a good backup ship: her
guns aren’t as good as either the Jaguar or the
Mercure (Aquilon has two 3S and one 2S for cannons)
but she has an S+S speed to catch gold runners with.
I’d certainly prefer the Aquilon over the Mercure
for boarding enemies with, even if she only has two
cargo spaces. The Aquilon makes a decent fighter and
boarder and an above-average fighter and boarder
when faces with any sea monster, not just Cursed
monsters.
She’s decently priced at 11 points and looks pretty
nice too.
