Turtle Ship Week kicks off with one of the best of
the breed, the Jade Rebellion's Proud Tortoise. This
is one of those wonderful ships that can serve just
about any role, and do some of them quite well.
With S+L speed, a low price, and her twin defensive
abilities, she makes a tough little gold ship,
albeit one with a small cargo. Give her a Captain
(and perhaps a Musketeer to augment her one
excellent cannon) and she becomes a scrappy little
fighter. If you find something small enough for her
to ram and board, she's as good as any one-masted
ship can be (which isn't much), and her turtle
panels protect her from a boarding action she
doesn't want. I usually use her for fighting, with
just a Captain to keep her cost down. She has served
me well; for a battle report that illustrates this,
visit my Pirates page at
http://www.cke1st.com/Games/Batl_2008.htm#Batl0304
The Proud Tortoise is one of my favorite Jade
Rebellion ships. You get a lot of value for seven
points with this little ship.
Abilities: Turtle Ship, L-range cannons can not hit
this ship
Flavor Text: The Proud Tortoise is festooned with
the aphorisms of Kong Tzu, leading her crew not only
to great deeds in battle, but also to remind them of
their place in the grand scheme of the universe.
Huzza, this is my first review. This is a neat
little inexpensive ship that one could use in any
fleet. It’s speed is nice and can come in handy if
used for a small treasure ship. The turtle ship
ability allows you a leeway when being shot at due
having to be shot twice before an attempt at a mast
removal could be done. The ability of not being able
to be shot by L-range cannons is a great boon to
have since it will force the opponent to come close
to use the S-range cannons. Beware of being rammed
though, since that attack ability overrides that of
having to have the two protective shells removed
before the mast can be taken down. With its limited
cargo space, one has to choose carefully on which
crew to use. If you are going to use it as a small
fighter to harass the one or two mast ships, then
use the cheap combo of a generic captain and
helmsman for upgraded speed and the ability to fire
after moving into range. The 2L cannon is great
since it allows a decent chance of being able to
score a hit. As stated before, you can use this
turtle ship as a small gold ship. The options for
this tactic is either you wait two turns (one for
parking at an uncharted island, the other for
exploring it before taking gold from it) to fill the
hull with two coins, bring just an explore and
having to fill the hull with one coin, or use a
ship/crew with super explorer ability before hand
and pick up two coins without using two turns for a
docking and exploring. In concluding this review,
this is a very neat little ship to have in any fleet
(mixed or pure).
Rating: 4/5
